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I know that this isn’t B-school related, but…

…but I just had to make a post about this topic.

***EDITED: I found a better imageof the photo and have it below***

Please check out the picture located at http://photos23.flickr.com/38725768_16c66eb58b.jpg. It was forwarded to me in an email this morning and served as another “Marquis, yo are a black dude living in America” moment. If the picture doesn’t load up, here’s a description: it’s an AP photo of two scenes from New Orleans, one of a black woman and one of a white couple, both wading through water with groceries. The big difference between the two is that the… Read the rest

I’ve found how I’m going to get rich!!!!

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OK, I think I’ve finally figured out how I’m going to get rich in the future…I’m going to start an insurance or pharmaceutical company because I swear that those joints are the biggest money makers in the entire world. I’ve had several encounters recently that have me convinced of this…

1) It all started at the beginning of the summer when Stanford announced that they’d be charging something like $600 to extend our academic health insurance through the summer. Since I don’t get sick often, I figured that I could pass on it and would be fine with just getting… Read the rest

The end of my summer internshiphas arrived

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Well, I’ve made it to the end of my internship and it feels good to have a month of relaxing ahead of me. Going into this summer, people told me that the summer internship would be a breeze, but I definitely had to grind during this one. I’m happy to say that I learned a lot during this summer, but I still don’t know what my status is in terms of a job offer. According to the head recruiter for the summer program, they still need to gather feedback from all of our managers and then have some evaluation meetings… Read the rest

Some perspectives about the GSB

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I just sent the following to one of the readers of this blog in response to some questions he had about the GSB. I hope you guys find it helpful if you’re planning on applying this year:

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1. Why do you choose Stanford as you are accepted in other schools as well?
- My primary reasons for choosing the GSB were:
a. its strength as a General management program
b. its strength in entrepreneurship, leadership development, and reputation for technology (this reputation is associated with “Stanford University” more than the GSB)
c. its diverse and collaborative culture where people… Read the rest

T-minus one week until the end of my internship…

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…and it’s been a long 9 weeks so far. Actually, I should say taht it was a long first 8 weeks followed by a relatively easy 9th one. For the first time this summer, I’ve been able to spend all week here in NYC working on a thought leadership presentation about the increased M&A activity in the Communications space over the past couple of years. This topic is something that I’d been noticing, but I never realized how many issues and concerns these mergers have created for customers of merging companies, so it’s been insightful to look into this area.… Read the rest

The project’s ending and my internship won’t be far behind it…

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Ahhhhh, I’m back in NYC from my last trip out to Columbus, OH and it feels good to know that I’m not going to have to catch that Monday 7:40am flight anymore. I didn’t mind the traveling itself, but it wasn’t exactly fun to spend most days of the past 7 weeks in The-Middle-of-Nowhere, Ohio with nothing to do after long days at work. As the senior manager on my project has said many times, “that’s the life of a consultant.” Although it was a surprise to not spend as much time in NYC as I expected, it has been… Read the rest

"I can see clearly now, the rain is gone…"

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“…I can see alllll obstacles in my way…”

I’m back in NYC and the weather is actually somewhat agreeable for once. It is still a little humid, but it’s not as unbearingly hot as it has been in the past few weekends that I’ve been back. I might actually be able to venture out this weekend without feeling like I’m about to pass out at any given moment.

Last week, I wrote about crunchtime coming up on my project and it is definitely imminent now with the final deliverable being due a week from today. I originally thought that this… Read the rest

"It’s gettin’…it’s gettin’…its gettin’ kinda hectic"

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Well, I’ve reached the end of another week and I’m back “home” in NYC. The past week was a little more intense at work because we’re approaching crunchtime on our project. We’ve got two weeks left before our deliverable is due and it just so happens that my portion of the project is the piece that everyone else’s feeds into. Actually, I should say my “new piece” of the project because I found out last week that my work for first five weeks of the project was a misinterpretation of what was written into the statement of work. What I … Read the rest

Wanna be a baller…

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“Wanna be a — baller, shot caller
Twenty inch blades — on the Impala
A caller gettin laid tonight
Swisher rolled tight, gotta sprayed by Ike
I hit the HIIIGHWAY, making money the FLYYYY WAY
But there’s got to be a BETT-ER WAYY!
A better way, better way, YEAH-AHHHH”

I figured I’d start this entry with the hook from “Wanna be a baller” because that topic has been on my mind a lot this week. Making the business school move can be a tough one because you seem to go in the hole for it, but the long-term benefits are… Read the rest

Thank goodness for the weekend…

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I’d planned to take it easy this weekend and chill, but that basically went out the window when one of my friends from college arranged a little reunion of sorts on Friday night. That turned into a really late night and was followed by another late night last night when I went out to go to a birthday gathering for my man Bruce (GSB’05)…not really a good way to have a relaxing weekend, huh? Today, I finally was able to get some rest and I feel great as a result. I just hung around and did not much productive at… Read the rest

A little advice for techies considering B-school

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This morning, I got an email from one of the readers of this blog (shout out to Forrest G.) who has a background similar to mine (software engineer trying to move into business). He asked about the potential of moving into technology consulting and post-MBA roles in Technology, so, although I am not an expert, I gave him the best information I could think of. After writing the email, I thought that this info might be of interest to others, so here it is…

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Moving from the software industry into technology consulting is a very realistic career path and … Read the rest

Right about now, your boy is pretty tired…

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This has been one of the longest weeks I’ve had in the workplace since back in 2000 when I was still at Scient. This is my second week on this project and the third week overall for the project, so I was expecting things to still be moving pretty slowly, but I was 100% wrong about that. It turns out that this project is only going to be 8 weeks long in total, so we’re nearing the halfway point and we’ve been cranking like possible to make that end-of-July deadline. So far, I’ve had workdays that ran from 6:30am (the… Read the rest

Sometimes, it’s the little things that matter…

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Yesterday, I went down to Atlantic City to go to the christening ceremony for one of my college roommates’ new daughter. It all started off in NYC with me trying to rent a car, which turned into a major hassle. I did everything right by reserving a car for a 9am pickup earlier in the week, but, when I got there to get the car, I saw a line of 6 people in front of me waiting for cars. By the time I got my car, it was past 10:30 and I was about an hour behind schedule. I had … Read the rest

Week 1 of the summer internship is done

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Dang, it’s been a long week. I just got back into NYC last night after spending 4 days in Chicago for summer intern training and promptly met two of my classmates, a friend from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, and two of her classmates and acted a fool in NYC. I probably should have stayed in and rested, but my man Shawn called me up and told me to mobilize, so I had to go out and do my thing. My original plan was to stay out until midnight or maybe 12:30am at the latest, but we just went … Read the rest

First day of my summer internship

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Whew! I got back in from my first day at Accenture a little less than 2 hours ago and I’m feeling like I got run over. The day started so early that I was barely awake when I had to get on the train to NJ. There were about 20 of us in attendance, most of whom either came right out of undergrad or only had a year of prior work experience. We covered a lot of good information about the background and direction of Accenture, but, to be honest, a good portion of what we went over seemed pretty… Read the rest