Exclusive: John Mayer attends 10 year reunion

I have it on good authority that musical sensation John Mayer attended the Fairfield High School ten year reunion this past Saturday. And that the double doors of the high school were still standing on Monday morning.

"At the same time ..."

The Office of Career Services requires that before any student can sign up for an on campus interview, the student must first go through a mock interview. A mock interview is a dry run of an actual interview conducted by a second year student who interviewed and interned in the same industry. Even though it is not an actual interview, every attempt is made make it look like a real interview as possible. This means we have to pick a company and show up, dressed in business attire, as though we are interviewing for that actual company's internship position.

 

I had my mock interview this afternoon. I did not do spectacular but did not do as poorly as I could have done. My interviewer was impressed with my understanding of the chosen company but felt I did a poor job at explaining how my background has prepared me for a finance position. He pointed out certain areas on my resume that I can use as strong sell points and gave me tips on how my skills in the technology field can translate into a career in finance.

 

The entire interview was videotaped and I am going to have to force myself to watch it sometime. This reminds me of 2000 when Al Gore's campaign advisors obtained a videotape of the Saturday Night Live skit parodying the former Vice President's performance during the first debate and forced him to watch it to make him realize how poorly he did.

 

My interviewer did say something surprising that I am going to have to watch for on the videotape. He said I used the phrase "at the same time" on at least ten different instances during the twenty minute interview. I do use that phrase quite a bit but do I use it too much? I will let you all be the judge of that.

New Yorker Magazine: How Goldman Sachs is carving up its $11 billion money pie

"Last year, the New York State Comptroller's office estimated the average bonus on Wall Street to be a clean $100,600 (or $15.9 billion split among 158,000 employees). Early estimates of the 2005 bonus pool reach as high as $19 billion."

The investment banking boom continues ..... Entire article here.

"Just kicking arse and taking names"

I love quoting lines from one of my favorite movies.

 

After spending nearly a week away from Kenan-Flagler, I am finally ready to finish out Mod II.  As of right now, the only things standing between me and the completion of the toughest Mod in the MBA program are one finance case competition sponsored by a bank in Charlotte, a "trading game" sponsored by a New York City investment firm, five final exams, three finance assignments, two operations assignments, one strategery case write up (that I know of), one Habitat for Humanity project, and something personal that I hopefully will get around to doing in the next twenty-three calendar days, God willing.

 

It's good to be back. More importantly, it's good to finally have my mind back in the building! 

Giving thanks

I complain a lot. That should not be news to any of you that have regularly read this blog. But on this Thanksgiving, I am going to force myself to jot down a couple of things I am grateful for. Please keep in mind that while some of these may be trivial to you, they certain are not to me.

 

In no particular order, the following is an incomplete list of things that I thank God for on this Thanksgiving 2005:

 

1. My study group at Kenan-Flagler. I cannot think of a group of students that are more intelligent, thoughtful, supportive, and considerate than the ones that I have been fortunately enough to have been paired with during these past two quarters.
2. Christians at Chapel Hill. Between the people I have met in church, the Kenan-Flagler MBA Christian Fellowship group, and one particular professor I met when Ken Elzinga spoke at InterVarsity in October, I feel I have found a supportive group of Christians I can fellowship with.
3. My downstairs neighbor at Chapel Hill has an unguarded wireless network that I have been using for free since the day I moved in.
4. I feel God working in my life over the past four months. During fall break in October, I mentioned that I was feeling a sense of peace over my situation at Kenan-Flagler, almost as though God was telling me to continue doing what I normally do and He would take care of the rest. In the time since Mod II has begun, He has continued to make me feel more at ease about other aspects of my life. There are some personal issues that I have struggled with for a long while, for so long I am embarrassed to tell you how long. On two separate occasions this month, I felt bothered by something that reminded me of these issues and each time, I felt God telling me to leave things up to Him.
5. My mom has started to read the bible.
6. Even though I am not attending a business school that was my first (or even second) choice, I am certain that attending Kenan-Flagler is a better option for me than spending another year in my previous situation.
7. The Virginia Advocate is back in business at UVA.
8. Even with all the scandals about prisoner abuse, unreliable intelligence, our national government has done a reasonably good job in protecting us from a second terrorist attack and in retaliating against the thugs responsible for 9/11.

Ni hao ma?

There was a story on World News Tonight last night about public school districts in places from Brookline, MA to Portland, OR starting to teach mandarin Chinese to their students. This is largely due to the realization of the importance that China will play in tomorrow's economy.

"The Driscoll teachers like to tell their students that if they learn Chinese, they will be able to communicate with nearly a third of the world's population - the seven percent who speak English, and the 18 percent who speak Mandarin."

Kenan-Flagler offers a one year long foreign language class where students learn business communications skills in either Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, or Spanish. I had originally signed up for it but over the summer I decided against taking it because of the time commitment involved. I can still take it during my second year and I am going to consider giving it a shot.

Bat out of hell

I am scheduled to fly out of Raleigh/Durham International Airport later this evening, weather permitting. I say that because for the first time in a long while, it's been raining in Chapel Hill and as a result, the time for my flight keeps getting pushed back.

 

A second year told me over the weekend that Mod II is "pretty much over." By that he meant that by now I should have a pretty good grip on the materials covered in my classes. Unfortunately for me this means I am screwed in strategery, marketing, operations, and macroeconomics.

 

I am going to set my sights real low this Mod. As long as I don't get an L (low pass) and hopefully an H (high pass) in finance, I'd be happy.