Quantum Leap

The Night Before

2010-05-23T05:49:00.002+03:00

40,000 people are the new addition to the Charlottesville population count. At least for this weekend - graduation weekend.

The historical ceremony on the lawn has been cancelled due to the weather. The Darden ceremony will not be outside and we will be moving to the basketball court in Northgrounds Gym.

This was the essence of the article on a Darden news website. The date was 5/23. It was published, however two days earlier. It caused quite a scare. I'm assuming it was the result of a quick finger on the publish button rather than the save button.

Only twice in the last twenty years was the ceremony performed in sever weather conditions.

The whole town is crossing its fingers for the announcement tomorrow morning. Tomorrow at 8:00 am we will have the final answer and know if we would be denied of the privilege of graduating on Thomas Jefferson's lawn and then at Darden under the sky.

Live Report

2010-04-16T01:05:00.002+03:00

I have decided to try a special kind if post today. A Live report. Courtasy of my Blogger iPhone App.

18:15 First stop: Cold Call.

Walking there I can hear the music playing. Apparently today the LASA band is playing. Just got a phone call reporting that sone food has been set asside for me.

Good Mexican food. Good friends. Good music. Makes me sad that we are leaving this place soon.

19:15 Marketing and martinis.
The annual marketing club event. You can guess the theme. My friend and i were champions of Cornhole a game i just learned last week.

20:15
Japan and Korea party at the Jefferson Ridge club house.

Saki Bombs, kareoki and Japan/Korean food. I never knew there was such a thing as octapus balls. There's a bet going on about what time the first person will go in the pool. Had the chance to mass sing "That loving feeling" before we left.

11:30
J's birthday party. LASA style. Had to give up TNDC tonight. Thankfully, prioritizing is one of the most important aspects you learn at Darden.

Whitewater Rafting

2010-04-10T06:03:00.001+03:00

Twice a year our Outdoors Club organizes (among other things) a rafting trip in West Virginia. We left yesterday and arrived in our cabins at night. WV is an amazing state for those who like the outdoors and the scenery was breathtaking.

This whole week we had temperatures of 31 Celsius, but yesterday afternoon it started to get chilly and I spent the night locating and sealing the holes in my blanket wrap project.

We dressed up heavily with wetsuits and set out to explore New River - one of the two oldest rivers in the world.

We lost nobody although some people did end up swimming the waters. It was a lot of fun and good organization by the new First Year leadership of the club.

We were back in town just in time for the epic section D animal house party in an old (used to be) fraternity house.

And then there were only three weeks left...

From Military to Business

2010-04-04T20:15:00.003+03:00

While it has been a while since I finished my military service and I had finished my transition to the business world a long time ago, some of my Darden friends will be taking their first steps in doing so in about a month.

Darden is one of a few schools, along with MIT and NYU that are exceptionally military friendly. The Darden Military Association (DMA) provides the support and experience required for a smooth transition to the private sector and civilian life. Part of the perks is getting to meet some of the more interesting people who have taken this track.

This week the DMA hosted a breakfast with Kevin Sharer - CEO of Amgen and had the opportunity to discuss the transition described above combined with Kevin's life story (he insists his name is Kevin and not Sir) and contrast it with some background reading.

I found Kevin to be an honest, straight to the point, what you see is what you get type of person. When asked about his transition and his life flow that led him to his current position, he replied that "this is usually the first question I get and what you meant is "this guy has a cool job. I want to be like him. If I find out what his formula was, maybe I can do the same"". He then continued and explained that if he told us his story, we'd conclude that he won the lottery. But if we hear other people at similar positions' stories, we'd conclude they wont the lottery as well.

The truth is that life just happens regardless of plans and what we may think they will look like for us. It was nice, however, to hear that he thought (not surprisingly) highly of our military experience that besides leadership traits, has provided us with a high tolerance for ambiguity and independent and adaptive thinking.

Farmer's Market

2010-04-03T18:12:00.004+03:00

Today the Charlottesville Farmer's Market has finally returned. For me, this marks the official beginning of spring.

Fresh free-range farm eggs, cheese tastings and the wonderful smells followed by a stroll in the historic downtown mall sipping an iced- mocca on a warm sunny day.

No better way to start the weekend.

You only get what you give

2010-03-20T12:17:00.000+02:00

It's hard to believe, but my two years at Darden are almost over. They tell you these are the best two years of your life.

They are.

After a wonderful spring break spent in the San Francisco Bay area, Phoenix and sunny Florida, I landed in Charlottesville airport and almost kissed the ground. I realized how much i love this place. It was good to be back.

The week started started at a typical Darden pace with the finesse of a locomotive trying to bring a car to 88 MPH by running into it. Before I knew it, the week was over and I now have only 6 weeks left here. So sad.

I met professor I hold a lot of respect for on my way home yesterday. I mentioned what a great experience these two years were for me and how sad I am that it will all be over soon. His response was that it was a great experience because I was so involved. "The program is as good as what you put into it". He mentioned how he felt that in every discussion we've had in class, I was always there, in it and had something to say. It was flattering to hear that. He was right, of course. If you just come here for the boat ride, you'll make it across, but you'll miss out on so much.

As you begin you MBA journey in a few months or start your second year you'll have a lot on your plate, but try and keep that in mind. Give it everything you've got. Take on leadership roles, make friends, build houses, learn and have fun while you're at it. It will be over before you can know it.

SHE Auction

2010-02-21T07:57:00.002+02:00

Every year the National Association of Women MBA (NAWMBA) organizes the SHE Auction. The Shelter for Help in Emergency's goal is to eliminate domestic violence and the auction is a great source of donations. This year the event was held at the Boar's Head Inn, which is a good enough reason to attend by itself. A red carpet greated the guests along a reception of two of our more entertaining second year students. Various items were on sale in a silent auction from artistic photographs to a basketball signed by the Cavaliers. During dinner, a live auction was running selling the higher priced items such as a flat in London that went for a thousand dollars per night and a famous dinner made by a few of our professors.

This is one just more example of Darden students giving back to the community during the two years they are here ( and having fun while they're at it).

A few items has some fierce competitors. My main rival for the basketball did not want it to get on the hands of a non-double 'Hoo.

The evening ended with dancing to the wee hours of the night.

While the dancing was still going on, a few of us second years retreated to the inn's old-fashioned bar.

As for the basketball, I joined forces with my friend and after sending his girlfriend to bid for us, I now have a 50% stake in a basketball investment.

Women's Leadership Week

2010-02-17T21:56:00.003+02:00

This week is women's leadership week.

The week was full of interesting events and speakers. Today I participated in a discussion about "women and the labyrinth of Leadership: Why women don't make it into the c- suite" moderated by professor Ed Freeman. On the panel were four women in leadership roles and a man for diversity's sake.

I was looking forward to a discussion led by Ed Freeman, who always seems to get discussions to a new level, forcing people to defend their positions, drilling in behind the blunt statements to carve out what people really think. Not this time though. Today, Prof. Freeman was very low key and so was the discussion.

The panelists asked us to be honest and even provocative. Sadly, we were not.

Questions such as "what advice could you give us as we enter corporate America" after stating how difficult it was to adjust post undergrad were politely addressed by the panelists with an "every company has a different culture". Thank god men don't need to adjust because we all come genetically prepared, love football, NASCAR, Golf and drink a gallon of Guinness before we brush our teeth in the morning.

In my past, when I was young and pretty, I used to be razor focused. I went into a meeting, knowing what the agenda was and I would get to it. Why waste time on irrelevant chit chats, right? My boss commented on this and told me to loosen up a little before meetings, maybe crack a joke or talk about other things outside of work before starting a meeting. I am so glad I took his advice. It was something I had to learn and I'm grateful for the feedback. I was surprised to hear a similar story today from a female student who thought she only got this feedback because she was a woman.

Don't get me wrong. I am not doubting the fact that there are still people in the world who are prejudiced based on sex. I just think that this group of people contains women as well as men.

The discussion almost started to be interesting when another female student raised the fact that women often overcompensate and then stopped herself from using a word that is used to describe female canines, but nobody wanted to leave the comfort zone of discussion.

It was disappointing to see such a shallow discussion in a school known for it's invigorating discussions.

Emergenski

2010-02-06T23:12:00.001+02:00

A state of emergency has been declared in Charlottesville due to the expected snow storm. Last time it snowed at least that much was during winter break. I remember bathing in the sun on the beaches of the red sea, looking at the facebook photos and statuses of snowed in people, who were stuck at home for a few days.
This time around people wanted to be prepared. So, they stormed the shelves at all the supermarkets and bought everything. After all, nobody wants to get stuckat home watching the super bowl without beer and food. So now, in the event of a nuclear war, the city can now sustain the state of Virginia.

While everyone was preparing for the snow, and signs warning against driving were posted, 75 Dardenites were driving to Snowshoe in WV for the outdoors club ski trip.

Some people on the site told me yesterday that these are the best skiing conditions they've seen. The wind and snow did force us to dress like one would, climbing the everes, but as one of my friends put it, it was west coast skiing on the east coast.

The evening in the cabins may sometimes confuse you into thinking this was an undergrad event and just this morning I woke up to find the front doors were barred by two big snowmen.

4 of us had to leave our cars on the mountain last night due to the road conditions and one car was rescued and took four hours to get back.

All in all it was a fantastic way to spend the emergency weekend.

The First Israel Trek

2010-01-30T05:27:00.000+02:00

Israel is the first in Nobel awards per capita, the first in R&D investment per capita, and the third in patents per capita in the world. These are some of the reasons that brought together the first Israel Trek at Georgetown university today with participants from the business schools of Georgetown, George Washington, Meryland, and Virginia.

The venue was the new and beautiful building named after former priminister of Lebanon-Rafik Hariri.

According to Professor Gal Raz from Darden, after attending presentations with some of the Israeli Defence industry presentations showing tanks and missiles, this is a sign that peace is definitely on the way.

We were honored by an opening by Georgetown MSB's dean- Dr. George Daly followed by Ralph Robbins - the Executive Director of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board from the office of the governor and Asher Kotz - Manager, International Business Development of Fairfax County Economic Development, all of which were impressive in the strategic position they were holding Israeli companies in and especially surprising was the number of Israeli companies and startup as a whole (around 6000) in the area. It would seem that Virginia is seeking to be the Silicone Valley of the east and doing a pretty good job at it. It was great to see the people involved and the school's recognition of the importance in embracing and nurturing relationships with some of those companies that included Rafael, NICE systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, Elbit, Babylon and more.

I found it ironic that the Elbit representative was so keen on speaking to Americans, yet not so enthusiastic in the Israelis, even those with an American citizenship.

All in all it made for a very interesting day. We left with a broader network, a few new friends and a mesage from Asaf Vitman - Ministrer for Economic Affairs, Embassy of Israel - who has asked us not to forget to bring all that we've learned back home someday.

Lessons Learned

2010-01-22T06:30:00.002+02:00

"it's actually possible to get to know 300 people" is a part of the answer I used to give to the why Darden question. The same answer I got a year before. Today in class we've had a Darden grad from the 80's. After hearing how he made millions and analyzing some of his business decisions we've had the chance to get some advice from him. As it turns out, he got all of his jobs from his fellow classmates. He then told us to take a look around because these are the people who will be our network for life. These are the ones we'll reach out for advice, support and business opportunities.
It's easy to forget this sometimes and stay in that close circle of friends padding your comfort zone. I hope that I will not look back one day and feel I could have done better on this front.

I almost forgot, there was another alumnus from '95 that had mentioned that nothing matters in the long run, but LO* and Marketing. I've heard this so much that I'm actually starting to beleive it. Good thing I am taking every marketing class at Darden.

* LO - Leading Organizations formerly known as Organizational Behavior (OB)

My Extended Family

2009-11-30T06:01:00.005+02:00

People told me the full time MBA years will be the best of my life.

They are.

Some of my friends are anxious to get back out to the world, get in the game again and restart their lives. I remind them that never again in our lives, will we have so many friends all around us, all the time. Friends that rather than having to develop and maintain a career, develop and maintain relationships. It's just part of the syllabus of b-school. It's what we do.

This thanksgiving I celebrated with a group of my friends and some of our families. Though I missed thanksgiving with my family, I'm glad I had my extended family to celebrate with. This year I am thankful for the opportunity I have been given to experience these two years with a fantastic group of people.

Fakesgiving

2009-11-25T15:28:00.004+02:00

Fakesgiving (noun) - is a Thanksgiving dinner on a day other than the fourth Thursday of November.

In recent years I've tended to have more than one Thanksgiving dinner during the week of Thanksgiving because my aunt prefers to do it on the weekend or because my parents are divorced and rather than having one Thanksgiving with the kids every other year, we just have two (on different days mind you). Last year we had a Darden Thanksgiving, where a large group of friends gathered at the beautiful apartment of one of our friends and on Thanksgiving day, my dad came to visit his two sons in the States, so we had another one in NYC and a third one at school. That's a lot of food.

This year, thankfully, we only had one Fakesgiving - th

e international Thanksgiving dinner that Darden sponsors every year. An event bringing together the international Darden community and embracing them with this wonderful custom of giving thanks (and eating delicious food).

Interestingly enough, the only speech this year was a short one by Marsh as opposed to last year's five or so speeches from international representatives.

Brand Challenge - Take 2

2009-11-21T23:36:00.002+02:00

Yesterday the first years conducted the annual Brand Challenge, where different brands are presented and laid out for the tastings, drinking and trying.

Somehow it seemed that it was better than the brand challenge we had last year. Perhaps it was because we weren't presenting this year and all we had to do is sip the Vodka's, taste the tomato sauces and sit in the Ford Fusions.

In any case, it was a lot of fun and the first years did an excellent job.

Wacky B-School Traditions

2009-11-21T05:28:00.003+02:00

Business Week reviewed some wacky b-school traditions and for some reason they've picked Darden's section B bird tradition as our "wacky" tradition. Most b-schools (including Darden) practice most of the reviewed traditions anyway in some form or another (unless they are completely lame).

Granted, the bird tradition is one that no other school has, but it's nothing compared to section D's traditions. Also, a mustache competition is clearly best practiced in a southern school.

Conspiracy Theory

2009-10-22T07:37:00.004+02:00

The first year's curriculum was extremely rigorous filled with core classes you cannot skip that teach you all the basics you need to know about business. Marketing, operations, finance, strategy organizational behavior (psychology for a dime) and career management.

During the summer internship, I have found out that I was more than prepared for the job.

And then, there's second year. Why do we need the second year? Well, there are plenty of courses to expand your horizons from leadership and strategy courses through corporate finance, taxation and post merger integration (coming up in Q4!).

There are good school with a one year program so why do we have 2 years?

The real reason is that the programs were more expensive here in the States so in order to give the students their money's worth they got two years.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining.

If I could, I would make this a 3 year program, though I'm not sure my liver can take much more of this. These are the best years of my life.

My wife has a theory. She thinks we are left here to help the first years. We take on leadership roles and help them with school, the job hunt, cheering them up, being career coaches, peers, club leaders etc. Just as we were "raised" by our second years (I like to call them third years now) we are now doing the same to our first years. It feeds the continuation of the culture and reduces the load requirement for staff to do that and gives us the excuse we need to stay here another year, so why not?

Diversity-ism

2009-10-20T23:24:00.004+02:00

A few weeks ago, a little before Q1 was over the DSA (Darden Student Association) organized a diversity panel, where the community was to meet and discuss the topic. I am a bit of a cynic when it comes to such discussions, but as a president of two affinity clubs I was asked to attend.

The panel was composed of people from different races (yes, there were white people), and even women! Unfortunately not all major religions were represented and all panelists were heterosexual(as far as I know).

As usual in such discussions nobody wants to talk about the pink elephant in the room so we ended up talking about "diversity of opinions" and such.

The was one moment of honesty when a fellow student, who is also African American mentioned the phenomenon of people assuming that some non-white people got into business school, or a job or college because of their race. With that comes, of course the opposite side of people who feel they are not worthy and that the only reason they got in was due to their skin color.

This is the point where people start feeling uncomfortable. That's when the discussion finally got interesting, but unfortunately the discussion was diverted and the topic was not fully discussed.

When I was working for SAP in Israel, a representative from a large enterprise customer that you most likely now and use it's products came and talked to us about our products and how they are used in their company. At one point, he showed us a screen where he was asked to fill in his personal details like name, address etc. Then he filled out a field called "Race". We were all shocked. There were whispers going along and everybody was simply stunned that a company would ask you for your race. It just felt wrong to ask people about race. Considering race when hiring a person seemed like racism to us.

I believe in a merit based system and don't believe race is a good predictor for performance of a person. I've been in the united states for a year and had my share of conversations with friends from different backgrounds and races and I do understand the poor history of the united stats that this comes from. I know there are white people that can't afford to go to college. Some of them are in my class today. Some got scholarships, some funded their way by serving in the military.

We keep feeding the segregation and keeping it alive with affirmative action, but at some point if we want to move forward we would have to let it go. I would suggest that Darden leads this change and remove race from its applications. In fact, I thought I was an African American when I filled out the B-School applications because one side of my family if from the US and the other from Libya. Then I was told that north Africa counts as white. "You'll have a school full of white people" a friend told me. I think if our financial aid system worked according to financial need we would be giving everyone a fair chance at this. I even think this should be pushed down to colleges. Give financial aid based on economic status in college. After college we're all at the same plain with the same opportunities and what we do with our lives is up to us and not our skin color.

A Warm Spring Evening

2009-09-10T17:13:00.003+03:00

One warm spring evening as the school year was coming to an end the class of 2010 assembled in the fall sections to discuss job leads. It was an idea by some fellow students who thought we could help one another in what was an extremely tough year for recruiting.

I don't think any of us had any expectations from the meeting. I was a little skeptical myself and I had already accepted my offer at the time but I came to support my peers. It started off slow and then it got very emotional as people shared their frustration of trying to recruit for 9 months with no success.

For some, it came as a surprise discovering they are not alone. Other's, who had received their offers pretty early in the process, got a first glimpse of another side they were not aware of, or not aware of the seriousness of it. "What are you looking to do" was one student's question. - "Anything" was the answer that shook people up as they realized how desperate some people have become. It was not only an international problem or a career switcher problem. It was all around.

Something amazing happened in the minutes that followed. One after another, my classmates came forward with leads, connections, friends from college. That night a lot of emails were sent out and phone numbers were exchanged. It was heart warming.

I've had a chance to compare with friends in other schools this year. I am proud to say that Darden class of 2010 did extremely well on their internships.

A lot of prospective reach out to me and during our conversations they ask about Darden's strength. The first thing that comes to mind is the strong alumni network. As a Darden alumni once told me when I was debating between schools: "your chances of getting an alum to return your call and bend over backward are highest at Darden". They are. It originates from the pressure cooker we're all part of during our first year.

I then tell them a story about one warm spring evening.

Mid Point Perspective

2009-08-29T15:13:00.003+03:00

You were an ace at your company, promotions, money, fame and glory. Then you get into a top b-school, maybe even a few. You're about to embark in the journey of your life. You have so many o options for career paths. You may want to switch a career, or keep the one you had, you may even start your own company after school. Life is great, the world is your oyster.

Then an intense wave hits you and you try keeping your head above the water holding with one hand a 50 pound weight with "academics" printed on it and another with "recruiting" on the other hand, while your legs carry the ones with "socializing" on them.

Somehow along the year you may begin to lose the perception of what was it about you that was so special as you get beat down to a pulp made out of dried up silly putty. You'll get confused and may even lose sight of what it is that you really want to do as they tell you to expand your horizons and look at all the options. Then, just as you thought it will never happen, you get an offer for an internship, maybe even two and before you know it, the year's over.

You may think that you are not prepared, but you surprise even yourself when you see how well you are and how much you've learned this year. You feel good about yourself and even better if you came back with an offer.

Reporting from the mid point, these are just my two cents.

Discounted 9 months in order to adjust to a first year perspective, it comes out to around 1.3 cents.

The Power of the Passionate Forgotten

2009-08-20T19:54:00.002+03:00

Robert Scoble wrote about the power of the passionate in his blog (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/130/scobleizer-passion-play.html)
Specifically he wrote “Amazon has launched a See a Kindle in Your City program that lets you find a Kindle user near you and arrange for the passionate to show the nonpassionate what it can do. If Kindle is going to sell 4.5 million units by the end of 2010, as Citi analyst Mark Mahaney predicts, Kindle's first fans will be the ones whose feedback makes subsequent versions better and persuades rail commuters, frequent fliers, and vacationers to be customers.”

I’m an early adopter. I got the Kindle almost a year and a half ago. My wife and I have used it a lot and everywhere. We even have our cases and school books on it. We’ve done the Kindle – college experiment that Amazon and our school is doing already a year ago and declared it a success. Moreover, we’ve been marketing it like crazy and infecting other users everywhere. Airports, gym, coffee shops. Many a times my wife has told me of and old lady asking her what it was and giving a marketing speech about the features and paper-like convenient screen. We would joke that Amazon should pay us for this. Who knows… maybe they will after they hire us as product managers.

The release of the Kindle DX two months after the release of the Kindle 2 has cause much remorse over the purchase of the Kindle 2 for a lot of users, who have asked Amazon for an upgrade.
One customer said: “They have been basically stonewalling all my attempts for the last few days to find a way to exchange the Kindle 2,” she says. “This is not right. It’s not the way early adopters should be punished.” (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/kindle-dx-leads-to-buyers-remorse-for-some-kindle-2-users/)

In a letter to iPhone custoemrs Steve Jobs wrote:
“…even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.”

Amazon has lowered the price of the Kindle from $399 (Kindle 1) to $299 (Kindle 2).

“Ultimately they are two different products though many people don’t really understand the difference” says another customer who has managed to use the company’s 30 day return policy and get his DX.

The DX and the Kindle 2 are different products, but how different is the Kindle 2 from the Kindle 1? Is it just a thinner package for the Kindle one, with a software upgrade that allows text to speech?

If Apple branded the reduced price iPhone as “iPhone 2“, maybe there would have been less angry letters from customers (iPhone 3g? 3gs?). Perhaps Amazon learned from Apple’s mistake and did just that?

As an early adopter, I understand that what you buy today will be cheaper tomorrow and I did not send Amazon any angry letters.

A few weeks ago, our Kindle stopped working. It’s actually working, but the screen has a frozen picture on it. I called Amazon asking for any repair service (since the warranty was only good for a year) and they offered their repair program: I return the device and get a refurbished for $180.

I was surprised considering you can get that on eBay for the same price.
I emailed them and mentioned that as an early adopter, although I did not ask for anything when they cut the price by $100, I am asking now, that they at least give me the Kindle 2 for the $180 I have to pay since there’s no repair service.

Unfortunately, their reply was not very helpful. They suggested I sell my (broken) Kindle and buy a new one.
Perhaps Amazon needs to learn another lesson from Apple…

My Summer

2009-07-27T06:17:00.006+03:00

I've been given a nudge by a friend to get off my lazy behind and start writing again, so here I am. Thanks PH.

A Second Year tradition is for the whole class to rent some be

ach houses in the Outer Banks and hang out together before parting. A few of us first years decided to make it a first year tradition as well and spent a week in Nags Head once school was done with back in May. There were around 15 of us in a 10 bedroom, pool, two hot tubs, a game room, a theater room and a beach outside our back yard. We had so much fun in the house with each other that most of us stayed in for most of the week and didn't join the SY activities. It was the best week of the year.

After beach week, we flew to back to Israel to visit all the friends and family. We were running a hectic schedule of friends/family for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. It was a lot of fun and great to see everyone after almost a year of being gone, but a lot of work as well!

The next phase of my summer began slightly after coming back to the States: My Summer Internship. I am spending the summer in Bank of America's MBA Leadership Development Program in Charlotte, NC. I thought Virginia was the south. It's so not. When Tea means Sweetened Iced Tea and when you want hot tea, you must specify "hot", when "Thank you" is replaced by "Appreciate it" and "You're welcome" by "Ah huh", when you're greeted by "How y'all doin' today" and when you leave by "Y'all come back now" - you know you're in the south

. Don't get me wrong - I love it here. People are so nice and hospitable, strangers on the street say "hi" and people drive as if cutting people off is not one of the ten commandments and don't try to run over pedestrians and actually will give you the right of way even when you don't have it.

I have a nice place in a complex with all the amenities I could need for the summer, but I do miss Darden and my friends there. Working again has made me appreciate even more this past year at Darden. I actually wish the program was three years instead of two.

The class of 2009 has left us to restart their lives and we are now left to carry the torch as rising second years, guiding the incoming class of 2011 in their new journey.

Amazon Kindle @ Darden

2009-05-07T01:05:00.003+03:00

Amazon Chooses Darden as First Business School to Use the Kindle was today's article title in businessweek.

"You might have heard word yesterday that a select number of universities had been selected to participate in Amazon’s new Kindle school initiative. What you probably didn’t know is that one of those universities is a top business school." reads the article.

The new Kindle will be used as of next fall (lucky class of 2011) in and outside of class.

This is a great initiative in terms of sustainability not to mention convenience. As an avid technologist, I've already been using the V1 Kindle since it first came out. It's been very helpful this year when Darden gave us a choice of using online PDFs rather than acres of cut forests. It's great and convenient on the treadmill and would be even better with the text to speech feature. The only disadvantage so far was that the conversion of PDFs was not up for the challenge of graphics. Hopefully now, with the native PDF support, that would not be an obstacle anymore.

Hopefully, Amazon and Darden would take the extra step and provide it to current students as well as provide all of our cases in e-format so we could save more trees and make my room less of a mess.

If we calculate the printing expenses saved over 2 years and add the value of this CSR to sustainability, I'm pretty sure it's worthwhile to provide us all with Kindles.

EOY

2009-05-01T19:11:00.003+03:00

It's the end of the year as we know it.

Amazing how quickly the year's gone by.

Classes are over and I got 3 exams and one big @$$ paper to write and then it's over.

We got to take our elective's exams today already and they are waiting at home and hopefully are going to get done before the last moment.

There's a lot going on in Darden this weekend.

The class of 2011 are here for Darden Days and there's plenty of community events planned for us all. It seems like the last Darden Days was just yesterday when I was here.

Packing Heat

2009-04-29T08:31:00.005+03:00

Former president of Mexico - Vicente Fox - spoke today in front of the Darden students as part of the leadership speaker series that brings key leaders to Darden.

A major point that president Fox kept stressing is the importance of free trade and partnership the two neighboring countries should have and that walls never work. He actually brought it in as a funny anecdote after telling us about the walls of the world that did not work.

I found it very interesting that when asked which three leaders he admires, he responded immediately: "I have four" and then moved on to name leaders that have used non violence methods to lead to a social change. Even if this was a premeditated answer, hearing the names of Ghandi and Martin Luther King moves something inside.

I was surprised that they let us all in the auditorium with our bags and without checking them. I told myself that this is Virginia and not Israel and that there's almost no chance that a student would suddenly take out a gun.

I'm not sure if he was a Darden student because his face was covered, but one person stood up suddenly with his mouth covered by a black piece of cloth, a shirt with some writing about it and a sign that friends later translated from Spanish that said: "no police in the state".

The president calmly said something to him in Spanish and the student calmly left.

The translation, I was later told was: "We can talk later, please sit down" and then "see you in Mexico".

Overall, it was an interesting experience and former president Fox is a very interesting person.

Raising Second Years

2009-04-23T08:33:00.002+03:00

I've just finished bidding on all of my courses for second year.
Last year, I've read a Darden blogger's post that told the tails of bidding for SY courses and mentioned that it may sound weird that we have to pick all of our 2nd year courses now, at the end of first year, but in fact it makes a lot of sense and he also mentioned we can change the choices we've made afterwards.

Well, I'm here now, and it doesn't seem weird at all. In fact it makes perfect sense. By now, we should all know (more or less) what we want to do after we graduate, so we know what we'd like to get out of next year to best prepare us for the job and life after school.

Perhaps next year, someone else would be writing about a post he read a year back about choosing SY courses.

We use a bidding system to get our course picks. We receive a number of points and use them after devising strategies and predictions using game theory, psychology and dark magic to predict what our peers would do, and try to get our ideal schedule. I have less points because the school deems it fit to put me at a disadvantage because I've gone on a GBE (Global Business Experience) to Sweden this year and that counts as a course credit for next year.

I can't believe how fast the year's gone by. In two weeks, we'll all be raising second years. Our second year friends, mentors, spirit guides will all be gone to their new lives post MBA. It's a little sad. I think I'll miss those guys.

Our professors have been working us really hard here the past few weeks. It kind of feels like Q1 again with all the presentations, deliveries, team projects, late nights and a high ratio of Pizza to healthy meals. They say that in a tough economy, the marketing department gets the first cuts. Well, in my time shortage case, the Gym, sadly, got cut. I will have to find time for that somehow since immediately after our last exam, we're heading to Beach Week!

This weekend is full of events here at Darden. It's the reunion of a few classes of past. Friday evening is the Darden Follies!
And Saturday is the annual Foxfield Races!

Building Goodness in April

2009-04-06T08:21:00.009+03:00

Building Goodness in April, or BGIA as it is known here is something that attracted my interest since before I came to Darden, when I was deciding between schools and was reading about it on the Dean's blog. It is an amazing thing when contractors, students and local shops all partner together with the Building Goodness Foundation and volunteer to renovate around 10 homes of low income and/or disabled families in the Charlottesville/Albemarle community. It is a genuine gesture of giving, and it is extremely rewarding.

A lot of planning is required in order to accomplish so much in just one day and it is student led.
It starts with the inspection of homes finding the best candidates for projects. It is followed by a fundraiser where we all auction all sorts of stuff from golf lessons and 5 course meals through hotel rooms or a cabin in Vermont to pole dancing lessons or a self affirming evening with two students accompanied by a keg.

This year we collected $45,000. Local businesses donate goods, cash and services as well.
We targeted 10 homes and built 2 playgrounds.
Each house is assigned 3 house captains (yours truely was one) that oversee the planning of the work to be done on the house, the interaction with the residents, coordination of the professional workers, purchasing and collecting the materials, driving 16-24 ft. trucks and organizing volunteers.

On build day, 165 Darden students and 100 contractors charge the houses and do their thing.

It's a reall challenge, but we've had some amazing accomplishments on build day. We have given back to the community that is hosting us for these two years and there is nothing that can compare to the feeling we got seeing the expression of our home's residents come back to their new home.

I have had the opportunity to work with great people this build day - the contractors and my classmates who did the most amazing job and accomplished incredible things.

TV news coverage: http://www.charlottesvillenewsplex.tv/home/headlines/42476527.html

Last year GMAC visited us during Build Day:
http://www.gmac.com/teammba/Misc/TeamMBAVideo.htm

U2 Brutus

2009-03-31T03:28:00.004+03:00

I love college towns. I wanted to do my MBA in a college town and Charlottesville is possibly the finest of them. Ranked as the best place to live in the US in 2004, C-Ville has a population fourty something thousand people or 120,000 with the surrounding Albemarle county. C-Ville offers historical sites attractions such as Monticello and some of the university buildings that are declared as world heritage sites, Shenandoah National Park, the Downtown Mall, as well as 3 movie theaters, a crazy ratio of restaurants per capita and lots of places to go out to.

Above all that, C'Ville has some festivals and a lot of artists and bands, that come to perform here. This time it's U2.

Tomorrow, students would be able to buy tickets before it opens up to the general public. There are two issues:

1. these tickets would run out fast and

2. we have class when the e-box office opens

3. each student can buy only 4 tickets

Therefore, a special forces squad composed of brave volunteers who will not be in class at the time and to whom I will be forever thankful, will buy the tickets.

I've never been to a U2 concert before, and I'm really excited about it.

Darden Cares 5K

2009-03-28T18:31:00.005+03:00

Satruday morning. Woke up, got out of bed. Dressed up business attire... and running shoes.

Yes. Today was the Darden Cares 5K run for the UVa Children's hospital.

Everybody wins. The hospital gets our donations, we burn some calories and get an excuse not to go to the gym for a few days, we all have some fun and last, but not least, we get more points for the Darden cup.

My section (Section D!) won first place in both male and female categories (leftmost and rightmost in the photo below that would be remembered in generations to come).

There was a best dressed competition as well as the craziest dressed competition starring wonder woMAN and a runner (from my section) wearing a speedo, a bow tie and cuffs.

Staying Current

2009-03-18T00:17:00.003+02:00

As we try to stay up-float while our leaders stabilize the global economy, a huge magnifier glass is pointed at Top B-Schools as can be seen in this NY times piece or this CNN one. The current crisis has been going on for some time and that has given us the time to take a breath and examine what we did wrong. Failed leadership is a theme that keeps coming up. Who can we blame for this? The business schools, of course as can be read from a FoxNews article pointing out the schools that wrecked the economy.

Everybody wants to see that b-schools make sure this situation would never happen again. A story I've heard from a professor at Darden tells of a company that came to visit Darden while they were considering their recruitment options. Once they saw the UVa honor code we have in every classroom, their mind was made up. Incidently, this was shortly after the corporate scandals in the begining of the century, although Darden's emphasis on ethics was established long before that.

I will be taking my first ethics class this week, so I'll be able to share a more personal view within a few weeks.

But Darden is definitely keeping up to date with updates to the program. I started a new course today: "Marketing Inteligence". The professor shared with us the updates to the curriculum, some of which, include some legal studies so that when we come up with creative ideas later in our jobs, we won't get "too creative".

It doesn't end there; We have had a number of "green" draft cases this year examining the current crisis from various perspectives. We have been asked to put ourselves in the various situations and decide what we would do instead of Bernanke or this company CEO or that new graduate consulting to one company or another.

We've also had speakers and panels talking about the current crisis and we've learned a lot from the wisdom of others.

Is this enough? Can the schools do more?
The NYTimes piece mentioned earlier mentions a study that claims that 56% of MBA students cheat. What can a B-School really do to change the values of a 28 year old that believes it is ok for her to cheat?

B-Schools provide a 1-2 year training program, equiping us with a kit of tools and experiences to help us make good judgements at jobs. The rest is on us.

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” - Benjamin Franklin

2009-02-08T15:48:00.005+02:00

The Darden learning experience is about learning real and relevant business cases through a class discussion, but it's also about taking the integrative business approach, constantly reminding one to look at the bigger picture.

And it really works.

I'm not sure if the professors have gotten better or if we did, but the discussions are just better.

Maybe it's the fact that people are now more concerned about finding a summer internship or perhaps people figured out that grades don't matter; at least not as much as they thought they did. There are almost no people, who are talking just for the sake of talking, thinking that it would increase their participation grade. And this makes for a focused, flowing class discussion.

I've had a few classes lately that had great discussions and the professor allowed the discussion to go in the wrong direction, but we've figured it out and corrected ourselves as happens a lot in the case method. Although it was an interesting discussion, we were seventy minutes into it and yet, no conclusion. I was starting to question what if at all have we learned during the class. We were summing up what information we've managed to discover using tools we've learned in this class and in the previous quarters and we've narrowed it all down to three courses of action the company can take. But which one will they take?

In a real business situation you'll need to come up with a recommendation. And you'll need to present it in a manner your audience will understand, justify it and defend it just like we do in class every day.

In order to make this decision we had to tap in to material and experiences we've learned in a Strategy class. Then we knew what the company would have chosen to do. But we did not agree. Some people thought the company should take one direction and others thought it should take another. However all agreed about the company's goal. We combined what we've learned in parallel and previous courses without even noticing we did it, took a step back and fell into the CEO's seat (thank god he wasn't sitting there at the time) and then we understood. It all came together. In Hebrew we have a saying: "The token has dropped" - an expression from the 80's that refers to the public telephones we used to have that required special tokens to operate. When the call would go through, the token would drop.

In the end of the day, what matters is that when you come to a business situtation and when you'll have to make a decision, you'll have all the tools you've learned, you'll have all the different companies' experience from the different cases and you'll remember the discussions you've had, the wrong turns you took.

Most importantly, you'll be able to take the CEO perspective and understand and integrate all the different divisions of the business and until you actually become a CEO, you'll be able to explain and defend your decision.

A day in a life

2009-02-07T20:46:00.002+02:00

I recently have talked to prospectives who have not visited Darden. In my opinion, telling about it will never match up to a visit here, but I do realize that it doesn't always work out.

So if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video would be worth thirty thousand words. If you have not yet watched Bill Gray's (- a second year at Darden) Day at Darden, I encourage you to do so.

The best professors in the world - Sing it with me

2009-02-06T18:32:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I found out that there are still a few gems in C'Ville I haven't had the pleasure of drinking in as the Dardenite TNDC crowd crammed up the Bel-Rio - Bar, live music and more important: food after 22:00! Having Fridays as reading days this Q makes TNDC much more attractive when examining the go no-go decision tree. The jewel in the crown last night was the faculty band (featuring students as well).

Check out the link to see my strategy professor can do more than talk.

Accepted

2009-01-31T23:45:00.003+02:00

Congratulations to our first round admitted students. It was a tough year and you have made it. All the time and investment have finally paid off. You will soon be proud members of the class of 2011.

So, celebrate - you deserve it.

Here's a very helpful tip I got last year: Decide were you are going to live and apply for an appartment early. Remember - early bird gets the worm (or a jetblade sometimes but that's really rare).

For those of you who didn't get in - it's not over! There's always next year. Think what you are missing in your resume and how can you get that in during this year and show improvement for next year's application. Most important: do not despair.

If you were waitlisted - the game's still on. Last year schools I was considering were still giving offers a few weeks before school started. People always drop their application and decide to go to another school or give up b-school or defer.

Here are some suggestions I gave a prospective student who got on the waitlist:

Get another (exceptional) recommendation and send it to your account manager.
Start thinking about what you've done since you applied and find an accomplishment. Make an essay out of it and send it.
Look for something in your past that had not come up in the essays and write another "optional essay"
If you haven't been here - schedule a visit - this would show interest and dedication as well as help you make a better case about why you are interested in Darden and why you are fit for Darden.

* I am not an official representative of the school and these recommendations are only my personal opinion and you should use your own judgement before using them. They are not to be used if you are pregnant or in a high risk group and are not to be taken more than two every four hours.

Knee Deep

2009-01-28T01:07:00.004+02:00

We have received the news of a possible day off last night due to extreme weather conditions with mixed feelings (Joy for the day off and fear that the university may claim Friday as a school day). Warnings of procedures in case of heavy snow and ice were sent all around. We were excited about the possibility to finally see snow in Charlottesville, with the ice around the Jefferson fountain almost gone.

The white snow wanabee we saw this morning was really disappointing on so many levels. I admit, the road was a bit slippery to the point that I had actually considered holding the hand rail going down the stairs. I didn’t dare get my hands out of my pockets, since my gloves were in my backpack and was too lazy to take them out.

It was a school day alright. The Charlottesville community, however, decided that actions must be taken to protect itself from this white stuff (again, calling it snow would be like calling the UVa lawn a big sand dune). When I got to school, I was looking for chalk marking on the stairs due to the yellow tape surrounding the front stairs of Saunders hall, but they must have been washed off by the rain.

We couldn’t deposit our loan check (we’re rich again) since our bank decided to close early “because of the weather”. Lives were saved today as learning teams cancelled their meetings and avoided the slippery roads. Oh and I almost forgot about Interviews being cancelled.

So much excitement! With global warming, I just hope we’ll be prepared that well for the hot summer days.

Interview Season

2009-01-15T07:24:00.000+02:00

It’s interview season at Darden. Some of my Darden friends already got offers yesterday from banks. Some even got several offers.

Some are invited to second rounds. Some were not. Some are still waiting for their interviews.

At the same time, others don’t even have interviews yet. There are a lot of success stories and a lot of stressful ones. We are happy for the ones who begin their semester knowing the summer is secure and potentially even the full time, and we sympathize with the ones who are less fortunate.

These are rough times and the tension is high and it is now that one can really see the supportive atmosphere here.

The day the earth stood still

2009-01-11T15:39:00.004+02:00

And then one day it all stopped. There were no more cases, no more briefings, no more classes.

There were no more commitments. Or were there?

It’s weird, not having 20 things you have to do in every moment and I felts I was missing a purpose. I started going to the gym again, which is great. When you’re done with a day of classes, completely starved and you have to go to a briefing or a club meeting and there’s free pizza there, well… you eat pizza. I’m a fan of the papa like anyone else, but after two quarters, it begins to show. So burning 700 calories a day was a blessed addition to my life. I finally got to use my TV and my media center got the attention it was acing for. I found myself browsing eBay bidding for used PS3s (if you’re gonna buy a blue ray player, might as well add a few bucks and get a console as well, right?).

I visited my brother in NYC for a few days and got to watch the city turning white, eat in different restaurants every day (including the one he’s a chef of – Macondo – highly recommended) and went to see a good DJ in Cielo.

It took me about a week to understand that this break isn’t really a vacation. In fact it’s a fake break. I then switched to the cover letter writing, interview preparing and networking mode. I found myself working until 3am, going to sleep red eyed.

Nonetheless, it still was an easier time and I’m trying not to get to used to it and mellow up before classes start next week.

I Survived

2008-11-26T07:24:00.006+02:00

Is that all you've got?

That's right, I survived Black November. It's really overrated.

It's interesting to see how different people prioritize and balance their lives. Some focus more on the job search and some on studies. I'm leaning more to the studying part, but I'm shifting towards the job search. Between organizing the job trek to the west coast, the various competitions I've taken part in and studies, I barely had time to breathe, and so I’ve finally succumbed and learned to let go the aspiration towards perfectionism. This capacity to multitask and prioritize and handle extreme load is a motif I hear over and over talking to alumni and really makes Darden grads shine on the job.

I allowed myself some time off today and went to my first UVa Basketball game, which turned out to be very exciting.

Tomorrow morning we’re heading towards Manhattan, where we’ll be having the third thanksgiving dinner this week with my brother and my Dad, who’s visiting the US now.

In a few days the marathon continues.

Black November

2008-11-10T06:36:00.000+02:00

The most infamous time in the Darden program. When you wake up it’s dark. When you come back from school it’s dark. Recruiting stays in high gear and off grounds recruiting is added to it. To top it all off, if it wasn’t enough that we were loaded with 110% human capacity of schoolwork, meaning that 9% of the work can’t be done by an average person giving a 100% (dropping recruiting and everything else for it), the program has most graciously increased the load to about 130% with more pages to read for each case, more pages in each technical note and more pages in more books to read. The only thing that keeps us sane is the Thanks giving weekend seen at the horizon. Every class survives black November, so I guess we will too.

Elections

2008-11-05T05:59:00.004+02:00

A very exciting time to be an MBA student, but it is made even more exciting by the elections.

I have never excercized my right to vote when I lived in

Israel, so this was my first time voting for the US elections. As I write this, I can hear fireworks celebrating the election of the US' first half Afro-American president. This is history being made.

As opposed to Israel, in the US we do not get a day off and you can only vote until 7 pm. Although people should be able to allocate the time to vote, I wonder how this affects the voting rate.

I must admit that the voting process was pretty painless: an electronic process that although intutive, I can understand how some elderly folks in Florida may find confusing.

It's funny, but in all the times I've voted in Israel I've never felt like I have today. Actually having a part in shaping the next 4 years of the greatest superpower in the world will do that.

America is certainly moving forward. Who knows, maybe in four years it will be ready for a full Afro-American president, or perhaps even a woman.

The Best Professors in the World

2008-10-20T08:00:00.000+02:00

In all the havoc and the routine of it, I sometimes forget to appreciate it.

They invite us to their homes, they participate in our events, they are always accessible and will always find the time and they are with us every day.

They are the best professors in the world. Recently ranked #1 professors in the world by Princeton review (up from #2) Darden’s professors are one more reason why Darden is such a great program. Yes, they have their research, but it is not why they are at Darden. Our professors are here because they love to teach. As students, we don’t want to feel that classes are simply an obstacle a professor has to overcome in order to go back to his or her research. We want fully engaged professors, that don’t just teach a class because they have to, but teach it because they want to. But we actually have more than we asked for: we have professors who teach because they love to.

There are no office hours for professors at Darden. Instead, their door is always open and they will always find the time for students. The other day after class, I still didn’t have something sit right. The professor invited me to his office when I’m done with classes. “we’ll walk through the numbers, you’ll understand”.

Darden professors are more than instructors. They are fully involved and engaged.

The other night, our professor showed up in our learning teams some time before 10pm. He was on his way back from Tennis and wanted to see how we were doing with our assignment.

In the last day of classes, we all came wearing our section’s T-shirts. One of our professors, of course, was dressed in business attire. Jokingly, our section rep asked if he didn’t get the email. Our professor seemed surprised that there was an email. Five seconds later, he unbuttoned his shirt to reveal our section T-shirt underneath.

During our Darden-cup games, we get double participation points if professors attend. And they do.

If you’re looking for the best class experience, with the best professors in the world, you can stop looking. But why take my word for it? Schedule a class visit and judge for yourself.

Work hard & Party hard

2008-10-18T23:54:00.000+02:00

In the rigorous program at Darden we work hard, but we also party hard. My ears were just recovering from TNDC, where a classmate’s band –Die Manic was playing, and I was back in class for the ‘Crack the case workshop’ learning how difficult case interviews are going to be. In the evening, it was time for the 100-case party – a 20 year old tradition of celebrating

completion of 100 cases. This year we had an 80’s theme. What could be better than a full night with the best era of music the world has ever listened to?

The buses took us to an unknown location in an attempt to reduce the number of people driving there. I find it amazing that everyone just took a break from worrying about the financial crisis, the job search, exams and duties and was having plain fun.

Only 7/8 to go!

2008-10-18T15:18:00.001+02:00

The first Quarter is over and before we knew it, exam week began and ended. Last year I’ve read Darden student bloggers that mentioned that exam period is the easiest period and that not a lot of studying is actually necessary because if you’ve worked hard during the quarter, done your cases and were involved in class discussions, the material will already be in your head. These students also mentioned that they had a hard time believing it when they were told that exam period is the nicest of times until they experienced it. So I decided to break the cycle. I already believed it and guess what… I wasn’t wrong. The case method really works. We’ve learned so much during the quarter and it sticks. It’s pretty amazing. With one exam a day, equaling to 1/3 of the daily load during the quarter, less learning team time less briefings life gets real good.

Utilization 2.7?!

2008-10-07T05:37:00.004+02:00

We just finished an excercise in Ops, where some of the stations' utilizatoin rate went above 100% and blew up the queue size and queue wait formula, meaning the queue is growing infinitely since the incoming job rate is greater than the stations capacity.

This is what the past few days have been like. Too many assignments for the measly 24 hours a day the earth's sping gives us. There's a meteorite enterng the atmoshphere tonight, maybe it will slow the spin down a bit, giving me the 3 extra hours I need per day.

I have a presentation for DA to prepare for tomorrow, which I better do, since my DA professor stopped by our (awesome) learning team and once we've compared his reaction to the one he had for other teams, we figured we probably did a good job.

There's a 13.47% probability that he'll call on me tomorrow based on the fact that I already spoke and presented today, taking into account that he may be targeting my fellow team mate and not me. However, part of what we learned in DA this quarter is to look at the risk profile as well. Since I'm in fairly good standings in DA (Desicion Analysis BTW) I risk losing this and leaving a bad impression on the last class that may affect my grade. I'm mediumish risk tolerant so I'd try to give it an hour or two now (it's only midnight).

There's another small assignment, cases for tomorrow and company research to be done.

I almost forgot about breakfast scheduled for 7am tomorrow for the DMA (Darden Military Association) with a member of Darden's board of trustees and the CEO of Prudential - John Strangfeld.

Contradictary information from 2nd years suggests different levels of difficulty next year.

Before I came to Darden I watched a short film from Darden follies called Darden Daze, which is a variation of Darden Days - the admitted student weekend at Darden.

I prefer to keep that vision of next year.

The video can be found here

Did anybody get the plate number?

2008-10-05T06:58:00.003+02:00

Things are happening at a frantic rate. Three weeks after we started our first year, when we were still trying to get the hang of 3 cases a day, learning team, 8 am classes etc. They came. From diffent parts of the country. From different industries. Yes, companies. There are multiple briefings every day. Sometimes we get 3 parallel and you constantly have to prioritise and drop stuff. I found myself comming unprepared to learning team meetings two days in a row and it feels aweful to let my learning team down. They are a great bunch and whenever someone is unprepared the rest cover and try to bring that person up to speed. Unfortunately for me, if I don't do the work myself I don't feel like I understand enough to participate the next day in class, but then there are more briefings and events and cases the next day.

Darden's program is the best preperation anybody can ask for the real life. As a manager you'll have to constantly prioritise, skim where you shouldn't put much effort or delegate and drop or postpone non-critical issues. This is why Darden grads "hit the ground running".

Some grads actually said that they have so much spare time now that they are working and that everything seems easier after Darden.

This may be true, but it doesn't really help me right now. We had the first exam this Friday and I did terrible on it. Most of us feel we did terrible and usually that's fine since there's a curve and it all gets normalized. However, I'll probably be on the lower end of that curve.

Not all is grim. Deloitte graciously sponsored our tailgate today. Good food, good drinks and good people. I was still hung over from last night's attempt to wipe the memory of the exam from my brain, but I probably didn't kill enough brain cells. I'll keep working on it.

The game was supposed to be a sure loss to the Maryland Terrapins so a lot of people just went home after the tailgate. Some friends and I went to the game to support our Cavaliers just to be surprised with the great turnout of the game. Our Cavaliers gave us quite a show. We won 31-0.

It was a spectacle.

Some more good news: I've been selected, along with some of my classmates to be an official blogger for Darden. This means my blog would be linked from the official Darden site.

Edit: here's the link: http://www.darden.virginia.edu/html/DardenBlogger.aspx?styleid=4

(Look mom, I'm on TV)

Hard days night

2008-09-30T12:57:00.003+03:00

I've been popping redbulls like crazy but I'm finally done.

It's 6:00 am and I've just finished my assignments for today.

I have one hour of sleep left and a full day ahead of me.

Did I mention it's a rigorous program?

Diversity at Darden

2008-09-26T22:28:00.003+03:00

This is most likely the most intense exposure and interaction an average student from my class would have to diversity. A condensed hot pot of people from different coutnries, races, cultures and genders (we actually have 100% of the genders represented in my class).

Coming from the hot-pot/salad mixer of coltures of Israel, it's difficult for me to relate to the hole topic of discrimination in the USA. After some discussions I've had with my classmates regarding minorities in the US and affirmative action I have a better understanding of the background of the situation today and my views have mellowed.

Though I believe there still remain a few miles on the journey the US is taking in this matter, there's a lot of effort going into integration and rebalancing.

At Darden, we take part in a lot of activites around diversity. One recent and very interesting activity was an interactive play by CSW - a consulting company.

Here's my Leading Organizations professor interview for business week:

http://feedroom.businessweek.com/?fr_story=0f6ba97eb595ac1604cae6778a7b2edede5329a7

Tips for MBAs

2008-09-26T03:00:00.006+03:00

Be bold.

Be authentic.

Look at the market, see where the balls are rolling, what opportunity lies there? Do you see your destiny there?

This is a snippet of some of the wisdom and leadership philosophy Richard Fairbank, founder & CEO of Capital One - the 13th largest bank in the US - shared with us during Darden's Leadership Speaker Series this week.

Fairbank's r credit revolution is a story of true entreperneurship, taking advantage of opportunity when everybody else was doubtful. Stories like that trully inspire me so I was fully engaged in listening and I picked up some interesting points.

A CEO will be able to delegate almost everything but one thing.

The one thing a CEO can't do without is vision.

Ok, this sounds very basic, but it's a lot more powerful coming from a person who had literaly made it.

Hire the best people.

Ok, we know that. Everybody hires the best people don't they?

Well, you have to really put a lot of effort in getting the best people. This is where the most time and effort should be spent by leaders, according to Faribank.

Create an environment where these best people can actually be great.

Fairbank moved on to encouraging innovation, but warned that changing buyers behavior is very difficult(though it can be done - e.g. IPod). Easier is to improve the buyers' experience.

Fairbank ended with a back to basics advice. The one our parents used to tell us and their parents told them: be loyal to yourself. The pure quest will rally up people around you more than the quest for your next promotion.

Don't sell your soul and take the job because it pays well or because this is the cool job.

Take the job that you will learn the most from and have the most fun.

Gazogle

2008-09-12T06:33:00.004+03:00

A game we played this week where we were divided into groups and asked to build Gazogles - Lego structures that look like the picture on the right.

The full game description can be found in an article writen by one of our operations professors. This would have probably helped my team not to do as bad as we did, but we cannot look these things up until we finish playing the game or discussing a case due to the honor code. Some more insights we've had in class discussin this is that we could actually talk to our customers and settle deals with them, perhaps sell them special product for premium price. We could also exchange some lego pieces for other pieces (bigger) to make the whole structure simpler to assemble.

I can say that being on the inside (I was assembler 1) you get to diagnose your own process as well as the one before or after you in the way they affect you. We have 15 minutes between rounds to perform process improvement (Kaizen events) but they went by so fast I could have sworn it was 3 minutes. During the events my group failed to consolidate the ideas so we ended up improving parts of the process while other parts (like supplies and procurement) remained inefficient rendering the whole process inefficient.

We failed collecting the input from all the different stations and looking at the whole process and improving it. I guess it may have been easier for an outsider to see things clearly.

This is probably what they hire consultants to do.

Anyway, I guess hindsight is 20/20.

Elections

2008-09-11T04:13:00.003+03:00

Last weekend we had the class of 2010 section elections.

Positions ranged from section rep through social chair, athletics rep to student affairs.

Though I was interested in the student affairs representative position, I was even more interested in being part of the student admissions committee, since I felt I had a lot to contribute in that area. The caveat is that you can't run for both, and the student admissions committee decision was after the section elections. So, if I was elected to the student affairs rep position, I couldn't run for admissions.

So I applied for the admissions committee. This application is actually an essay and you don't get elected, rather the admissions staff makes the decision.

Yesterday the results came in. 66 people applied for the student admissions committee’s positions. I did not get in, unfortunately.

I guess I'll have to find other ways to contribute and maybe try again next year.

Time Warp

2008-09-05T00:37:00.003+03:00

Just like that another week went by.
I can't even seem to remember how it started. The last time I had a few minutes to think was when I wrote the last post after the football game. From then on, it was 8:00am in class. 13:10 - a starving man's frantic search for food. There was no time this week to go home (5 minute walk) due to club kick-off meetings that started this week, lunches with 2nd year students that interned in companies I'm interested in or are running a club I'm interested in, but could not attend the meeting.

I have never valued time more than I do right now. Every minute counts and has to be utilized to study the next day's cases, work on my resume, my 30 second pitch, my career goals, eating and sleeping.

Every day at 19:00 I meet my learning team. We've decided to start reflecting on our performance - what do we want out of the learning team? Are we achieving it? What works? Where do we need to improve?
We spend around 15 minutes every day to reflect on classes we had that day, what have we learned and how effective the learning team the night before had been.
We have improved (all that in just one week). The case method the way it's taught at Darden and the whole learning team experience is unefficient. But it is extremely effective.
I have learned so much during the past 2.5 weeks.

Why did black & decker pushed forward the DeWalt? Why is it colored yellow? What makes Southwest airlines so great or the Shouldice hospital in Canada and why do you want to get your Hernia fixed there and was it better for the hospital to expand their bed capacity or work on weekends? Why did Whestinghouse's CFL Superbulb did not sell well and much more.

Those of us who are going to NSHMBA had the resumania this week, where we met career consultants who went over our resumes with us. Today we had the Mockmania where we practiced our 30 seconds pitch. Mine still needs a lot of work.

Tomorrow - Friday - we don't have classes (thank god), but we do have industires workshops all day. The next 2 Fridays are also class free and after the game next Saturday vs. Richmond, we have almost a month where the games will be away so we'll have the Saturday's to catch up our schoolwork and career work.

I'm off to our bi-weekly cold call social - basically food and drinks outside on the grass at the school's court with all the Darden community - faculty, students, administration - that started 5 mintues ago.

Football

2008-09-01T01:40:00.014+03:00

I was still asleep when the 9:00 Kegs 'n' Eggs, hosted by a classmate, started.

I did, however, make it on time to the tailgate to get fuelled up with the local brewsky - Starr Hill -which is quite good. For some reason they don't allow alcohol in the stadium. Go figure.

Yes, it was the first game of the season. College football.

If I have ever been to a football game before, I was probably too young to remember, so for me, this was a first time experience and what an experience it was.

Around 60,000 people come into town and block the streets and fill up the parking lots. People who live near by Scott stadium sell their parking spots for 15-20$. This was a day to leave the car at home. Aparently yesterady was a new record for the stadium's capacity. 64,947 people watched the ranked third place USC Trojans treat our Cavaliers as cannon fodder . It's not Beaver Stadium (largest stadium in the US) but still quite impressive.

The walk to the tailgate and thereafter the stadium revealed sights of many many tailgates spread along the way as well as plain ol' picnics on front lawns with the background of thousands of people walking towards the stadium. It was amazing to see how everything turns into a celebration in the US. We have nothing even remotely similar to that in Israel. The closest would be probably the post victory celebrations after Maccabi won the Euroleague. But still, it's not liket this.

We had only one chance to sing our victory song - yes only one touchdown for this game, but the moral was high - at least for the USC folks it was.

A classmate explained the basic rules of the game and I dicovered that it's actually interesting and that I actually liked it. I'm finally in a country where I can relate to the national sports. I can't wait until baseball season starts - that stadium is a footstep away from my house.

The game and it's festivities take over one's complete day, so now I'm behind on all my school work/career/etc.

But you know something? There's another game next. We're playing Richmond and I intend to be there.

Go Hoos!

First week at Darden

2008-08-24T08:34:00.006+03:00

I've had 2 full days of what is going to be the standard day - 5 days a week.

8 am: classes begin.

13:10: "free time" - in which I'm supposed to eat lunch and prepare my case analysis for my learning team meeting. 3 cases a day. Each case takes me 2 hours to read and prepare in a decent manner. Since I don't have that time, I spend 1 hour on each case, trying to skim through it and have some initial analysis about it. I don't seem to have time to read the extra material from the books so far due to my slow reading.Soon we'll add to this company briefings and club meetings. Good times.

19:00: Learning team meeting - where I meet with my (wonderful) team and brainstorm over each case for 1 hour.

22:00: If we finish on time - have dinner with my wife, catch up on study/reading material. Prepare for tomorrow morning and go to bed.

On Friday we had the Voyage of Discovery - a bonding, competative activity for the learning teams wrapped in the theme of the Lewis and Clark expedition. After we had our flag prepared, the trading floor opened, where we traded medicine for buffalo teeth, furs for metal etc. My team showed exceptional focus and discipline as we have in our two meetings. We ended the day with a nice dinner, where a second year joined our team and shared some of her wisdom with us.

Today started with a hiking trip in Shenandoah national park.

The day finished with a picnic in Flagler Court on the Darden grounds with all the Darden community. I returned home a little drunk, but very determined to crack the accounting case.
It's 2 am now and I have to finish a book and another case tomorrow before a BBQ at a professor's house - lunchtime tomorrow. And then, to top a nice Sunday, of course - learning team meeting.

Surviving two full days of the program gives no guaranties for this full week ahead. We already have an assignment for Wednesday consisting a 1/3 of our grade.

Fun times!

Class of 2010

2008-08-23T06:05:00.003+03:00

Class of 2010 took the traditional photo on the steps of Sunders Hall.

In two years we'll take another photo, compare and reflect the past two years.

Follow this link to find some of the highlights.

A blast to the past

2008-08-20T00:01:00.000+03:00

Yesterday we were given the opportunity to leave a time capsule for our future selves two years from now.
I did.
But then I had this idea, what if I could write to myself from the future. What if I now got a letter from myself in two years time. What would it say?

Dear Oren,
You are about to embark in a journey. The greatest journey you've had so far.
I don't want to spoil the surprise for you so I won't let you in on too much.
I will say this though; I had a blast. My (our) classmates are the best i could possibly ask for. I feel very lucky to have spent these past two years with such a talented, diverse group of people. I have learned so much from them and they, I hope, learned from me.
I never missed an opportunity to participate. Never sat shyly in the back, though I did sit in the back for the first quarter of the first year if I recall.

Our dean, Bob Bruner (yes he still is the dean so try to get to know him better, I was a little weak on that one this time around so you have a second chance - take it) told us (I think it was the day you were supposed to get this letter from me) a piece of wisdom from Las Vegas' casinos. It was a sign he saw over the rouletter table that said: "You must be present to win".
You remember that, right? So be present. These are only two years and they go this fast (swish!)
Be present.

I took most opportunities I had to get involved, participate, volunteer and still I feel I could have done more. So do more!
You'll have tough times, you'll have good times, but don't let any of these interfere with you taking advantage of this once in a life time experience.
Never again will you have access to such a diverse group of people, hudled together in one academic village, willing to share their knowledge and wisdom and willing to learn from one another.

Reach out.
Embrace.
Give.
Receive.
Appreciate and enjoy.

P.S. I just got your time capsule. Thanks for the congratulations.
I really have to say this: I was young back then.
See you in two years,
Me

Why Darden?

2008-08-19T02:07:00.003+03:00

Why Darden?
Because it produces the most well rounded graduates.
Because the graduates of Darden are team players, because they are embracers of diversity.
Because the high level executives coming from Darden are taking the time and effort to mentor the juniors in the company, thus gaining their respect and creating enthusiastic high performers that aspire, in turn to be like them.

Why Darden?
Because all the Darden graduates in our company are high performers with a proven track record of delivering results.

This was the general idea of what I gathered from a short video we were shown of a recruiter from one of the (if not the) best swiss banks taken when she was at Darden.

She was not paid to do this (or so we were told) and there was no pretty talking around her statements. They were direct and clear.

So why Darden?
Unless you have some of us in your organization, the best way I can answer is:
Just come and visit the campus.
You'll understand.

Here we go...

2008-08-18T06:46:00.004+03:00

Wow! These were some intensive few weeks. Prematriculation is officially over today and tomorrow we start the school year.
I've taken some 3 day courses in accounting and economics in hope that it would boost my knowledge in the area since I have no previous experience in the financial sector.
More interesting, however, is the PCAP - Personal Career Assessment Program which was a three half day workshop of self discovery. In Darden we try to trully understand who we are, what our life themes look like and what job alligns well with our personality, expectations and aspirations (A.K.A the Darden Cookie - knowing yourself and finding the job that completes you like a broken cookie and it's other half. If you're considerind Darden, there's a slightly different reference to the cookie here you may want to read about).

We had a two day career forum where many Darden alumni and business people from different industries and roles came on campus and presented us with the career opportunities we have. We all know there's IB, consulting, marketing, GM as the main jobs, but what are these jobs actually like? What is a typical day? How do you get to a PEG? (you don't get there after school if you don't have any previous experience in the area is the answer, at least it's very unlikely). The purpose was to create a safe environment where we could actually ask about anything and open our minds to the different options and indeed there were a lot of them. It made me think about what I want to do and if I still want to. It's a good time to be at school now and it's a great place to be with so many roads open to us.

Today was the official reception of the class of 2010. I found out some stats about our class and I also found out that a fellow student blogger who happens to be on my section has already posted some of it today. So here are the stats:
We have students from all 5 continents.
Our class size is 334
We have 97 women which is 1 woman less than last years and was the highest number ever recorded in Darden.
33% of us are international
Our Average GMAT is 692 and our Avg GPA is 3.35 .
28 is our average age with a range of 22-34.

We were 9 people competing for each addmitted student.

We got a world record holder, college athletes, Peace Corps Volunteers, various military and citizen pilots, a submariner and more and more.

We got our sections assignments today. I'm in section D. I found out that a lot of the Camp Darden refugees* are with me in D so it was great to have already known my peers who will be with me this year. It seems that last year's class started to get to know each other when school started, at least someone told me, but we all were already hanging out together these past weeks. Maybe it's the social online networks or the new DardenPortal, but it feels to me like we got something special forming here.

Tomorrow is our first day. We'll also be getting our learning teams assignments tomorrow so I'll know who are the 4 people I'll be spending 4 hours a day or more with, learning, eating, drinking, fighting... you get the picture. It's exciting.

A lot of things are going through my mind these past few days. It feels like being on a roller coaster at the top just before the first big slope down.
click, click, click... wheels rolling and here we go...

* Veterans of the legendary Camp Darden

Camp Darden

2008-08-10T17:53:00.003+03:00

Darden is known for its rigorous program. It was actually a part of why I chose Darden. I like to push myself to the extreme, testing my limits. So I was planning on August 18th as the start date. What I didn't take into account is the load I'll have during the pre-matriculation period. According to the wide recommendation for people with no finance/economics background, I registered for the economics and accounting pre-mats. I also took the career orientation workshop and attended some of the international workshops, the last one's theme was "why are americans like that?". As a dual citizen, I play both sides of the field so I switch between international and american at my convenience. There's a lot of red tape involved in being a dual citizen, but I won't write about it now.

To sum it all up I've had classes at 8:00 am up until around 16:00 including Saturday (!) and that has left me little time to finish up on my Darden assignments. There's a checklist provided by Darden with a time consuming list and at the end of it they told us to relax and enjoy the rest of the summer, which kind of made me laugh as I was reading it in my war zone of an appartment.

Surprisingly, the pre-mats turned out to be a lot of fun. The Dardenites that were around the past weeks in Charlottesville started going out, having parties, going bowling, having more parties and there were also some parties. What started as a mailing list that kept on growing as more people turn out in C-Ville and more events are added to the mixer and was later transfered to a google group is now known as Camp Darden.

Every day involves at least one of those activities usually ending up pretty late and the next morning people actually appear in class at 8:00 am. i didn't have the American college experience (beer pong is unheard of in Israel) so I'm having a lot of fun experiencing these now.

A few nights ago I attended an Edward Fourtyhands for the first time and besides the fact that the only 40 oz. bottles I found were bud & bud lite it was great. Besides being just great people, class of 2010 turned out to be a real fun bunch as well.

Now all that's left is to finish all of my assignments for tomorrow in the half day that still remains of this beautiful Sunday :P

Utility day

2008-08-05T06:12:00.003+03:00

Today was dedicated to utilities. It took me more time than I expected it to, but it was a good experience. The concept of marketing in the States is so much more developed than what we had back in Israel. See, in Israel - a very small country where everybody knows everybody - you always know where the best price is or at least where to find the best price. Price is the #1 factor when purchasing. Right after that is reputation which quickly flows from mouth to ear and therefore is almost equal to relationship (past or present relationship you have with the seller or provider of service). For example, we all hate our cable operator (in Israel we have one cable operator* and one Satelite operator). They "forget" to tell you that the special deal you're on expired and simply charge you more without notifying you repeatedly. The digital TV gets stuck a lot. The box set has A detector for food so that whenever you bring food to the TV room, the VOD stops working. I guess it's because it's not healthy to eat and watch TV.
The cable company is called HOT and there's even a website called I hate HOT

Back to the point, due to a long lasting (bad in this case) relationship with the company I'd prefer not to use their services. However, if the prices are seriously lower (like 33% than the competitor Satelite TV) I may get cable.

Today I experienced a different way of making decisions. I was connecting to my power provider and when I was done, was automatically transfered to a partner that can refer me to different service providers. Since I'm moving in, this is logical that I'll need these and rather than searching for them, they just appear at the other end of the phone line.

Another experience was when i was comparing quotes for my car insurance, getting one quote, I wanted to seek other's to compare. The customer service rep almost left me no choice but to agree that he calls me back in an hour, which is logical, and thanked me for allowing him to, which was weird. Before he let me go though, he spent like 30 seconds on selling me the strong points for getting insurance from the company he works for. He did that so convincingly that in my mind a feeling of trust and the idea that they are always available for me 24/7 and will actually help when I need them existed. Thinking back these were exactly the points the rep repeated with much charisma.

Maybe in Israel we don't know how to do that. Maybe we can't bullshit or we all know it's bullshit so we feel that it's stupid or empty. I ended up buying from that guy although his quote was a few bucks higher than the competition.

I meant to write that the day was productive, but the fact is that I only managed to get renters insurance and some furniture purchased. I still have a lot of summer reading and 2 prematriculation tests to do before I am allowed to take classes. I'll be renting a truck (yes you can drive a truck in the States with the same license!) and driving to Charlottesville with all my stuff to my new apartment (that will only be available the day after). Meanwhile Camp Darden** is still up. We drove to C'Ville*** on Friday to attend a party which was a lot of fun. Class of 2010 seem like a terrific bunch.

* There used to be a few companies, but they all united to one company - I think it was just admitting that there really isn't any competition so why fake it - but it's just my opinion
** Group activities of Dardenites in C'Ville during prematriculation such as pool/parties, bowling, pubs, golf, etc.
*** Charlottesville, VA

Culture Shock

2008-07-31T23:49:00.003+03:00

Efficiency, Openess of mind and plain good service.
But today, I'll talk about something else. Something completely unrelated.
Ladies and gentlemen, the DMV.
Got there early before it opened to find out that I'm not the only smart guy in Fairfax county.

They require two forms of ID. Yes, one is not enough because there's no way you can fake two IDs. One, maybe, but two... no way!
Since the only official US document I have is my passport and since my Israeli drivers lisence is not accepted ("according to the law, sir") I was offered to bring in my official transcript from the university. Since I won't have these for a while, until the semester that hasn't started yet will end, this was not a good solution for me.
They had no problem accepting a lease agreement that I printed out by myself for a lease that hasn't yet begun as proof of my residency. I even registered as a voter in the state.

At this point I should probably explain why it was so important to get the license. I'm buying a car and I need to get insurance. If I have an in state lisence, the rates drop by like 40%.

At this point I was told to bring in my birth certificate. I think I had a puzzled look when I was thinking [ok, just hang on one sec, while I go buy a $2000 plane ticket, fly over to my mom's house (only about 12 hours flight) and rush over back real quick )]. I said I'm not sure I still have it, and she replied that I must have it since I couldn't get a passport without it. Since it has been about 30 years since I got my first passport I wasn't really sure we kept it.

When they mentioned the selective service card (somthing I was only first aware of it's existance 2 months ago) my eyes glowed and I rushed back to my mother in law's home to find it.

Since I also found out that they don't really perform driving tests there, I found me a new DMV office and drove there.

I got lucky and received a good education session when I tried to figure out my weight and height in pounds and feet. The lady decided there's no way I can be 5"10 and must be 5"8. "Sir, when people try to help you, you listen and don't write down anything. Now go and fill a new form and come back".

When I turned to go back and fill the form again, she called after me "what did you just say?!" Since I didn't say anything I turned back and asked "what did I just say?" and she said "ok" so I guess it was ok.

I got back to discover my selective service card is not accepted there. It would have to be sent to Richmond and I'd have to wait 2 weeks for their response if they agree to accept it. I got to speak to the supervisor after waiting for her for 15 minutes during which I noticed the slow pace the people were working there. Efficiency was also noted when they had 10 computer stands for taking tests, but only 2 were being used. (yes, they were functional). After almost giving up on the argument with the open minded and understanding supervisor, realizing I'll have to wait to get my student ID card and maybe they'll agree to accept it as a form of ID, it hit me - my Israeli passport!

After some discussions, they agreed that this is recognizable by the USA and off I went to wait to be called to take the computer test.

The eagle has landed

2008-07-31T15:48:00.003+03:00

So here I am. After 30 years of exile, I'm living in the States again. Interesting enough (or not) I'm not that far away from where I took my first breath in the world at a hospital in the Dirstrict of Columbia. First few days have not been very productive.
In half an hour we'll be driving to the DMV in hopes that they won't make any trouble on account of my not having any proof of being a resident of the state, since my lease only starts in a week. Fingers crossed.

Leaving the country

2008-07-25T23:17:00.003+03:00

I still don't fully grasp that in a few days, I'll be leaving the country. Yesterday I had my farewell party on the roof at work and it was heart warming, seeing all those people whom I've worked with the past four years. I've made some close friends there and it is tough leaving all those behind, in addition to the career I loved. Part of the switching countries process is detaching from a lot of material stuff. In my years of existence, I've managed to accumulate a lot of belongings. Shipping everything in a container is too expensive so, like a lot of other students going for their MBA in the US, I'm selling everything I can, donating the rest and throwing away tons of stuff. When I started clearing the house I thought about every little thing before throwing away. By the time I was finished, I was throwing/donating quality stuff without a second thought. Today I said good bye to my best friend since the 7th grade and I still don't really acknowledge that I'm leaving.

Moving hell

2008-07-24T23:02:00.003+03:00

Yesterday it was time to clear out our apartment. Somehow I expected, or more like envisioned my time after leaving work and before b-school more like drinking a rum cocktail with one of those tiny umbrellas under a coconut tree rather than the hectic time I've had the past two weeks getting ready for moving a country, tying up lose ends for work and, well, b-school stuff (which I am so far away from finishing). It was a last minute decision, but it seemed a 3 day scuba diving vacation down in the red sea will be worth the time we don't spend on packing and getting ready. It totally was. However, in order to get ready for moving day after the mover, who also packs the apartment bailed on us, we needed to pack strait through the night. At half past midnight I couldn't see strait anymore so we set the alarm for a three hour nap and then continued until 13:00, when the movers came. Movers have the tendency to always be unhappy. Unhappy with the deal's details, the pay, the tip etc. I think it's part of their training. Two of them actually were quite nice. The third, who looked like he was running the show was less kind - to us and to his colleagues. I won't bore you with the details of the rest of the hellish day spent with the movers, but I will say this: I am never moving house again. After graduation, when I work on the west coast, I'll come by on weekends back to Charlottesville to the grad student complex. Maybe there's a start up idea here. Maybe I could switch apartments during the weekdays with someone with the same agenda who lives in the west coast. Maybe we could have listings of all of those switchable apartments, say we'll call it Greg's list or something. Maybe writing a post when I'm so tired wasn't such a great idea after all...

Tuck Visit

2008-07-18T11:01:00.003+03:00

Tuck is one of the few top schools that will interview you prior to submitting your application. It's a great opportunity, especially for internationals already visiting to leave a strong impression since it's not likely that you'll come there again just for an interview. The downside of it is that you really have to prepare. Although we've done some mock interviews, looking back, I realize I was insufficiently prepared. We were lightly preparing our first applications to Darden while we were traveling so we just weren't polished enough.

Before driving to NH, we had to go get our found luggage containing our suits we needed for the interview. Just the night before, when we landed, AirTran informed us that they don't know where our luggage is, so we were extremely happy when we were notified it was found. Joyful that we didn't need to go shopping for suits we started driving to NH.

Dartmouth college is impressive. Located in Hanover, NH with all that green and forests around was very attractive for me. I like small places and Hanover was really a gem. We stayed in the nicest, coziest, homey motel in Lebanon (the nearby town). You come to realize that the center of your life would be around the school's building and we even heard stories from the Tuckies that during the harsh winter, they sometimes just stay indoors without ever leaving the school since it's connected to the dorms. Anyway, Tuck is really something else. The main hall has a fireplace and I've read that the whiskey club (yes, an official club for tasting whiskeys) sits around the fireplace drinking and telling stories. We walked by students sitting around with their laptops to the admissions office. The furniture around us is all oldish style in a good way. The staff was very nice. Parking is allowed in specifically designated places around campus. There are very few of these. However, I've heard one of the staff mention to a prospective that if he got a parking ticket, that he should just bring it to the admissions office and they'll take care of it.

I was interviewed by a second year student. When I analyzed it later on, I realized I should have shown more confidence with this guy, but as I've mentioned I wasn't prepared to take on an interview at the time. From what I've found out prior to the interview, the Tuck interviews are a flowing conversation, but that doesn't mean it's a walk in the park.

The class visit was OK, though there was nothing memorable there. Lunch in the cafeteria was decent and the student community seemed nice and helpful. We already had a scheduled meeting with an Israeli student of course and he was kind and informative. The main attraction of Tuck to me was the small class and tight-knit community, living in the middle of nowhere, NH - that's actually a good thing by my standards - bonding for two years. I did hear later on that students there actually need a liver transplant after two years there. I'm sure I could have taken it.

Sloan Visit

2008-07-17T16:30:00.001+03:00

As an engineer, employed in the high-tech industry and aiming to return there - MIT was in my top list. After parking in a garage 10 minutes from school we discovered there's free parking right in front of the school. We met some nice prospectives in the lobby and started chatting. We then met a current Israeli student who seemed keen on the school, but we kept getting interrupted and didn't really get a chance to connect.

The class itself and the conduct in the class wasn't that interesting for our taste. We had lunch boxes prepared for us, which was very nice of the school and had lunch with current students. Of course, we got to ask questions about the school and application process.

We had a meeting scheduled with another Israeli student. We were eager to meet him, since the Israeli angle always reveals interesting information. We had a small communication breakage with him and couldn't find him for 15 minutes. When we managed to get him on the phone, he decided to cancel the meeting.

We left the school with feeling that we don't quite fit in the school's culture. I think this is the first time we really understood the importance of visiting schools and getting the feel from it and the people there. It's a good school, and I'm sure other people may find it more of a fit. By the time we reached the car, we had already decided not to apply to Sloan.

Stanford Visit

2008-07-16T20:07:00.004+03:00

Unfortunately Stanford hadn't yet had class visits available. I was really hoping to see what a Stanford class is like and get the feel of the student body. I did however meet two Israeli second years - who were a couple, which was great since we had the same goal of getting admitted together. They were two superstars who managed to get admitted to 5 top schools together and chose Stanford. They were extremely nice and spent some time with us over lunch telling us about the program.

I really liked Palo Alto and the campus itself. It provides the pastoral learning atmosphere and you have San Fransisco not so far away. We attended a short session conducted by the admissions staff and that was that. Our time was short and we had to proceed to our next stop - Boston, where we'll visit MIT and then head over to Tuck. We had just a few stops along the way: A few days in Vegas, Phoenix, Fort Lauderdale and a short 3 day vacation in the Bahamas.

Haas Visit

2008-07-13T21:02:00.005+03:00

We drove around Berkeley for a while before we reached some office that sells parking permits. Since they didn't know the way to the parking lots, we spent some more time finding one next to school. A Haas student later told me: "The best thing about Berkeley is our great location. The worst thing about Berkeley is our great location". The campus is beautiful and locating the b-school in it was an experience.

Stories of festivities in Haas' open area (concrete yard? see pic) and the smiling faces of students imprinted in my brain that it is a happy place. The class itself was fun and interesting as the students were summing up the result of a negotiations simulation. There aren't that many students in the class and this gives somewhat of a more intimate feeling. The professor added to the experience with her energy, smiles and good spirit. She looked like the stereotype of a California girl (no, I don't wish they all could be California girls - because I embrace diversity [I also stated that in one application essay]).

The professor then presented us with a short film created at Google labs where they teach the same class. I found out then that Google actually has their very own Haas MBA program running within the labs(!). The film was quite amusing, simulating negotiations of phone reps with angry customers.

A current student than took us to lunch in their very own grill-restaurant, which served some good ol' American cuisine. You are not entitled to lunch as part of the school visit. We met there some more pleasant Haas students and got to - you guessed it - talk about the school and admissions.

We were then taken to meet student ambassadors and admissions staff who were very kind. Some more prospectives joined the session and I discovered another Israeli there, which was great. There was no real answer for the financial aid issue with Berkeley. There is no loan arranged by the school without co-signers. This fact is extremely important to internationals. It puzzled me that Berkeley does not remedy this when I saw how a friend of mine had to deal with the financial issue with the high cost of living in Berkeley vs. the other offer he had at another ivy league school.

Unfortunately the Haas visit was added to our traveling plans at a short notice and we hadn't managed to meet an Israeli student there. The ambassadors gave us his contact, but due to timing constraints, we only had a phone call that evening after we had arrived to Palo Alto.

That evening, we continued working on our essays for our first application - Darden - as we've done throughout every stop in this trip.
The next day was a visit to Stanford.

Ross Visit

2008-07-11T02:45:00.009+03:00

It's a real short ride between Detroit airport and Ann Arbor. Something to keep in mind when considering interviews/conventions you'd want to get to during your two years. We touched base at a motel and met our Israeli MBA2 contact at his apartment. He called on some of the other MBA1's and MBA2's and we ended up sitting in a pub with 4 of them. Nastia (my wife) got a nice big 'X' mark on her hand, since she hadn't brought an ID with her. She was totally flattered by that of course. The Rossies are a fun loving, friendly bunch. Besides the fact that they spontaneously went out with us, they were ready and eager to answer any questions we had. No need to tip toe around the Israelis, so we really got to ask anything.

The next morning we had the class visit. The campus is spread around in buildings in Ann Arbor. The b-school is one of these. The full time program currently occupies the executive residence as far as I understand along with the part time, evening time and BBAs. The new building should be ready for fall of 2009. Until then, it may be a bit overcrowded. At least for my taste. Parking is not offered by the school, so we parked on the street and fed the meeter when it was hungry. There were a few of us visiting class. We got two escorts splitting us into two groups. Unfortunately we got a not so interesting class. Lunch with students was very nice. We had lunch coupons for the cafeteria and we got to ask questions about the school, admissions etc. The students were very kind. We had early dinner plans with the Israeli students so we took a walk around the campus. Luckily it was a perfect, blue sky, sunny September day. As sun is a rare commodity in Ann Arbor, the students take the opportunity and adjust their clothing accordingly. We sat down in a coffee shop and enjoyed the view and perfect weather.

It was really fun meeting up with the Israeli students again. We went to some fast food Italian restaurant and got to talk some more and meet some more of the Israelis.

We said goodbye to Ann Arbor and headed off back to Detroit. Stanford and Berkley are next.

Just Married

2008-07-08T16:38:00.019+03:00

Today I celebrated my 1 week wedding anniversary. Yeap, I got married a week ago.
Never viewed myself as the married type, but I guess 95% of all male US MBA students can say that.
Although we managed to pull everything together really quickly (like 3 months) (people here go around planning their wedding for a year or more - and I'm not accounting the plans girls have since they're 3 marrying Barbi and Ken [does Barbi still exist?]), it still was a lot of effort in all the planning and it all just blows away before you can say jack.. or ja.. well it's fast.

Nevertheless I have to admit, this wedding was perfect. The bride was astonishing!

With two witnesses at my side, I joined the Rabbi and signed the 'Ktuba' - a document specifying that I am obligated to feed my bride, make sure she has clothing and... well that she is satisfied. Yes the old traditions thought of that as well (PG-13?) . I put in a sum (the minimum required equals to about $30,000) of money that I agree to pay her in case I leave the house (yes this is legally binding).

We've marched to the sounds of a song from 'pirates of the Caribbean'. Guests were applauding and a rain of soap bubbles fell around us. We each gave a ring. My wife had a memorized fantastically honest, yet incredibly touching speech. She was surprised when I replied with one of myself. I heard later that guests were actually crying. The Rabbi was awesome - funny and witty.

When I broke the glass (Jewish wedding tradition) a song from 'Le-Reve' (the Tree) played.

The food was amazing (so the guests claimed - as expected we did not have time to eat), alcohol flowed freely (as an ex-bartender it was my duty to make sure good alcohol was present). Perhaps this is a good time to mention the amazing photography work done.

As sugar paste cake designers ourselves, we had to have an impressive cake at our wedding and so the masters who taught us the art prepared a cake with the bride and groom wearing graduation hats and cherry blossom branches spread on the cake.

We prepared a dance to the sound of 'Rule the world' by 'Take That'. It was amazing. We checked before (including youtube dance videos) and made sure we were the first ones to use these songs so here - it's documented - from here on the rest are copycats.

After that everyone was dancing or stopping to drink. The DJ built the music according to the feel of the crowd. Sometime later, deserts came (awesome too) and Popsicles appeared in the dancers hands contrasting the warm July evening.

After most guests left the lack of food, and constant dancing assisted the alcohol to charge in my bloodstream and the evening ended strictly according to tradition with the groom completely drunk.

A once in a lifetime experience.

Darden Visit

2008-07-08T14:34:00.015+03:00

Last September, my girlfriend (toady my wife) and I set on 3.5 weeks of airport hopping around the USA. We landed in D.C. and after spending a few days at my girlfriend's parents in a suburb of D.C. we headed to our first school visit.
After almost 2 hours of drive we reached the gorgeous Charlottesville. Rumors have it that route 29 is a highway patrol goldmine, but I guess I was driving the speed limit.

We met with a current student in the evening who showed us around town - specifically the downtown mall. We had dinner and talked about school and the application process (surprise!).
We then turned in for the night preparing for the next day's class visit.

The GPS kindly pointed us to Darden blvd. There, surrounded by forest resides the Darden School of business administration.

At the gatehouse we got our parking permit, allowing us to park anywhere in the boulevard. I could feel the history surrounding me as we walked through the great wooden doors. These facilities are actually quite new, but they were built in accordance with the architecture of UVA, which was built by Thomas Jefferson's vision of an academic village. In short - amazing (UVA is a world heritage site BTW).

The visit started with 'First Coffee' - a 50 year tradition - a 9:30 gathering (after first class, which starts at 8:00 - Did anyone say MBA boot camp?) with a fresh, steaming cup and discussions about every topic from academics to hobbies with students and faculty. We were a bit shy and didn't get into any discussions. Networking in US standards is uncharted territory for us. We knew we, like a lot of internationals, had to learn this.

Off to the admissions office, where we received our case and had half an hour to prepare before our escort came to pick us up. This was my first case study ever so I didn't really know what to expect. The case was part of the 'Leading Organizations' course or as students call it - 'LO'.

Our student escorts took us to our separate classes - I was in section B. I kept rehearsing the short introduction of myself that I've prepared. The Israeli culture is very concise and strait to the point. We usually state our first names and current positions. Blabbing about your accomplishments is considered showing off, so speaking about myself in that manner is a skill I was still trying to master. I was somewhere at "My name is Oren..." when the professor asked me to introduce myself. I did so very briefly and that seemed enough. Than I was asked to tell an embarrassing story about myself. I censored the real juicy stories and told a nerdy dry "embarrassing" story because I actually wanted to be admitted to the school. I was finally allowed to sit down and watch the show. Or so I thought. You see, in Darden you don't watch the show. Instead of listening to the professor, you talk. If you listen to someone it would be to another fellow student. And you'd better listen. You can't lose trace of the conversation because you might get cold-called. The class split up to some group discussions for a few minutes and I actually participated, which seemed great at the time. What I didn't know then is that the whole learning experience at Darden comes from self learning, then group learning with your study group (3 hours every night) the rest is completed and polished in class by the 60 students who make your section. The professor is truly merely a facilitator.
There is no real way to transmit the experience of a Darden class. You really have to be there. This is probably why Darden requires that all domestic applicants interview on campus.

After class we were taken to have lunch with current students in the very impressive dinning hall. Food was good (paid for by the school) and the company even better. Darden students are friendly, modest and helpful. I can assume this collaborative, supportive atmosphere comes from the study method.

We were then off to the suburbs of D.C again. The next day held an early morning flight to Detroit. Ann Arbor awaits.

School visits

2008-06-19T21:31:00.006+03:00

If I could offer you one piece of advice, it would be - wear sunscreen.
A notch after that would be, visit the schools you plan to apply to.
As an international, flying over the Atlantic, then airport hopping across the USA poses a financial and workplace challenge. Especially if you don't want people at work to know you're looking at an MBA.

I can't put my finger on what drove us to visit schools, but I'm so glad we did.
You can do all the research in the world and "know" everything there is to know about the school, but you won't know the school. The only way to feel the culture and atmosphere is to experience it. Talking to people from the school, alumni, students, cleaning ladies etc. helps, but you will truly know if you "fit" the school once you've visited.

So, once again, visit the schools you plan to apply to.

I found the value of the visit was tremendously increased by contacting current students and arranging to spend some time with them so you'd have the chance to ask questions, maybe go out together and experience what it's like being an MBA student there.

Schools offer class visits, usually followed by lunch with current students (some pay for it, some don't), maybe a Q&A session and some are even nice enough to provide parking for your cool (so 90's) rental.

At minimum you need a day at each school for the class visit and spending some time with students. If there's one thing I do regret is not spending 2 days (two full days, not land, find hotel, visit school 2nd day) at each school to have one day free to get to know the place and more importantly (much more) the nightlife.

It's also nice if you join one motel/hotel club membership and stick with it so you'd probably end up getting a night or two for free during your trip. I used www.triprewards.com and was fairly happy saving $100+ staying one night in Boston.

Prior to the trip, I thought I knew what schools I wanted and what they would be like (more or less). I found out that some schools I thought I'd fit right in, I didn't like and some I thought would be nice - I fell in love with.

Getting a US student visa

2008-06-03T11:59:00.005+03:00

Today we went to the US embassy to apply for a student visa for my fiancée (she’s also in my class of 2010).
The overall experience was pretty painless though I went to register for voting for the first time while I was there and it’s substantially easier on the US citizens side.
I have not heard of stories of international students who did not get the visa, but better be prepared.

So here are a few tips we gathered while listening on other people’s interviews:

1. Come at least 20 minutes prior to your interview. The security checks take time and it seems they invite groups of people once an hour rather than stream them every few minutes or so. So you want to be there before the full group gets there.
2. Don’t hide anything – they know anyway
3. Even though they took your fingerprints on the first step where you present your documents, don’t run off to the interview line. You are required to give your fingerprints again at a nearby window. I have no idea why, but if you don’t do it you may have to start the process all over (so the facilitator there says).
4. Bring a pen (black preferred). It’s a bummer to crowd around the few pens they have there or asking people to use theirs.
5. If you already have/had a US visa – bring it. They don’t ask it on their website and it’s not mandatory, but they sometimes ask if you have it.
6. Bring a paycheck. Again this is not something they specify on the website, but they sometimes ask for it. Better safe then sorry.
7. Bring cash. Preferably exact change. In Israel we paid 33.5 NIS for the postal delivery of the passport+visa.

*Information based on experience in US embassy in Tel-Aviv and is merely a suggestion. Author not responsible for any damage, loss or anything anywhere ever.

Should You Get An M.B.A.?

2008-06-01T18:00:00.004+03:00

I tried out the Forbes business school calculator. I got the following results:
Yayks! I had the notion, but it's different when you actually see the numbers.
So I'm leaving a good career progress and a nice salary, stability, friends, family and all of that behind. Why do I want to get an MBA?

I had to answer this in the five applications I wrote, but even before that, I had to answer this in order to know if I even wanted to apply in the first place.

I like money just like the next person. Well, I apparently don't like it enough to keep it and patch up that hole I have in my wallet, but anyway, money's not the (main) reason for the MBA. I'm not even looking at investment banking.

Ok, so I would have gotten my next promotion in a few months. That would have been nice, but then what?

It's the leap. The doors that would be opened for me once I'm in a top b-school, the top notch education I'll get to understand all the business components and how they all come together, the fantastic people I'll meet (and already have met some). It's that quantum leap.

Why do you want to get an MBA?

A blog is born

2008-05-31T01:34:00.000+03:00

I live in Israel, work at SAP as a software development team leader. At least I will be for the next month. As of mid August, I'll be living in Charlottesville VA, getting my MBA at Darden.
I love Scuba diving, skiing, roller blading, cooking, computer games and sugar paste cake designing.

Here, I will tell all about my experiences in the MBA process, what I've gone through by now and what I will go through in the next two years.