DESI GAL NYC

Stir Crazy

2011-07-04T19:52:00.004-04:00

My inlaws are visiting from India for the first time in 12 years and are therefore staying for a slightly extended period of time (~6 months). They do threaten to leave every couple of weeks, but so far that doesn't seem to have happened. Mind you, I am not complaining. I actually like having them around for the most part; they are great with the little boy and help out around the house a bit. However, my mother-in-law has a health problem that severely restricts mobility (hence no trip in the last 12 years) which means that we've been stuck in the city since mid-April. It is the first summer that we haven't taken a trip (and probably won't take a trip) anywhere. I do like the peace and quiet in the city during the long weekends (Memorial Day, today), but am beginning to feel a bit stir-crazy. The heat, the crowds, the steam from the subway vents, the increasing number of homeless people on my street, the noise - it's all getting under my skin a bit.

Anyway, Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Press on!

2011-06-24T21:33:00.003-04:00

Apparently, I've been living under a rock. I had assumed Wordpress was for blogs only, but boy was I mistaken! Their super-nifty themes can be used to put up a website in a matter of minutes (sans content of course, which takes a few hundred years at the rate at which I write). So, I'm breaking up with iWeb and migrating to Wordpress instead for designing my website. Hoping to be up and running with a skeletal version in a couple of weeks.

In other news, one of my good friends from Stern came down from Westchester today to hang out with me and li'l Chikoo in Manhattan. She has been jobless since graduation (3 years now!) partly by choice (don't ask! she claims the stress of work makes her a crazy person, which I can see, but she is the kind who manages to find something to get stressed out about even when nothing's going on...) and I was very happy to hear that she is starting to look for a fulltime job finally. Anyway, she is very smart (Ivy undergrad and all that) and was giving me some good ideas and things to consider with respect to my website. Some of it is really obvious stuff that I should absolutely be thinking about - market research, how big is my target audience, when will i start to look into advertising, what is my marketing strategy beyond Facebook etc. It made me realize I really must take a more disciplined approach to the whole thing and try to apply some of my b-school strategy and marketing lessons to the new "venture" (which it is SO NOT). So far, I've simply been winging it - hey, I have a fulltime job taking care of my kid and can devote all of 30min a day to the website, so even the winging it strategy seems to be a reach some days.

Lastly, what is with this HBO show "Game of Thrones"? I mean, what's up with the gratuitous nudity? I haven't been watching, but Lamboo seems to be watching it on HBO on Demand at the rate of one episode a week (or sometimes, a month) and I usually sit with him and space out on the interweb (this is all past Chikoo's bedtime so we feel like our old selves again for a bit till Chikoo decides we've watched enough TV for the day and should be entertained by him instead). Anyway, I occasionally catch glimpses of the show and am shocked by the amount of nudity and sex. I'm hardly a prude, but is this much sex and nudity particularly necessary to further the plot? I doubt it. The show seems interesting and complex enough without it. One scene in particular bothered me about the episode we're watching tonight - a 12-year old boy feeding from his mother's breast! I am all for breast-feeding, but this is just cree.pee. I know it's probably a 'stunt boob' (yeah, I had to google it, so the next time someone starts type "st" on my google search, it is going to bring that up as the first suggestion), but isn't there some law protecting child actors from this sort of thing? He may be sucking on plastic, but doesn't the act of sucking on a boob-like object at the age of 12 scar you psychologically somehow? Not sure what directing that scene must have entailed. Or maybe there's more cgi at play and the kid is actually sucking on something not resembling a breast at all in reality. I hope.

Creating a website

2011-06-23T11:59:00.005-04:00

My friend T and I have decided to create a website.

Sounds easy yeah?

That's what I thought too until I launched into the actual process of doing it. Sweet Holy Moly! Who'd have thunk that there are a gazillion different choices every step of the way? I'm a bit overwhelmed. And I'm embarrassed to admit that despite having been a techie, I still feel fairly clueless about the whole process. Maybe I've been a non-techie for too long (5 years now!)

The way I see it, here are the broad steps I need to accomplish:

0) Concept - Work in Progress

1) Register domain - Done!

I did all of 5 minutes of research and finally went with GoDaddy (perhaps it was those Superbowl ads! I'm quite impressionable). I have registered the domain name for 5 years at only $3.99 a year! I think that's a pretty nice deal. Not sure if I should have taken 10 years since the incremental is only $20.

2) Site hosting - Done!

Perhaps I should have done a bit more research on this, but I figured I would try out GoDaddy's basic hosting plan (on Linux) for a year and if that isn't adequate, I will switch with the benefit of knowledge gained over the next year. It cost me just $48, so I'm pretty sure that switch will happen at some point, maybe even sooner than I plan.

3) Content - Work in Progress

We have had one fairly productive brainstorming session so far which has yielded a broad outline of topics and content we intend to include on the site. It's going to be interesting to see how we are able to generate content with both of us working on this just a few hours a week.

4) Design look and feel - TBD

T is an executive producer at a media firm, so we're hoping she can rope in one of her creative friends to do some free graphics for us and help us out with the look and feel.

5) Implement - TBD

The implementation is the most challenging part. Back in my techie avatar, I mostly used MS Visual Studio on Windows to do all my programming, most of which was middle and back-end coding. Unfortunately, I currently don't own any copies of Visual Studio and even if I did, I am tripped up by the fact that my husband is an Apple-head and has Mac'ified our entire apartment. So, I'm currently researching the following:

(a) Software that runs on the Mac that can be used for building websites. I have been playing around with iWeb which does a damn decent job, but I'm not sure how well it will hold out for creating more robust functionality

(b) We intend to host a message board on our website, and would like to license third party software to run on our server, but honestly I have no clue how.

(c) I have been using Classic FTP to upload files to the host, but not very happy with it so far. It hangs too frequently and takes way too long to sync files unless I do them directory-by-directory. Looking back at the link above, I wonder why I didn't read the reviews before downloading. It seems obvious that it's a sh*tty product.

Laying out these steps on paper (!) feels good even though I'm pretty clear about it in my head. I'm very excited about this venture! It gives me something intellectually challenging to do - much as a love my son, there are moments when I miss the brain-workout and adult-interaction aspects of my job. More importantly, I love it that I'm doing this with T who is one of my closest friends and really fun to work with.

I will aim to detail our progress as we move through the process. Any helpful tips are greatly appreciated (am not sure why I end all my posts soliciting feedback when I am pretty sure I have 0 readers right now :-)).

Food

2011-06-22T22:03:00.005-04:00

Have I mentioned I love cooking? I used to love the calming effect it has after a crazy hectic day dealing with all the insanity at work. And I still love it even though my life is not quite that insane anymore (at least till the little one becomes more mobile and subsequently starts getting into all sorts of trouble). Something about the numbing monotony of washing and cutting, firing up the stove, the familiar yet exciting anticipation of the hiss as the ingredients hit the hot oil, the velvety feeling of spice on your fingers as you color your dish with them, even the seemingly-endless uncover/check/stir/cover cycle until finally you see and simply KNOW without a doubt that dish is complete. And the immense satisfaction of having created something tangible (and hopefully delicious, though we all have our days). And I'm not even talking about trying out new, exciting stuff; I feel this way even about your basic rice, dal and subzi. So, you can only imagine the kind of euphoria I feel and the kind of incessant nag I become when I try something new ("so, was it good? what did you think? did it need more paprika? should i have grilled it instead of broiling"... ad nauseum).

I love eating too. I've been extremely lucky on this front since (a) I have a mom who is an absolutely amazing, phenomenal cook (the kind who can taste a dish, figure out all the ingredients in it, and then do a pretty damn good job recreating it - a skill that has sadly eluded me); (b) I live in New York, a foodie mecca; and (c) I have a husband who enjoys cooking and eating as much (maybe even more) than I do.

One of my weekend (and occasionally weekday) pleasures is visiting the Union Square Greenmarket. Normally I'm not particularly adventurous with the produce - I pick up basic stuff like tomatoes, potatoes, onions, carrots, beets etc. However, yesterday I was in a mood to make something a bit different, so I picked up some delectable-looking spring baby veggies - baby carrots, baby zucchini, yellow and orange baby bell-peppers, spring onions and some asparagus. Guess I still have "baby brain" 7 months post partum!

Anyway, I decided to KISS* and go with a salad. I also had some pearl red onions lying around from having made sambar recently, so decided to add those for a little bit of bite.

Here's the super-simple recipe (don't get thrown off by the steps; I just like super-detailed recipes, that's all).

Desigal's "Oh Baby" Salad:

For salad:

Baby carrots - 1 bunch (6 or 7)

Baby zucchini - 6

Baby bell-peppers - 6

Pearl (baby) onions (Red) - 10. Alternatively, use 1/4 of a medium red onion

Asparagus - 10

Fresh goat cheese (optional)

Parsley (optional)

For vinaigrette:

1 tbsp good quality balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

1 spring onion (or shallot)

EVOO for drizzling

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Steps:

0) Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

1) Wash the veggies and trim ends off the carrots and zucchini

2) Peel the pearl onions (soak them in water for about 15min and the skin comes off quite easily)

3) Cut the zucchini and bell peppers lengthwise in half. Cut the asparagus on a bias to match the length of the zucchini and carrots. If using regular red onion instead of pearl onions, cut the onion into half or quarter rings (such that the onion pieces/strands match the length of the other veggies)

4) Cover a baking pan with aluminum foil, spread the veggies on it, drizzle with a little EVOO and sea salt (or kosher salt) and pepper. Toss with hands to mix in oil, salt and pepper.

5) Bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on how soft you want the veggies).

For the vinaigrette:

1) Mince the spring onion (or shallot).

2) Mix together vinegar, oil, mustard and spring onion. Whisk to incorporate

Finally, combine veggies and vinaigrette. I like throwing the whole thing into a tupperware container, shaking vigorously to mix, and then sticking the container in the fridge to let the vegetables marinate a bit in the vinaigrette.

To serve, spoon the salad onto plates, add a dollop of goat cheese, season with a sprig of parsley and serve with a piece of crusty baguette.

Much to my delight, even my in-laws - who are very very desi and set in their ways and whose idea of salad is slices of cucumber and nothing more - enjoyed this salad, as did my very carnivorous husband.

Hope someone tries this! If you do, be sure to post your feedback!

Desi Mom

2011-06-20T22:24:00.003-04:00

Wow, it's been a really long time, needless to say.

What have I been upto? Let's see - I got a job in finance at a large multinational financial institution, worked as an associate for 18mos, got promoted to VP (yay!), worked another year, had a kid, went back part-time, couldn't stand it, and have now decided to take a break from work till the end of the year (or at least the end of summer).

OK, now that we're all caught up, let's chat.

Can I say how patronizing some people are about Stay At Home Moms (SAHMs)? I recently went on a 5K run with a friend from my ex-job and she made a very disparaging comment about my current situation (i.e. being a SAHM for a while). It's not really worth getting into the specifics, but suffice it to say that I was quite hurt. The comment made it sound like being a full-time mother is somehow "less" than being a working woman. Now, my friend is 36 and single and quite career focused, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised by the attitude. But come on people - show a little empathy. And a little respect. You have no idea the kind of patience, resilience and smarts you need when bringing up a child.

In any case, I don't want to make this a ramble about working moms vs stay at home moms. It's a personal choice (or sometimes not a choice at all but a necessity) and having experienced both of those things albeit for short periods, I'll say both are equally difficult and each has its tradeoffs. What is terrible is single people or folks without kids somehow adding a value judgement to either situation. Also - single friends of mine - next time we meet, ask me how my kid is at least once in the course of a 2 hour hangout. I have to listen to you go on and on about your new role at work ad nauseum, but you don't have the decency to ask me about my KID?? Seriously??!

Questions to avoid

2007-10-27T18:06:00.000-04:00

This might be a slightly mean post, but people, you have to stop asking the following 2 questions:

1. My stats are blah blah blah. What are my chances?
2. You must have discussed [essay3/gmat scores] with your classmates. What do most people do/score?

No one can tell you your chances except for members of the admissions committee. I know it's very tempting to think that current students have some sort of insight into the process, but honestly, we have no friggin' clue. Really. None.

As for the second question, once people get into bschool, they almost never discuss the application process, except maybe to express relief that the whole thing is over. One reason is that once you get into a school of your choice, you no longer feel the need to constantly obsess about how you got there (yes, I know it seems an impossibility right now to even imagine a state of being where you're not thinking about the process, but trust me, you WILL get there). And the other reason is that there is so much going on once you start school that there's not much time to sit around reminiscing about your essays. Recruiting will kick in almost as soon as you join, and if you think this process is tough, wait till you get to that one [pause for evil laughter: *mwahahahaha*]

So anyway, don't mean to be mean, but you will be saving both of us (and other students you talk to) a lot of annoyance if you would simply leave these 2 questions out of your list.

Happy Halloween!

Random photos taken in the city

2007-10-25T23:14:00.000-04:00

A non-Stern post, after a long long time.

Over the summer, I spent a good chunk of one of my paychecks on a Nokia N95 which, among its many wonderful features, contains an awesome 5MP camera (you can check out more about the phone here). Here are some photos I took with the phone, some in New York and a couple in Dubai

Waiting to cross the GWB... OH BOY!

"Prayers for Peace" - outside a church in midtown

Metro chic!

And more of it

Take me out to the ball game - Mets Stadium

The quintessential image of Dubai - The Burj

Droopy Dromedaries

Sand Art (see video here)

Agony Aunt

2007-10-22T19:41:00.000-04:00

"Just when I thought that I was out they pull me back in"

Hard to believe it has been two years since I went through this pain and suffering. But take it from someone (definitely) older and (questionably) wiser, that it is definitely worth it. Or not - if the economy goes into a full-fledged recession before I graduate, I'll be singing a different tune, to be sure.

In any case, here are some answers to the most recent FAQ's I've received via email:

1. How generous is Stern wrt financial aid?

From what I understand, quite generous (based on purely anecdotal evidence). I know of many people who are on partial or full scholarships, either through the school or through associations like the Forte Foundation. On this matter, you should probably talk to the admissions office who'll be able to put you in touch with people better versed on this subject.

In addition to scholarships and federal and private loans, once you are in school, you can apply for part-time jobs on campus of which there are many (you probably won't have time for one in the first semester because of recruiting, but going forward there is definitely a lot of availability).

2. What did you particularly like about the environment at Stern, both in the classroom and outside?

Ok, I am going to try to not make this sound like propoganda, but it probably will :-)
In the classroom, I am constantly amazed at how great the professors are. Learning from professors like Damodaran, Roubini and Yermack is truly a pleasure. Not only are they extremely knowledgeable about their subjects (and I don't mean merely from an academic perspective, but also from a practical one as well), they are also very very good teachers, constantly motivating you to think harder and really understand the underlying concepts.

When I was applying last year, I honestly never believed in the whole "learning from my classmates" line, but having taken a number of case-based classes, I can confidently say that most of the learning in those courses happens because of the vast range of experiences your classmates bring to the classroom. There are as many viewpoints as there are students, and I never realized how narrow my viewpoint was on certain issues.

Outside the classroom, what I really like (apart from getting shitfaced with my friends at the many, many social events) is that there are so many opportunities to stretch your wings. Whether it is organizing a conference for a club, participating in the Stern Consulting Corps, taking part in case competitions or business plan competitions, managing a live investment fund, or acting as a VC consultant for startups, there are more opportunities than there is time. I think I have made the most use of quite a few of these opportunities, and I have really loved challenging myself and getting involved in things that I would never have to opportunity to do outside of school or in my career.

3. If you could change a few things about Stern, what would they be?

Definitely, add more space. For some reason, there's always a dearth of study space in school (guess that's a feature of being in downtown New York!). There's plenty of bars and cafes around to hang out in, but probably not the most conducive for studying.
Can't think of any others right now, but the next time I crib about something, will jot it down.

4. Which are the most popular courses? which did you like the most?

Oh, there's a bunch depending on your specialization. Some popular ones (the * indicates that I took the course, the + indicates I liked it a lot):

Corporate Finance (Damodaran) *+
Restructuring Firms and Industries (Yermack) *+
International Macroeconomic Theory and Policy (Roubini) *+
Competitive Strategies in the Marketplace (Czepiel)
Game Theory (Brandenberger)
Foundations of Entrepreneurship (Okun) *+
Bankruptcy (Altman)
Advanced Futures and Options (Subramanyam)
Consumer Behavior

5. Which student clubs did you participate in? Which are the most active ones?

Pretty much most of the clubs are very active. Almost all the professional clubs are very active (GFA, MCA, GMA etc.) and are great networking opportunities. For banking, GFA is the one to pick. The region-based social clubs are pretty active as well (SABAS, LABA, ABS, JBA etc.), and those can be a great way to network and hang out with people who are from or share an interest in the region. And of course, there's SWIB which is a bit of both and a lot of fun.

6. Were you satisfied with the career office?

The Office of Career Development (OCD) does a fantastic job of educating you about career options as well as preparing you for the whole recruiting process. They are also constantly trying to get an increasingly broader range (i.e. more non-finance) of companies to recruit from Stern. I was very happy with the skillset they provided me through their workshops etc. I think most of my classmates would attest to this as well.

7. Besides clubs etc, what kind of activities are available for people interested in a banking career?

I'm not sure I understand the question completely, but since when does that prevent an MBA student from giving gyaan :-).

If you mean what other networking opportunities, I'd say that the OCD and the GFA organize a number of events where you can meet people from different banks and network with them. The banks themselves organize a number of events to pitch the company and also to get a feel for prospective applicants.

If you're talking about training, the GFA organizes events like "Training the Street" which is a modeling workshop; different professors hold valuation, accounting workshops etc.; JP Morgan organizes an annual case competition which is a great way to get a feel for banking and also impress managers; there are a number of inter-school case competitions to test your mettle against the folks from other top schools in the country; GFA organizes an annual conference where you can hear senior executives from a number of banks discuss topics of relevance.

All ye prospective Sternies

2007-04-13T21:39:00.001-04:00

Be sure to attend Preview Weekend. It's a great way to get a feel for the school and your future classmates, have some fun, and most importantly, watch me make an ass of myself. Yup, in a moment of sheer madness, I volunteered to be part of the desi dance program for Passport Day (which is the culmination of Preview Weekend). While I don't exactly have two left feet, my dancing is more suited to the so-crowded-you-can-barely-move dance club scene than a well-coreographed bollywood jhatka & matka affair. But what's done is done and all that's left is to pity the audience.

If you are among the 3 people who read my blog, AND have been admitted to Stern, AND will be visiting during Preview Weekend - Should I just give up right now? :-) - do stop by at the South Asia/India booth and say hello.

Enjoy your admits and preview weekends and have fun being wined and dined while it lasts.

The New York Advantage

2007-02-16T08:39:00.000-05:00

Two more reasons to go to Stern?

1. Stern Consulting Corps is a wonderful opportunity, on the professional and personal front. On a personal level, it is a fun and unique way to give back to the community and also to immerse yourself in a unique experience. On the professional front, it is an opportunity to get hands-on consulting experience, while learning from senior consultants (typically from McKinsey, BAH, Deloitte etc.) who act as mentors throughout the 10-week program. And, you get paid for it!

I'm part of the program this semester, working on a project for Carnegie Hall. I obviously cannot divulge the details of the project, but I'll definitely say that this experience is very different from anything I've done before and anything I'll probably do in my future career in finance. I've only been on the project a few weeks now, but I've already learnt a great deal about the industry and about marketing and strategy. And in this case, there are the added perks like free concert-hall tours and tickets ;-).

2. Experiencing NYC in the classroom - One of the best things about being in b-school in NYC is the access we have to businesses and other institutions, enabling us to watch what we learn in the classroom being applied to businesses every day. An example?
Live Met Opera Case Study - As part of our marketing class, we are doing a live case study on the Metropolitan Opera today. Highlights of the day include a tour, a dress rehearsal of Simon Boccanegra, and a meeting with senior management (and possibly Peter Gelb!). Only in NY!

There are things every top business school can give you (a great education and a good network), but only in New York will you get the kind of access and experience that makes business school a truly rewarding experience. So, keep that in mind as your admits start to flow in and you are in the enviable position of deciding between Stern and other schools.

On the personal front:
I did obtain a summer internship about a month ago. I'm happy to say it was my first choice and a highly competitive one. It feels GREAT to have a job, but given that my entire first semester seems to have been driven by the sole purpose of procuring an internship, I feel somewhat demotivated these days. Or, maybe it's just the weather.

Also, for those of you who plan to visit Stern and have lunch with a student, I have signed up to be part of the program. So, if you are paired up for lunch with a smart, beautiful, charming Indian woman, it could very well be yours truly ;-).

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-20T10:17:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I'm through 25% of my MBA! It's a very strange, yet satisfactory feeling.
This semester has been a whirlwind of activity - corporate presentations, OCD required events, quizzes, homeworks and midterms, club activities, and finally summer internship applications. If nothing else, this semester has taught me how to manage my time (somewhat) effectively.

Anyhow, I am off to India for 2 weeks to chill out, eat some good food and hang out with family and friends, and of course, to prepare for all the interviews scheduled in Jan.

Happy Holidays! And for all the applicants whose deadlines are around the corner, Good Luck!!

On the job front

2006-12-03T11:28:00.000-05:00

So, to give anyone interested a glimpse into how the whole summer internship application process works:

October: Shmooze with company reps when they come on campus for presentations, and get as many business cards as you can.
October-November: Write thank you notes and ask for informational interviews. An Informational Interview is - for most industries and companies - a meeting with someone at the company where you can have a conversation with them and find out as much as you can about the company, the industry and the different jobs in it. For jobs like IBanking and Sales & Trading, however, this process is more of an interview and less of a conversation (from what I've heard).
December: Apply to the companies for the various open positions
December: Companies will shortlist you for an interview based on your resume as well as the feedback they have received from the different people you have met and spoken to at the company.
January: Interviews and final decisions.

This same timeline is repeated in the spring for Entertainment, Media and Technology companies, perhaps with less emphasis on the informational interview.

In other words, think of it as a painful extension of the MBA application process (except for the small mercy of not having to write 4 essays for each application, which is more than offset by the pain of shmoozing with people every single day throughout October)

So, yours truly is currently in the process of writing custom cover letters, and praying that she doesn't make speling mistaks or indavertently refer to Ms. Jane Smith as Mr. Jane Smith, or confuse Morgan Stanley with JP Morgan in her cover letters, and remembers to send in all the applications by the correct deadline dates.

Fit and Community

2006-11-29T22:20:00.000-05:00

"Being an international applicant, I couldn't get a chance to visit the Stern campus.
It would be great if you could tell me little bit more about the Stern community and how fit a person from technical background is to Stern"

Regarding fit - to be entirely honest, I'm not sure I know how to answer that question. We do have a lot of engineers, but we also have a lot of people from other backgrounds. Stern really tries to get people from diverse backgrounds and also diverse future interests. It's hard to say how many engineers they would end up admitting because it depends on the size and mix of the applicant pool each year.

Regarding community - Now that I am here at Stern, I can say that our community is truly one of our biggest assets, in addition to our excellent faculty (especially in Finance and Marketing) and our location. One of the most valuable things you gain from your MBA is a lifelong network, and I think Stern really helps build and foster those relationships by establishing a very strong sense of community.

When I first visited Stern as a prospective student, I didn't expect to see a tight-knit community feeling among the students, especially because of the New York location and the lack of a typical campus structure. However, when I was at the information session, the 2 guys who were holding the information session seemed to know everyone! People were in groups everywhere, studying or just hanging out, and everyone seemed to know everyone. It was definitely eye-opening. And now that I am here, I can attest to that.

I think the way you build a community is getting together like-minded people and giving them a lot of opportunity to work and play together. And Stern does this very well - in your first semester, you are divided into Blocks of 60 each, and you take most core classes together with your block, but also do a lot of activities together - there are block parties, block volunteer activities (our block volunteered for the Avon Walk this year), and block dinners with each of our professors for this semester. Through these activities, you get to know everyone in your block pretty well by the end of the first semester. Add to this the different clubs that you will be member of, and all the different events and activities (both formal and alcohol-centric) that each club holds, and you can see how your sense of community and your network builds!

It's that time of the year again

2006-11-17T14:00:00.001-05:00

No, I'm talking about the stress-inducing holidays. I'm talking about the stress-inducing MBA application time. I've been receiving some emails about what Stern does, what the community is all about etc. , so I'm going to try and answer some of those questions here.

Today's question:
I was looking to gain insight into the student clubs/activities related to Finance at Stern. Could you please provide me information from your experience at Stern that you think sets the school apart from other leading B-Schools, especially in the finance field. What kind of activities does Stern organize that helps students pursuing a career in the finance field?

As any current B-school student will tell you, I don't think I can do a fair relative-value assessment. What I can talk about is what Stern does, so here goes.

NOTE: This is specific to Finance, but some of these activities apply to all industries and functions, and the professional clubs associated with each industry organize their own activities similar to the ones organized by the Graduate Finance Association here at Stern.

1. Official Corporate Events - During October and November, before you apply to companies for your summer intership (typically, applications are due the first week of Dec), atleast two to three companies come to campus every day for corporate presentations - these are typically a presentation followed by a reception during which you get to network with the representatives of the company (usually the companies are represented by somewhere between 5 and 20 people, depending on the type and size of the firm). These events are organized by the Office of Career Development (OCD).

2. Panels - The OCD holds a number of panels with MBA2's and alumni where you can learn more about a particular industry, company or function. There are a number of these that happen throughout your first semester to help you make a more informed decision about what track you want to pursue

3. Workshops - Because Finance jobs are highly sought after and the selection process is extremely competitive, the clubs alongwith the Office of Career Development host a number of workshops for Resume & Cover Letter Writing, Behavioral Interview, Technical Interview as well as specialized workshops such as How to Pitch a Stock etc. throughout the first semester to help you prepare for the application process.

4. Unofficial Corporate Events - In addition to the corporate presentations hosted by the school, there are also other, specialized events such as cocktail receptions with companies, which are hosted by clubs such as the GFA, AIM (Association for Investment Management), STR (Sales, Trading and Research club) and FEA (Financial Engineering Association).

5. GFA Hour - This is a 1.5 hour weekly lunch during which a company will come and talk about a topic - this could either be a case study of a recent deal that they completed, or it could be about a particular industry or a current issue affecting the economy or businesses. Not only are these highly informative, again these are also a great way to network with officers in the company. Typically, the companies who participate in GFA Hour are all the major investment banks, but we also have other financial institutions such as commercial banks, credit card companies, mutual funds etc.

6. Other - In addition to these, a number of clubs like the GFA organize alumni mixers, where you can network with alumni. The school has an online database of about 70,000 alumni worldwide whom you can contact. I have had tremendous response from all the alumni I have contacted, and they have been instrumental in my research into companies and industries.
So, as you can see, the school - through the OCD and the clubs - invests a lot of time and effort to make sure that you are successful in establishing a longterm career that is the right one for you.

I will try to talk more about other industries, in the coming weeks, but typically recruiting for Finance happens in early-mid Jan, followed by Consulting and Marketing. The Entertainment & Media, and Technology companies come to campus starting in March.

If you have questions, post a comment or send me an email and I will try to address them going forward.

Good luck with all your applications!

Fame, Glory and a Big Cardboard Check

2006-11-13T07:21:00.000-05:00

I recently found out about the Seventh Annual Deloitte Case Challenge at Stern, and decided to participate in it just for the challenge (if not at bschool, then when?). The competition was held last Thursday, and what follows is the sweat and tear-filled saga of the trials and tribulations of 5 classmates in search of glory and fame. Or something.

12 teams (out of 16 teams that applied) were selected at random using a lottery. Each team consisted of 5 members (thankfully, there was no random assignment of teams - we got to pick our own before the competition). We were given the case on Thursday night, and had till Friday 8am to prepare the presentation. What followed was a fun and challenging experience.

The case was about a men's wallet company looking to expand into the women's handbag market; we had to come up with an analysis on the soundness of the plan as well as recommendations for the next 5 years for the company. There was a lot of data provided alongwith the case, and one of the challenges was trying to sift out the relevant data. We took about an hour to read through the case and some of the materials in order to internalize the information, and another hour coming up with the right framework to use to evaluate the case. Since this was a market entry case, we decided to analyze it using the 4Ps (Product, Pricing, Placement and Promotion) and Porter's Five Forces. We then spent a good two hours talking about the case and brainstorming different ideas.

At around 10:30pm, we were finally ready to divide the case up and attack the components in teams of one or two. Broadly, we split this up into target market/placement, promotion, supply and manufacturing, financials and competitive landscape. In addition to the manufacturing and supply-chain research, I opted to do the financials alongwith another teammate, and this was probably the most challenging part of the case (and according to the judges, what really set us apart from the other teams). The financials were challenging because the company is private and the only financial data we were provided was an estimated income statement for 2006. The est. IS had entries for Sales Revenue, Cost of Revenue, Interest Expense and SG&A, and we had to make a ton of assumptions about expected revenues from the handbag business, cost of advertising, cost of capital and operating costs in order to do the requisite DCF valuations (thank you, Gode and Silber!!). What I found somewhat surprising was that none of the other teams did a DCF valuation (I guess it pays to have two finance geeks on the team! :-)).

After working on our individual slides for the next 4 hours, we put everything together and went over the deck a couple of times to check for accuracy and typos. At 4am, we decided to call it a night, and went home to get a couple of hours of sleep (apparently, we were one of two teams that got some sleep that night!). We were back in school at 8am to hand in 12 hardcopies of our slides. During our first round presentation at 9am, we presented for 30 minutes to a panel of 3 judges (just us and them in the room); there were about 4 or 5 questions at the end during the 5-minute Q&A session, a couple of which were quite challenging. After our presentation, we headed to the Starbucks lounge to get some shut-eye before lunch.

During lunch, the three finalist teams were announced, and somewhat to our surprise, we happened to be one of the teams!

The final round presentations followed a slightly different format. The room was open to all the other participants as well as the 4 teams who got eliminated by the lottery on the first day (overall, around 60-70 people). Each team was alloted 40 minutes to present to the audience and a panel of 9 judges, each of whom could interrupt us at any time to ask questions. Our team was the second to go. Our first teammate spoke of target market and placement, and was only asked one question, right at the end. This gave us a sense of hope that was quickly extinguished as we witnessed our second teammate get interrupted every 30 seconds during the course of her 4 minute speech. However, she held herself with amazing confidence and answered all the questions extremely well. I was the next to face the firing squad.

There are times in life when we surprise ourselves. I had no idea I could be so poised under pressure, or that I could "wing it" so well when required (I'm usually all about preparation, preparation, preparation!). I was barely 30 seconds into my speech when bang! came the first question. Next thing I knew, I was barely following my original speech format, having been forced to modify it in order to answer the questions that kept coming up. Luckily, I had done enough research on the topic (supply-chain and offshoring/outsourcing) to be able to answer most of the questions. A couple of questions threw me off a bit, but we had all agreed as a team that should we be asked for research or data that we didn't have, our answer should be "we'll have to research it some more and get back to you", which was a lifesaver!

Anyway, the rest of the presentation went off relatively smoothly, and we all heaved a huge sigh of relief and proceeded to the cocktail event to get some much needed alcohol-therapy. By this time, most of us had gone almost 36 hours without sleep (not counting the 2 hr nap in the morning), and were hardly in a mood to network with the Deloitte executives or with one another. The Deloitte guys probably saw this, and decided to announce the winner fairly early on and put us out of our collective misery.

For lack of a good segue, I shall put it quite bluntly - WE WON!!!!!!

We were awarded one of the ridiculously big cardboard checks (RBCC) for $2500 and somewhat smaller, individual carboard checks $500 each (and a wallet from the company that the case was based on). Much squealing, giggling and hugging (did I mention our team had 4 women? GIRL POWER!!) later, we posed for photos with our checks and some of the senior partners. After some more networking, we decided to drop the check off in front of our strategy professor's office (did I mention all of us are in the same block? GO BLOCK 3!!!), and head home for some overdue R&R.

HAPPY DIWALI!!

2006-10-21T15:03:00.000-04:00

Wishing all (both? :-)) my readers a Very Happy & Prosperous Diwali!! May the coming year bring you everything you wish for (and may that focus on happiness more than prosperity)!

Tiiiiiiiime

2006-10-06T19:05:00.000-04:00

What's been going on?

- B-schools have more VP positions than students. Everyone I know has become VP of something or the other ("VP of New VP Management") at some club or the other ("Association of Indian Ex-Software Engineers looking to move into Finance"). Some clubs are a bit too full of themselves (conducting multiple, rigorous interviews), while others will make you VP if you so much as bother showing up to their kickoff meeting.
- Corporate presentations are in full swing. This is when it helps to be focused because the presentations begin conflicting with each other (there are only 3 slots a day for presentations and a lot of companies).
- Midterms are in two weeks. Mid-terms?? It's barely been a month!

Dates Galore

2006-09-06T19:41:00.000-04:00

No, I'm not talking about the dinner-and-a-movie kind, sadly.

Between the academic deadlines (individual assignments, team assignments, team presentations, quizzes, midterms, finals), the Office of Career Development's (OCD) deadlines (resume reviews, interview workshops, career counselling), and the dates and deadlines for various clubs and activities, I am already running around like a chicken with its head cut off. And it's only been a week! Of course, I should've signed up for the time management workshop offered during preterm, but um, hehe, I was late in signing up for it. So, now, I really have to figure out a better system than Google calendar to manage my schedule. Maybe I need to suck it up and get a Treo or a Q. Even so, I somehow don't feel comfortable with the way things are setup on a regular calendar. I think I need to come up with some sort of custom spreadsheet.

In other news, we have a business plan competition coming up... er... sometime in the next two years, for which I have teamed up with a few people. We have a pretty solid idea, but a lot of research needs to be done to see if it's feasible. The prize is seed money, so if we can win, atleast I wouldn't have to go through the whole recruiting process, and that would be schweeeet!

Pre-Term

2006-08-27T18:22:00.000-04:00

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.

Some photos from Italy

2006-08-10T22:28:00.000-04:00

My Italy trip can be summed up in one word - "gastronomic". The whole trip was pretty much about eating and drinking. I think every meal I consumed consisted of 3 courses and half a bottle of wine (plus Amarone/Grappa/Limoncello and what-have-you). I think the only authentic Tuscan food I didn't eat was the tripe, which I was too chickenshit to try. The wines were very, very good across the board - Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Rosso di Montalcino, and Vino Nobile de Montepulciano. Even the Vino da Tavolo's (table wines) were pretty damn good. But, the thing I absolutely LOVED were the olives! I have never, ever tasted olives so fresh and succulent. Mmmm....

Anyway, the food was amazing, and the Tuscan landscape is so varied and beautiful; from the green groves of Chianti to the rolling plains of Volterra, to the hills of Montalcino, each region has its own distinctive look. The common thread is that the towns all have medieval forts and churches. I would've definitely liked to see more of Tuscany, especially northern Tuscany.

The one thing I would've done differently is stay somewhere in Tuscany (most likely somewhere in Chianti) rather than staying in Florence and taking day-trips. Florence is cool, but I liked the countryside a lot more. Also, because Florence is such an old city, there are way too many one-ways and winding roads, which makes getting in and out of Florence pretty time consuming.

Florence was kinda cool. It's a lot smaller and less modern than Rome or Milan, but it was easier to walk around in. It was also tons of fun renting a moped to drive around Florence for a couple of days. It's the best way to get around the city, and brought back wonderful memories of riding around Bangalore in a Kinetic Honda :-). I must say, I didn't care too much for the Uffizi. Too much Christianity without much thematic variation in the paintings. Or maybe just my ignorance.

Milan was cool the way New York or London or Paris is cool. I did splurge a bit in Milan and eat at a Michelin starred restaurant (I figured what the hell, I'll probably be living on pizza for the next two years), which was really good, but nowhere as good as a Michelin starred restaurant in Paris (IMHO, maybe the guide is only reliable for France). I also window-shopped on Via Napoleone and Via della Spiga (maybe in a few years, I might actually be able to buy something from one of those shops).

MILAN:
Tram Station. "Efficiency" and "Italian" seldom go together, but the tram timings were pretty accurately reflected on these little screens.

Top of the Duomo against an absolutely clear blue sky. Sadly, due to ongoing repairs, the rest of the facade was covered by a terribly unsightly billboard

Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle

Slightly creepy-looking souveniers

FLORENCE:
The marble facade of the Cathedral (at the Duomo)

Firenze - city of scooters and mopeds

Santa Croce at dusk (over the next couple of days, we kept getting lost and coming back to the same spot :-))

Dudes fishing in the Arno! ("catch of the day" at the neighborhood restaurant?)

TUSCANY:
The landscape around Volterra is a complete contrast to the Chianti landscape (more brown here than green, of the wheat fields)

Wine Barrells inside the Vignomaggio Winery in Greve

Chianti Country (grapevines, olive groves and cypress trees)

Lots of sunflower fields en route to Montalcino (from Florence)

View from terrace of the Vignomaggio Estate (a beautiful winery in Greve, producing some excellent Chianti Classico)

San Gimignano, city of 14 "skyscrapers" (medieval towers dating back to the 13th century, the tallest of which is 175 ft)

Almost there

2006-08-09T21:32:00.000-04:00

There have been a whole lot of little things to take care of before school. I finally completed the assessments (needn't have even studied all the material; they were really simple), registered for classes (all core courses since I can't really opt out of any of them), got my ID, submitted all the requisite forms etc.. I still need to buy a bag (backpack? messenger bag?), business calculator, stationery etc. Boring, but necessary.

I did use my new ID to visit the Bobst Library, and the Kaufman Mgmt Center. I'm hoping I have time to go back and check out more of Stern sometime next week. Also, it takes me only around 20 minutes to walk from my house to the campus, so it should be possible to walk to school on most days, rather than taking the subway.

Other than that, I've been reading a bit ("Altered Carbon", "Kite Runner", "Guns, Germs and Steel", "Freakonomics", "Maximum City"), hanging out with friends, cooking a lot and watching way too many "Law and Order" marathons.

Will post my Italy snaps soon...

A busy vacation

2006-06-23T10:35:00.000-04:00

My first week of unemployment has turned out to be a lot busier than I'd expected.

Planning an itinerary for my upcoming Italy trip is taking a surprisingly long time because there are so many towns in Tuscany that I want to visit, but so little time. Given that I'm spending about 5 days in Tuscany, I think the towns I've finally settled on for sure are Sienna, Greve in Chianti and San Gimigniano in addition to Florence. Cramming anything more than these into the itinerary is going to make the trip too hectic. Of course, since we're going to be driving around Tuscany, I'm sure there will be many impulsive detours, rendering the itinerary useless. Btw, please send in your suggestions if you have any, especially with regard to places to eat in Milan, Florence and Tuscany.

I hung out with Marina on Tuesday (we had lunch at some diner-ish place, and lazed around in Central Park for a few hrs), and have been watching the World Cup religiously (about the only time I watch soccer, sadly). I also did something very decadent and went clubbing in the middle of the week with a friend who's between jobs right now (it's been a long time since I've partied during the week).

On the Stern front, a bunch of things are scheduled to happen next week. Similar to the Lehman workshop, Merrill and Credit Suisse have IB workshops for women as part of their diversity recruiting efforts. The workshop is to introduce women to the various facets of IBanking. I'd applied to both workshops, and got accepted to the Merrill workshop which is scheduled for June 29th. While I'm still not entirely sure IB's the thing for me (even in S&T), it doesn't hurt to learn more about it.

Stern's organized a Summer Party on June 28th. It feels like the networking is already in full swing. So far, we've had a bunch of informal Happy Hours, two official events and now a third one, and school hasn't even started yet!

So, 2 events right before I leave for Italy (I take off on the 30th). Busy week ahead.

Other than that, my Fin & Accounting assessments are due in early August, so I figured I should finally start working on those. I've covered a couple of chapters so far. It's not tough, but there is a lot of material to cover, so I'm beginning to feel a bit nervous about completing it on time.

That's it till I get back from Italy. Ciao!

Ahhh...

2006-06-19T07:47:00.000-04:00

The first day of my 2-month break.

It's amazing how easy it is to wake up at 6am when you don't have to go to work.

Stern Preview II

2006-06-09T10:27:00.000-04:00

Stern held a second Preview last night for admits who hadn't had the opportunity to attend the first one. The number of attendees was far less making it a much more intimate affair. It was also great recognizing people from the first Preview and from message boards etc.

Since the official event was only 3 hours long, there weren't too many activities. There was a welcome address by the Dean of Admissions, followed by a screening of 2 cool ad films from ProMotion Pictures, a short team-building session (which was quite a hoot), and a cocktail reception. There was the usual alcohol-fuelled revelry afterwards, which I skipped.

I felt like this reception was more fun than the one at the NYSE. This might've been primarily because there were fewer people (maybe I should've applied to Yale? :-)), but also because everyone who was there yesterday was definitely attending Stern, instead of being there to evaluate and decide between schools, which made the atmosphere much more relaxed, I think.

As with last time, I met so many people from so many different backgrounds (whatever happened to all the fin guys? I didn't run into a lot of those). Always fun for someone like me whose social circle consists of people from at most 3 industries. I also met a whole bunch of MBA2 Desis, all very cool people. It's especially fun to talk to Indians who went to the top engineering schools around the same time as you and find you know a whole bunch of people in common. Small world!

The other thing that came out of this affair was that after hearing about all the different things that current students are doing over the summer, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe, instead of being so set on IBanking, I should be considering something a bit more exotic (Entertainment Media? Real Estate? Just kidding. Still something within Fin/Tech). We'll see. I'm hoping to start doing some serious research into post-mba career after next week.

That's pretty much it. Oh, and one rant: Towards the end of the evening, I ran into an admit who said something to this effect: "all the NYU schools are great except Stern". WTF? If you feel this way, why did you apply? And at this stage in the game, if you still have a chip on your shoulder about having been rejected by the M7 or wherever, GET OVER IT, or, if rankings matter so much to you, wait another year and reapply to those schools. I think an MBA is too great an investment of your time and money to feel this way about the school you're planning to attend. Not to mention the fact that you're not going to make any friends with that kinda attitude.

Anyway, rant over. It's a gorgeous spring day here in NYC, and I'm off to enjoy a long lazy lunch with some colleagues.

Stern application process

2006-06-06T01:31:00.000-04:00

Since there aren't too many bloggers out there (that I know of) who're attending Stern, I thought I'd put in my two cents about the Stern application process.

Before we start, FWIW, here are my stats:

GMAT: 740 (balanced quant and verbal score)
Undergrad GPA: Mid 3s from Top 10 engineering school in India (BS in CS)
Work ex: 6 years (mix of software development, project management, some tech consulting thrown in. About 3 years of experience leading teams)
Extra Curriculars: Lots of it with leadership positions in undergrad, 2 long-term involvements since then, one very strong and community focused, the other less so.

Ok, onto the application.

Must Do's before you start on your application:

As with all schools, in order to have enough to write about in response to "why Stern", make sure you visit the school and attend classes if possible. Talk to as many current students, alumni and profs as you can.

Good to know:

1. Information sessions (and a tour of the school) are held Mon-Thur at 4pm, and are a great way to get a feel for the school. If you visit on a Thursday, you can attend the weekly "beer blast", and meet current students.
2. If you want to sit in on a class, this is only allowed during the Fall term (in the Spring term, invitations to class-visits are issued alongwith interview invites only). If you're applying for the full-time program, make sure you attend a daytime class. The first class I sat in on was a 6pm-9pm class filled with part-timers, and the energy level was understandably low, which concerned me somewhat. Thankfully, my concerns were allayed when I later attended a reasonably enthusiastic and interactive morning class.
3. You can call the number listed on the website and talk to one of the MBA Graduate Ambassadors during the day. They're very responsive and helpful (of course, they are brand ambassadors, so you might get too rosy a picture of the school, but atleast you can get your questions answered).
4. Research the different specializations and clubs. Stern places a lot of emphasis on the Stern Community, so it's absolutely essential that you know how you will be contributing to the community once you're there.

Essays:

3 of the 4 Stern essays are probably the most straightforward essays you can hope for (not sure how much has changed for 2007), so there really isn't much advice here that's not already obvious.

Essay-related things to remember: Definitely get your essays read by atleast 2 or 3 other people who have gone through the process (with admits preferably :-)). It also helps to have someone who is really good at English edit your essays by checking for grammatical errors and maybe also tightening up the language (don't lose "your voice" though).

Essay1:
Professional Aspirations: Think about the decisions you have made in your life. Describe the following (2 pages maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font): (a) What choices have you made that led you to your current position? (b) Why pursue an MBA at this point in your life? (c) What is your career goal upon graduation from NYU Stern? What is your long term goal?

This is pretty much your standard goals essay. You need to make a connection between your past, present and the future, and how an MBA will help you get to where you want to go. The unasked question here, which nevertheless needs to be addressed in great detail, is "why stern".

The biggest problem I had with this essay was the space. 2 pages, double-spaced with 12 point-font (even the narrowest 12-point font on a page with a 0.25 margin :-)) is simply not enough to answer all the questions above. The way I attacked this was by writing in as much detail as I could, and then whittling it down with each subsequent draft till it fit the requirements without compromising on the story.

What I wrote:

- Intro (Don't do the cheesy quotation bit :-))
- Why I got into Computer Science, why I decided to switch companies when I did, what I learnt and achieved at each company. Basically I tried to talk more about the reasons behind the actions and also the lessons learnt and skills developed rather than direct achievements here (since that's what the resume is for).
- Why MBA.
- Detailed short term goals (I went so far as to list possible companies and departments at which I'd like to work upon graduation) and why.
- How the different specializations, courses and club activities at Stern would help me achieve these goals (i.e. Why Stern). I also talked briefly about how Stern was the right fit for me.- How I would contribute (i.e. Why me) .
- Long term goals (which I left somewhat vague, listing a few leadership and entreprenuerial possibilities, but not really focusing on one versus the other) .
- Conclusion.

Essay2:
Fit with Stern: The NYU Stern community is one of our strongest assets. Please answer the following questions about community: (2 pages maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font):(a) What is your personal experience with the Stern community? What actions have you taken to learn more about us?(b) How would you contribute to our community as a student?(c) How will you benefit personally and professionally from the Stern community?

This, again, is fairly straightforward. The adcomm basically wants to make sure you have researched the school (as is obvious from (a) above), and will be a good fit ((b) and (c)). Be very specific, which means research and talk to current students about their involvement in the Stern community.

Try to balance the professional, community and recreational activities. If you feel like there's a new club you might start, write about it and explain why and how. Try to sound passionate (and realistic!) about each activity. Obviously, having strong community involvement in your past goes a long way towards strengthening this essay. If you're a woman, definitely write about SWIB (Stern Women in Business). I know everyone mentions it, but an omission would be glaring. The same applies to industry-specific clubs.

What I wrote:

I talked about my overall personal experience at Stern as a prospective student in the introductory paragraph. I talked about my community involvement in the past and present, and then segued into the impact I would make at Stern. I listed 4 things which I felt I could contribute significantly towards, and for each activity, I talked about what I would contribute, and how it would benefit me (either professionally, personally or both).

Essay3:
Personal Expression: Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use any method to convey your message (e.g. words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative. Please be aware that only .doc, .rtf, .xls, and .txt files may be uploaded here. If you submit Essay 3 with your supplementary materials, please include a brief description of it here. All submissions become part of NYU Stern's permanent records and cannot be returned for any reason. We do not recommend submitting anything that must be viewed or played electronically, or that is perishable (e.g. food). If you submit a written essay, it should be 2 pages maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font.

This is the most fun and most frustrating essay of the lot. I had wanted to create some sort of software for this, but since you can't send in anything that has to be played or run on a machine, that was pretty much out. To get an idea of what people have done in the past for this essay, be sure to check out this NPR segment.

The main thing here is that while you need to be creative, you also need to convey atleast 2-3 key attributes of yourself that fit in with the overarching theme of your essays, either explicitly or implicitly (like the example of the soft-toy mentioned in the segment).

What I did:

This is not all that creative, but I basically personalized the front page of the Stern Opportunity. I "published" the first page (in newspaper form) with 3 articles -- a personal interview (to highlight things I couldn't talk about in the other essays), an essay about a certain social cause that I'm very passionate about, and one not-very-special article that I won't even go into -- and a couple of other cutesy things and photos thrown in for effect. All of the articles were pretty short, obviously. The reason I picked this format (other than the fact that I coudn't think of anything better) was that it felt like a good way to not only convey things I couldn't through the other essays, but also display an added interest in the school. And also, it felt easier than doing something genuinely creative :-).

Essay4:
Additional Information:Please provide any additional information that you would like to bring to the attention of the admissions committee. This may include gaps in employment, your undergraduate record, plans to retake the GMAT or any other relevant information (optional).

Talk about anything in your application that might be an issue. I didn't obtain a recommendation from my direct supervisor, so I had to explain why.

Recommendations:

Plenty of good advice out there about recommendations. The only thing I can add that not everyone might run into is that if your recommender asks you to write the reco on their behalf (as I was asked to by one of my recs), be very very careful about the tone of the reco. The reco should not sound like your essays (in tone), and should sound like it was actually written by the person who is supposedly writing it (i.e. if your recommender is an MD, the reco shouldn't read like it was written by a 2nd year analyst). This was a lot harder than I thought, and my recommender had to make quite a few changes to it before the reco read like something she'd write.

Interview:

All interviews (except international ones) are held at Stern by either admission officers or MBA2's (you could have two people interviewing you). You are given a choice of dates and times for the interview. Alongwith the interview, you can schedule lunch with a current student and also a class visit. I decided to do the student lunch and the class visit the day before the interview so that I would have some additional material for the interview, if required. I'm a morning person, so I scheduled the first slot in the morning. One thing to remember is that the interview slots get booked pretty quickly, so it's hard (not impossible) to change the dates later.

I spent about 3-4 days prepping for the interview. I culled all possible Stern-interview questions from accepted.com's interview database, and rehearsed answering each of them in front of a mirror. The most helpful thing, for me, was having a mock interview conducted by a friend of mine. You can sound perfect when rehearsing in front of a mirror, but the true test is in trying to explain to a real person why you want an MBA so badly, why Stern is the absolute perfect school for you, and why the school would be committing a collossal mistake by not admitting you. I strongly recommend having a friend conduct a mock interview. Apparently, I had quite a few major interviewing issues:

1. My description of my projects tended to be too technical (my friend is an advertiser turned mgmt consultant)
2. My description of my career choices tended to be too verbose
3. Apparently, I sounded too tense and wound up. This was the worst. And this is very important because the interviewer is evaluating you based not only on your answers, but also on your overall body language and behavior during the interview (who wants to work with someone who has a breakdown everytime there's a stressful situation).

On the day of the interview, I got there about 15 minutes early, and hung out with another interview candidate. Despite all the nerves during the mock interview, I was super-relaxed that morning. The Stern interview is not a blind interview. i.e., the interviewer has read your entire application, and might ask you to elaborate or explain certain parts of your application. So, read through your application thoroughly the day before (or the day of) your interview. Know your application well and be prepared to answer questions about it.

My interviewer, an Assistant Admissions Director, had a copy of my creative essay in front of her, and seemed pretty amused by one of the photographs. There couldn't have been a better start to the conversation! We chatted about the photo briefly. She asked me about my social-cause involvement, so I talked in detail about that and why it meant so much to me (it's so easy to sound passionate when you actually are passionate about something :-)). This was a good opening to talk about the Stern community, so I talked a bit about that. The conversation moved on at some point to technology, so I talked about some of the work I'd done, and what I wanted to do post-MBA. There were a lot of opportunities to weave "why stern" into the conversation. She asked me to elaborate on the departments and companies I'd mentioned in the goals essay, which I was able to do very satisfactorily because of all the research I'd done. We also talked about women in technology, at which point the interviewer narrated a pretty amusing story from the last SWIB conference. I felt like this was a clear indication that the interview was going well. The only place I stumbled a bit was when she asked me about conflict resolution. Now, I knew what I wanted to talk about in response to this question, but the way she worded the question was a bit vague, and instead of just asking her to clarify (which is the obvious and smart thing to do), I sort of stumbled through the answer not even certain that I'd answered the right question. But, I managed to sound confident and poised through it, so maybe it worked (or not, who knows). I was asked if I had any questions/concerns. I had 2 or 3 questions that she answered in detail. At the end of 30 minutes, she wrapped up by telling me she'd be sending in her evaluation to the committee and that I'd hear from them within 3 weeks.

Overall, it was a very good interview experience. I was pleasantly surprised when we started chatting in the beginning because I was under the impression (after reading all the interview feedback on accepted.com) that all Stern interviews were rapid fire Q&A style interviews.

So, that wraps up my 2 cents (and about 3 hours of my time). Hope this is helpful for anyone applying to Stern next year. If you have any further questions, leave a comment or email me.

Where in the world is...

2006-06-02T10:56:00.000-04:00

It's been a busy two weeks.

I've finally given my 2-weeks notice. June 16th is my last day at work! Woohoo! There were, as anticipated, mixed reactions to the news. There were people who looked at me with a mixture of pity and incredulity as if I were going through a midlife crisis. Others handled it better and looked at me with only mild disgust. Overall, not too bad though.

True Story:
I never actually bought into the whole "deals are made on the golf course" BS, but here's what happened to me last weekend. I was playing golf (*gasp! yes, I am a closet golf-lover*) on Monday, and because the course was crowded, I was asked to play alongwith a father-son pair. It turns out that the father taught at Columbia BSchool for about 15 years (till a few years ago) and is now at a financial services firm, and the son is a recent CBS alumn. Anyway, long story short, we had a lot of fun talking about BS (BSchool and the other BS), and at the end of the round, the older gentleman mentioned the possibility of finding me a summer internship at his firm!!

Ok, so it's not a done deal, but I spoke to him earlier today, and it looks like it might actually work out. I'm meeting with him and some others from his firm next week to check it out. Very exciting! Of course, the question now is, do I really want to work this summer? I was really looking forward to taking 2 months off and catching up on sleep, reading pulp fiction, and watching shitty reality TV. Oh, and completing the fin and accounting assessments that Stern has sent out. Summer homework! Feels like school already!

In other news, I have started researching my Italy trip (I'll be travelling to Florence and Tuscany). So far, this has mainly involved going to the neighborhood Italian restaurant and consuming massive amounts of spaghetti and tiramisu, and imbibing many litres of Chianti. Once I've mastered these, I'll move onto the less important things like buying a guidebook, checking out some websites, creating an itinerary etc. Oh, and the very painful process of getting a Schengen visa to Italy (though, IMO the visa process for Spain was much more painful).

That's that for now. I am working on a post about the Stern application process, since there aren't many posts out there dealing with Stern specifically. So, be sure to read the feed.

To Do for the Summer

2006-05-18T09:11:00.000-04:00

So, I can finally start planning my summer. My to do:

1. Research post-MBA jobs by connecting with more alumni, MBA2s etc.
2. Maybe brush up on some pre-MBA math? I don't exactly feel like shelling out $100 for the MBA Math course. Need to find other, less expensive options.
3. Trip to Italy (planned), and India (not yet planned).
4. Finally make some progress with Spanish. And learn some basic Italian for trip.

Closure

2006-05-16T21:52:00.000-04:00

It wasn't even an anticlimax. Felt like a non-event.

I was in the middle of a conference call, absent-mindedly refreshing my google homepage, and there it was - the Status Update mail from Columbia. Exactly 8 weeks to the day.

As expected (in those moments when i dared to think realistically), it was a DING without an interview.

Four hours later, it finally sunk in on the train ride home.

"How the fuck could they not even invite me for an interview?"
"If only I'd applied for ED or RD"

Anyway, it's done, and I can move on.

Are you Linked In?

2006-05-04T20:00:00.000-04:00

About a year and a half ago, as if under mass hypnosis, seemingly everyone on my team decided to join LinkedIn. After receiving around 10 LinkedIn invitations everyday for a week, I finally caved. I signed up, accepted the invitations and promptly forgot about the whole thing (Yes, Yes, I know. For a techie, I'm an incredibly slow adopter and usually pretty skeptical about The New New Thing. *gasp*!).

Sometime last month, I received a LinkedIn invite from a high-school classmate of mine whom I hadn't seen in years! Intrigued, I signed in, and decided to investigate further.

For the next two hours, I looked through my connections' networks (somehow, this feels a bit dirty - like secretively going through someone else's letters), and what I found was an eye-opener. I had expected the networks to consist mostly of people from the IT industry. However, in addition to techies, there are tons of people from the ibanking and consulting industries, among others. Also a lot of MBA candidates from various schools. Not just that, most profiles I looked at were quite detailed, listing entire employment and educational history!

I did some random searches on ex-classmates from high school and college, with whom I'd falled out of touch. I was able to get back in touch with a lot of them (contacting some of them required a paid subscription, which kinda sucked). The site even tells you how many degrees of seperation there are between you and the person you seek (kinda like playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon :-)), and allows you to contact the person through someone in your immediate network.

This is what LinkedIn had to say about my network:
"Your connections are in 11 industries, but your network gives you access to 147 additional industries, including:

Apparel & Fashion
International Trade and Development
Utilities"

11 industries!! And I thought I only knew people in tech and finance! Maybe I'll seek out someone in "Apparel and Fashion" to get some discounts on designer-wear :-). Or not. I keep forgetting I'll have to start living the penurious student-life soon.

The point is, LinkedIn seems like a very effective professional networking and recruiting tool. I'm curious to find out how many of my fellow mba applicant bloggers are linked in (for all I know, everyone on the planet is already on it, having been networking aggressively for the last 3 years while I was relying on the good ol' approach of "any idea what so-and-so is doing now? last i heard he had some sort of lame blog detailing his mba application process").

------
An interview with one of LinkedIn's co-founders from about a month ago:
Interview

Damnation of the Procrastinators

2006-04-27T14:37:00.000-04:00

I'm at that stage now where most other mba applicants were 3 months ago - refreshing email 10 times a day (yeah, it's down from 10 times/hr to 10 times/day) to check for status updates. Alas! No other bloggers share my plight (except maybe those on the waitlist at various schools). It's lonely out here in status-limbo land.

To clarify (since "TICK TOCK..." isn't really descriptive), here was the timeline of both my apps:

Stern:
Submitted: Feb 24th
Invited to Interview: Mar 2nd (You like me! You really like me!)
Interviewed: Mar 9th
Admitted: Mar 22nd

Columbia:
Submitted: Mar 3rd
Status Change: Under Review on Mar 16th

This is not to say that I'm not super-excited about Stern; it's just that not knowing is really frustrating. I need CLOSURE dammit! I wish Columbia would concoct more intermediate statuses (statii?), just so we have slightly more frequent updates to fret about ("application printed", "application under review", "application filed under not-another-indian-software-engineer category", "application to be considered only if the other 999 I/S/Es decide to go to W/Chi/K etc.").

Anyway, in the meantime, there's always the ever contentious, never dull BW forums to keep me distracted. Oh, and work too, I guess. There's a looming deadline and it's the last thing I want to do right now.

In other news, I did have a talk with my boss, and they did offer me a pretty substantial raise, but not a different role (which would've been much more enticing than the raise), so I think I'm going to stick to my current plan. Hopefully, I won't regret it.

Lastly, congratulations to all the Best Of Blogging bloggers out there!!

Stern Preview Weekend

2006-04-26T10:43:00.000-04:00

So, despite my somewhat inebrieted state, I made it to and through the Stern Preview Weekend, and managed to have a lot of fun in the process. The activities started on Sunday afternoon and ended Monday evening.

Day1:

The first session kicked off with a series of welcome speeches (one standard, two entertaining and one slightly lame). One of the interesting "exercises" in the course of the first session was for each student from NY (there were a LOT of us) to find someone who wasn't from NY and discover something (preferably something fun/cute/witty) they had in common in the course of a 90-sec conversation. The Top10 responses were very creative (unfortunately, I happened to be sitting in a group consisting mainly of NY-ers, so by the time I walked halfway across the auditorium to find a non-NY-er, all we could get to was "um, do you tapdance? did you run with the masaimara in africa, by any chance? hey! we both like zadie smith!")

The second session was the "Block Experience" where we were divvied up into blocks (60 students) and within the block into "study groups" and given a pretty entertaining assignment. This one was a lot of fun, and in the process, we got to know our individual groups pretty well.

The next session was pretty glitzy - a cocktail reception at the NY Stock Exchange. This is the first time I've been to the NYSE, and my first reaction was pretty geeky ("wow! checkout all those computers!"). The reception was a great opportunity to meet current students, some alumnae, professors and of course, a lot of my potential classmates. The people I met were extremely diverse in their cultural backgrounds, pretty smart overall, and mostly down-to-earth (there's always a couple of arrogant pricks at any gathering). While the professional backgrounds were diverse enough, I still found that a lot of people came from a finance background. I guess this was to be somewhat expected given the reputation of the school.

After an evening of wine and dainty finger food, we proceeded to the unofficial part of the weekend - an evening of beer and greasy barfood with current students at a bar near union sq (can't remember the name now). About an hour into the proceedings, my lack of sleep caught up with me and I had to leave somewhat reluctantly. I believe the party went on till the wee hours of the morning.

Day2:

After guzzling a grande latte, I made my way down to W.4th street for another day of meeting and greeting. I skipped a couple of optional events (housing tour and breakfast) and headed for something called the "Torch Expo", which was a great opportunity to talk to students in specific industries and figure out what the do, how they landed the job etc.

Lunch was another fun round of socializing with future classmates. Dean Cooley addressed the crowd with a short speech. The Keynote speaker was the President of Liz Claiborne International. The theme of his speech was, as is to be expected, about Stern's impact on his career, and his career story. Pretty impressive, I thought. The only disappointment was the food.

Post lunch, we headed into classes of our choice. Apparently, I had picked (I don't remember doing this) a Strategy class. I attended the "Strategy and Game Theory" class by Professor Adam Brandenberger (ex-HBS). Call me a nerd, but for me, this was the best part of the weekend. The professor was witty and the class was pretty entertaining, in addition to being informative. And not just that, he correlated the major topics he covered in the class with real-world business situations for each of those. The students were very interactive and the class was simply awesome! Can't wait to start school!

Class was followed by a workshop specific to your selected industry. I decided to go with the Consulting workshop since it sounded like more fun than the fin one. We got to work on a sample case study and come up with an elevator pitch at the end of it. I think, in both the group exercises, I ended up with the most fun, laid-back and kooky team. We had a lot of fun doing the case and also coming up with a somewhat bizarre elevator pitch.

The last event of the weekend was "International Passport Day". This was a LOT OF FUN. The students had set up a huge tent outside the Kaufman Mgmt Center, within which the event was held. It was basically a food fest featuring food from around 20 countries!! Finally some YUM food!! Alongwith the food, there were dance/music/martial arts performances by students from some (each?) of these countries! The DESI MBAs put on a KICKASS dance performance - BHANGRA ROCKS!!! So, after mingling some more and stuffing myself silly with everything from lamingtons to samosas to paella to barbecue to sushi, it was finally time to head home and get some sleep.

On the whole, the event was a great way to meet people, and a good introduction to the hectic mba-student lifestyle. After this weekend, I'm not praying for Columbia as fervently as I was before :-).

Stern Preview Weekend - Prologue

2006-04-23T11:37:00.000-04:00

After partying all night (friend's birthday) and praying at the altar of the porcelain gods at 4am, here I am, just a few hours before my Stern Preview weekend, nursing a hangover, blogging (this thing's an addiction!), watching spongebob (needed a distraction from the hangover that doesn't involve any brain activity) and trying to figure out the schedule. And, of course, grappling with the eternal question - "What should I wear?" :-)

Oh, and did I mention it's been raining nonstop in nyc all weekend?

Nice way to start the whole MBA experience, innit? Anyway, pretty excited despite physical state.

Wall Street

2006-04-22T11:40:00.000-04:00

Is there a single book on wall street that doesn't paint a negative picture of it?

Dangling the Carrot

2006-04-22T00:41:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week, I spoke to my boss about going back to bschool fulltime. Told him I hadn't decided yet, but would let him know in a couple of weeks for sure. At the time, he merely expressed the usual sentiments - "we'll miss you around here", "we hope you'll come back and work for us postMBA" etc.

Today, he sent me an instant message telling me that the company would like to offer me more exciting projects to choose from, as well as more exciting compensation, and that they want me to give serious consideration to sticking around. No details were divulged, but I have to face yet another meeting next week.

Kinda exciting! Makes me a bit uneasy to know that my opportunity cost is about to increase.

So, question for the day - for how much would you be willing to walk away from a bschool offer?

Am I really giving this up?

2006-04-21T15:48:00.000-04:00

Given the number of techies out there (especially us desis) who apply for an MBA, I thought this was worth a mention. In case all you bloggers have already discussed this ad nauseum since morning, I apologize in advance for beating a dead dog:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/top50/index.html

The best job in America is .... SOFTWARE ENGINEER!

YAY!!

Oh, wait a minute. I'm trying to escape it.

Seriously though. It does give me pause.If we techies are holding down the supposedly best job out there (based on growth prospects, flexibility, compensation etc.) , why are so many of us so eager to give it up and join the mba bandwagon?

Money?
Partly, but that's only if you want to go down the traditional IB/MC path. The median post-MBA income for other industries isn't all that better than the median tech income (atleast, the median tech income in nyc). Actually, are there any techies out there who are not going into IB/MC post-MBA?

Career Path?
I know there's been a lot of discussion on the value of an MBA career-wise, and I don't really want to ignite another one here, but this might be one of the biggest motivators, IMO. An MBA "opens doors" for you etc.

Quality of Life?
All said and done, we techies have it pretty good. More flexibility than most jobs, decent hours (considering the pay) notwithstanding the few weeks every year when we have to work insane hours.

Just curious.

My reasons? Personally, I've been doing IT at an iBank the last couple of years, and have developed a pretty strong liking for the business. Plus, hey, if I'm working wall street hours, might as well get paid that wall street bonus, eh? :-)

Giving in to my obsession

2006-04-21T11:54:00.000-04:00

My new blog is going through multiple identity crises. Given my varied interests (more about this later), this was initially supposed to be a mish-mash of postings about all those interests.

However, the last three months of my life have centered around one thing and one thing alone - Getting into business school at either Columbia or NYU (personal reasons for staying in NYC). And in this process, I have found great comfort in reading about other applicants' trials, victories and downfalls. So, to fuel the obsession further, I am throwing my hat into the MBA Blogger ring and converting this blog, atleast for now, into a forum for documenting my journey through the MBA process.

The story so far:

After almost two years of agonizing decision-making (read: flipping a coin to decide whether to mba or not), Desigal decides to give up the life of a code monkey and have a go at applying for an mba in 2005. After taking the GMAT in mid '05, gets cold feet at the prospect of giving up a comfortable job with flexible hours, a good-if-you're-living-anywhere-but-in-nyc income, going into debt and living the student life for two years. Finally, after much procrastination, decides to give it a last-minute shot. Gets into Stern (yay!) and still agonizing over Columbia.

Coming up:

Waiting for Columbia... Stern Admit Weekend... Quitting my job... Figuring out what I want to do post-MBA...

Stay tuned!

Welcome!

2006-04-20T19:12:00.000-04:00

After two hours of painful pondering trying to pick out a blog name (boy, am I late joining the blog train or what!), here I am, posting my first entry and sending it off into the ether, not unlike a trepidant mother sending off her kid to his first day of school.

Anyway folks, welcome to my blog. The blog's monicker needs some explanation for those of you reading who aren't from the subcontinent. So, I pulled out the definition of Desi from - where else, but wikipedia:

DESI is a term used by South Asians to refer to themselves (in a manner that avoids any allusion to the specific state of origin and pointing to a common broader identity). This is also the name of the subculture found amongst the South Asian diaspora.

So, there it is. I am a desi gal in the Big Apple, and this blog will contain my brainfarts, drunken musings etc.