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

Tans and Tequilas

After getting back from sunny Israel and warm India, the still chilly Chicago weather drove me to Mexico for Spring Break. Had a relaxing trip and enjoyed lounging by the pool, snorkeling, lounging on the beach, sailing, and lounging by the bar. Sense a theme here? The only thing that really distracted from the lounging was the liquid consumption - only fitting for an all-alcohol-inclusive trip. Tropical, tiki, and especially tequila... isn't that right Josekin? I also managed to work on the tan and am now ready for springtime in Chicago. If only it would show up already!

Scary thought, but I'll only be taking trips within the US for the next three months. My spring (and final!) quarter at the GSB starts on Monday. Oh how the time flies...

Done and Done

Done with my final exam, done with my final HW assignment, and done with my contribution for the group final paper, which means that I'm officially done with my academic responsibilities for the winter quarter!

Earlier in the week, R. flew in and we went to Jerusalem to meet some friends including a GSB alum, and check out the Old City. There were clashes last week between Palestinians and the Israeli police - the Palestinian were protesting construction going on near the Al Aqsa mosque. The mayor of Jerusalem actually went against the government's decision (in local opinion, an idiotic move) and decided to halt the construction, so I was able to go to the Old City without problem. Except that I wasn't able to visit Haram al-Sharif or the Temple Mount area - only Muslims were allowed in for prayer.

From there, we went down to the desert (via a freeway that cuts through the West Bank) to visit Masada (pics now posted) and then stayed at a hotel on the shore of the Dead Sea. It was the strangest feeling floating in the Dead Sea. The water felt oily on the skin, and I was ridiculously buoyant. Once the water gets waist-deep, its hard to stand but impossible to sink. I also had a spa treatment - got slathered in hot Dead Sea mud and wrapped in human-sized saran wrap. I'm not sure how healing it was, but it was certainly fun and a bit weird to lie in a pile of mud, squishing it between my fingers and toes.

I'm now back in Tel Aviv and leaving for the airport in the wee hours tonight. I've heard that you get plenty of grief from immigration when you leave Israel (just like when you come in), so the plan is to get to the airport early. After spending way too much time in a plane, I'll be in Delhi. It will be too short of a stay there, but no complaints. The GSB is sponsoring my trip to interview candidates for the class of 2009. After finishing up my interviews in Delhi with another GSBer C., I fly down to Bangalore and conduct more interviews along with Sloop.

After that, I'm going back to Chicago! I've had an amazing experience here and will give wrap-up thoughts soon, but I'm also looking forward to going back and seeing all of my peeps in Chi-town. WoOt.

Update

Plenty has happened in the past few days, and plenty has to happen in the next few days. I won't have much time to post, so here's the skinny.

I've been done with classes for weeks now, but there are still assignments to be done. The schedule for classes is different here. You may finish with lectures, but most projects, term papers, and final exams are turned in or taken 2-3 weeks after lectures are complete. So in the next couple of days, I need to crank out a homework set, term paper, and take a final exam.

Next week, I'll check out Jerusalem once more and then head back to the desert to float in the Dead Sea. It will be my last week in Israel, but I'm not going back to the States just yet.

I will be flying out to India in less than 2 weeks. This is a last-minute thing, so I'm not sure if I'll have much time to update while there. It will most certainly be a whirlwind of a trip, but I'm looking forward to it.

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?

Aubergine Dream

After living in the San Francisco Bay Area for 20+ years, I could never go anywhere without running into someone that I knew. I'm not just talking San Francisco here, literally the entire region between San Francisco and San Jose, both on the peninsula and the East Bay. Its a pretty extensive plot of land, but somehow I managed to see someone or the other during nearly every jaunt to a restaurant here or a bar there.

After living almost 1 month in Tel Aviv, its already happened here. Granted, central Tel Aviv is not expansive, but this will definitely not occur regularly given that I know very few peeps here. It felt weird and kinda nice. Despite my thirst for the unknown, it felt comforting to see familiar faces, even those of fellow students that I barely know.

I went loafing about last night. It was a rainy weekend in Tel Aviv, with blustery winds not at all conducive to venturing outdoors. I decided to take a little walk and head over to a falafel stand that is known for a particular dish called sabich. The thing is, there are no actual falafel in it. After getting it wrapped up for take away (to go), I ran into a fellow student, an Israeli gal that praised my willingness to try it but then chastised me for not having the true experience by eating it standing up in the cramped establishment. I have to admit that she's right - that really is the way to enjoy fast food here. Standing up, with an all-you-can-stuff-into-your-pita-before-it-explodes selection of pickled vegetables, eggplant, and sauces at your fingertips. Eggplant is so underrated in the States. Not only is it ubiquitous here, they sometimes call it by the much cooler moniker of aubergine. Granted, I've never been to Italy so I can't compare, but the aubergine lasagna and coffee I had for lunch on campus today were damn tasty. Woot on the Israeli versions.

I met up with the Round 1 Israeli Chicago GSB admits last week. We all gathered at the house of one of the admits, located in the suburb of Ramat Yishay. Luckily, some of them were kind enough to give me a lift out there - public transit wasn't really an option. It was great to meet the admits and their families, and its fantastic that they have already started to get to know each other. Later this week, I'm planning to meet a GSB alum working out here.

My project group presented in our Organizational Behaviour class last week about Online Reputation, and it was well-received by the professor and other students. With plenty of real-life examples like eBay, bloggers, and MySpace, who wouldn't be into it? The classes so far have definitely been less rigorous than those at Chicago, but I'm not complaining. I anticipated that the majority of my education from this experience would not come from the classroom.

That being said, I was initially surprised by the forthright nature of the professors and students in my classes. One professor in particular is very abrupt in telling students to wait until he is done with his thoughts before he will answer their questions. And the students themselves will often speak out whenever they wish. I've certainly been privy to heated debate in a classroom, but people here seem to be consistently more vocal and at times bordering on aggressive. However, the level of aggression in discourse is certainly relative and I've been told that the Hebrew language tends toward being direct. Its actually fun, because I tend to get engaged in this atmosphere. But it took a few interactions for me to adjust my frame of reference from "aggressive" to "direct". :)

I also find that the students are less deferential in the classroom. Along with speaking out often, many will be checking email on their laptops, getting text messages on their mobiles, have a side conversation while the professor is lecturing, or simply walk in late or out early. The professors here take this in stride and I suppose that each of these happens every once in a while during my classes in the States, but the consistency and number of occurrences is what surprised me. But by now, I've learned to tune out the distractions and focus on the important things in class, like the animation on the prof's powerpoint slides.

Tel Aviv and University aside, its time for me to get out of dodge and explore the rest of the country. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out how to get around and then take off soon enough. Smile y'all. Monday is done with, so the week can only get better.

p.s. Okay Miz Megha and Sloop Doggy Dogg. I've posted. Tag, you're it.

Shalom from Tel Aviv

It has been about 3 weeks since I arrived in Tel Aviv, so an update is well overdue. The first week was a busy one, the biggest task was looking for a place to live and getting settled. Rent in Tel Aviv is actually paid in USD, not Shekels. I was told that this was done to stabilize the rental market because the Shekel has not always been the most stable of currencies (inflation was rampant a few years ago). The real estate market in Tel Aviv is a bit nuts right now. Its tough to find an apartment rental without knowing people, and even tougher when you're looking for a short-term rental. The b-school experience has taught me the value of a network, but the housing search in Tel Aviv underscored it. Not only was I lucky enough to crash with my Israeli friend A. that spoke Hebrew to get me through the process, I found my place through connections. Most of the advertised pads that I had seen were kind of dumpy, but my apartment is central, reasonably priced, and comes with a very naughty but lovable puppy and a bilingual roommate that is nice enough to tell me what the hell I blindly buy at the grocery store.

So, all settled into my place and having snagged a mobile phone, I was privy to my first ever Chanukah dinner. From the berakhot to the dreidels to the jelly donuts, its was great to observe the start of this Jewish celebration with an Israeli family - a very fitting introduction to my time in Israel. Here is a picture of my friend A. and his Mum, who were my very gracious hosts for dinner and my first week in Israel.



I also attended a reception held by the GSB for Israelis interested in the program. I, along with 4 Israelis that are currently GSB students, presented to a group of about 50 prospective students. It was interesting to see how my fellow GSBers tailored the presentation to the Israeli audience. From what I have gathered, Israelis in general tend to be pretty pragmatic and focused on the quality of classes and experiential learning during the MBA, and how the degree will improve the job prospects in the future. This isn't particularly unusual, but it seems like they focus less on the MBA as an "exploratory" or "transformational" experience, but more of a way to secure the path that they have decided upon. This is due in part to the experience that Israelis go through before graduate school. Most Israelis serve in the army for several years before attending University. As a result, they are older students, definitely for their undergraduate education and likely also for their graduate education. Many of the students that are in the MBA program with me work while attending school. So it made sense that the prospectives were very focused on the practical aspects of the MBA experience. We spent plenty of time discussing the various aspects of the Chicago GSB program that would lend itself to these interests, such as the ability to tailor one's educational experience given the flexibility of the curriculum and the experiential learning opportunities like the various lab courses. All in all, I think that the presentation went very well and people were happy with the discussion. I also ended up meeting an Israeli guy in person that had contacted me months prior for some advice on the GSB, and had decided to attend the reception.

After the reception, A. and I went to get falafel at a joint on the way back to center. The falafel guys were great, and let me make my own falafel, which involves scooping the paste into a small hockey puck-shaped steel mold with a handle, and then dumping into hot oil.





Let's just say that after one try of tossing the falafel into hot oil, I handed the tools over to the experts!

The past several weeks have been spent in more subtle acclimatization. Figuring out the bus route to get to school since classes started the week that I arrived (school is located in Ramat Aviv - a suburb located about 10km outside of central Tel Aviv), meeting other students, and exploring the neighborhood. There have been more mundane activities, but no less important in helping me feel settled, like having drinks or coffee with folks, spending a few hours listening to a jazz guitarist in a cafe, and going shopping with a friend. I also spent my birthday having a cozy dinner with the other Israeli GSBers that were visiting family during the winter break.

Overall, first impressions of Tel Aviv are overwhelmingly positive. The weather, for the most part, has been beautiful (despite it being 10C and sunny, Israelis are walking about bundled up like I do in Chicago when its snowing and -10C). The city is very navigable, the beach and outdoor market are within 15 minutes by foot, the coffee here is phenomenal, the hummus, shawarma, and various vegetable salads rock, and the people are very friendly. My inability to speak Hebrew has not been a huge issue as most folks speak some English. I'm slowly starting to pick up a few phrases and think that learning the alphabet will be the best way to speed up the process.

Now that most of the GSBers have returned to Chicago, its time for me to get cracking on meeting some new folks. Last night, I went to a great bar in Yafo, which had a great atmosphere and played a Boney M. remix (which automatically gets huge points in my book). I managed to meet some new folks and get an invite to a New Year's Eve party being held here. Hmm. We'll see if I decide to attend.

Other than that, not much planned for this week outside of preparing for class. I have a presentation due for class on Tuesday and am meeting with my group this weekend. I went to get my groceries today at the mall (yes, the mall has a grocery store), which was chaotic. Fridays are generally very busy here because everything closes early. The work week is Sunday through Friday, but most shops close in the early afternoon on Fridays. Friday evening marks the start of Shabbat, and everything is closed on Friday evening and Saturday during the daytime. Plenty of stuff opens up on Saturday night, but I didn't think it was possible for me to survive the day without restocking the hummus in the fridge. ;) Shabbat Shalom y'all.

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!

Are we there yet?

My experience over the last several weeks has reminded me once again that despite the inherent advantages of going to a great school that opens up one's career possibilities, recruiting still blows. The path to enlightenment may be filled with many bumps, but the path to one's dream job (or the one that will pave the way to the future dream job) is filled with potholes, road rage, and jackasses all around you. And that's all I'd like to say on recruiting for today.

Last night, I had dinner and drinks with Poweryogi in Manhattan. It was a long day and drinks were in order. The buzz kicked in after the classic combination of a bloody mary-esque cocktail and too many tootsie rolls at PS450. We then hopped into a cab and went to Chinatown, and consumed way too much food. NY + PY + vodka buzz = good times. Chicago math nerd in action.

I discovered my new favorite brunch place today. It passed my poached egg test (soft but not runny) with flying colors, and the rest of the food on my plate was top notch for quality, flavor, and creativity. Ambience wasn't bad either. I'm looking forward to returning with more friends.

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.