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Just a quick post to share how grad school continues to surprise and amaze. Last week was a tough one. Tuesday came down with fever and chills accompanied by a wicked cough and congestion, which I am only just now starting to kick. Finished the week with disappointing performances in (count ‘em) three back-to-back co-chair interviews and one first-round phone interview with a company in Miami. And when I say disappointing, what I really mean is awful. Wretched, incoherent performances characterized by fuzzy-brained responses that sounded absolutely nothing like the ones I’d rehearsed beforehand. Disappointed in myself, I closed the week on a note of total dejection. And had a really good bawl at the expense of The Savages Friday night.
Imagine my surprise then, as this morning I have received not dings – but invitations! Two co-chair roles and second rounds with the Miami firm. Surprising, but I’ll take it…
P.S. The Masquerade Ball on Saturday was marvy. Here are photos of myself and Prince Charming taken from the limo we hired off the street post-ball on the way to some wretched (yet strangely popular) after hours club.
Yesterday was my first morning volunteering with TAP, where I helped 4 low income tax payers file their 2007 returns so they could reap the benefits of their Earned Income Tax Credits. My ride to the facility didn’t come through, so I took the #4 south through questionable neighborhoods to Cottage Grove and Oakwood, braving icy sidewalks and rapidly falling temperatures. Still, the experience was a good one. And it felt strangely noble, filling out forms there in the church basement, like a regular Robin Hood taking from the rich to give to the poor. My economist friends might argue that the earned income credits are a net sum gain for the poor in the long run – as, by decreasing tax revenues, they reduce the government’s ability to pay for other much-needed programs – but the short-term gains for the families I worked with are substantial. A $4,000 refund is pretty damn significant when you’re only making $15,000 a year.
Had every intention of going out last night (to a birthday party slash dance party hosted by some of my Latin-American and European classmates), but ended up staying in and getting some much-needed sleep, which is good, as I will need all of my focus and energy to make it through the mountain of reading and mid-term exam prep I have slated for today.
My study group partner from the other Saint Petersburg was here for a couple of hours this morning to work on our assignment for Competitive Strategy, which is an analysis of the Microsoft take-over bid for Yahoo. Our task? To evaluate whether the combined assets post-merger would outvalue the sum of the assets of the two firms if they remain independent. Our initial analysis suggests that Microsoft is relying on some funny math [warning: certain portions of the video linked in the preceding text may be unsuitable for sensitive viewers (or the workplace)] in its valuation of Yahoo, for which it has offered to pay a 65% premium. Need to call my classmate who worked on this deal when he was in the corporate strategy group at Microsoft to see if I can gain any additional insights into the firm’s rationale in making such an offer.
About to venture out into the world to buy cat food and various other sundries, which brings me to the subject of this post. Current temp is 1 degree Fahrenheit, but wind chill is minus twenty. Brrr! Luckily, it’s a short walk to the Jewel and I have a hungry kitty and pages upon pages of reading to compel me home again. Time to bundle up and get to it!
There is no outside, there outside my window. Only a thick blanket of fog. I’m munching on wheat toast and sipping my french roast with plain soy milk, viewing last night’s Super Bowl ads by way of preparation for my big interview with #1 firm later this week. Slept well (and long) last night, which really was quite necessary as, thanks to K and his Dirty Thirty, I’d had only three hours the night before.
Finishing up my reading from the textbook for Comp Strat and then headed to Gleacher to work on this week’s assignment for Managerial Accounting. Really struggling with this one, but instead of confronting my confusion head on I’ve been enjoying these Take-Away Shows from Blogotheque and fine-tuning my “well-marketed product” response for Wednesday’s interview.
Met the lovely Miz S at Peninsula Hotel yesterday for late afternoon tea. We sat by the window and watched the world turn from gray green to violet haze as we sipped our bergamot scented brews and contemplated the prospect of summer in Manhattan. Read my case interview prep guide on the bus ride there and back, which made me all the more grateful that I am not doing consulting interviews this term. Can you solve a company’s problems in one 20-minute conversation? Judging by the reports from the front (ding dong, ding dong, something went wrong), the success rate is truly variable, even for the brightest among us. (Aside: Who is the MBA mommy – linked above – blogging from the front lines of IM recruiting? How many other classmates are posting their experience to the blogosphere? I must find her IRL!) Memorizing my frameworks (5 Forces, 3 C’s, 4 P’s, STP, etc.) may help, but my ability to crack my mini-case on Wednesday is more dependent on my ability to remain unflustered and think on my feet than anything else. Hence, to stay focused and centered I am supplementing my interview prep with yoga. Still working my way up to warrior three and a less wobbly half moon pose. Have hopes that eventually I will make it to the end of that DVD. For now, I am just happy to see my torso and arms getting stronger. It is nice to have goals.
Speaking of which, I should try to squeeze in 30 minutes before I dash off to school. Namaste.
P.S. Have received feedback from one of my loyal readers that my blog has recently suffered from a lack of humor. It’s true that I am more focused of late on classes and recruiting, but I promise to return levity to its rightful place on these pages once I have an offer in hand. Until then, content yourself with the wit in these Valentine’s greetings.)
As the old adage goes, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And here at the GSB it seems the latter is more often the case than the former. If I were to sit down and count up all my losses since September (two super close elections, three pass overs for interviews with companies I really liked, not making the finals for the DMAC Case Challenge, no big prize at Golden Gargoyles for our cohort commercial, and the public humiliation that was LEAD Challenge… and many more little failures like failing to express myself well on a comment in class or getting a low score on a midterm, quiz, write up, etc.), as I just did, I would find a long list of well-won defeats.
But play the game often enough and you’re bound to win something. For me, that something was the Business Solutions Group final presentation of findings to consultant judges from Bain & Company. Remember that project I started working on last quarter? The one where I and four other GSB volunteers were teamed up to analyze growth strategies for a local designer and retailer? We presented the results of our analysis last Saturday and, lo, finally, by some stroke of grace or luck or other twist of fate, we won!
I’d like to think that our success was due in part to my pursuit of meaning in the company’s financial statements. Or my teammates’ intrepid research on the licensing industry and ways to break into it. But at the end of the day, I’m really not sure what it was exactly that set our project apart from the others. I’m not even 100% clear on what the criteria were for judging. But it doesn’t matter really. What matters is the fact that after months of losing, in multiple arenas, and oftentimes in public and embarrassing ways, I finally won something. Huzzah! All is not completely lost. Mom and Uncle D popped over from Michigan on the train today. We had tea at the Drake and took a little trip down to the Hyde Park for a tour of the Harper Center. Slept in this morning so I’m feeling rested and ready for a fun night, which is good as I am headed downtown in a few for a house party in celebration of the Croatian King’s dirty thirty. At least a hundred GSB-ers have RSVP-ed their attendance, so it should be a good time, if a little crowded. I will do my best to keep the good times under control so I can make it to my study group meeting for Competitive Strategy tomorrow at nine a.m. Could be difficult as our birthday boy, a former DJ, has lined up some ridiculous deal at a local club. No doubt I’ll get little sleep tonight, but I’ll have coffee and talk of sustainable competitive advantage to compel me to Caribou in the morning. It’s an intense life. But oh so good.
