Dreaming of Picasso

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Done Done Done !!!

I am done with the Statistics class!! I had my finals yesterday and what a relief.
As soon as I get my grades, I can finally send my transcripts to Haas and be done with the Statistics requirement.

Now that my classes are over, I am trying to arrive at the steps I need to take to align better with my future goals. Marina's informative post on i-banking, got me thinking about my possible choices - consulting and "everything else". Initially, I had not thought too much about consulting, but as I started conducting informational interviews, and reading job postings, it seems like a consulting stint might really help me with my objectives. I need to research this better because as I get more information about these topics, my head starts to spin a bit more. Given that there is a significant personal investment in the process of getting an MBA, I would like to make the most of it. Having a better idea about my future career path will help me effective elective choices and allow me to be proactive

The steps that I have plan to execute to research future career path are:

- Read job postings in the areas that I would like to be in and identify core skillsets

- Conduct informational interviews within and outside my company
Challenge: I don't think I am very good at doing informational interviews and I am still trying to figure out how to get hold of people outside my company

- Get a better understanding what consulting is all about
Challenge: I do not know much about consulting, and I really do not have any friends in this area so ideally an event like what Marina attended at Lehman would be nice.

I will continue to think about other avenues for gaining a better understanding about future career paths and add to this list eventually.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Accounting and more

I am finally done with my accounting class. Phew!!

The last couple of weeks has been extremely hectic for me. The Statistics class required the last dose of midterms, and class project and I just finished the Accounting finals. Thanks to everyone who filled in the survey because the class project is finally done. My statistics finals are next Monday.

Once the classes are over, I was planning on not doing much. But lately, I have thinking about taking the accountancy waiver exam. While I feel that I may be able to pass the waiver, I am sort of conflicted- I do not have a degree in accounting and my current career path doesnt require any application of accounting principles.

At Haas, I will have to take some other class, if I pass the waiver. My thinking is that by waiving this course, I may be able to take an addtional elective. Some of the choices are - other topics in accoutning or finance.

I am still not sure, what I want to do...

Decisions, decisions and more decisions...

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Help Wanted!!

My statistics class is almost coming to an end but I still have an important aspect of this course left- the final project.

Our team is conducting an anonymous survey about Body Mass Index and its correlation with the time spent on exercising. Readers please feel free to fill the survey. It will not take more than a minute to fill but it will help us get the data required for the final project.

The survey can be found here.

Thanks in advance !!

Monday, June 05, 2006

Am I quantified enough?

I was reading a post on application essays by wandering yogi and it reminded me of my struggles not so long ago. As I thought through the essay writing days, some points came to my mind.

- Quantify Results
Almost everyone applying to B-School will have numerous success stories. I was told by several applicants that a key to making essays powerful was to quantify the outcomes. For every activity - Define the problem, how you solved it, what was accomplished and what did you learn from this. I narrowed my list down to three very powerful examples. In each of the cases, my problem had different dimensions to them - for example - organizational issues, revenues and schedule issues. This allowed me to write about various abilities with just one example - a strategy that was very useful for questions that have word limits.

-Highlight Failures
I extensively used examples of my failures to highlight two things - I have introspected enough to know my flaws and I have learned from my mistakes. These were excellent material for the personal essays - like tell us more about your childhood etc.

-Am I special?
There is a lot of talk about different pools of candidates- I took note of this issue and decided to tackle not by highlighting success, but by giving details about what makes me different. One of my good friends, read one of the drafts of my goals essays and said - If I did not know that this was written by you, I could have sworn that this could be anyone with a similar background. To correct this situation, I followed up with details of my plans, and explained in the essay, how I had derived these plans from my previous life experiences.

-I love this school
I would highly discourage applicants from writing things that appear in the publicity materials. However if you have spoken to an alumni who has helped shaped your goals, mentioning this may not hurt. I used this strategy by linking some of the conversations with an alumni who also happened to my recommender. Also conversations with current students helped me tremendously during the interview process.

Essay writing process was long winded for me and boy!! was I thrilled to get over with it. Best of luck -applicants for the class of 2009.

In other related MBA news, after the Haas round two decisions, the yahoo group has been abuzz with activity. I was so thrilled to see folks from every walk of life - I am so looking forward to learning from all these people.