Another Good Day (Day in the Life #4)

Wow, today was really a good day! I've been waiting for that "perfect" super-packed/fun/busy/crazy day to blog about, and all the stars aligned for me today. And here is my tale:

10:00 am - Get out of bed (I usually sleep at 2 or 3am) a bit groggy, but looking forward to the jam packed day. Quickly reply to all the emails about the >play Conference (Haas' digital media and entertainment conference, www.playconference.org), Astronomy midterm questions from my undergraduate students (I'm a graduate student instructor (GSI) for the class, more on this later), and follow up with a few career coach mentors to sign up for their 1st year "mentees" (part of a new initiative I'm pushing this semester as the VP of Admission.

11:00 am - Get ready to leave for SF to meet the HR Director of LucasArts, where I interned this past summer, for lunch. Checked Google Maps to see if the traffic was bad, and saw red and black lines at the Bay Bridge toll plaza, uh oh!!! I rushed out of the house and called the HR Director saying I may be late, and hoped for the best!

11:55 am - Miraculously, I got to the Presidio, where LucasArts is located (near the Golden Gate Bridge) 5 minutes before our meeting time. Whew!

12:00 pm - Treated to a nice lunch at one of the most beautiful company cafeterias I've ever seen. It has a 270 degree floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio, the Palace of Fine Arts, and the hills of San Francisco. You really can't beat eating the yummy/healthy/organic food with a view like that!

The meeting with the HR Director was mainly to catch up on how life has been after I went back to school at the end of August. Unfortunately due to our busy schedules, we weren't able to meet up until 8 weeks into the school year. We chit chat about all the latest news on both ends, interesting classes and events I'm planning, and more about the culture of the company. I had such a positive and fun experience this past summer at the company that I'm definitely going into the gaming industry for my full time job after graduation, and if I'm lucky enough, hopefully I get an offer from them.

1:00 pm - Lunch ended with a surprise gift from the HR Director that was pretty random, and a guarantee that I will hear whether there's an offer in 2 weeks. yay! Caught up a little more with the UR Manager I worked with over the summer and then rushed back over the Bay Bridge to make my 2pm class in time.

2:00 pm - Power and Politics in Organizations", taught by Prof. Cameron Anderson. This has been one of my FAVORITE classes so far at Haas. The 7 week course (which will be followed by 7 weeks of Negotiations and Conflict Resolution, itself an "award winning" class) is like drinking out of a firehose. I've learned so much about human behavior, how to influence others, how to build networks and alliances, etc... through this course. Today we analyzed a film we watched on Tuesday, "12 Angry Men", and discussed the 6 ways of influencing a hostile crowd. Did I say I love this class? =)

4:00 pm - "Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Wireless Industry". This is another popular class that involves 400-600 pages of reading every week and super in depth discussion about every aspect of the wireless industry, from the spectrum regulations to technology to platforms to carriers and more! Prof. Reza Moazzami knows EVERYTHING about this industry! And the class discussions, while it often goes over my head, have been very useful in understanding the nooks and crannies of the industry.

Today, we were lucky to have the former CEO of Good Technology, a competitor to Research in Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry device, to come in and do a joint discussion. The speaker was engaging and the stories he told illustrated many of the innovative business strategies that RIM used to reach its dominant status today in the enterprise email space. It was definitely one of the best discussions so far in this

6:00 pm - Went to grab a quick dinner with 5 of my closest classmates at one of my favorite local restaurants, Le Petit Cheval, a Vietnamese restaurant where the lunch specials are under $6 and takes me 2 sittings to finish. I had to wolf down my food, unfortunately, because I needed to get back on campus by 7pm to do an Astronomy midterm review session.

7:00 pm - So why the heck am I a GSI for an undergraduate, non-science major, and breadth requirement astronomy class? Well, because I love astronomy, and it has been a hobby of mine since elementary school. I also took the course many many years ago with Prof. Alex Filippenko, and I can confidently say he is probably the best professor I've ever had. The guy is brilliant, yet can still explain super complex ideas such as black holes, supernovae, and the expansion of the universe so that even a non-science major can understand the basic concepts! In the past, he has made quite a few "poets" switch to an astronomy major. =)

Anyway, one of my biggest regrets in undergrad was not becoming a teaching assistant (TA) for him, and since I'm back at Berkeley now, I had to do it! While this class has taken over a huge chunk of my life, it has been very worth it to be immersed in one of my favorite hobbies again.

Tonight, as one of the 11 GSI/TAs (850 students take this class every year, with 26 discussion sections), I hosted one hour of the review session with a fellow GSI, answering any and every question the students had about light, phases of the moon, celestial sphere, and the planets. I was a little nervous about the session, since you never know what questions can come out of a room of 100 or so students, and I definitely did not want to get stumped in front of a large crowd like that, haha! I'm glad to say, it ended up being a lot of fun and I survived in one piece!

8:00 pm - Left for SF the 2nd time in one day to meet up with some non-Haas friends for game night and hanging out.

12:30 am - Returned home after a long day to check some more emails, type up this blog, and head to bed around 2 am. Quite an early night for me! Tomorrow is another day of interviews for my Power and Politics final paper, administering the astronomy midterm, and catching comedian Hal Sparks do a show in SF. I am loving life right now!

Day in the Life #3 - Minimish's Good day

(Posting for Michelle, copy from the Student Blogs)

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

7:20 am Pre-Alarm goes off ("pre-alarm" because I always hit snooze at least once)

7:22 am I let my mind ease out of dreamland and into what will be my longest day of the week.

7:30 am Real-Alarm goes off. I reach over to my desk, grab my computer, and pull it onto my chest (while I'm still lying in bed). I already have the link to Professor Haykin's website, so that I can watch the Tesla Motors "Virtual Case" (aka video case) for today's Innovation, Creativity, and the Entrepreneur (ICE) class. I'm grateful for the opportunity to absorb a case with my eyes closed.

8:05 am After finishing the case, I put my computer back on the desk and roll out of bed. I listen to make sure none of my roommates are showering (don't want to divert the hot water), and begin to get so fresh and so clean. I turn up the volume and blast the case from my speakers as I get ready so I can review some of the key details (wasn't totally awake the first time I went through it)

9:00 am Phone rings. Who is calling at this hour? Daniel Chun, one of the undergrads on my Diversity Conference planning committee. He has a lead for a keynote speaker. AWESOME.

9:15 am Gah... I really should fire off some emails before I leave. Must find a nonprofit board meeting to attend before my paper for Strategic Management of NonProfits is due on Oct 20th. I check the websites of 5 charter schools, fire off emails to contacts at 3 CMOs, and text a couple friends at nonprofits. Maybe I should draft an email to solicit interviews from my Del Monte colleagues for the Strategy, Structure, and Incentives project... D'oh! Gotta go!

9:45 am Grab my dinner out of the fridge, hop on my scooter, and ride down the hill to school for

10:00am Meeting with admissions about the Diversity Admissions Workshop on Oct. 10th.

10:30am Bump into Takashi (from the other IBD Finland team) in BofA. Chat about our meeting with Sebastian and the upcoming IBD conference. Brandon (also on Takashi's team) swings by. We brainstorm what's the best way to provide constructive feedback on how to ensure that our client continues to get good value out of the IBD projects they pay so much for.

11:00am Hop on my scooter and scoot down to Emeryville for lunch with Gasper Martinez, a colleague from Stanford undergrad who I'm trying to recruit onto Leadership High School's Board of Trustees.

11:20am Arrive at Cocina Poblana, but Gasper texts that he won't be there for another 20 minutes. It smells yummy. I sit down, whip out my computer, and start drafting more emails.

11:40am Gasper arrives, buys us lunch, and lets me know that although I'm here to court him onto our board, he's also here to try to recruit me to work for EdTec, a charter school support organization. SWEET! Let's talk!

12:40pm We wrap up lunch, he agrees to set up a visit to Leadership High, and I agree to come by EdTec to have lunch with folks there sometime in the coming weeks. Time to jump back on the scooter and head to school.

1:10pm Back at school. As I'm walking from my parking spot to school, I pass by I-House, which today is hosting a BCBG sample sale with items up to 70% off! I've been dying for some reatil therapy for WEEKS... so tempting...

1:25pm Walk into C335 in time to catch the tail end of the Education Club kick-off meeting. Welcome to all you first years interested in public education!

2:00pm Help Jason gather up the extra pizza and walk over to the MBA lounge to meet with my IBD team on our upcoming presentation. Marvel at all the great pictures Bernie added to the presentation. Reminisce about how simple life was in Finland. Work on a single project during the day; relax in the evening and at night.

3:00pm Meet with Amy Hornstein in the program office to discuss the status of the Diversity Conference planning. Accept her offer of a plum tart slice leftover from Kate Blumberg's birthday. Tasty!

3:45pm Hungry again. Head to the MBA lounge and wolf down leftovers from lunch. Notice a bag of leftover baked goodies that are now up for grabs. I dig around and find... a brownie? Yoink!!!

3:55pm Pick up prospective students visiting my ICE class.

4:00pm ICE time! Today's session is on design thinking, and Whitney Mortimer, IDEO's head of Global Marketing is the guest speaker. I heart this class!

6:05pm Time for Strategy, Structure, and Incentives. Discussing make or buy/ outsourcing decisions. Somewhere around 7pm I start fading...

7:30pm Break time. I try to get on airbears (the UC Berkeley wireless network) to print the reading for Power & Politics tomorrow. FAIL. Try to call Wendell Tull from admissions to touch base about sponsorships for the workshop. No reception. Retrieve my dinner from the HaasWeek room fridge. Microwave does not blow up. Success! Yum. The food gives me a second wind. Start skimming the Power & Politics reading on my computer.

8:15pm Break over. Back to discussing the situations in which outsourcing does or does not make sense.

9:30pm Class over. Wohoo, I made it! Oof, it's cold outside now that it's dark. Suddenly regretting wearing a skirt/not bringing knee-high socks to wear on the ride back home. Oh well. Hop on the scooter and scoot up the hill.

10:00pm Home. Public policy roommate (Aurora) is pressing gauze to her lip and is icing it. What's going on? Public Health roommate (Meghan) explains that Aurora got hit in the face with a softball. =( We do some googling about what kinds of cuts need stitches. Aurora decides to go to the emergency room and sends me update texts about her tetanus shot and sweet wrist bracelet.

11:00pm Crawl into bed, pull my laptop onto my chest, and blog about my day. Aaaaannnnnd... I'm spent. G'night Neverland!

Minimish

A Day in the Life #2: A Mostly Typical Tuesday

The alarm goes off at 7:30…way too early for the Tuesday after Labor Day! I just came back from Minneapolis late last night – was at a friend’s wedding. I feel a little bit behind schedule, so I hop out of bed right away and go over to the computer to check email. A couple dozen emails and one green smoothie later, I’m on my bike to Haas. It’s a particularly hot day, so I try to balance my inevitable lateness with not getting too sweaty on the uphill climb.

First meeting of the day – HSA weekly check-in. It won’t always be at 8:30 am, but with it only being the second week of school, this was the only time we could find when everyone was still shopping classes. We talk about the visitation programs for prospective students, our travel plans to various info sessions across the US, and upcoming plans for new HSA recruitment. I reflect back to when I was applying to be an HSA and how the time has flown by so quickly.

9:30 am, off to Financial Information Analysis class. As a music and engineering major in undergrad and coming from the nonprofit world, this class will probably be one of the most challenging in my time at Haas. But I specifically chose it to build knowledge in an area I know I need more work on. Today we talk about Overstock.com and how analysts determine the valuation of the company. I’m amazed at how much I’ve learned in just a year and a half at Haas. Although this class is challenging for me, I’m able to follow along with the financial speak and really get a lot out of the material.

I have a little break at 11 am, so I catch up with a friend I haven’t seen yet this school year. We talk about our summer internships and what the various clubs we lead have planned for the year. I walk over to Yali’s Café for an early lunch date with my husband, who is pursuing a PhD in Computer Science at Berkeley. When I started at Haas, we had hoped for weekly lunch dates, but soon found that 1st-year lunchtime was packed full of activities. So, in the first year, we probably only met twice for lunch. But this year, I am re-invigorated to make the weekly lunch dates happen.

12:30 pm and I’m back at Haas. I’m sitting on a panel about the Berkeley Board Fellows program, sharing my experience with the board of the Marin Theatre Company. This is a wonderful program at Haas, and the popularity is evident, as there aren’t even enough seats for all the interested students. After the session, I duck into the library for a few hours to finish up some reading and emails and also to escape the heat.

My second and last class of the day is “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Wireless Services.” The professor, Reza Moazzami, is fantastic – I can’t imagine anyone with more knowledge about the industry. The class is set up as a real “deep dive” into the wireless industry, in which we synthesize readings from lots of different sources and have lively class discussion and debates.

At 6, I head over to Stanley Hall for a program the Global Initatives @ Haas Club is putting on – a conversation between the CEO of IDEO, Tim Brown and the CEO of Acumen Fund, Jacqueline Novogratz. The room is completely packed – not just with Haas students, but students, faculty and community members from all around Berkeley. It’s a fascinating discussion, and I’m inspired.

Around 8 pm, I head out with my hubby for some sushi dinner and call it a night. Time to walk the dog, write a paper, and hopefully indulge in the new episode of Mad Men.

Day In the Life of a Current Student Entry #1

The school year is in full-swing and we are all getting back into school-mode after our rewarding summer internship experiences! We (the Haas Student Ambassadors) have been discussing our blog and trying to determine what is the best way for us to tell you about what it is really like to be a student at Haas. The second best thing to following us around all day is to read about what a day at Haas is really like for a student. So, on a go forward basis we will be posting “A Day in the Life Of…” on our blog so that you can get a real feeling of what your day might be like at Haas. Happy reading!

Monday 9/14:
I woke up early this morning to go on a run. I am training to run the Big Sur 1/2 Marathon in November with a group of first and second year students from Haas, as well as a few of my friends from my summer internship. My legs were a bit sore this morning as I ran 6 miles yesterday, but it got my day off to a great start.

After my run, I drove to school from my apartment in San Francisco. After stopping to pick up a sandwich at Fifo Cafe, I met with the other Haas Student Ambassadors for our weekly meeting. We discussed our visitation program for prospective students and came up with some great new ideas. Right after our meeting, I led an information session for prospective students along with another Haas Student Ambassador. The session went very great and was very well-attended.

After I finish writing this Blog, I will be heading to the library to get caught up on emails from today as well as finish writing my case writeup for my Marketing Strategy course (due tomorrow morning at 9:30 am). We are currently working on a case for Sony and their car navigation systems, which is extremely interesting. I am guessing that I will spend a few hours finishing my write-up and polishing my thoughts for class discussion tomorrow.

Then, I head to my Real Estate Finance and Securitization class tonight which is held from 6:00-9:30 pm. It is a very interesting class where we are learning about mortgage backed securities and the events that led up to the financial crisis here in the United States. This is a very interesting topic and I am excited to learn more about it.

After class, I will try to make it to the grocery store before heading back to San Francisco for the night. Then, me and my roommate (another second year Haas student) have plans for brownies and Tivo before bed.

Resources for Prospective Students

As application season picks up (R1 deadlines is less than 2 months away!), I thought I would summarize all the different ways a prospective student/applicant can learn more about Haas, whether through cyberspace or in person:

Haas Student Blogs - a great way to get a glimpse of what student life is like on campus. Informal, fun, and lots of pictures.
http://berkeleymbastudents.blogspot.com/

Haas Student Ambassador (HSA) Blog - new format this semester (more to come) which should be a big hit!
http://haasstudentambassadors.blogspot.com/

Haas Visitation Program - Come for lunch with students, an infosession right after, and then a class visit if it fits your schedule.
http://mba.haas.berkeley.edu/visitation.html

Student Clubs - do some research on what clubs will help you network and make friends who are like-minded in career, cultural, and social interests!
http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/MBA/student/

And of course, if you have any questions, feel free to email us at hsa@haas.berkeley.edu!

Cheers!
Bernie

Summer Internship

Greetings from my new cubicle! I started my summer internship in green building three weeks ago and am absolutely loving it! Being a project manager has been really fun because it allows me to work with architects, interior designers, and subcontractors. I love that I get to work with all of these talented and diverse people and that I am gaining insight into the world of green construction. I get to go to a job site almost once a day...It is so nice to get out of the office! It's also nice to be making money - I feel a lot less guilty going to Starbucks a few days a week :)

However, there are many things I miss about school, especially getting to see my fellow classmates every day.

All in all, this is shaping up to be a fantastic summer. I leave for Los Angeles this weekend for my 5-year college reunion. It will be fun to see my long-lost undergrad buddies and I'm even excited about the fact that I'll be sleeping in a dorm room for the weekend! Later in the summer, I've got a weekend trip to Lake Berryessa and a four-day trip to Toronto for one of my Haas classmate's weddings.

Happy Summer!

Days at Haas 2 Retrospective

I have a soft spot for Days at Haas 2. I think this has to do with my personal experience of coming to DAH2 last year and having a blast. While I enjoyed the academic, career, and alumni portions, what really got me energized was the Scavenger Hunt.

You hear a lot about authenticity once you get to business school. In b-school, leadership is about finding your authentic voice and letting it shine. When I came to Haas last year, I remember having all the usual fears that a new student might have when meeting a big new group of people – “Will they like me?” “Will I fit in?” The Scavenger Hunt completely sold me on Haas. My crazy ideas weren’t so crazy, and creativity was truly appreciated. It was nice to know that I could really be myself at Haas.

The creativity and authenticity I saw at Days at Haas 2 this past weekend blew me away. I was completely impressed by our admitted students’ ability to take risks in front of people they didn’t know all that well, and to let their creativity and spontaneity shine.

So, a word to the wise to the Class of 2011 – even though you’ll all be “learning how to be authentic” in the fall, relax. From what I’ve seen, you have it within you already.