Busy as a Bee before B-School

I'm not going to sugarcoat this and just apologize upfront for being mia for quite some time now!  I'm wondering if I need to reintroduce myself... I mean.. I'm not going too... but the thought crossed my mind.

So phew... I found 10 minutes to myself where I can write this blog post - at friggen 2:30am.  Ok let me just start by telling you why I've been so busy.  This post will be all over the place because I think I've forgotten how to blog haha...

Well for starters...my new job, while less stressful, is more time consuming.  I'm freelancing at an agency now and am working on a big restructure of an account so I've been putting in 11/12 hours days.  I know some of you are going to say "So what? 11/12 hours who cares?"  Well... that's just AT work.  You have to keep in mind that I commute 1.5 hours to and from work everyday.  So that's potentially 14/15 hours of the day that I'm busy.  I'm not complaining about the hours because I enjoy what I'm doing... but in terms of being able to find time to write a blog post... it's been slim.

So aside from work what else has been keeping me busy?  Well.. there is a lot of preparation that I have to do for CTLS.  I explained what CTLS is in my last post here about MLT.  The CTLS conference is next week from the 7th - 11th.  To prepare for it we have to read some cases... attend some webinars... get our resumes in line... etc etc.

In addition to the preparation for CTLS, I've been working with my Career Coach at Johnson to get ready for OP (consortium event in Minneapolis).  This includes more "assignments" ... mock interviews... webinars... et. al.  This is at the end of the month from the 24th - 30th.  So there's another week of June that's essentially taken up by pre-mba activities.  I will say that it IS  a TON of work but it WILL pay off come may!

I just finished updating my LinkedIn profile.  It was recommended that we do that before these two conferences.  So if anyone would like to link to me on LinkedIn - here is my profile url.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/richardbattlebaxter

IF YOU DO LINK TO ME... JUST TYPE A MESSAGE LIKE "I READ YOUR BLOG" or something of that nature just so I know before I accept you.  Otherwise you'l sit in my Friend Request Box for months..

I've also been trying to square away my housing situation.  I have the roommate... did the whole credit check thing.... got approved... now just need to send the deposit check to the management office and then sign the lease.  So I'm trying to track down the person who sends out the leasing agreements.  I'm also on the look out for furniture!  My roommate and I are renting most of our furniture but we need the little things... plus I want to buy a Keurig Machine!

Now I have to run around trying to get my doctor to sign off on these health forms.  That one was my fault because I totally let that slip my mind!

Yesterday (well on June 1st) I submitted my 2nd deposit!  So at the very least that knocks like 2% off of my tuition since your deposits go towards tuition.  Gotta look on the bright side right?  So no less than 48 hours after I submitted the deposit, did I get the email for Math Camp.  Now I knew that I'd be going to Math Camp so that wasn't a surprise.  But the cost for it was an initial shock.  So today I shelled out another $600 in total for math camp and some orientation week activities.  But at least now I know that there is only 1 more thing that I'm going to have to pay for and that's only $150.  I think that's for the background check.  I'm going to look into what I need to do for that tomorrow.  Actually, I'll shoot off an email to someone right when I'm done with this blog post.

That's all I'm going to write for now.  I have a lot to catch you guys up on but I need to take my body to bed.  The morning comes very quickly!

A word to the wise, and I'll elaborate on this another time, for those of you who are in my position... as soon as you get emails that you may need to respond too.  RESPOND TO THEM!  I try to do that so that I don't forget about them because a lot of information is time sensitive.  K thanks g'night!

Countdown to Johnson Pt 2

First things first - 27 GMAT Books are for sale.  I need to get rid of these ASAP so if you’re interested let me know.  I’ll even offer them up for the best offer on them!

I have some things that I need to update everyone on.

Last week I had a call with my career managment coach who was assigned to me because of my marketing career interests.  We worked on my resume and then had a call.  I feel much better and more relaxed about OP - Consortium Orientation Program occurring at the end of June where we can walk away with our internships for next year!  I know the company I’m going to target and will have an incredibly more relaxed first semester if I get an internship offer at OP.

I definitely see and understand why they say that you need to enter school with a clear vision of what you want to do.  Whether it be true or not, if you’ve been accepted through Consortium it’s kind of a must.  Otherwise you’ll miss out on the great opportunities throughout the summer.  OP is just the beginning of it, and actually it’s not but I’ll get to that later.

There are pre-mba internship program emails flying around behind the scenes.  There are also multiple “camps” and one day programs that companies have throughout the summer.  There’s no way anyone would be able to attend all of them because A.) it wouldn’t make sense because they’re industry specific and B.) there’s just not enough time.  Like it was very tempting for me to want to attend the LGBT event at one of the banks but it just didn’t make sense.  I don’t want to go in to banking in any way, shape, or form so that would have just been a waste for me.  Sure I would have been able to networking with people who will be attending b-school, but yeah not my cup of tea.  Also, there’s the P&G Brand camp - which I did not apply too.  I can’t take off from work that many days but also, CPG is not REALLY the direction that I want to go in.  Remember, I want to do Product Marketing so while they’re in the same job function classification, I want to do High-Tech.

Given that all of these events are occuring now in the summer, can you imagine how many different ways one can be pulled in once school begins?  I imagine it would be incredibly frustrating and exhausting.  Thankfully I won’t have to go through that.  Now that’s not to say that I won’t sit in on other industry specific discussions and learn about the things that I’m missing.  By no means would I let that happen, because I want to be able to have a conversation with folks who are in those industries.  As it stands right now, when I hear someone say that they do (Insert Really Financ(y) related word here) my brain shuts down and I try to pick up on what they’re saying but it doesn’t work.  I don’t know any of the terminology.  

What I like about the classmates that I’ve met so far - one in particular - everytime I get the glazed over look on my face I stop him and say “wait... I don’t know what you’re talking about, can you explain it to me?”  and he laughs and says yes and dumbs it down for me.  It’s really not all that complicated (to understand) the implementation may be.  But I digress...

The sheer logistics of moving to a new town is another reason why it’s good to enter business school with an idea of what you want to do.  I have a friend who is moving to NYC and as someone who has been through that process before here in NYC IT IS NOT FUN!   I did it when I didn’t really have a hard cut off by when I needed to be moved in.  I moved in 2009 in January but it could have been February or March or whenever.  Imagine having the deadline of school ahead of you?  Yeah, I can’t deal with all that.  Too stressful and time consuming.  But the upside to that is that he’ll be here this weekend so we can HANG!  BTW He’s going to NYU - Woop Woop!

So needless to say - HAVE A PLAN like they tell you to when you prepare to enter business school.  Is this to say that everyone has a plan?  Nope they don’t.  I have some classmates who are already undecided BUT... they conveyed 1 single plan throughout the application process.  So if there’s any takeaway in this whole post that would be it for new applicants - if you’re unsure about what you want to do in b-school, at least have a plan laid out in the application process.

So yesterday I started my new job!  I’m very excited to be able to relax when going in to work.  As I stated before, I am now back on the agency side of things whereas before I was on the client side at Bloomingdale’s.  To me it’s a breath of fresh air and I’m excited to be able to work on the client that I’ve been assigned.  Should be a fun ride!