The Wharton Exchange: pros & cons

I've been getting quite a few emails regarding the Wharton Exchange,and I decided to just take a minute to write a post about it. So I can refer people to this later.

I will assume there are 4 kinds of INSEADers who are interested in a Wharton Exchange.

1) Seeking the American experience.
I've never been to America and I'd like to spend a couple of months there and make some American friends. And it's my dream to spend a couple of nights in Las Vegas!
2) Seeking an American job
I want to have access to Wharton job board and alumni database.
3) Loving the Wharton brand
4) Loved ones in Boston/New York/DC/Philly/Toronto (many of the current exchangers fall into this category, yours truly included, by the way)

Most people would fall under the first 3 categories I think.
1) Two months is a bit short for a real American experience, in my opinion. But it's possible to make a couple of friends within Wharton and spend at least a couple of weekends travelling. If you've never been to the U.S., and this is the only way you can get a long-term travel visa to this country, then do it.

2) Ok, so this is the tricky part. There are indeed a lot more jobs on the Wharton job board, many of them finance, as expected. I'd say 80% of them requrie a U.S. work visa/citizenship/greencard. Many of us do get selected for interviews by recruiters here (someone i know got like 8 interviews through Wharton) - you could even say INSEAD can be a differientiating factor when recruiters are reading hundreds of almost identical Wharton CVs. I didn't even bother converting mine to the 'Wharton format', come to think of it. However, the reality is if you do not have work authorization in this country, the chances of getting an offer are very slim.
By the way, you do have full access to the alumni database here (and feel free to network away, it's not discouraged) but as soon as your exchange is over, your access will be blocked. In addition, you can only apply for jobs that have scheduled interviews during your exchange. If, say, you want to apply for a job with Disney but they plan their first-round interview for next January, then there's no point to submit your resume. However, you could download the recruiter's information and write to them individually to explain your situation.

In all fairness, I think Wharton does give you some extra career options and in this day of age, extra options are a great thing. Work authorization, as mentioned before, is key. On the downside, you do miss out on some of the INSEAD jobs, particularly industry ones. Video-conferencing interview never really works as well, at least not for me. If your goal is to nab a job with the big consulting firms, then location doesn't matter. They will interview you in Philly. If you are going after the boutique firms (ie LEK), they will only do video-conference, keep that in mind.

3) The Wharton Brand. I'm not above using the Wharton brand to my advantage, to be honest. So i will put the exchange in the education section in my resume. I don't know how much value it's really going to add, but it doesn't hurt to have, I imagine.


Finally, the social life. I think I will have a seperate post on that some other day. Personally, I feel I'm somewhat detached from the INSEAD community. It may be a good thing, but I'm kind of envious of people who are now saying tearful good-byes to each other at the end of P4 party somewhere in the forest. What I miss most about INSEAD is the people: the funny, the smart, the sarcastic, the wise, the kind, the eccentric and the downright outrageous. Few of them, if any, are boring. I think if it purely comes down to the people, I would still prefer INSEAD to Wharton any day.