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!!!

Second Week Into Second Semester

I have to say that everyone has lied that second semester is easier than first semester. Yes, I'm rested after 5 weeks off. Yes, I'm more into the whole swing of school with homework and classes. Yes, I feel like I know my way around Haas and enjoy my classmates. However, the sheer magnitude of commitments seems to have doubled from first semester.

Ok, it's possible that this is my fault after securing two elected positions in clubs, taking one class that centers around an outside consulting project and another that requires a business plan. But I think all of this would be manageable if I wasn't trying to also continue my career soul searching plan.

We get notifications multiple times a day about great jobs, internships and other side projects that we can work on if we feel that we have the time. All of them sound interesting and I'm back to my original challenge when I came to b-school: learning to say "no" swiftly and decisively. After all of these great opportunities are shared with me, I find myself thinking about potential careers that I had ruled out by the end of last semester and attracted to careers I didn't even know existed. I do feel like I have some focus, but yet, the sheer quantity of possibilities once again becomes a bit overwhelming.

I can't help but think of how difficult this semester will be if I hadn't already made progress learning to say "no" and just buckle down and get work done last semester.

It's Cover Letter Season!

Luckily, we're not quite back into the full swing of the semester yet, but January is still bringing quite a lot of work for me being on break and all. We have already started applying for summer internships. Yup, that's right. We're applying for jobs that start in about 4.5 months already. Besides that, I'm not sure how broad to go in my internship search since I'm not sure how easy or difficult this whole process is going to be.

I hardly feel like I've had enough time to "explore" different career options and am finding myself heading towards an internship that I thought might be interesting prior to starting business school. Is this really the right career for me? Should I try something else? Unfortunately, it feels like I don't really have time to answer these questions as application deadlines are looming. I guess at this point, the best I can do is go with what I think I want. Hopefully, I don't end up kicking myself for not taking more time to figure out what I'd like to do in the future.

At any rate, I get to spend the last week of break making sure that I work on cover letters in addition to all of the other fun and relaxing things I have up my sleeve for the week.

The Internship Search Has Begun

It seems amazing to me that we've just been in school for about 3 months now and it feels that we're already into the full-fledged internship search. We've started trying to fit company visits, job fairs, and on campus presentations into our already busy schedules.

My first visit was at Symantec a couple of weeks ago. Despite having worked at Symantec for a brief month during my previous life in management consulting, it was really great to get back on their campus and learn more about how their product management organization works. We also got a quick tour of their engineering labs which was very interesting for someone who's worked in tech for 4 years and never set foot in a data center.

The following week, I headed into the downtown SF office of Adobe to learn about their product management team. The office is gorgeous and I could totally see myself fitting into the culture there. The company is great about fostering creativity but also making products that really satisfy the user's needs. This is something that I am passionate about as well. I wished that we had more time to talk to each of the alumni presenters to learn more about their experiences with Adobe, but it was a great afternoon learning more about Adobe.

I'm sure in the next couple of weeks, I'll be at a bunch more presentations and trying to figure out what I really might like to do with my summer. At the moment, I'm thinking a product management internship with a tech company but we'll shall see where this crazy business school experience takes me.