Pre-Term

It's been a crazy busy week of seemingly non-stop networking. Some highlights of the week:

0. Some talks by some very impressive alumni and corporate leaders and faculty (CEO of Rothschild, Global Head of Equities at Lehman, VP of Corp Marketing at Sony).

1. Scavenger Hunt - This was a professionally organized scavenger hunt which pitted study groups within a block against each other (fyi - the class of 400 odd is divvied into "blocks" of 70ish each, each further divvied into study groups of 5-6). All groups within a block were sent off to the same downtown neighborhood armed with a set of 20 clues to solve. Though we didn't win (we got too cocky and made two very careless errors), we had a hoot running around Chinatown trying to solve the clues. I have a feeling I may have been a bit too aggressive, but I think atleast two of my teammates were equally, if not more, so. I know I'm not usually this aggressive inside the classroom, but I guess that's what happens when you're pitted against 400 other Type-A's.

2. Mets Game - This was kinda cool because, despite having been in NY for over 5 yrs, I've never been to a baseball game before. Even though the game was painfully boring (I'm told not all baseball is this sporific), it was a good, relaxed atmosphere to bond with classmates.

3. Presentation Skills Workshop & Networking Skills Workshop - Because these are two very very important aspects of not only landing a job, but also of becoming a successful leader, the school had two experts come in and talk in detail about these. Personally, I felt 80% of both the workshops were things that I was already familiar with (most of it common sense really), but 20% of it was actually quite valuable and new.

4. Bar Blasts - These were fun because (1) they were all held in the E.Village, which is still a somewhat alien neighborhood for me (I always avoided it since it was filled with raucous college students :-)), and (2) yes, you guessed it - bars are good places to get to know people better, thanks to alcohol, the Great Uninhibitor.

The rest of the week was a blur of presentations by professors, alumni and the various offices serving the MBA program.

A quick note about networking - Even though I talked to about a 100 (or more) people, and connected pretty well with atleast 30 of those (people whom I spoke to more than once, for atleast 10-15 minutes each), I did not enjoy the process as much as I thought I would. This is not to say that the people weren't interesting (quite the opposite, in fact); I think it's more because the whole thing is so forced. But, I suppose I'd better get used to it, since this is how it's going to be at all events (esp. recruiting presentations) for the next two years.