Yesterday I got a chance to attend a short ppt + q/a session from four of our (Georgetown) professors. And boy, were they impressive. I thought I have become smart after duly flipping the wsj every morning, but gosh! they had some insights. I think they just proved my point - once again - that there is always a better and easy way to explain stuff. I would have loved to share the slides with the world but since it is copyright protected.... you see, Georgetown takes integrity and ethics very seriously.
excited for consulting + net impact day tomorrow.
A sweet narrative of a successful person in making. Past, present, future, and everything quintessential in my life.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
NBMBA career fair
no points for guessing... we are facing recession (whatever the hell wall st and main st might be saying). This means job prospect, esp. for finance sector is bleak. This means people who were kinda thinking of finance will stick to their alternate sectors thereby increasing competition elsewhere ;( ... To give a hint I attended the NBMBA conference in DC last week. As one colleague commented it was a swarm of black suited MBAs. Since this was practically my first visit to a career fair (and a first real attempt at job hunting), I was overwhelmed. For at least one hour I wondered if I am ready for my target companies (which, btw, still remains undecided) and start reciting my stupid pitch all the while the employers gave silly grin. But after a while and tons of motivation from my classmates and career management alike, I approached some of the companies. It felt stupid to go there and basically tell what everyone else was also saying. But I somehow managed to do that. Unfortunately, after a while I realized that I had no more resumes left with me (I had brought only 7-8) and so thought of calling the day... but before that I thought of having some fun. I chatted with several companies who I hardly knew and students from other schools and know their experience. It turns out that at some of the hot companies even second years are applying for summer internship. This was enough for me to stick with my background in operations.
All in all, I understood what career fair is all about. I also learned to have more than 20-30 resumes during fair. But most importantly, my fear of delivering pitch has faded.
To sum up, I had few grudges:
1. For a career switcher, it was a challenge trying to explain how your past experience fits their needs, when in fact there are a bunch of people with suitable skills... yes, I know the crap that you have to differentiate etc but the point is it is extremely difficult to explain that in two minutes... For me it was more about knowing their requirement and making connection (which I hardly did).
2. Some employers were really uninformed. Some of them were not sure if they hired international students or not and half were plain dumb in explaining what they were there for.
3. It feels embarrassing when they are not interested in you and they take your resume and toss it to trash once you are gone. For a stupid guy like me who had only few resumes in hand, it hurts!
BTW, did I tell you that you had several goodies to collect once you are finished with your career quest? My personal favorite - $10 debit card from Citi.
All in all, I understood what career fair is all about. I also learned to have more than 20-30 resumes during fair. But most importantly, my fear of delivering pitch has faded.
To sum up, I had few grudges:
1. For a career switcher, it was a challenge trying to explain how your past experience fits their needs, when in fact there are a bunch of people with suitable skills... yes, I know the crap that you have to differentiate etc but the point is it is extremely difficult to explain that in two minutes... For me it was more about knowing their requirement and making connection (which I hardly did).
2. Some employers were really uninformed. Some of them were not sure if they hired international students or not and half were plain dumb in explaining what they were there for.
3. It feels embarrassing when they are not interested in you and they take your resume and toss it to trash once you are gone. For a stupid guy like me who had only few resumes in hand, it hurts!
BTW, did I tell you that you had several goodies to collect once you are finished with your career quest? My personal favorite - $10 debit card from Citi.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Life sucks...
Q: How bad can first mod at Georgetown get?
A: Depends (fav. answer for an MBA)... but really it's when you think that your time will be wasted if you take a piss.
A: Depends (fav. answer for an MBA)... but really it's when you think that your time will be wasted if you take a piss.
Friday, September 05, 2008
brief mba musing.. .until now
Ok.. I have decided to shift this blog's theme from 'anything under the sun' to 'my days at Georgetown'. For the start, I will try to pen down my day-to-day (or at least weekly) happenings.
Anyway, coming to the point, here is what has happened since beginning July(from what I remember):
- Even long before official admission we were supposed to complete MBAmath.com assignments. It was cool and gave a glimpse of what was to be expected out of the coursework. Spent all in all almost 20 hours on this.
- Arrived Phily on Aug04; went to Edison, NJ for two days. For those who don't know anything about Indian community in the US, this place is like mini Gujrat.
- Came to DC, started furnishing the apartment etc.. of course, life was never more miserable than setting up a new home without a car or a cell phone (and worse of all, no income)....
- Completed opening orientation and mandatory residency BEFORE the official start of the class - Aug25. Was fun and TOO MUCH learning.
- Understood the ONLY reason to come to an MBA school - to get a job, rest is BS.
- Understood that getting a job in the US is a pain in the butt. You gotta make connections / networking / pitching / informationals .... gosh, I had never used these types of words in my previous life....
- Aug25: beginning of the classes - 9 classes; Mon-Thur of 1.5 hrs each... sounds easy, right. NO. Absolute NO.
Core classes are: Microeconomics (E-con), Statistics (Stats), Organizational Behavior (OB), Management communication, Financial Accounting.
- Today was yet another torturous day... had speaker panel from several big companies plus interaction with 2nd years who just completed their internship from these companies. wonder how they get it in the first place.... the worst part is that you have to be in business formal to attend these....
Ciao for now.
Anyway, coming to the point, here is what has happened since beginning July(from what I remember):
- Even long before official admission we were supposed to complete MBAmath.com assignments. It was cool and gave a glimpse of what was to be expected out of the coursework. Spent all in all almost 20 hours on this.
- Arrived Phily on Aug04; went to Edison, NJ for two days. For those who don't know anything about Indian community in the US, this place is like mini Gujrat.
- Came to DC, started furnishing the apartment etc.. of course, life was never more miserable than setting up a new home without a car or a cell phone (and worse of all, no income)....
- Completed opening orientation and mandatory residency BEFORE the official start of the class - Aug25. Was fun and TOO MUCH learning.
- Understood the ONLY reason to come to an MBA school - to get a job, rest is BS.
- Understood that getting a job in the US is a pain in the butt. You gotta make connections / networking / pitching / informationals .... gosh, I had never used these types of words in my previous life....
- Aug25: beginning of the classes - 9 classes; Mon-Thur of 1.5 hrs each... sounds easy, right. NO. Absolute NO.
Core classes are: Microeconomics (E-con), Statistics (Stats), Organizational Behavior (OB), Management communication, Financial Accounting.
- Today was yet another torturous day... had speaker panel from several big companies plus interaction with 2nd years who just completed their internship from these companies. wonder how they get it in the first place.... the worst part is that you have to be in business formal to attend these....
Ciao for now.