We can do better.

Full ranking

You put on your best face and think of clever openers (resume and cover letter) and you approach the girl (job). If this girl is someone your buddy knows (alum), you might have asked him for some insider intel that you can break the ice or wow her with. You ask for a get-to-know-you coffee date (first round interview) but she tells you that although she is super excited that you asked (auto-generated thank you email for applying), she needs to check her schedule because a thousand other dudes just asked her out too.

You wait, and you wait, and you wait some more. And then you forget. Eventually she gets back to you about that date. If she accepts your date (You have been invited to participate in an interview. Congratulations!), she’ll give you some times and dates that she is available. If she denies your date, she’ll try to let you down gently (Thank you for applying. We are really impressed with your experience but at this point in time, we will not be moving forward with you candidacy.)

Most of the time, the answer is the latter. You’ll ponder about your self worth. You’ll wonder about your approach (resume and cover letter) and you’ll consult with your buddies (CMC/peer coach/friends) about how to best retool your game.

Eventually someone will accept your date. The first date is nerve wracking. You round up all your best jokes (behavior stories) and you sharpen your wit (case prep). You put on your best suit. It’s usually a short date and you barely remember what you and her talked about. The only thing you might remember are the jokes that fell flat (you forgot to follow the STAR format or you forgot about a decimal point). If you remembered, you tell her that you want a second date and why she should say yes. She’ll think about it.

From here, things either move really fast (second round) or blow up (auto-generated rejection email). When things go well, depending on the girl, she might invite you out to her place to meet the parents (on site interview) or she’ll want to talk again over the phone. Eventually you’ll win one over (offer). Maybe even two or three if you’re a hot stud. That is when you have control. That is when you start leveraging your buyer power (salary negotiations).

If things bomb, well, it’s back to the drawing board and a six back of Yuengling. You do a lot of soul searching. You ask yourself, “Am I going after the right girl? (Do I really want to do consulting/ib/marketing/etc?)”, “Do I really want to date a girl who lives across the country? (What’s Maine like in the summer?)”, or “Am I even compatible with an emo-girl??? (Do I really want to market soup???)”. If things are really bad, you start considering getting away for a while to do your own thing (unpaid internship/launch your own start-up that makes mobile apps).

Luckily, 99% of you will find someone even if she is not your top choice (that’s what the CMC says). Just remember, she is only a summer fling. Enjoy the other things in your life (kegs/friday&saturday nights/friends/traveling/etc).

Wow that was exhausting.

As to where I am in the internship search, the story above isn’t too far off from reality. I have nothing official yet but things are starting to materialize and I’m a lot more encouraged than I was at the beginning of this mod. I have a long queue of apps that are awaiting me and one interview coming up next week. Plug and chug. Fun.

I’m taking the following classes this mod:

Strategy: A core class for MBA students, strategy is supposed to teach us how Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT analysis, VRIN, PEST, and a bunch of other strategic frameworks are supposed to help us create and sustain value for the customer.

Managerial Accounting: I never understood what the hell indirect/direct, overhead, and all that magical accounting hocus pocus was when I was filling out my time card @ NOC. I don’t understand it any better now, but at least I know now that there was an MBA behind all that nonsense. At least Professor Willis is fabulous and makes the class interesting.

Survey Design and Analysis: A required class for marketers, survey design is a pretty straight forward, mind numbing, and supposedly useful class. Professor Dotson is a quant geek and I’m looking forward to the lecture on Bayesian networks and ANOVA. Seriously.

New Product Design and Development: I’ve been looking forward to taking this class even before coming to Owen because of my previous experience in R&D. This year, we are developing an accessory for the iPad. So far, the class has been more design oriented so hopefully we get into the business numbers side of things. Professor Owen, who used to work for IDEO, is pretty awesome. Hopefully I’ll have an opportunity to take more classes with him.

Marketing Capstone: This is a project course that is usually offered to second years but I knew some people who knew some people who needed help. I suspect they didn’t want me for my knowledge in the product (Playtex bras) but more for my locality (everyone on the team is doing a mod abroad in Chile). Despite the extra work on top of the normal four courses, I’m getting a chance to get my hands dirty in some “real” marketing work. Thumbs up!

On the job front, everyday is roller coaster ride. Some days I feel pumped about the job search. On other days, I feel like I’ve been kicked in the nuts. I have one interview lined up so far, which I’m really looking forward to, but there’s nothing on deck or in the hole. It’s hard being patient and persistent.

• Don’t hurt yourself on a problem set by doing everything on your own. One of your classmates will know how to calculate the cash flow or explain to you what the hell LIFO means so don’t fret.
• Take advantage of every chance to socialize, you never know who you’re going to meet. I’m not the biggest fan of mingling but I’ve met some really cool people by doing so. Inevitably you’ll meet one or two people that rub you the wrong way. There’s no avoiding that so just walk it off and enjoy the good times with the good people.
• My favorite class: Finance (Surprise!). My favorite professor: Bruce Cooil. One word to describe both Cooil and Bill Christie (finance professor): legendary.
• Least favorite class: Accounting.
• I’m the director of career development for the marketing club, on the executive board for the volunteer club, and vice president of the outdoor club. Good for me.
• If you’re a career switcher, make sure you spend time working on your resume. Carve out an hour or two a week to work on something career related, i.e. job/internship search, resume work, researching companies, etc. Interviews are looming near the end of Mod 2 so I’m trying to get on it.
• Find time to go to the gym or do something active. All the free beer and pizza add up to extra lovin around the mid section.
• I hate public speaking. I mumble and groan every time our communications instructor calls on me to speak. Miraculously, I’ve become a better public speaker because of all the speeches we’ve had to give. There’s still plenty of room for improvement.
• Luckily, I’ve been part of some really good groups. I’m almost hoping that I get into a group that is a little dysfunctional so that I can practice dealing with difficult people. It’s a social experiment.
• Apparently I’m a nice guy and I need to grab the bulls by its horns a bit more.

I’ve got more stuff that’s logged in my brain somewhere. This will do for now.

Ah, and I went to Japan last week! It was amazing. I’ll post pictures this coming weekend. I’m also going to write something up for the OwenBlogger about the trip so stay tuned for that.

“We had all our best business schools in the United States pouring out financial engineers, every smart young mathematician and physicist said ‘I don’t want to be a civil engineer, a mechanical engineer. I’m a smart guy, I want to go to Wall Street.’ And then you know all the risks were going to be sliced and diced and [people thought] the market would be resilient and not face any crises. We took care of all that stuff, and I think that was the general philosophy that markets are efficient and self correcting and we don’t have to worry about them too much.”

I’m still trying to digest some of the efficient market stuff we learned last week but I take it Volcker isn’t a big fan of the efficient market hypothesis. Or maybe he is implying that there needs to be more regulation because the markets didn’t auto correct. At least he spared software engineers in his rant, ha ha. WSJ for more.

Volcker made an appearance at Owen last year to discuss the economic crisis. We found out from Christie that one of our professors is buddy-buddy with Volcker. I guess that’s how we got such a heavy hitter to come to Owen.

http://poetsandquants.com/2010/09/27/winners-losers-in-the-economists-new-mba-ranking/

My bottom line, go to the school based on what works for you and not solely on a rank.

Last week was ridiculous. Three tests, lots of meetings, more meetings, more homework, and the realization that I have to get used to schmoozing. Oh, lets not forget the drinking. Not by me! Well, sort of.

I will never like accounting. I don’t always understand finance, but at least I find it interesting. I’m apathetic towards stats, but I know it’s going to be crucial in my next job. Accounting on the other hand goes in one ear and comes out there. Debits, credits, LIFO, FIFO, blah blah blah. It just isn’t sexy and I don’t see how I’m going to use it in the future. Isn’t that what my accountant is for? I guess now he won’t be able to pull a quick one on me.

I found out that I’m on the executive board for 100% Owen (the volunteer club), I got dumped by the Global Business Association, and that I’m probably going to be the VP of Communication for the Sports club unless there’s a major coup (a remote but probable possibility).

Did I mention that I’m going to Japan and that I need to research a Japanese company that sells security systems? Sounds like they do what I did at my previous job.

Apparently I’m a good presenter. That was a shocker. I think I got away with one because I incorporated some good jokes that didn’t fall flat. There’s another presentation coming up this week. I’m so not looking forward to it because we’re supposed to give our “elevator pitch” about our unique selling proposition. Mercy.

Crap! My laundry!

This week also revealed  the “competitive yet collaborative” environment that so aptly describes the Owen culture. You’ll find people still at school way past 12:00am working hard on some homework assignment, yet they are still approachable and helpful if you are stuck on a problem. It’s great because I have no idea how I’d ever get any of my accounting done without help from my classmates.

As you can tell by my terser than usual words, my brain is pretty exhausted so enjoy some pics I took during the week. I’m finding out that the BB camera isn’t so bad after all.

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