The MBA Student Voice

One Quarter Down, Five to Go

It's been yet another hiatus for me between Thanksgiving, finals, and winter break.  So, I figured I'd tackle an end of quarter recap.  The best way for me to try and do that is to address the questions friends and family ask me most: “How was your first quarter?  Did you have fun?”  Deep down, I know it was a great time and a hell of a ride, but I really have to think about it to make sure.  That’s because school can be overwhelming at times.  Five classes that you’re somewhat unfamiliar with over the course of ten weeks makes for an intense quarter.  It consumes you to some extent.  It’s all you and your friends talk about.  For instance, I consider myself a student of comedy.  I interned at Late Night and The Daily Show in college.  I like to think I know what’s funny.  At one point, though, I’m fairly certain the only jokes I, along with my fellow students, was cracking were statistics related.  Is p-value really that funny?  After some decompressing time, I’m pretty sure it’s not, but at the time…HILARIOUS!  And if we’re making class related jokes, that means we’ve learned something, right?  I’m going to say yes.  Definitely, yes.

 

But such feelings appear to be the norm at Anderson.  It’s really the nature of the beast.  We start classes later than most programs and there’s a lot of material to pack into such a short period of time, especially since we’re on the quarter system.  It’s basically like a rite of passage.  The second years assure you that you’ll get through it, you doubt them, you take four grueling finals in four days, and then realize they were right and don’t understand why you didn’t trust them in the first place.  I have no doubt some first year will question my wisdom next year and I’ll just smile and crack a p-value joke and he or she will laugh uproariously.

 

Admittedly, I just painted a somewhat bleak picture.  So, how can I say business school has been enjoyable?  Well, that’s because while I may have underestimated just how time consuming the program would be, all the rumors about the social and networking opportunities I heard so much about are most definitely true.  For all the work we do, there’s always a chance to blow off steam afterwards, be it a karaoke night with your section, the school ski trip to Breckenridge after finals, or a winter break jaunt to Israel.  And over the course of these experiences, I really can’t fathom the number of friends I’ve made.  When I left New York for my Los Angeles to begin this new quarter, two of my classmates offered to pick me up from the airport.  I didn’t even ask.  Do people really just offer to do that out of the goodness of their heart?  Am I that fun to be in a car with?  Maybe I’ve been living in New York too long (plus no one has a car here), but that’s a first and second for me.  I kept an attentive eye on my wallet just in case.

 

In the meantime, things are not going to slow down one bit.  After taking five classes in a quarter, we are only required to take three in the winter.  Those courses are Marketing Management II, Corporate Finance, and Operations Technology Management.  In addition, I’m taking an elective Feature Film Marketing class at UCLA’s Producer’s Program, and I also scored an MBA Spring Internship at Fox Filmed Entertainment.  Needless to say, I’m expecting to be frantic and frazzled for the next couple of months, but when it’s all said and done, and you ask me how it was, I have no doubt I’ll pause, take a deep breath, and say, “Fantastic.”  See you after my next hiatus

Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

My apologies to all for yet another writing hiatus.  Those midterms took a lot out of me and the rehab from the exam related injuries took longer than expected.  First, there was some carpal tunnel as a result of using some Excel functions too much, and then I tore my ACL walking to a printer in the computer lab to collect an accounting problem set that I printed out.  All kidding aside, there's not much of an excuse except to say things have been busy.

So, what have I been busy with?  Well, as I've eluded to before, I'm trying to balance the holy trinity of academics, job search, and a social life.  Of late, I've been attempting to focus on the job search and the related requirement of networking.  Since I want to get back into the entertainment world post-MBA, albeit on the business side this time around, I joined Anderson's Entertainment Management Association.  The organization regularly puts on panels to educate its members about various portions of the industry, be it film, TV, videogames, and music.  These presentations are led, more often than not, by alumni within said fields and they've proven rather informative.  Additionally, the EMA organizes Days on Jobs (DOJ), where we have an onsite visit with a particular company and executives talk to us about their various functions.  We had one such DOJ last week at Fox. 

Long story short, classes take up your mornings and afternoons and then there's plenty more activities to gobble up the rest of your day.  The key, it seems, is to choose the right events and not spread yourself too thin, especially this first semester.  Maybe if I do that, you'll hear from me a wee bit more.  But for now, I gotta go ice my ACL. 

Mad Crazy Biz

I have never been this busy.  Crazy enough, business school is busy.  Who knew and why didn't they tell me?  Why have I been so busy?  Well, first off, contrary to the fun and games and camp-like atmosphere of Orientation, school itself is time consuming.  But let me back up a bit.  I am striving to make my posts especially helpful to two kinds of prospective students:  creative types and New Yorkers.  This post relates more to the former.  You know, a person who probably studied History or English in college and can actually express him or herself using the written word, but doesn't know a thing about Excel (ie. you think it simply puts words and numbers in tidy rows and columns) or equity research ("You research how to make things equal?  That's really great!  We should allocate more resources to that wonderful goal!").

Needless to say, I'm that guy.  And if you're that guy or gal too, you're probably a bit apprehensive about using a part of your brain that's remained dormant for years.  Well, turns out, you should be.  But not too much.  You see, Anderson starts you off with four core classes, three of which are Accounting, Managerial Economics, and Data and Decisions (statistics).  You know how you'd have maybe one really hard class each semester in college?  Try taking four of them at once.  These courses are challenging even if you've been exposed to the material before, and especially if you nearly wrote an undergraduate thesis on the naval campaign in the Pacific during WWII and subsequently interviewed bands and actors for a living before attending business school.  And they are also time consuming.  Beyond my own personal study time, there's plenty of learning team meetings where group projects are completed (I spent about 10 hours with my group this weekend, at least).  However, despite this perhaps dour sounding scene, I believe my head is above water.  So, if there's some hope for me, there is probably some for you as well.  Of course, this could all change at the drop of a hat.

Back to the busy-ness.  In addition to classes, there are clubs.  I've joined my fair share and they are consistently having meetings about something and I want to be there.  That means that after class, I'm sticking around school for several hours for any number of reasons, be it a section meeting, a speaker series, a presentation, or a discussion panel.   

Making matters worse, but really better actually, people around here like to have fun.  And they go out.  There are opportunities to go out almost everyday, and it's tough to say no.  For instance, this past Saturday, I went to UCLA/Oregon game at the Rose Bowl.  As a graduate of Columbia, I have no concept of attending a school that actually cares about its sports program.  Even though there was a Marketing project due tomorrow morning, I had to go.  It was a moral imperative.  And it was awesome, except for the part where we gave up two touchdowns in 26 seconds at the start of the second half.  We were up 3-0 at the half, I went to the restroom, ate some macho nachos, and was a bit late getting back to my seat, but I thought the guy who said we were down 11 as I was walking back was making a horrible joke.  That kinda killed the buzz, but odds are I'll be there next week for the Cal game. 

The main point is, it's intense here.  I'm trying to walk the fine line between boning up on the subjects I never learned in college (but not so much that I'm in the library constantly), participating in clubs to help with the networking process (ie. getting a job), and having fun.  It's a tough equilibrium to establish.  Not sure I've succeeded yet.  And let's not forget about my comprehensive television watching schedule.  Sundays and Thursdays are killer.  Those nights alone add 10 hours to my DVR.  That's like 3 classes!  Something might have to give.  Or the day must be lengthened to 36 hours (I'm gonna work on that one for now).

Welcome to the Rock

I survived.  As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I was about to head out on one of the pre-orientation trips that UCLA's Anderson School of Management offers.  I chose to go to Sequoia Forest for some rock climbing and hiking.  All in all, the two nights (plus change) in the wilderness were fantastic. 

Our group of about 12 split into two vans and left on a five-hour drive early on Friday morning.  I must've lucked out because everyone in my car was into the same movies and television shows as me and we had a blast sharing our favorite lines and scenes.  It definitely boded well for the trip, and school in general, I hope.  After a lunch stop at a Mexican restaurant owned by an Anderson alum's family, we completed the last leg of the drive and reached Sequoia (side note:  if you believe Wikipedia, which you clearly must, because anyone can write almost anything on it, refried beans are not, in fact, fried twice.  It's an unfortunate mistranslation, especially since I love all fried foods and something fried twice must be heavenly.  I had the chicken chimichangas, which is, of course, fried).

Anyway, once we got the campsite set up, we drove to a lookout to watch what we could of the sunset.  As many of you probably know, nature in California seems inclined to burn from time to time (though I believe arson is to blame in this instance), and the smoke from the current wildfire obscured the view somewhat, or so I have been led to believe.  Coming from Florida and New York, I'm not used to all the forms of natural disaster out here.  Now that I am here, I realize, for instance, that I took for granted that the ground never moves back East.  We'll see how I react when there's a tremble, which inevitably there will be.  All I had to deal with was the occasional hurricane, and while I know such an event can be disastrous, the irony is I never missed a day of school in Florida due to one.  However, classes were postponed during the first week of my freshman year at Columbia as a result of a storm.  Go figure.

Moving on.  On the first full day of the trip, we headed to our rock for some rappelling and climbing.  I think if I participated in those activities everyday for the rest of my life, I still would be terrified each time.  But, I'm a big believer in science, so I trusted the ropes and managed to contain my internal horror.  That doesn't mean, though, that I didn't want to get my two feet back on the ground as soon as humanly possible.  The next day, we took a short walk to see some ginormous Sequoias and had a dip at a swimming hole before heading back to LA.  Like I wrote earlier, it was a great time full of adventure and more important, introductions to some of my future classmates.  I highly recommend going on such a trip to all incoming first years in the future.

The only other somewhat official school related activity I partook in was a one-on-one counseling session at the Parker Career Management Center.  I figured I should try and get an early start on tweaking my resume and utilizing the school's resources, and my meeting was incredibly helpful.  I have faith that Anderson has many devoted and knowledgeable people working their tails off for us, and that definitely gives me a warm feeling in my cockles regions. 

The day after I returned from the trip, though, my parents arrived, as they were kind enough to visit from Florida and help out with any last minute details I had to take care of before starting school.  Tops on that list:  finding an automobile.  Car hunting must be the most frustrating activity on the face of the Earth.  The whole, "Let me go talk to my manager" thing is insane.  Let's just cut to the chase, buddy.  I don't think anyone truly feels good about the experience when it's over, and I certainly don't.  You see, while the Cash for Clunkers program appears to have been a huge success, it made finding a deal for me impossible.  The dealerships had virtually nil inventory and were unwilling to negotiate.  Who pays sticker price for a car, I asked?  According to the salesman, I do, apparently.  These guys did not care that in a couple months, they'd have a glut of cars that no one would want to buy, because right then, they had the upper hand.  I guess I can't blame them, and I suppose it's a good lesson for business school:  timing is everything.  Never in a million years, during one of the worst recessions in history, when car companies are hemorrhaging money, did I think I'd get such a crummy deal.  But hey, as I wrote in a previous post, it's LA and you need a car, so I sucked it up.

Speaking of cars in LA... I know we are all aware of it already, but it must be reiterated:  the traffic in LA is awful.  Truly horrific.  Driving more than five minutes from my apartment in this city makes me want to pull a Biff and steal Doc Brown's DeLorean and travel back in time to slap Henry Ford around.  Though, if I prevent the mass production of the Model T in the past, who knows if there'd be a DeLorean for me to steal in the future and then we hit one of those time paradoxes worthy of Lost.  Point is, if you're moving out here from somewhere like New York City or just don't like crazy traffic, be prepared.

While the traffic can drive you insane, I did fight through it to Manhattan Beach, which was incredibly nice.  It's just that I had to navigate the other motorists on the road to get there.  Nevertheless, I somewhat understand why people love the area so much.  We'll see if I become one of them over the course of the next two years.  And that fun officially begins in a couple days with Orientation.  More on that as the adventure ensues...

      

The New York State of Mind Meets California Dreaming

Well, I've left New York and arrived safely in Los Angeles.  The transition to student at UCLA's Anderson School of Management is officially upon me!  While I didn't immediately go to my apartment because it lacked a bed, I had already visited Westwood and found an apartment a few weeks prior to the move.  I determined early on that after ten years of living in New York and embracing its pedestrian culture, I'd probably go insane dealing with a commute in LA traffic every day, so I was motivated to live within walking distance of campus.  I achieved that goal, but I still plan to get a car because, hey, it's LA - if you want to get anywhere, you need a vehicle.  I'm not that much of a walker.  You won't see me speed walking in London in 2012 or anything (side note:  how softball, for instance, is not an Olympic event, yet the IOC will hand out medals in speed walking a few years from now boggles the mind).  But anyway, I highly recommend coming a few weeks early to find a place; it made my move incredibly easy.

Regarding finding an apartment, I got some recommendations to try Westside Rentals, but I'm not one for spending any money, no matter how little, unless it's absolutely necessary, so I used your good friend and mine, Craigslist.  I'm a recent convert to the site.  That whole don't talk to strangers thing that my parents taught me stuck real good, but as it turns out, strangers offer some great deals, so I will now trust them implicitly.  Except for the woman from the roommate ad I answered who wanted a UCLA student to move in and claimed she was 31 (she offered her age, I did not ask) even though she looked like she was at least 50.  No offense to the 50 year old people out there, but I'm not very interested in living with you.

In fact, Craigslist proved to be a real boon to me even before the apartment search.  After taking the GMAT, I never wanted to see any of my prep books again, so I used the site to sell them.  The first person I sold some to has since become a friend and has introduced me to people out here in LA too.  Moral of the story:  trust strangers.  Trust me.  I'm a stranger.

So, besides taking care of my new apartment, the most important thing I've done is get a California driver's license.  Another obvious tip:  make an appointment.  I made this mistake in July in New York and waited for hours.  I was probably in and out here in LA in about an hour.  If you already have a license from another state, you have to take a vision and written test.  I passed both, but embarrassingly or not, I missed 3 questions on the written exam.  What I found odd, though, was that the proctor didn't go over the incorrect questions with me.  For one, I'm curious about what I missed.  But more disturbing is that apparently knowing 91.6% of California's laws is good enough for the DMV.  What if I missed the blood/alcohol content question?  That's kind of important to know out here, I presume.  "I'm sorry officer, I just passed the written test last week and I'm fairly certain I can legally blow a .5% and drive just fine."  

My other concern was whether I could keep my New York license.  You see, I was not working the last few months before school (meaning I had little reason to care about my appearance) and I grew one of the coolest handlebar mustaches you've ever seen.  My friends dubbed it the "Jondlebar Sternstache" and I did not shave it for my license photo.  You should've seen the looks I got at the DMV.  New York certainly has a lot of weirdos in the city, but I was up there with them that day, I tell you.  My apologies, but I do not possess a digital copy, otherwise I'd link to it.  If you're really curious, I suggest photoshopping a mustache on my profile picture and you'll get the idea.  Feel free to send me your handy work if you do.  Thankfully, California only pokes a hole in your old license.  Otherwise, if they tried to take it away from me, the DMV would've seen some road rage.   

Now that I'm settled, I partook in weekly drinks with some of my future classmates the other night.  I think I've already met some great people.  Apologies, though, to my fellow Anderson-ite (you know who you are if you're reading) about my strong feelings regarding marathons.  I just simply think that humans in general should refrain from activities that could conceivably cause death, bleeding from strange areas, and involuntary bowel movements.  People should not be expected to get up early on a Sunday morning and pay for that privilege.  Nor should their friends be asked to observe it.  

Tomorrow, I head out on one of the many pre-orientation trips Anderson offers.  I will be rock climbing in Sequoia forest.  I'm quite excited.  More details about that and the rest of this crazy thing called graduate school to come, presuming I survive the rock. 

Moving On Up to the West Side at UCLA Anderson

Well, I'm less than 48 hours from my official move from New York to Los Angeles to begin my two-year journey at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.  It’s a pretty big change for this guy.  I’ve been living in New York for almost exactly ten years now (four for college and six as an “adult”). 

But this past decade doesn’t really begin to explain my affinity for New York.  It started far earlier.  My parents grew up in New York, and even though I was born and raised in Florida, we went north to the city a few times a year.  Broadway shows.  Museums.  Mets games (don’t get me started).  It was my second home.  And when I got into Columbia University, it really became my primary home.  My folks would rib me that it never seemed like I wanted to return to Clearwater to visit them.  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see them – I just had little desire to return to the land of the early bird special when New York was so great.  Florida, I would tell them, was where old people go to die.  It’s ingrained in them the same way homing pigeons know how to travel.  That’s why your grandparents live there.  Admit it.  They do.  Plus, my parents came up to New York a lot during my college years.  So much, in fact, my sophomore year roommate saw them more often than his own folks, and he lived an hour’s drive from Manhattan.   

Needless to say, it’s been really strange packing up not for a move to a new apartment across town, but for a trip clear across the country to a city I never imagined calling home.  I admit it, I’m a New York snob.  I think it’s the greatest city in the world.  Even if I take to Los Angeles, I will probably never admit that it stands up to New York.  I’m that delusional about this town and simply that stubborn.  I thought I’d never leave.  However, when it came time to evaluate my future, Los Angeles just made sense.  I’m a media and entertainment maven and LA is at the epicenter of the field.  I already have New York contacts, so why not make some left coast inroads?  And quite frankly, if I stayed in New York, it just felt like my life wouldn’t change all that much.  I wouldn’t be fully testing my mettle.  There’d be no inner challenge.  

And that’s what I need right now.  I want to challenge myself.  I want to learn about facets of the biz I’ve never encountered before.  I want to meet a new and diverse group of people to call friends and colleagues.  I want to enjoy In N Out Burger.  I want to embrace perennially gorgeous weather.  But most of all, I want to determine if Los Angeles is really like how it’s depicted in Swingers or Entourage.  Because if things turn out even remotely similar to Mikey or Turtle for this transplant, maybe leaving New York isn’t going to be so bad.  See you next time in Westwood.