This year's "WesTrek" offered more than three hundred HBS students and partners a chance to network and investigate career options in the opportunity-rich San Francisco Bay Area. Held in early January, the annual WesTrek is sponsored by the High Tech and New Media Club, with collaboration from other student clubs as well as the School's Career Services Office and California Research Center.

Representing the gamut of career options in the area, participating companies included small, private firms like software startup AlphaBlox, well-established public giants like Intel and Hewlett-Packard, and a host of firms in between. While most of the companies fell into the category of high tech-new media, communications, and computer software and hardware-others represented more traditional business activities, such as consulting, retail, and banking. All told, 150 firms participated, either by hosting site visits or by having employees serve on panel discussions or deliver presentations to students.

The HBS "trekkers" spent their days touring companies and learning more about career and summer job opportunities. In the evenings, they met HBS alumni, fellow graduate students from local universities, and company representatives from around the region. Nightly social events hosted by local sponsors provided students with a chance to network informally.

The first WesTrek, in 1996, attracted just 75 students. In the past few years, however, HBS student interest in working in the Bay Area has increased. With a strong alumni network and a full range of career options, the Bay Area is now, after New York City, the second most popular destination for graduating MBAs.

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