MarquisParker.com // Business Strategist, Speaker, Advisor, and Coach

Starting off as a programmer versus an I-banker…continued

Published on May 27, 2007 by Marquis in career, consulting, Technology-related

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I just got a follow-up email to my last entry response from T.Y., so I thought I’d post it up here. It looks like my words helped him see that a switch over to the business side would be a more attractive option for him than starting off on the techie side. I’m not saying that starting off as a programmer is a bad thing, but it can be difficult to break away from it once you start on that path…a little more on that is below.

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T.Y. wrote:
Hi Marquis,

Thank you so much for your very long… Read the rest

Job advice to a CS grad looking at consulting in a few years

Published on May 23, 2007 by Marquis in career, consulting, Technology-related

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The funny thing about refocusing this blog toward answering people’s questions is that the inflow of emails is so unpredictable. Sometimes, I’ll go a couple of weeks with no messages and then I’ll get a bunch in a couple of days, which is what’s going on currently. The email that I’ve posted below is from a soon-to-be Computer Science graduate who is asking for some advice on which type of job to take. Reading his email took me back to when i was in his shoes and made me realize that I’m getting pretty daggone old

By the way,… Read the rest

Follow-up to May 20th entry

Published on May 22, 2007 by Marquis in Business School, consulting, mba, recruiting

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I got a follow up email from the reader I responded to on May 20th and thought I should post it along with the latest response…

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M.B. wrote:

Marquis,

I am famous now! Just kidding, thanks again so much for all of the advice, and the blog posting. I decided against going to school this year, and they actually invited me to reapply next year, which I really wasn’t expecting, so I guess things turned out ok on that front.

My thoughts behind asking the consulting question were: Why not drop my resume (since it will be gameday ready … Read the rest

A few words on ‘corporate politics’

Published on May 22, 2007 by Marquis in career, Random categories

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What’s up, y’all. I have been having an email exchange with my Stanford GSB alumni mentor over the past couple of days and he recently sent me some advice that I wanted to share. I was matched up with my mentor during my first year and, as after a long career as a consultant and finance guy, he had a lot to offer. I think the official mentoring relationship was supposed to end after first year, but he and I got along well and he’s been looking out for me ever since. This most recent advice was about how to… Read the rest

Important traits for consulting candidates

Published on May 20, 2007 by Marquis in consulting, recruiting

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The following message is from a reader that I’ve been giving some advice to about his b-school choices. In his email, he asks about the important things that the firms look for in a candidate. My response is a short one, but I think it covers the question. If he sends me a follow-up message, I’ll post that response, as well.

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Morrow wrote:

Marquis,

The more I read, the more I think I would be interested in consulting. Ultimately I would like to be back at my “family business” here in Memphis, but the broad, unstructured nature of consulting … Read the rest

Heading back to Palo Alto

Published on May 4, 2007 by Marquis in Bschool experience, career, consulting, Stanford GSB

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I’m writing this entry from a plane to the Bay area, where I’m heading to participate in my first Stanford GSB reunion. I was a little leary of going at first because it was so far to go from ATL to Palo Alto. Also, going to a GSB event can be somewhat exhausting because, with such a small class, you get to meet almost everyone, which means you could be potentially faced with 300+ “What’s up? How have you been?” conversations over the course of a 2-3 hour event. In the end, I chose to go because some of my… Read the rest