“A lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous”

To quote ‘The Dude’ for all you Lebowski cult followers, the moniker of this post describes the state of the winter quarter. Truly complicated. As mentioned in one of my previous post as well, the quarter was hectic and tiring though I managed to come out satisfied in terms of learning and managing my self. There were also lessons learned in time management. There were bouts of indulgences in the usual questions to self. But rarely did I get time to ponder and seek answers to questions related to the higher truth . The fast-paced, ephemeral nature of the quarter just kept pushing me until I saw the end of the quarter.

Overall this quarter, I (was):

• Aggressively interviewing and networking to secure an internship in I-Banking for this summer. This was extremely important in order to make a career switch given the fact that I do not have a banking background
• Secured 3 internship offers from i-banks (Mars may have been retrograde). One of the offers is from an Asian company
• effectively managed a full time job and 3 courses (although towards the end of the quarter, it almost wore me down)
• Experimented with some exotic ingredients and accidentally discovered a new flavor of Dal.. you know the tadka-waala desi toor daal with spinach. The key is to (1) temper the sukha dhaniya till it exudes a seared aroma and (2) blanch the spinach. Oh my ! ..finger-lickin’ good !!

On to serious things.. This being my first summer at the GSB, I had to get myself an internship in banking. Given the fact I had an engineering/tech background, I knew I had to put in relatively more effort. What made it even more difficult was the fact that I was a part-timer. Unlike a full-timer, part time mba students are not allowed to partake in the OCR (On-campus recruiting) for internships where it would have been tremendously easy to get an offer, if not one from a bulge-bracket. So one has to start his/her efforts from the get go. Of course, one can leverage the Career Services office at Gleacher Center to the fullest and they co-operate with you all the way. I did not use their help yet.

Doing an internship this summer was also important to get a leg up for next summer and also to make sure this is really what I want to do. While the main internship – at Company A – was through applying online (i know..it actually works), the other two internships came through sheer networking. I head off to Company A in June (thanks to the really late ending quarter at the GSB which eats into at least 2 weeks of my internship). Also, what I intend doing is couple this long internship with a quick short internship at Company B for 5 weeks. I know 5 weeks is a short stint but I am keen on Company B because this is a newly formed spin-off and I would get to work directly with the MD in M&A advisory. Besides I plan to build strategic relations with Company B in the hope of working with them full time eventually. School does not start until Sep 25. So I have a lot to plan until then.

However this means that I will have to quit my job by summer. When I come back, I will have to rethink my strategy of getting (if at all) a new job. Work took a bit of a dive during winter..naturally because of all the exogenous factors. I am not sure if I should tell them what I have in store or if I should just hang in with them until June. I am currently in deliberations with myself regarding this web of moral code that I find myself ensnared in.

Having subordinated that argument for later weeks to come, currently, I am trying to savor this last Sunday before the spring quarter starts again ..on the morrow. Doing absolutely nothing, just lounging around flipping tv channels and enjoying the chicago skyline from my bedroom.

20-20 on Winter 2008

Here’s what I thought about the course I took during Winter ‘08

Applied Regression Analysis (Peter Rossi)

I skipped the basic stats course to satisfy my Statistics requirement with applied regression analysis (ARA). I would like to call this the ‘de-emphasize R-squared’ course. The R-squared is pretty much treated as a second-class citizen and a lot of focus is given to other concepts. Rossi is enthusiastic but he has his nose up in the air, and comes off a bit boorish if you ask him questions that are outside his notes/slides (Professor Rossi, can we still be friends !-). The course culminates with a Capstone project which is really the motherlode of the course. More of such capstone assignments would have really helped. What I did not like about the course is the teaser to time-series analysis. There is only 1 lecture dedicated to time-series. After you get this teaser, you feel that you should have taken this time-series course (taught only once a year). I am unhappy that i did not do my research well. Now i will have to cough up another $4k if i want to take this course. Overall I felt, the ARA course was a stretch. Taking 10 weeks to teach ARA is a little too much. What the school should do is eliminate the basic stats course. In its place, use this ARA as the basic stats course, cover the basic stats material in the first 3 weeks, dedicate the rest to regression (or use whatever healthy mix). For students who want to take an adv course in stats, they can satiate their appetite using the time-series course which is the real deal. For students with a non-stats background (yours truly included), they can take a similar course either at an extension university or at the GSAL (Graham School) in collaboration with the Chicago GSB. The idea is to eliminate the layers of basic courses if the only need to satisfy your statistics requirement is 1 course.

Accounting and Financial Analysis (Douglas Skinner)

Amazingly humorous under-rated professor. Also, known as footnote accounting, there is not much work to do in this course, mostly a case a week. No midterms, only a final project. I was pretty much on cruise-control in this course. I liked to just listen to him talk. Although sometimes his tone can get monotonous. Very accommodating and helpful. However, it’s very easy (I repeat..very easy) to NOT get anything out of this course. I tried to do some extra reading on the side to make the most of it especially towards the end when the course talks about Leases, Securitzations etc.

Investments (Juhanni Linnainmaa)

Again a friendly, humorous, Finnish professor. Relatively new to the GSB. The course is an introduction to investments and covers portfolio math, market theories, infinite references to Gene Fama and Thaler (naturally!…what do you expect) and derivatives. The professor again was very accommodating, held an extra review session before the finals.. a totally flexible prof in my opinion.

Deep down I feel that most of the newer professors are more interested in getting higher ratings in the course evaluations ….surely, I have to be wrong.

Pulled off the winter quarter

Just got done with my last exam for this quarter. I am 25% done with my MBA. The feeling is so great. Having back to back exams for each of the 3 courses while managing work this week has certainly taken its toll. Its ironic, I had my first exam for Regression on Tuesday, and although I had ample time to prepare (and I did), I did not do well. I managed to let go and started preparing for my accounting project, which again due to lack of time and sleep (and the circumstances that I am in) felt like an average performance. Today’s exam (Investments) for which I hardly studied due to some deadlines at work went really well. I was clumsily putting my cheatsheet together until the last minute today. oh well !

While the feeling right now is one of happiness and triumph, I am also feeling angry because I may have missed out being on the Dean’s List this quarter. I have the utmost respect for the who-cares-a-f***-about-grades or the its-important-that-you-learn-and-grow types but I felt my only chance to get A’s in all three courses was this quarter. The courses seemed relatively easy and were A-grade worthy. Courses from the next quarter on seem tougher. I have this feeling that once we take the difficult courses later in the quarter, its tougher to get A’s. So my strategy was to weight-average my GPA: get a head on start on a good GPA right in the beginning, and let it deteriorate later when knowledge/hands-on (whatever you want to call it) become more important than grades. I felt I could have done a better job had I not been working full-time. But on the other hand, I guess it’s important that I learn and grow. Who cares about grades anyway..right !

I am so tired now to post any more details, but I will try to post my 20-20 on the the winter quarter soon. For now I have important things to attend to. Got to get a haircut, attend to the bills, replace the borrowed toilet paper, get rid of all the unread WSJ’s strewn on the floor under the bed and resume my gym sessions.

Also, I am flying out for the spring break. I plan to catch up on some golf this weekend (weather permitting). I plan to spend the weekend without my cell and my laptop. Desperately need some introspection time to recharge before next quarter.

Till then !

Ji Yeon (and a bit of March Madness)

(spoiler: no..not the NCAA series)

1]

Amidst exam week, I got some time this sunday to catch up on last week’s ‘Lost episode’: Ji Yeon. I have to confess. I preferred the Desmond/Penny story over to Sun/Jin’s. Desmond’s story in Season 3 episode #17 and #08 were almost…almost guy-cry worthy (what’s wrong if I fess up to it ?)

2]

The almost-floundering CTA is now offering free rides for seniors. While I do prefer the gesture, it only means CTA is now going to find other new ways of bailing out from its woes. The CTA is already under a ‘$40M a year cutback through 2012′ mode. This is state money we are talking about. State money for immediate capital spending needs.

The money is now coming out of Chicago. So, does that mean Cook County will now raise its taxes? What is the State of Illinois doing to help? Is the burden entirely on Chicago now? I am not sure and would like to steer clear of commenting on the Governors motive to make these free rides available. Sure, he wants to stay in office longer, but why leverage a system that desperately needs an overhaul especially when you are bidding for the 2016 Olympics. The city infrastructure will be under scrutiny. The blue line has been trimmed, 2 brown line stops have been closed already, they almost stopped short of trimming the 146/147 Express to Michigan ave.

3]

On a personal note, the marathon starts tomorrow. (sick-day off), Exam, (work), Project submission, (work), exam and then I come home to watch ‘Lost’. Hope the P2P gods show mercy and improve the number of seeders (or at least reduce the leechers).

Thats what I call ‘March Madness’ )

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On the work-life balance

Balancing a job with 3 courses is not easy. This quarter, I seem to have truly pushed myself. With a full-time job, 3 courses, a hunt for an internship (including aggressive networking and interviewing), life has not been easy this quarter.

At the same time, I have realized how truly truly precious the weekends have been. Majority of my work gets accomplished during the weekend. So when I attended this 2-day Financial Modeling seminar last weekend, organized by the GSB in partnership with Training the Street, I felt a huge time crunch on sunday evening. All of a sudden, I realized that my weekend just slipped by and I did not even get a chance to catch up on so many valuable things of my life including catching up on my assignments and my sunday morning snoozing. This 9 to 5 seminar, though really useful and exciting, ate up into my R&R that it sapped me of my stamina. I had to indulge in coffee (I usually don’t) daily for this week just to help me put in my 8 hrs at work and then come home to catch up on my assignments for this week and attending the evening classes at the same time. For once, I realized that 3 back-to-back classes in 3 days was a bit too much.

But life continues..slowly but surely. I just have to make sure I have enough energy to keep up the momentum for another 10 days until the quarter is over.

till then ..

PS: any part-timers out there who are taking a 3-course workload with a full time job? I’d love to hear what they have to say on this balancing act.