So, it's been a while....

A while is definitely an understatement. SO many things have happened since I last posted. I'll try to keep this really brief, but still give you some insight into what has happened since July when I posted last.

A good friend of mine and I fall into terrible consulting speak used for corporate status reports when we quickly update each other on life, but it's a great way to share quickly so please forgive me as I borrow this method here.

School: Green

I'm definitely on track to graduate in a little over a month (I can't believe it!!) and looking forward to enjoying the last bit of my time here.

Internship: Green

My summer at Yahoo Groups ended really well. Unfortunately, I can never share the awesomeness of my projects with all of you since our project got canceled after I returned to school and none of my features launched, but it was a great learning experience.

Full-time Job Search: Yellow-y Green

This will definitely be green in the next few weeks as I finish finally figuring out where I'll be after graduation, but it's been quite the ride. The job market is definitely better, but employers seem to be looking for a bit more experience than most career switchers have when they graduate. At least, we're all getting interviews.

Life: Green

Especially as the job search slows down, I've started having a lot more time for life lately and I have to say that I like the new balance. I'm starting to work out more again, probably even going to be running more and perhaps signing up for another race. I will also have to share my recent progress with the painting I started way back last summer. Finally, I have time to hang out with friends and classmates and enjoy what little time we have left before we all return to the real world. It has lead to some great adventures.

Baking: Green

Since this did start out as a baking blog, I feel that I have to give a separate update in this category. I must say that I have been baking/cooking a lot more in the last few months with dinner parties and the like. Mostly, I've been making ice creams and gelatos in my new ice cream maker. Luckily, the banana bread I threw together today (too many overripe bananas...oops) turned out ok despite the fact that I added an additional banana over what the recipe called for. This spares you from a post with photos of horribly disfigured breads and lamenting over my poor choice.


All in all, things are going well. The last semester and a half have been very busy, but it's all slowing down a bit to allow me to do all of the things that I've always wanted to do. I look forward to enjoying every moment that I have left in my MBA.

I promise that I won't be nearly as MIA as I have been. You can thank one of the members of the Google Analytics team for re-inspiring my blogging through sharing a lot of the great features that are available in Google Analytics during my Designing Web-Based Products and Services class this morning. If you haven't installed it on your blog yet, I highly recommend it. Who knew that my most commonly searched for term would be "champagne buttercream."

Ah!!! Enjoying Second Semester!

All along, I have heard so many people talk about how relaxing and fun second semester of b-school is. Until last week, this was definitely not my experience!! Part of that I did to myself by taking two experiential learning classes that required a lot of time outside of class, but part of it just happened.

I was in full-blown internship search mode from January through April when I finally got my first offer. Let's just say that this took about 5-20 hours of my week every week. From driving to interviews to writing tons of cover letters, it was a very time consuming process. I became extremely worried when I finished the on-campus recruiting season without having had any second round interviews. In reality, it was a great thing that I didn't get a job during this period as most of the really interesting jobs with technology companies were posted after Spring Break. I'm definitely glad that I waited. I got a great offer working with Yahoo! as a product manager which is exactly the role that I wanted.

I've definitely been reminded lately that we all need a break. Haas participated in Challenge4Charity weekend at Stanford with 8 other MBA programs a couple of weeks ago. Spending two days outside in the gorgeous CA sun, running around, and playing games with classmates while not talking at all about work was definitely what I needed. I'm making a point to do this more often and take one day a weekend off from doing a ton of work.

This week has just been blissful! Meetings have calmed down. I've had time to catch up on some of my favorite tv shows that I've been very behind on and go out and socialize with my classmates before everyone heads off to their internships this summer. I even had time to bake not one but two! chocolate decadences! Fabulous!!! I can only hope the last several weeks of school are as good as this one has been!!!

Fitting In

So you'd think after 3/4 of a year of business school, I would have felt like I fit in with the rest of my classmates before now. Honestly, aside from a little bit towards the end of Fall semester, I continued to feel like I was straddling two worlds and not really fitting into either one very well.

Spending some time with my classmates and other time on the other side of the Bay has made it difficult to feel like I really have a good idea of what is going on in Berkeley or SF. I think I say no to about twice as many events as I actually attend. I was really feeling frustrated that I'd spend a weekend in Berkeley and end up sitting at home because I didn't know what was going on or constantly trying to cram in as many SF events as possible into one trip to the city.

This week, however, I managed to spend a lot more time in Berkeley and also decided to go out and hang out with people even when that wasn't the best of ideas for me getting what I needed to done. I now feel like I have a group of people that keep me clued in on what's going on around Berkeley. Also, we've started going out only once a week, but the whole class goes so it's a blast.

I don't know I'm really any more connected with my classmates, or if I just feel that way because I spent so much time studying with them for my finals last week, but it's definitely nice to not feel like I'm constantly straddling two worlds, even if it is just temporary.

Remember To Do Things For You!

It is very easy to get wrapped up in life. Class, homework, social events, group projects, papers, research easily dominate our life. We continue to focus on the things that we need to get done everyday to meet deadlines and quickly forget about the things that we need to do to take care of ourselves and ensure that we are motivated enough to continue doing all of the things that are due every day.

While this is definitely something that I think we will continue dealing with throughout life, business school makes it quickly apparently that you really do have to do something for yourself otherwise you will burn out. I was definitely approaching burnout last week. I had been sick for at least a week, behind in most of my classes, constantly forgetting to do the things that I needed to for school and definitely not motivated to do any of it. Despite not having the time, I made myself go and work out and decided to prioritize seeing a ballet that I had been wanting to see for years and just hadn't found time for.

It's amazing how these two small things really changed the shape of my entire week. No, technically I didn't have time for either of these activities. The mental and physical break that both made for me was crucial for me being so productive this weekend.

This just goes to show that when you're tired, worn out, and overwhelmed, you need to take time for YOU!

Haas Tech Club Blog Post

It has been a busy couple of weeks and I haven't had much time for blogging. I thought I'd share a post that I wrote for the Haas Tech Club blog about our trip to the most recent ChicMeetsGeek event.

Check it out here. Happy Reading!

Champagne Cupcakes with Champagne Buttercream Frosting

Girls applying to business school generally know that they're signing themselves up for a highly male dominated environment. However, the true impact of that statement is not something that will quite hit until you're well into your first semester and realize that you keep having conversations about South Park and video games. Sometimes all you need is just a few hours spent enjoying wine and the company of the other girls in your class to unwind and not have to attempt to understand the male dominated conversations that permeate campus.

Hence, girls night.

I offered to host the most recent girls night as it gives me an excuse to try out a new baking recipe every now and again since I also really miss having leftover cookies, cupcakes, etc in my freezer to pull out when the craving strikes. The girls unanimously wanted cupcakes and almost everyone voted for these champagne cupcakes as well.

While they weren't the easiest cupcake to make due to the whipped egg whites in the batter, they still were relatively quick. (For those of you who try this recipe on your own, note that the batter is going to seem very sticky (almost like a bread dough) until you try to add the egg whites and then it will seem very clumpy and not well mixed. Not to worry, you're on the right track.)

The frosting has a great buttercream flavor with just a hint of champagne at the very end of the bite. I recommend making it at least the night before as the flavor does change a bit.

All in all, one very tasty experience and great for any party. If you'd like to make your own Champagne Cupcakes, check out the recipe here.

Fall Semester is Done!

I truly can't believe that fall semester is done and we now have 5 weeks off to recoop, work on our internship applications, and travel the world. I'm not sure I'm actually going to get to that last one, but there will definitely be some domestic traveling. At any rate, the semester ended with a bang!

Despite the stress caused by our finance final, we definitely got in a good bit of hanging out and insanity as well. Immediately following our finance final, over half of my cohort and I headed off on a wine bus to Napa for a relaxing afternoon of wine tasting and hanging out before we all move on to new cohorts for Spring Semester. It was a great afternoon of relaxing and getting to catch up with all of my classmates. The wine bus dropped us off at the last cohort competition of the semester, called Walk Off that involved each cohort pulling together skits that were scored on hilarity and ridiculousness, among other things. Let's just say that after a day of drinking already, my cohort didn't win, but we did at least make it through our skit. Blue came through and surprised everyone and blasted everyone away with their great performance. Go Blue!

After all of the work hard, play hard of the end of the semester, I'm very glad to have spent the last several days just relaxing and hanging out. I do need to step up my productivity though as internship resume drops are coming up, but at this point, I'm just enjoying being done for a while and getting ready for the holidays at home with my family.

Grades

So I know that everyone tells you grad school isn't about grades. I mean just look at the grading distribution. At Haas, the lowest grade a professor ever has to give is a B-, with the majority of students getting B+s. While I intellectually knew that this was true, I can honestly say that after spending my entire prior educational career trying to get straight As, I have to say that it was difficult to let go of grades. I tested the waters by not doing assigned readings and waiting until the absolute last minute to complete assignments which are all things that I would have previously considered to be slacking.

Our last quarter ended almost a month ago and we have yet to hear how we did, so I have pretty much forgotten about grades as I've become heads down trying to make sure that this semester is successful. We started hearing about our grades from first quarter today and I have to say that seeing that my grades start to come in and not have my more laid back strategy blow up in my face. I will definitely have to remember this in the future as all of the end of first semester, thanksgiving, and holiday parties start! Relax and worry less about grades!

Oh No! Not My Computer

On Friday, my worst fear was realized. I hopped on the bus and was surfing my phone when I felt a tap on my shoulder. A woman across the aisle was getting my attention to let me know that water was pouring out of my laptop bag. Oh no! I reached in to see what had happened. The lid to my waterbottle had opened and 12 oz of water was now floating around my bag with my laptop, notes, and portfolio for my company trek in a few hours.

Let's just say that Friday was not one of my best days. I got off the bus as quickly as possible and stopped at a local cafe to get paper towels and dry off my laptop. Luckily after much anguish and stressing, two days later when I took my beloved Mac to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store, it just decided to magically work. I'm not sure why, but at this point, I'm very excited to have my laptop back and in working order given that we have more midterms next week and a whole host of papers to write.

Please heed my advice and back up your laptop at least once a day!!! No one needs to deal with data loss!!! Let's just say from here on out, I'll be backing up my laptop every night as I fall asleep.

Career Management Conference

One of the reasons I was drawn to Haas is the fact that they provide incredible support for those of us who aren't sure what we want to do when we get out of b-school. Of course, we had to come up with some sort of a plausible plan in our application, but that doesn't mean that we will be sticking to that plan at all. Haas Career Services really encourages us to explore and learn about other possible opportunities that we may not know about yet. All of this culminates in the 2 day Career Management Conference between our Fall A and Fall B quarters.

Despite the fact that it was really difficult to wake up early to get to school on what is supposed to be our break, I've learned a ton of great things that will be very helpful in my summer internship search which kicksoff in full swing on Wednesday night with Multi-Firm Night. The first day of the conference was filled with a lot of great tips for getting your resume and Linked In profile up to snuff. We also talked a lot about how to go about informational interviewing and make the most of career fairs and conferences that we will attend. The best thing of the entire day was a small group interview where you and two other people interview for a pretend job with a second year Career Coach and then all give each other feedback. It was really great to learn what other people thought that I needed to work on and get to see my peers interview.

The second day of the conference was much more tactical than the first with more alumni panels and industry recruiting discussions. The best session of the day was the tech industry interview discussion. An alum from HP discussed precisely what he looks for when he goes through resumes and gave us valuable insight into the perspective of a recruiter. While it was frightening to learn that if your last name is after N that you get significantly less time than those earlier in the alphabet. We were all shocked at how little time we have to make a lasting impression on a recruiter, but better to know it now than figure it out when you don't get an interview invite.

All in all, it was a very worthwhile conference and it has reminded me exactly how much work I need to put in on my resume and cover letters in the next few weeks before recruiting open season starts full force.

Surviving Finals and >Play Conference

I literally just hit submit on my last final paper of Fall A!!! I'm so excited to be done with 1/8 of my entire b-school experience! Just insane. It has been a great quarter. I think I've done a good job of settling into school again and getting to know all of the great people in my class and cohort. Go Axe!

Unfortunately, we didn't get too much of a break between finals and classes starting again, especially because the Digital Media and Entertainment Club's student-led conference >Play was this past Saturday. I was very impressed with our abilities to get some really great speakers. We opened the morning with a quick intro from Dean Rich Lyons and then heard from John Lilly, the CEO of Mozilla. He had some really great insights into how he sees the web-browser evolving and how that will transition into the mobile space. Then I headed off to a panel on creativity, which wasn't as captivating as I thought it was going to be. Next, I enjoyed a really interesting panel on the future of the mobile ecosystem. The panelists were a great mix of people who focused on applications and browsers. After a great lunch, I saw the founder of Guitar Hero and the President of EA Sports to discuss the future of video game distribution. They believe that distribution for video games will eventually become digital, but believe that this will take a while for people to become open to the lack of a physical game DVD. Finally, we closed out the day with playing in the expo and a talk from the VP of Product Management at Google. I have to say that I was kind of disappointed by his talk because he just reviewed Google's current products instead of discussing where he saw the future of Google's products. All in all, it was a great day!

>play Conference

I'm so excited for the >play conference at Haas next weekend! It's going to be an exciting day of digital media and entertainment. We're having speakers from Mozilla and Google. Also, there will be great workshops on the latest trends in digital media and internet technology like cloud computing, brands that matter, games on the move, and mobile ecosystems in motion.

If you're in the Bay Area next weekend, I highly recommend attending! Check out the agenda for the conference here!!!!

Finals Time!

It's less hard to believe that it's finals time already than it was when we hit midterms. I guess that means I'm settling into the crazy quarters schedule. I'm starting to realize more and more that it's really more important to hang out with classmates and be social than it is to really spend that extra couple of hours studying. Unfortunately, that plan kind of backfired on me last week when I ended up with a nasty cold. Oh well. It comes with the territory.

It has definitely taken the first couple of months for me to realize that I really am at school as my career. I guess I thought that I was just at a conference and would be back to the real world soon. Nope! Lucky for me, but I'm a student so I should truly take advantage of the lifestyle.

We definitely have a great 7/8ths of our B-school experience left, so I'll remember that and not spend too much time studying for finals next week, but be sure to socialize with classmates!

Fall A & Learning to Say No

Our first semester at Haas is actually more like two mini quarters that put together makes up the usual 15 week semester. After all of the fun and excitement of orientation, we've been settling into school work, the internship search (yes, I know we just got to school, but it's already time for the internship), and of course playing much much much to hard. It's very different from undergrad in the sense that you don't want to be at the top of the class, but you just want to be in the middle of that curve so you end up with a decent grade at the end. This is a bit counter-intuitive for me to not constantly aim to get the best grade. Now, I just need to do enough to pass. Luckily, that means that I have enough time to work on my internship search and play hard with the rest of my class.

Our class has enjoyed lots of good times together so far. We've had toga parties, 60s parties, checked out bars in SF, bars in Berkeley, barbecued, made bets on who's going to win American's Next Top Model, and enjoyed countless lunches and coffees together. With all of these fun things going on, it's sometimes difficult to make it to all of them, let alone make sure that enough time is spent on revising your resume and doing micro homework.

Thus, I've been learning how to say no. For some reason, it's always been very difficult for me to not do things. Here there really is no choice though when there are 2 career related events, 3 fun events, and a GSI's (Graduate Student Instructor) office hours. Since I haven't perfected the art of being in 6 places at once, I have to decide which is the most important and cannot be done at another time. There's something freeing about deciding to say no that somehow leads to more saying no. It's definitely good because there are so many opportunities to do so on a daily basis.

With three more weeks left until the end of our mini quarter, we're definitely heads down on our group projects! More opportunities to say no coming up!

Midterms Already?

I can't believe it! We've been in school for 3 weeks and we are already to midterms! It's so crazy. This whole experience is going to go by so fast. I will have to try to find some time next weekend and share more with you guys, but in the meantime, it's back to the stats and econ problems for me! I'll resurface again next week!

Behind Already??

Wow, we have definitely hit the ground running. It is the beginning of the second week of classes and I feel like every time I turn around I find something else that I needed to do. The last thing that has been on my mind lately has been my internship search. After resolving a pesky email forwarding error, I found that much of the 150 emails that I had neglected were related to the career search and the industry and job search workshops that are coming up starting this week! Luckily, I've been using the "just-in-time" method of getting through this stuff so I haven't missed anything yet.

Now, back to the reading that's due tomorrow that I completely forgot about!

O-Week!

I know I kind of disappeared for a bit lately, but I've resurfaced to tell you all about my first couple of weeks at Haas.

My business school experience started with two weeks of a math review known as Math Camp. It was a nice review of everything that we'll need to know to start school. Also, it was great to get to know half of my fellow classmates as well as get used to getting to classes and doing homework while it was still optional. We started off with a review of basic math and statistics. Then we reviewed all of the essentials of Finance and closed the week out with a quick review of Financial Accounting. It was super helpful to remember a lot of the things that I learned as an undergraduate business major but haven't used in the last 4 years.

Orientation or O-week as we fondly call it followed Math Camp. Here we met all 239 of our classmates, found out which cohort we are in (go Axe!), and had a lot of fun while learning a lot about ourselves, our classmates, and Haas. The CEO of Intel shared with us his experiences and where he sees the business community going for him. There were scavenger hunts, Cohort Olympics (which we lost by just 5 points! Ugh!), cupcake eating contests, numerous bar nights, cases, and networking events. It was a very intense week with often 10-11 hour days mixed with fun, socializing, and drinking from a fire hose. I have to say that I'm very glad that we had a 4 day weekend before we started in on classes to recuperate and prepare for what was to come.

I'll have to tell you more about the beginning of classes in my next post, but I can't wait to see where this crazy adventure takes me. Go Bears!