I’ve got nothing to do. Well, not really nothing. I’ve printed out the syllabi for my classes next term, and I do need to clean my house. But it is weird to go from a frenzied pace to very little all at once. I’m used to having someplace to be at almost every hour of the day and all of the sudden the pressure is off and everyone is all smiles. “Have a nice holiday!”, “Get some rest”. I almost don’t know what to do with myself.
I toured a company yesterday owned by an African-American HBS alum. I met him at the DuSable Conference this fall and I was impressed with his forthright manner which is so rare in the usual company spiel. I got to talk with several people and I am seriously considering the opportunity. So again, I am cast into the land of the undecided. Oh, well I do it to myself.
My house is almost presentable. I debated long and hard about putting up the Christmas tree, and my sister told me that it was necessary. So I spent last night, putting it up and decorating it, and I actually started to feel like Christmas was coming, and not so much that I was wasting a lot of time putting it up and taking it down. Sadly, I believe a holdover from the intensity of business school is that you have to integrate the principles into your life. This has left me looking at things for their “marginal benefits” and “target market”. It’s really quite bizarre that your thinking can change so swiftly. Immersion will do that for ya.
A friend called me this morning from New York where they are conducting Bank Week. She said they had to give presentations at one company and they were evaluated. The Investment Bankers are enduring hours of idle chatter and dinners. I am so glad that I opted out. I’m packing for yet another trip. I’m heading to New Mexico for the holiday. Check in with the parents and get a little perspective on my last 3 and a half months. I’m sure it will be interesting.
Finals week is interesting. I’ve been sick the entire weekend and barely had time to look at a book between endless naps, which left me groggy and disoriented. I finally felt well enough on Tuesday morning to look at my marketing final which I’d luckily started over the Thanksgiving break, and was due in the afternoon. I quickly put my finishing touches on it and raced down to Hyde Park to turn it in.
Students were walking zombies and looked the worst I’ve seen them, including at LOE. People didn’t wear makeup, or match their clothes, and there were several sniffles. The atmosphere in the HPC was tense and shushed like a funeral.
I did a quick perusal of accounting principles and focused on setting up my notes and coursepack as the test was open book, open note. I was pleasantly surprised halfway through the test that I was completing questions and not staring at the paper in wonder. I might have actually picked up some of this over the past 10 weeks. It was a good feeling, but then one student got up and left and you could see the fear come back into people’s eyes. I just thought that this is evidence that we’re all crazy!
Micro went well, I think. I felt pretty confident except for the questions about material from the last week. As I was sick during this session and hadn’t really looked at it, I cut myself some slack and went with it. Everyone looked a bit terrified coming out of that one, so I’m not too worried.
Walking out the classroom and realizing that I’d just completed my first term in business school was a mixture of emotions. I am obviously tired form the ordeal, my confidence is in shreds, but I’m elated to have accomplished this with my sanity (mostly) intact. It is somewhat anticlimactic. I mean after all of this, I was expecting fireworks and a parade, but no I just go home to the hurricane that my house represents and sit down. I’m done! Now what do I do?
I flew out to Philadelphia to attend a MINI Camp with a consumer products company, missing my last two classes of the term. There were minority students from schools across the country interested in either Finance or Marketing. We started the morning with an introduction to the company and a talk from the head of diversity. He gave a purposely inflammatory presentation about how diversity is not a color or gender issue, but that the company is seeking “diversity of thought”. People would dialogue with him about the definition of diversity and why though the company didn’t always have diversity in color or gender, it always had “diversity of thought”. I was on my best behavior, but it started to bother me that no one was going to ask the obvious question. We’re supposed to be the “smart” people and yet we all sat there absorbing this inane argument.
So I raised my hand and said that, “With all due respect, the fact that you’ve invited this audience based on a singular reason is a complete contradiction with most of your presentation.” He immediately backtracked and stated that it was also important that the company have representation in numbers. The meeting broke up shortly after that. I had several students come up to me afterward and say it was a good question and they were wondering the same thing. So why was I the only one to ask it? Are people so concerned with finding a job that they overlook that this might be indicative of what you could expect from working at this company? From the companies point of view it would concern me more that in a room of 35 plus people, no one wanted to disagree with this guy. That isn’t “diversity of thought”.
We had some panels with employees, worked on a case, and had a tour of some of the facilities. We got to shop at the company store and have lunch with employees. We then had dinner at a convention center. Now I know that I am a detail person, but I noticed right away that each of the tables had a different table cloth and a different centerpiece, and I knew right away that this could not be good. Dinner was a mismatch of totally unrelated foods all centered around diversity. There was stir-fry, southern sweet potatoes and cornbread, an antipasto platter, and sushi. It was bizarre. Just when I started to question why they were pushing diversity so hard, they decided to surprise us.
I cannot convey the amount of shock and trauma that was delivered by the dancing. There were six ladies that came out in coordinating dresses and did a synchronized dance to music. As we tried to process this, three African-American dancers came out and did a modern dance routine. Then a man from the previous dance stayed and did a solo, which was hard to categorize. Finally, the group of six ladies came out with four men and did another dance with a latin beat. Most of the students didn’t know how to react. Several were having a hard time restraining laughter, but many didn’t know what to say. I asked one of the recruiters what the thought process had been on the dancing, and she stated that they’d tried to get different ethnic dancers to perform in the spirit of diversity. I had bad dreams that night about bizarre dancing that went on and on.
The next morning was interviews. We each met with three people for a 45 minutes to an hour. It went fairly well, but I obviously do not expect to hear back from them. To be honest, I don’t know that I would call me back. The flight back home was long, and I started to feel tired and my throat was scratchy. Arriving at Midway, I was well on my way to being sick. I went home drank my juice, started up the good old humidifier and passed out.
Saturday, I got up, still feeling below the weather, and headed out to Gleacher to make up the class I’d missed Thursday and attend a final review session. It was a six hour marathon that I might have been up to on a normal day, but given my last week and my current state, I only made it through 4 and a half. I went home and passed out again. I have a marketing case to work on, and two finals to study for. I’m feeling alright about it. I think I’d achieved the “terminal point of worry” where you just can’t do it anymore. I’m going to do my best, but not beat myself up about what I didn’t do or should have done. It will work out in the end.
Cincinnati surprised me. I was expecting this sort of backwater town, but they actually have skyscrapers and everything. I went to dinner Monday night with the person I’d talked with before interviewing for the first round. She is an alumnus and we talked about her transition from Chicago to Cincinnati. It ain’t easy!
I had a brief three-on-one interview in which I didn’t feel like I was very good. My answers were good, but I didn’t think I did a good job of building the repoire with the interviewers. I had lunch with yet another employee and talked about her experiences, before heading back home.
I packed once I got home as I was leaving back out the next evening and got prepared for my last accounting class in which I understood very little. As I sat in Midway, I considered the fact that I’ve done more travel in the past six months than I can remember. I’ve been to North Carolina, New York, Wisconsin, Houston, Philadelphia, New York, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia. That’s almost a trip a week!