First semester reflection

Wow. i can't believe the Core is coming to a close. the semester has truly flown by. With both the last day of classes and my first final next week, i thought i'd take a moment to reflect.

Classes
i wasn't totally sold on the virtues of taking nearly all of my first semester classes with my ocean (cohort), but as i sat through the last day of class for some of my courses, one benefit became very clear: the bonding that occurs when you struggle through something with others. Having done my undergrad at UC Berkeley with 300+ student classrooms, the intimacy of my ~60 person Sloan classes has made the experience that much more meaningful to me. i actually found myself saddened by the fact that courses were ending and i'd no longer be learning regularly from some amazing professors.

Sloanies
My classmates as a group are the most unassuming, down-to-earth, and amazing people i've met. their humility sometimes causes me to forget how accomplished and talented they are. they definitely have challenged me to do better, but also helped me along the way. i'm thankful that i had great people on both my core and marketing teams, as well as the other friends that have helped me keep my sanity throughout the semester. i look forward to next semester when we're told things should slow down a bit, and i get a chance to get to know and bond further with other Sloanies.

Opportunities
i've heard countless CEO's and heads of businesses speak on their experiences and challenging leadership issues. i've had the chance to chat with startup founders and VC's (venture capitalists) on various entrepreneurial topics. In the first week of January, i'll be touring Silicon Valley with the E&I (Entrepreneurship & Innovation) Progam, visiting a variety of VC's and startups. On the side of pure fun, i went to two Red Sox playoff games at Fenway, including ALCS game 7, and a Celtics game with 20+ other classmates in a luxury box.

Personal growth
There's a stereotype that b-school is a two-year vacation filled with socializing and drinking. While there's definitely plenty of opportunity to connect with people, it's far from a vacation. i don't think i've ever been busier in my life. With that, i've surprised myself with how much i've been able to grow, especially in time-management and prioritization. Given the vast number of things constantly happen, i was forced to constantly pick between two or more things i really wanted to do. i've learned to make that choice quicker and move on.

Anyway, this post has taken a bit longer than i expected. i should get going on my Econ studying before heading to the Celtics game tonight. :)

Thanksgiving

Before too much time passes, i want to capture some of my thoughts and memories from the just-passed Thanksgiving weekend.

Above all, it was great to spend time with my parents and sister. With all of us spread out all over the place and spending less and less time together, it is such a blessing to be able to all be together, even for a few days.

I hadn't ever thought much in particular about Thanksgiving. At least not until last week when Professor Freund mentioned how Thanksgiving is the one holiday that is unique to the U.S., and how it's a good time to be at home (as opposed to vacationing in some far-off land).

Aside from family, I was thankful for having had the chance to:

• watch a Packers game with my dad
• see good friends (Mar, Mike, Tyler, Henru)
• get perspective and remember how fortunate I am to be a part of the MIT Sloan community (and the many challenges it provides)
  

While the weekend was relaxing and helped me re-center myself, just two days back at school has effectively kiboshed that, so back to HW i go!

Bball and Cristal

Just got back from an AWESOME evening watching the Celtics barely beating the Heat from a suite with 20+ classmates. Many thanks to Jimmy for making it happen! Yet another highlight for my first semester at Sloan. Our group was a bit of an anomaly since most of our classmates went to the Sloan Fall Ball. Although I had wanted to go to the Fall Ball, I'm definitely happy i went to the game instead.

i also got to taste Cristal for the first time... i like. :) i can't say that it's all that different from other champagne i've had, but hey--it's Cristal.

As for the game, it was great to see Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen leading the way for the Celts. Was also great to get to watch D-wade (my favorite player in the NBA) play live, and especially to see him play well after coming off of an injury. (Full disclosure: I was cheering quite a bit for Wade and Pierce since they're both on my fantasy team...)

Photos to come.

Lobster -- awesome!

Got to stuff myself and make my poor heart work hard last night scarfing down a 1.5 lb lobster. :D Props to Vince and Kevin for the great idea... definitely have to do it again. It was nice to eat lobster again, after having lobster three times my first few weeks up in Boston. We had quite a little feast with garlic bread, sparkling cider, and applie pie à la mode. The Bourne Identity was on TV so we caught that before calling it a night. Good times. (Pics to come.)

jetBlue's "Reward" Program

"TrueBlue is our way of showing gratitude for your flying with jetBlue. With TrueBlue you'll not only be building a relationship with JetBlue, but you'll also enjoy faster and easier booking, advance notice of special promotions and fare sales, and the ability to choose the information you want from JetBlue. And, of course, you'll be able to earn free flights."

I'm not only a part of TrueBlue, but I also pay for the AmericanExpress jetBlue card. I signed up for that because it prevented my reward points from expiring. What I didn't realize at the time is that as soon as I hit 100 TrueBlue points, they issued me a TrueBlue pass that expires a year from that date. While annoyed, I didn't think it was that big of a deal until recently when I have been unsuccessful in booking award travel because seats aren't available on flights that fit my schedule.

And now my "reward" flight is expiring.

While on the phone with TrueBlue Customer "Service", the lady (who was a supervisor) explained that their award booking is much better than other airlines and that it's just difficult to book around holidays. My skepticism was confirmed when I checked with her on the availability of traveling for every weekend in the month of April between Boston and San Jose, San Francisco, AND Oakland airports. No luck.

I finally gave in and booked a weekend in March with the likelihood of having to pay $45 to try to rebook it for a later date (though I sincerely doubt I'll find a weekend that works). I should mention that, in addition to this award flight, I have another one that expires in May. Also, despite being 70% of the way to a third award flight and having already paid the annual fee which expires in 10 months, I'm retiring my jetBlue credit card. I feel a bit pathetic for being suckered into it for so long.

Lastly, I went on the web site to provide my feedback and when clicking on "Share concerns", the page I got returned was a runtime error (in both IE and Firefox):

Server Error in '/help/contactus' Application.

This experience has indeed made me feel very truly blue.

Customer "Service"

I'm not sure if it's because I'm immersed in business school, but recently I've been shocked (and ridiculously frustrated) at the lack of customer service all over the place. Two examples:

1. In the past few days I discovered that United Airlines has a computer booking system that is flawed and creates a frustrating user experience, along with a totally lackluster Customer "Service" group. This started when a reward flight was booked for me under my dad's Premier Executive account for Thanksgiving, and the seats chosen for me were 9D and 16C. Immediately upon booking the flight, the seats assigned to me were 14D and 27E.

After spending about 2 hours being told to call different departments, calling between three different phone numbers (Premier Reservations, Mileage Plus Customer Service, and Customer Relations) and speaking with 4 different representatives, I finally spoke with a supervisor who told me the reason was because the seat is in an exit row and only 1K and Premier Executives can book those seats prior to getting to the airport. Complaint 1--the miles were booked using my dad's 50,000 miles, so let the person who's flying book that seat OR don't let the user choose that seat at all OR notify them that they aren't allowed to choose the seat and ask them to choose another one before going through with booking the flight. Complaint 2--no one I spoke with seemed to have the slightest care about my problem and the first lady even tried to transfer me at every opportunity she had. Apparently United doesn't feel compelled to actually provide "service" or to try to keep a healthy relation with its customers (maybe they would if I was a 1K or Premier Executive members, not a lowly Premier member--I'll find out when I try calling under my dad's account) And in case it's not clear, it's more the principal of the matter rather than the crappy middle back seat on a redeye flight that they assigned to me.

2. I bought a ThinkPad three years ago, which included a three-year warranty, which is expiring. I've received two e-mails (from the same guy) pretty much trying to scare me into buying an extended warranty. His "word of caution" on how it can cost up to $80 an hour to fix problems was very amiable indeed.

Older posts

B-school related postings from my other blog:

"Only" Week 3 (September 19, 2007)
Beginning my b-school adventure (August 28, 2007)
I think I'll go to Boston (August 12, 2007)

adMIT weekend

welcome to my b-school blog! having just gotten back from the Round 2 adMIT weekend, it's a perfect time for me to start blogging about my b-school experience.

i hitched a ride with Barath, another R2 adMIT last Thursday. we'd known each other for all of 5 days at that point, having met at a NY/NJ adMITs event the previous Saturday. it was pretty indicative of how adMIT weekend was and, i'm sure, how the whole Sloan experience will be. during adMIT weekend, i met so many current students and admitted ones that were amazing, friendly, and easy to connect with people.

on Thursdsay night there was a student-organized c-function (consumption-function) at Tavern in the Square in Central Square. it got packed pretty quickly, but it was tough to tell who was a student, a fellow admit, or just a random person in the wrong section. i mostly talked to current students, and got some good insights into life as a Sloanie. one of the impressions was that there are definitely the Sloanies that party hard. myself not being the biggest partyer, opted to call it a night around 11:30 and head back to my friend's apartment.

the next morning started bright and early. according to the schedule, registration and coffee was 8 - 8:45 AM. i showed up around 8:30 thinking most people would be gunning for the 8:45 time (the welcome message was at 9 AM). i was surprised to see a ton of people already there. after walking through the door, i was promptly greeted and given an MIT Sloan School of Management t-shirt, messenger bag, pen, as well as a name-tag, and welcome folder.

i proceded to get a bagel, some fruit, and orange juice, and started to meet tons of new people. i won't delve too deeply into other details so not to spoil the experience for future adMITs, but the three main points that they highlighted that are valuable to know if you're considering MIT Sloan were:

1. The MIT and Sloan brands open doors. Many people cited how surprised at the degree of help they got by just saying they were MIT/Sloan students. Obviously MIT is a well-recognized school, but people were still surprised at the extent to which it opened doors.
2. Sloan's integration with the rest of the MIT campus and departments. Sloan students have open access to a wealth of MIT's other resources, and cooperation between departments is encouraged. A big one for those, like me, interested in entrepreneurship and tech innovation is the freedom to work with those in MIT's engineering and computer science departments.
3. The people. Even the faculty and administration recommended to us from the first welcome message to get to know the other admits around us, since, with a high yield from those that attend adMIT weekend, it was very likely the people we met would be our classmates for the two years ahead. The existing first and second year students exemplified the things that we were told; students that pursued innovative solutions and to make significant impacts on the MIT community and world at large.

the experience made me super psyched to dive in and become an active member of this community and to get to know my fellow Sloanies better. i'm sure the two years will be hectic and busy, but will also be one of my most memorable life experiences, and fly by all too quickly.