End of MBA Peregrinations

I graduated a week ago and am now in the freshly-minted MBA camp. I'm not going to start working until September, but its going to be a busy summer of travel and looking for a place to live in San Francisco. So this is my last post on this blog. This doesn't mark the end of my peregrinations, just those while an MBA student at Chicago GSB. It is time, you see, to start the rest of my life.

The past 2 years at the GSB have been a helluva ride, both up-and-down, and totally worth it. I'm ready to hit the real world and excited about the new job, the new city, and what the future holds. Thanks to my readers for the support and commentary. I hope to keep in touch with many of you through non-blog channels.

Cheers,
Le Voyageur

Job and Life After Chicago GSB

I just got back yesterday from a week-long jaunt from all over the country. I have to upload a bunch of pictures before I can post on my recent travels. So I thought it an appropriate time to update you all on my job situation. Despite the mental flip I had before deciding to come to Israel, I became pretty calm about my job situation when I came out here. Being removed from the GSB, recruitment activities, and no longer having the ubiquity of the job search looming over my head gave me a bit of time to relax and regain perspective. I suppose that some people are really good at shutting out all of the white noise, but getting away from it was a good thing for me.

Right before leaving for Israel, I ended up getting another couple of job offers. One came about a week before I left, the other one literally on the day of my flight. I was very pleased about the opportunities, but had little time to think or feel good about them since I had to deal with traveling and settling in here. After a few weeks, I started to think about what I had on my plate, and did due diligence on the opportunities that were available to me, those that I was still pursuing, and those that may come up in the future. I had many conversations with people at the various firms, long chats with those people in my life that matter the most and whose opinions I trust, as well as some quiet time away from everyone just thinking on my own. I decided to take one of my offers, based on some of these conclusions:

1. I didn't come to business school with the plan to do this afterwards. But I've changed a great deal in the past 2 years, as have my perspectives, goals, and priorities. To stick to the original plan would be taking a path that no longer suits me.

2. I'm going into a completely different industry. Perhaps I won't like it at all, but there's only one way to find out. The variety will add some breadth to my resume, and give me the opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to the field. Plus the nature of the job allows me to experience various functional roles.

3. I was worried that it wouldn't be the best short-term step for my long-term career. But in this day where the economy and jobs are evolving so quickly, there are no guarantees that the long-term picture won't be obsolete in a few years. Remaining flexible and adapting are worth more effort than planning the future out in great detail.

4. I was confident that I would be able to get another offer if I chose not to take any of the ones I had. This isn't due to an inflated sense of self-worth on my part - I do believe that I have saleability, but its also a good market and a great year to graduate from a well-respected MBA program. But I was very excited by the offer that I took and thought it provided certain advantages that were not a guarantee in future offers.

5. I may not be doing what I thought I would, but I'm going into a job that I think will give me the opportunity to gain both hard and soft skills, interact with smart and senior people at the firm, and provide continuous learning. I should be able to leverage many of these skills and the ability to learn no matter what the next role or where I end up.

So I will be working for a company in San Francisco. I am very excited about reconnecting with my family and friends out there, though I think that based on the transformation I've undergone in the past 2 years, it will be a totally different experience upon my return. I didn't expect to move back there after school, but I suppose that donating a kidney to pay for a house is something that I can live with... you only need one kidney to live, right?

Anee Lo Medaberet Eevreet...

is the phrase I have used most since coming to Israel (okay, maybe 2nd to Shalom). Which is kind of silly since I'm saying "I don't speak Hebrew" in Hebrew. I got sick last week and then the internet was on the fritz, so this post will have to sum up several days worth. All in all, Sloop and Faisal have been putting everyone to shame with the regularity of their posting. I suppose I could step up and post more regularly, but I know better than to make empty promises, so I'll just settle for posting today.

I had dinner at a great resto last week with a fellow GSBer. He told me that on his way over, he saw someone in a cafe that looked exactly like me, but with shorter hair. I've already met one Doppelgänger in the States, so imagine my surprise to find that I have another one here in Israel. The Ashkenazi look is more coveted here than the Mizrahi because its less common. Individuals with (naturally) blond hair and fair complexions are not as common as the ones with darker hair and olive skin, which just goes to show that everyone can be exotic in some region of the planet. During her visit to a resort area, the tall, blond Czech exchange student in our program was offered a proposal of marriage along with 1600 camels. No joke.

In general, I've eaten really well over the past several weeks. Dinner at Pastis with a GSB alum working just outside of Tel Aviv, and another dinner at Beni Hadayag in the Herzliya marina with a new Israeli friend N., who will be coming to the States next year for b-school. Beni Hadayag translates to "Beni the Fisherman". Nice! I like! The dinner was, for lack of a better term, ridiculous. For two of us, we were served 15 different salads along with our meal. As I may have mentioned before, the definition of a salad here is broader. It can mean mixed greens with chopped tomato, cheese with herbs, roasted eggplant, or fish in a spicy sauce as long as it is served during the meal and in a small dish. I think the closest analogy is that of Korean side dishes - many different ingredients, flavors, and textures, but all in small portions.

N. was gracious enough to pick me up and show me around the Herzliya marina, which has a swish new mall (with a mariner's theme a la Vegas). Apparently, even though Tel Aviv is where much of the action is, all of the really affluent Israelis live in Herzliya. And park their yachts in Herzliya marina - duh. We saw some beautiful boats there, one can only imagine how they looked during the daytime. We also had some interesting discussion over dinner. According to N., who travels to Europe often for work, many Europeans and particularly the French are rather weary of Israelis. This is pretty amazing to me because I figured that given the riots last year in the suburbs of Paris, the French would be more weary of Arabs (even though I believe that the rioters, though Muslim, were mostly of African descent). Not to mention the fact that everywhere I go in Tel Aviv, I hear people speaking French and there are several French exchange students in my classes. I'm rather curious to find out whether this falls under anti-Israeli sentiment or general xenophobic tendencies. The last time I was in France (about five years ago), I didn't really encounter much xenophobia, but then again I was able to speak reasonably coherent French (although I'm sure that this is subject to interpretation) and this was prior to the Freedom Fries debacle. Perhaps I'm missing some existing political tension - any of my Israeli or French readers (I know I have at least one of each) feel free to correct me.

In other news, last Sunday marked the 2nd time this month that there was a strike at Tel Aviv University. Apparently, every time the University tries to increase the fees, students go on strike. This is surprising because the students here pay peanuts to attend the top universities in the country. Apparently, loans to pay for school here are uncommon - while education is an investment, few choose to get into debt to pay for it. Perhaps the job prospects after graduation are not as rosy unless you go into a high-tech or biotech role? Or maybe the mandatory military service makes the student population older and more risk-averse?

Several of you have asked to see more pictures. Honestly, its been a quiet week here - I had class assignments to work on and my roommate is off in Ethiopia for a vacation. The dog is currently spending time in the country at a doggie resort. But I took a picture of her before she went off to the Doggie Hamptons. Her name is Toobab, and she is the princess of the apartment.



I thought I'd share an anecdote about how social transactions (and perhaps business transactions as well) are carried out here. The exchange student coordinator, a lovely woman named Sharon, suggested a get-together for us to have dessert at Max Brenner last week.

Sharon sends out an email saying something to the effect of "Max Brenner is a great place. Interested? Let me know if you want to come so that I can make reservations - how about meeting at 20:00?" I respond with "I'm interested, and that time works for me." So time passes and I hear nothing back. On the day of, I call Sharon and finally reach her at 19:00 -

Le V: "Sharon, are we meeting at Max Brenner tonight?"

Sharon: "Of course! Didn't you get my email?"

Le V: "Well, yeah. But you never confirmed that it was on. Or the time."

Sharon: "I did, I said in the email that we are meeting at Max Brenner at 8 in the evening! Are you coming?"

Le V: "Erm, ok. Yeah. I'll be a bit late though..."

Note to self: When in Israel, unless you speak up and say you have a problem or that the "suggestion" doesn't work, there is no confirmation. ITS ON, SO BE THERE AND MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Over the weekend, I explored much of the city by foot and found some new neighborhoods with bars, cafes, and shopping. Sunday night was drinks with the exchange student program crowd - vodka shots and martinis. To be honest, the vodka shots were way better. I have not been impressed with the ability of bartenders here in Tel Aviv to mix drinks, so stick with the beer and shots unless you know who's mixing.





Drinks with the exchange students is like drinks at the UN - reps from Israel, France, Italy, Finland, Norway, Czech, Germany, Latvia, and the US. Hmm. Okay maybe more like drinks at the EU with Israel and the States crashing the party. ;)

This week, I am wrapping up my classes and taking final exams. But this won't stop me from hitting the best restaurant in Israel tonight. WoOt.

Its Official

I have some exciting news. While I received this news many months ago, I wasn't sure if I would be moving forward with my plans given the ups and downs of the recruitment season. Though I haven't yet decided what to do post-MBA, I did a mental regroup last night and this morning.

Actually, last night I was just mental more than anything else. The little hamster in my head was racing way too fast on the wheel - worrying about job prospects and figuring out what to do with the rest of my life. So I decided to go out and have a nice dinner and drinks to relax. In fact, dinner was quite tasty and I ended up stunning the hamster and the rest of me senseless with too much to drink. Enter drunken lunatic phase, during which I decided that I wasn't going to move forward with my original plans and continue to evaluate job opps.

Fast forward to this morning. Frightening as it may sound, I was thinking more clearly this morning in my sober and slightly hungover state than I have in a while. And I realized several things:
1) I am an employable individual. I have been blessed with a good education, am passionate about what I want out of life and the impact I want to make on the world, and am able to work with others well. [Insert Stuart Smalley quote here]
2) The opportunities to find a dream job will still be here, they aren't running away just yet.
3) The opportunity cost of not living one's life to the fullest is too high, as I won't be able to take advantage of the same things should I get reincarnated as a snail.

So the news? I'm studying abroad next quarter. In Tel Aviv, Israel. The flight is booked. Downsides - not having Chicago GSB resources at my disposal to look for a job, and having to delay the search by several months. Upsides - not having to deal with the freezing cold and hanging out in gorgeous weather, getting the experience to spend a good chunk of time in a foreign country and learning about a fascinating region of the world, gaining a degree of experiential learning that I could never get from a book or article, and the list goes on...

WoOt!

Desolée

Had a long chat with someone last night that I don't talk to often enough. Business school can be extremely isolating at times - I sometimes yearn for the world that I lived in before the GSB, but realize that I no longer belong there. 'World' is loaded - it refers to not just the location, but also the time, many of the relationships and experiences, and my state of mind. So I can't go back because it would feel like I was taking a step backward in my progression through life, but I'm sometimes terrified of moving forward. It means I have to enter the real world, decide whether the choices I made during school were the right ones, and figure out the rest of my life. Heavy shit.

So I decided to spend some time yesterday and today avoiding the usual topics of discussion, and living a pseudo-normal life for a few hours. Last night I went to get some tasty Korean food with fellow students, and ended up having a real conversation with someone at dinner that I'd never really spoken to before. We'd had student-group related discussions in passing, but nothing terribly substantial. Given that I'm constantly surrounded by amazing people, its a shame that I don't have time to have a real chat with more of them.

Today I had brunch with some (non-GSB...!) people at this adorable place in Lakeview. Discovering a new resto and new people was such a refreshing way to start the week. Today, Autrefois is the song of choice.

You down with OPP?

Other People's Posts. I am such a junkie when reading other blogs - is that an indication that I don't have anything better to do with my time? That I'm starved for any distraction from school? That I'm too busy, lazy, or antisocial to actually talk to people in person? ALL OF THE ABOVE?

This goes along with my previous rant about my computer, and how I get no work done when its on. With OPP, all of the distracting applications on the compy, and Wikipedia around, who actually gets anything accomplished anymore? Okay maybe you do because you're so perfect. [Insert emoticon of pppbbbfffttt here]

Apologies to Red, who is no longer linked but remains in spirit within my little blogosphere. I love reading about fellow GSBers that have a life outside of school, even if I don't. Not to mention tips on where to get a good bloody mary - bonus.