Gettin' Down with It and "You Suck!"

Last Friday was "Entrapalooza 2006," UMich's biggest entrepreneurial event of the year. At the event there were various panels of established entrepreneurs, Ross alums who have started their own businesses, and other workshops designed to help budding entrepreneurs. The keynote was given by Jim Buckmaster, the President/CEO of Craigslist. Although it was a pleasure to hear him speak, I think Jim's background as an engineer hindered his ability to connect with us business-minded people. During the Q/A it seemed as if Jim's approach is more reactive than proactive.

On Friday, after our section bowling event (in which I bowled a dismal 70 points; my excuse is that I haven't bowled in 6+ years!), we hit up The Cavern Club, a live music place in town. There was this amazing band called The Flamingoes performing, and I was shocked at how good they were at playing cover songs, everything from Michael Jackson to All American Rejects to House of Pain (see video here).

Sat. was the Michigan-Wisconsin game. After the game we all went to the tailgate sponsored by Target. I can definitely get used to all the different corporate perks as an MBA student.

Here are 2 clips from the game (you'll need RealPlayer):
- Throwing people in the air after a touchdown
- "You Suck!" cheer

Question and Answer

Q:
"Hi Tony, on the recruiters' attributes, I noted that 'personal ethics and values' is way up there, which is good. However, I am surprised to see 'international knowledge and experience' quite close to the bottom which sort of surprises me, given the globalized economy. Unlike Canada here, is it because MBA grads are most likely working in the domestic market, as opposed to international trade and investment?"

A:
Thanks for checking out my blog.

In reference to your question, I can't say that I'm qualified enough to have an answer for you... nevertheless I'll give you my 2 cents. What I can say is that, at least at Ross, there seems to be a heavy focus on international business in our classes, through our multi-discliplinary action projects (MAP), and by the sheer number of international students comprising our class. During our orientation Ross admissions told us that the Class '08 includes 36% international students (frankly, I was a bit shocked); in a class of about 420 MBA1s, there are close to 45 from China/Taiwan, and India outstrips all other countries with a whopping 80+ students in our class. These numbers alone, I think, are testament to how our school truly has an "international" focus.

I think that you're partially right in that most MBA graduates from U.S. schools end up working in the U.S., which explains why recruiters may not "value" "international knowledge and experience" as much as other core business skills, like communication and interpersonal skills. I think that the WSJ/Harris survey mainly concentrated on U.S.-based recruiters, and since these recruiters are by-and-large looking for graduates to work at their U.S.-based offices, international knowledge and focus is probably just not as critical as other business skills (this is not to say that they wouldn't like to have more international knowledge and focus from their hires... just that with all things being equal, it's just not as important that a brand marketer working in Minneapolis needs to know what his/her brand marketer counterpart is doing in Japan). I would bet that business schools in other countries are big feeder sources to U.S.-based businesses, which means that MBA graduates outside of the U.S. must learn about the U.S. business system in order to work here... hence why non-U.S. based MBA programs may stress the need for international knowledge and focus in their students.

Hope this all makes some sense.

-Tony

Up, Up and (but not) away. Part II.

It never ceases to amaze me how fast word can travel among people. A Section 2 classmate emailed our section listserv about the updated WSJ ranking, and by 11.54pm I had updated this blog with the news. In between the email and my post, there were at least 10 other email exchanges on our listserv about the new ranking. This morning I got to school and word had already spread. We have a kiosk inside the main entrance of the b-school where we can pick up free copies of the WSJ, and although on most days there are extra copies left over by the end of the day, today was different. Everyone had picked up a copy of the WSJ. By 2:41pm the Dean of Ross, Bob Dolan, sent out an email thanking all of the alumni, faculty and staff who made our #1 ranking possible. I hear that the new BusinessWeek b-school ranking is also coming out soon. Hopefully we'll get another congratulatory email from Bob, since the BW ranking seems to have more gravitas than the WSJ one.

Today I didn't get home until 10pm because I was at two company presentations: Best Buy and Target. The Best Buy presentation was strictly a recruiting event to fill their full-time Consumer Marketing Associate position. Surprisingly there weren't very many people at the presentation; perhaps only about 20-25 people showed up. The unintended benefit was that it made my chance of winning the Xbox360 all the more probable (recruiters almost always bring something to their presentations. At the very least you can count on free food and drinks. Though a far cry from the pre-dot.com days, we usually still get little trinkets like pens, thermoses, cups, etc. and/or raffle prizes). Unfortunately they decided to save the Xbox for the last raffle draw, and to my luck, the first number they called was me. So I got a $10 gift certificate instead ... Target was more of an informative presentation by the Director of Food Goods Purchases (basically she is the one responsible for all of Target's food sales nationally). No raffle here, but I got a bright red (Target color), tampon-like, Nalgene water bottle instead.


- First game at the Big House on 9.2.06 where Michigan played Vanderbilt.

This coming Sat. Michigan will be playing Wisconsin, and Target has been generous enough to sponsor our tailgate. Apparently Target Executives will be on site for networking opportunities, food will be catered by Zingerman's- a famous local deli (like Koch's in Philly), bloody mary's will be flowing down our gullets, we will have access to a free Target "cafe" stocked with "assorted Archer Farms water, teas, energy drinks, cookies and chips," there will be music, and even a "gift from Target." I'm definitely looking forward to letting loose a bit, since last weekend we were all swamped with preparing for our accounting and stat quiz and an econ problem set on Mon.

Up, Up and (but not) away.

Michigan's Ross School of Business has come back from last year's 2nd place deficit to be ranked #1 again in the latest (2006) Wall Street Journal / Harris Interactive survey, overtaking last year's #1 MBA program, Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business.

See the article online here. (If you don't have a subscription to WSJ's online service, a PDF version of the article is here).

Other related WSJ articles:
"Something Old, Something New" (WSJ, Sept. 20, 2006)
"On Top Again" (WSJ, Sept. 20, 2006)

8:00 = 8:00 + 10 minutes

One thing you'll notice right away when you come to Michigan is the concept of "Michigan Time." Whereas the rest of the world expects you to be somewhere at a designated time, say, at 4pm for a meeting, "Michigan Time" dictates that everything is actually the stated time +10 minutes. For example, my 8am classes don't actually start at 8am, but rather 8:10am. Everyone here conforms to Michigan Time.

The concept is so novel that all of my professors even provided clarification regarding Michigan Time the first day of classes.

BUT to complicate Michigan Time, although everyone at Michigan follows the +10 min. rule, the same thing apparently doesn't ring true when it comes to people visting from elsewhere, such as recruiters coming in to give company presentations. Also, last week I went to a career counseling appointment and arrived within the ten minute window, but I couldn't tell whether Michigan Time also applies to personal appointments. To me, this whole concept is just like those of you who set your clocks a little bit ahead of "real" time in order to build some fat into your day... what a crock of shit!

I wonder what's going to happen when daylight savings time kicks in...

3 months of unemployment, and now this?!

So it kind of feels like I've gotten sucker-punched in the face...

I'm in my second week of classes, and I've already come home one of my afternoons this week in order to take a 45 min. nap. When I was working in NYC, I did the same thing more for the novelty of being able to walk 1 avenue and 2 blocks from my office to my apartment, eat lunch, and take a quick nap before going back to work, all in less than an hour. Now I'm going out of my way to walk 15 minutes from the b-school to the parking lot where I'm parked, drive 10 minutes to go home, risk not having a parking spot (Mich oversells parking spaces) when I head back to campus a few hours later, and then walk another 15 minutes from the parking lot to the school. How things have changed...

Companies are already coming on campus for recruiting. They're mostly here for MBA2 searching for full-time positions, but many of the information sessions are also open to MBA1s feeling out the summer internship possibilities. It seems like all of the MBA1s are getting caught up in the summer internship frenzy, and it's hard not to get caught up yourself. People (me included) are already showing up to class, or going back home, in order to get into their business casual attire before attending an informational session. Tonight I was at a Brand Management session held by S.C. Johnson.

To further chew up our time, the various clubs also opened up with their full-court presses this week. In b-school, clubs are a vitally important way to make connections and get advice on career interests, so they're definitely not something you want to miss. What am I looking at? So far the Marketing Club, Entrepreneurship & Venture Club, possibly either the General Management or High Tech Club, and hopefully something more community-oriented, like the Community Consulting Club. Add to that classes, the internship search, and being elected as 1 of 3 UMBSA (UMich Business Student's Association) reps for my section, and I think my plate is quite full.

To give you an idea of my schedule, here is my calendar in late June when I was happily unemployed (when my biggest "responsibility" was seeing my Othodontist) versus my schedule now.


When I was unemployed and enjoying a carefree life.


This week.

Events Leading Up to Now.

Our first day of class was on Tuesday. After a week of orientation, I was looking forward to seeing what classes would be like at Ross. Because all of our classes are on a 7-week cycle, things have been moving pretty fast. By the end of this week, some of us already feel a little in over our heads in Econ, Accounting, Strategy and Stat.
<-- Accounting

From what I hear the hardest thing about being an MBA1 is managing your time between academics, career interests such as clubs/recruiting events/etc. and socializing. Some describe the experience similar to trying to drink water from a firehose.

Our first week of classes were punctuated by 2 events: on Thursday we had a "Shout-Off" competition among the 6 sections where where we had to come up with a 2 minute chant extolling the virtues of our section, "The Deuce," i.e. Section 2, over the other 5 sections. Things invariably get pretty wild when you're inhibitions are dulled by a pre-shout-off keg party at one of our section-mates backyard. The result was ear-piercing and laryngitis-inducing shouts of "DEUCE THERE IT IS" and "WHO LET THE DEUCE OUT?" as we marched through the middle of UMich's campus. Although we didn't win the $700 cash prize, I think the the judges/sponsors from SC Johnson and Deloitte were suficiently impressed with our performance.

Yesterday we participated in "MBA Games"- where we competed against the different sections in events like ultimate frisbee, volleyball, and football - a total of 13 games. I volunteered to organize the teams for my section, and I guess that as the pseudo-CEO of Section 2, I have to take full blame for our Section coming in dead last... Traditionally this means that next year's class of Section 2 MBA1s will have to wear the "pink shirts" for their own MBA games, but apparently Ross has decided to discontinue the tradition because of the possible offensive nature of associating pink with stereotypical qualities of feminine passiveness. I guess that even here you can't run away from political correctness. Section 1 took home the Ross Cup, and also get to take home various sundries from this year's corporate sponsors such as Campbell's, Ford, and Quaker-Gatorade.

After a tiring day of runnng around outside, true to an MBAs character of not letting anything get in the way of more fun (economically-speaking, our demand curve is probably the only demand curve out there that's upwards-sloping), we got together to party it up on Main street in downtown Ann Arbor (AA). "Rush Street" looks to be one of the nicer "New York-like" bars in AA. Although the place was ridiculously crowded, we nevertheless had a blast dancing it up to the beats of a DJ that apparently knew our collective formative years occurred during the 90's, with songs like "Poison," tracks from Skee-Lo and Prince, and more .

Today Michigan played Central Michigan in the second home game of the year. I decided to stay in and attempt to catch up on some work (unfortuantely this blog has gotten in the way). The football games here are absolutely ridiculous. Last week's Michigan vs. Vanderbilt game had over 109,000 fans packed into the Big House, a far cry from the Penn football games I saw in my undergrad days. Football is like religion here. On game day everyone in town whips out their Michigan paraphernalia, camp out / tailgate, and the MBAs are in the center of it all in our very own section within the stadium. After each game, the UM Business Student's Association throws a big tailgate party with food and drinks for all MBAers. Since I stayed in, today I missed the Southern style buffet that was on today's menu. I'm sure my friends back in NYC are cursing me for such a stupid move.

First Post

First step as a newly minted pseudo-blogger.. post picture of self.