“She told me her name was Billie Jean as she caused a scene”

I had an interesting evening just now. It started at a UNC alumni reception (I am on the mailing lists of both UVA and UNC alumni clubs and last night both clubs had conflicting events) at the Rams Room of the Kenan Stadium. I got the chance to hearbasketball coach Roy Williams talk about his hopes for the next season. Afterwards, I went home and was content with spending the rest of the night doing some extra curricular reading.

But that was not to be. I got a call from a classmate who was a year ahead of me at Kenan-Flagler announcing that several people were in town for a wedding and we all ended up meeting on Franklin Street for a mini-homecoming. We cruised through several bars from one end of Franklin Street to another before ending the night at Lucy’s. After paying the cover, I planned on getting a glass of water and staying long enough to sober up before driving home. But once again, that was not to be.

We all got onto the dance floor where it was 80s night and the place was packed with students, some of whom I recognize as current second years at Kenan-Flagler. For a moment, I felt like a first year all over again dancing and singing along to tunes such as Jesse’s Girl, Don’t Stop Believing, and Living On A Prayer (the latter two were played back to back). It made me realize just how much I miss the Thursday night Lucy’s scene and how much I would give to relive my experience, at least that part of the MBA experience, all over again.

Janeane Garofalo joins 24

The Hollywood Reporter reports the following:

“Actress-comedian Janeane Garofalo, an outspoken liberal, is set to co-star on the conservative-leaning real-time drama, whose co-creator/executive producer Joel Surnow jokingly describes himself as a "right-wing nut job."”

Someone should tell Joel Surnow that he should have Jack Bauer strangle Garofalo’s character. Not only would the ratings go through the roof, people like me would buy the DVD just to see it over and over again.

Something I am glad I don't have on my resume

I read the following in an article in the New York Times yesterday about the problems in the mortgage industry:

 

“Other companies face far more immediate problems. Countrywide Financial, the nation’s largest independent mortgage lender, found itself fending off reports this month that bankruptcy could be looming as its stock plunged 41 percent.”

 

The name of the company reminded me of something and I decided to go through my computer’s “career outbox” folder. I quickly found the following (emphasis is my own):

 

“April 9, 2006

To Whom It May Concern:   

 

During the years prior to business school, I have benefited from the sound financial advice received from financial professionals. It made me realize the importance of the service you provide for your clients. I am writing today to request the opportunity to interview for the Post Graduate Internship at Countrywide Financial. I want to work at Countrywide not only because I believe in the value of your industry but also the future of your firm. I believe that recent developments such as the net income increase at Countrywide Bank and the $491 billion in loan originations for 2005 create unparalleled opportunities for your company.”

 

Some “unparalleled opportunities” alright.

 

Update 4:20pm: The Wall Street Journal reports that Countrywide will be laying off employees as part of a cost reduction effort.

Reaping what I sowed

If I have learned only one thing from my job search this summer, it is that networking is one of the most valuable tool to any MBA graduate. I am amazed at the number of opportunities that have come along because I happen to know the right people and they happen to have thought of me at the appropriate time. I am going to illustrate this by sharing with you three stories that happened within the last month.

 

In early July I used LinkedIn to get back in touch with the recruiter who hired me to AOL. She has since left the company and is now recruiting for a company that provides medical information over the web. I got in touch with her not so much because I wanted her to find me another job but because I wanted to add her onto my LinkedIn profile. I mentioned in passing the career progress I have made since leaving AOL and even jokingly told her that I remember her last name because when we first spoke on the phone six years ago, she told me an easy way to remember how to spell it. About three weeks later, she emailed me and told me about a product management opportunity at her company and arranged for a telephone interview.

 

When I got accepted into the Yale School of Management two years ago, the admissions office arranged for me to meet with a School of Management alum who was working locally in the area. We met up at a Cosi one evening and talked about my career interest and the Yale program. I ended up choosing to not go to Yale but kept in touch with him. A year ago when he ran the New York City Marathon to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, I coughed up fifteen bucks. On Friday he emailed me asking if I I’d be interested in working as an independent contractor (a 1099) for his technology consulting firm while I continue my job search.

 

Last Thursday I was invited to have breakfast at Carolina Café with a bunch of Kenan-Flagler alums. One of the participants was a 2005 graduate who worksfor an email marketing firm. This is a firm that I am familiar with and for which I attended a career open house event back in February. He was talking about the email marketing industry and mentioned in passing a competing company in nearby Durham. I have never heard of this other company and after looking over its web site, I emailed my resume. This resulted in a phone interview earlier this week and I will be having an in person interview next week.

 

I will be attending a networking event of a different variety later this evening. The Infiniti of Raleigh dealership is having a reception previewing the 2008 Infiniti G37. It would be awesome if I meet someone that leads to a job and even better if the job pays enough for me to buy a G37.

Vacating 9304

I am sorry that I blogged only once last week and I do appreciate all the people who continue to come check this blog daily even though I have not been the most diligent blogger.

Last week was a busy week. My lease at Alta Springs ended on Wednesday. I spent Sunday and Monday packing up my apartment and moving some of my stuff into the spare bedroom of the townhouse that I am now sharing with a friend. The movers from All My Sons came on Tuesday and moved everything else into a storage facility in Raleigh. I spent the remainder of Tuesday and Wednesday giving the old apartment a good scrubbing before handing the keys over.

The new place that I am living in is not as close to Franklin Street or the UNC campus as I was hoping for, but it’s still in a pretty good location. I still live in Chapel Hill (same zip code), I am now much closer to the church that I go to, and even including the $100 that I am paying for my 10 x 20 storage unit, I am still saving at least $500 per month. Now if only there is a way I can walk into a job interview and convince the interviewer that I can help his company realize a similarly amount of savings by hiring me, I'd be all set.

Not putting my money where my mouth is

Two months ago yesterday, I had some extra money in my Roth IRA account and decided to invest in a restaurant. I was trying to decide between Panera and Chipotle and chose the former. In the time since, the Panera Bread Company dropped about 14% while Chipotle Mexican Grill soared 18%. If you were to look at a chart comparing the movement of the two stocks, it looks almost like they have a negative one correlation with one another.

The next time I invest in a restaurant, I will remember to listen to my stomach first.

Objectively measuring risk

We live in a country today that places a high value on promoting safety and minimizing everyday risks. One needs to go no further than to notice all the safety warnings one encounters on a typical day (my favorite is the beep that in a car that rings every minute if the driver is not wearing a seat belt) to know that Americans want to be protected from all kinds of threats, real and imagined. Several events this past week reminded me of this and made me think about just how realistic of a goal this is.

 

Last Friday, there an accident on Interstate 40. Two vehicles collided, causing a nearby tractor-trailer to cross the median and slam onto oncoming traffic. The resulting explosion killed one driver and caused a fire that took hours to put out. My first reaction to the news was about the driver who was killed and whether he could have taken any safety precaution to prevent him from getting burnt alive. I thought of the same thing last night when I watched the news about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

 

These events are tragic but they give us valuable lessons. My main takeaway is that as much as we love life and want to enjoy it to the fullest, we are unable to completely control all the circumstances surrounding us. Additional airbags could not have saved that driver on Interstate 40. If that caravan of vehicles that crossed over the Mississippi River had been traveling with the President and had been given a Secret Service detail, it still would have ended up falling into the river.

 

Life is often too short and should definitely be preserved and protected. But our efforts toward that goal should be tempered with the understanding that it is packaged with a degree of systematic risk that we cannot control over. I feel that many in our society do not understand this and try to work as hard as possible to mitigate every possible threat to our longevity, regardless of how remote. I see this in some of the laws that many state legislatures have considered, such as those that prohibit drivers from talking on the phone while operating a vehicle or those that prohibit restaurant owners from allowing their customers to use tobacco. The reasoning behind these laws is that if there is a remote chance that someone can do something that may harm someone else, that possibility should be eliminated. We have become risk averse. 

 

A friend once said that we have become risk averse because our culture has become secular. His reasoning is when a people stop believing in a hereafter, their goal changes from pleasing their maker to maximizing their secular existence. I agree that secularism is a culprit but think it has nothing to do with maximizing our longevities. Rather, I think secularism makes us more confident in our ability to control every minute aspect of our lives and less reliant on trusting an almighty God to provide for our safety. We fail to realize that our ability to protect ourselves pales in comparison to God’s sovereignty.

 

 

On ABC World News last night there was a woman who talked exactly about relying on God for protection. Monica Segura is a camp counselor who was aboard a school bus full of children when it was caught on a falling portion of I-35.

 

“Thank God that He was there with us, protecting us, and he didn’t let us be a little bit back more (or) a little bit forward more. He had us right there in that spot.”

 

Sounds like this teenager understands risk much better than many adults I know.