domingo, 30 de marzo de 2008

My First Salsa Show

So last weekend I sold my ticket to the Rachmaninov concert *tear* to do my first salsa show. Well the stage area was way too tiny and we had to eliminate our lift (and my favorite part) to accompany the space. Morgan was my dance partner. We both have this showmanship personality, which makes things a lot more fun.

Well our show was technically good, with a lot of show moves, but since we hadn't practiced much, it left something to be desired. INSEAD ended up winning, although their performance was not as difficult or creative as ours, they had a lot more support from the crowd and were a lot less nervous. It was obvious that they took it a lot more seriously. Well, there is always MBA Olympics. :)

Venga! You will learn salsa with Hernando! Bang bang!


IESE Salsa Club performers

lunes, 24 de marzo de 2008

"Would You Like Smashed Spinach With That?" -- My Portugal Trip

So my 9 day excursion through Portugal began in Lisbon, then through the Algarve-many beaches-, up to Porto, spent Easter in the holy city of Fatima before leaving Lisbon back home to Barca.

My Interpretation of Portugal
It seems to me that if Barcelona was New York, Lisbon would be New Jersey. Just the trees, the infrastructure, reminded me of Jersey. Friends spoke of Eastern Europe even. Portugal, despite it's dreary, mournful feel (maybe because it was just raining a lot when I was there), has a type of longing about it that draws me in a deeper sense. I can definitely see myself retiring in a place like Cascais.

I think the most notable quality of Portugal is how giving, sincere, and wonderful the people are. It seems as if most are small-town folk, uncorrupted & innocent. I love that. The service everywhere was so genuine and attentive. If the way to a man's heart is his stomach, the way to my heart is good customer service.

The Algarve
This beautiful region to the South of Portugal is home to a multitude of beaches.














Lagos Marina:


Twin Peaks:


Yeah, I'm going to say this picture is blurry because I'd been drinking.


Where babies come from:

(Storks, not Portugal)

When I get bored during drives between beaches I like to put bugles on my fingers and pretend they're witch nails...






Cataplana:


At peace



Lisbon + Surrounding Area
Lisbon:Sintra:Palacio da Pena, SintraBelem:






Cabo da Roca (Most Western Point of Europe):


One of my favorite memories of Lisbon is dancing the night away in Barrio Alto with a Brazilian samba teacher to a live samba band and sipping caiparihas all night... The floor cleared just for us to dance.... There was also a very nice bartender Claudio giving us all these shots. All in all, the people were very welcoming to us, and very friendly.

Perhaps my favorite memory was visiting Nuno's villa in Cascais:


And cooking dinner there:


And generally the customer service at Lisbon may be even better than the United States (because it seems more genuine, not like they are tip-hungry). Maybe because the service in Barcelona is horrible. The service at some Lisbon restaurants almost made me cry. And when one waiter said "Would you like smashed spinach with that?" it almost made me cry from laughing so hard.

Porto
It seemed to me that Porto was trapped in the 80s - about 20 years behind schedule. I took the time to explore this city solo, but some of my favorite memories of Portugal came from this city. The Palacio do Porto (Stock Exchange):


A beautiful view from a street in the Ribeira:


Recap:
I think what most represents the Portugal that I see can be summarized by the atmosphere of this song "Kiss Me" by David Fonseca, a native Portuguese singer: Romantic, simple, genuine, wholesome, beautiful, peaceful.

jueves, 13 de marzo de 2008

This Quick & Dirty Career Test Doesn't Help...




Your Career Personality: Capable, Friendly, and Energetic



Your Ideal Careers:



Actor

Advertising Executive

Artist

Counselor

Entrepreneur

Musician

Politician

Psychologist

Teacher

Television Reporter



I would have liked to be a Psychologist, but it's a little too late for that! :P

martes, 11 de marzo de 2008

My Job Search Adventure During Finals

"Our conversation got disconnected and I don't have his number so I've been waiting by the phone for him to call. He must not have liked me. If he really liked me he would call."

"Don't worry," said Andrew. "The right one will come along..."

So I went back to the operations review session, sat down & fought back tears. If I am so wonderful I thought, why am I still jobless?

Last night I got an invitation from Pala Investments to interview the next day. I was swamped, seriously swamped, but I gave some times I was available and apologized for being so busy. Since the interview was the next day, I had hoped they'd confirm that same day. I checked my email religiously waiting for a reply. I thought I should send them another email saying that I'd rearrange my schedule for THEM (skipping class, meetings, review sessions), but Felipe said "No! You already sent them an email! It's their job to reply!" Don't want to seem too eager...

The next morning, they sent me an email with an interview in my recommended time slot. :)

So, my first interview today was with Pala. They were looking for someone to research and provide valuations for companies. It sounded like something I really wanted to do, and had the training for, but these people were so high profile that I felt humbled that they considered me, a simple American girl from Tulane. They said they would send me an email in a couple weeks.

As it goes with men in love and careers, I believe that if they really liked me, they would call.

My next interview was with Barclays Strategy Consultants. Barclays is a bank I always wanted to work for. From the first time I met its representatives, I had fallen in love. But Barclays to me is like the guy you always had a crush on in high school but who never noticed you. Of all the times you hinted and flirted, he had rejected them all... I must have applied to 3 different positions at Barclays, but to no avail. The problem is that I know I'm special. And I know I could do this job. But somehow... it never ends the way I want it.

The interview went okay; I was caught off guard with some of the questions and needed some time to warm up. They weren't the typical investment banking questions I was used to having, but then again, this was for consulting. And at the end, we got disconnected somehow. I tried to call back the number I had on ID, but it was probably a general number and I got no answer. I didn't have his direct line or email address so I waited for him to call... and waited... and I seriously believe that if he really wanted to hire me, he wouldn't let me go that easily.

So we are back to me in the Operations review, looking sad. Thinking I'd never get a job and I'd probably end up settling as a sales manager in an Abercrombie and Fitch retail store when my heart and true talent is in risk analysis, valuations and reading & interpreting financial statements. Sigh...

Queues. Arrival times. Lambda. I was lost in thought, but preoccupied with the equations Alejandro Lago was so considerately writing on the board. Suddenly I heard violins...

It was my phone. I got a phone call which disrupted the review session. "This is Ann." I said. "Hi, this is GR with Pala Investments. We would like to invite you to our final round interview tomorrow..."

If they really liked you, they would call.

domingo, 9 de marzo de 2008

Salsa vs. Rachmaninov

I have a my first ever Salsa performance on the same day as a Rachmaninov concert. It will be my first time at the Palau de la Musica listening to my favorite classical piece ever: Piano Concerto #2. I hope I don't have to choose.... I don't know what I'd do.

Chilling.


Rachmaninov must have had big hands...

On Finals

There is a quote on Customer Relationship Management that goes as follows:

"Frequently you end up trying to build relationships with the wrong customers, or trying to build the wrong relationships with the right customers."


This has special meaning to me because IT IS JUST LIKE DATING. Geez. When we find a solution to this CRM problem, somebody tell me, because I sure as hell would like to know.

Why is it that we as MBAs must struggle to find a summer internship, 3 cases a day, section/team/nationality dinners, BOW, sports and still expect to have time to study for finals? And why is it that we do not have a dead week to fully process what we've learned???

I have not attended any BOWs in numerous weeks and already skipped about 3 section/girls/team dinners. Why? Because I need a job. And I need to be able to implement theory. And, of course, I'm performing Spring Fling Salsa and need to learn the program...

See, I've discovered that part of the reason why I struggle in this MBA is because I master the theory but not the implementation. As I see on my past exams, I have gotten all the concept questions right, but all the calculations wrong. But I have just no patience to go over boring operations problems or complex cost allocation problems.

And why is it that the week of finals, all the interesting cases appear?? I was not planning to read any cases this week, but I've found myself putting off studying (AKA doing problems because studying theory never pays off) for finals and procrastinating by doing cases. I simply can't stop reading the stuff: The Kidder Peabody rogue trader who provoked liquidation of the bank by booking forward recons. Who is to blame? Oh, it's really a criminal law case! Santander Bank: How would it market it's new credit card? Could tell me why has the BarclayCard been so successful! And the case of Polyphonic and how they use science to determine hit song structure. What could more interesting than that?? (I'm being serious).

So now that I have done all the cases for this week (except operations-too boring), I'm faced with the burden of inanely practicing problems on allocating direct machine hours or labor hours or whatever the hell Activity Based Throughput Constraint Direct Machine Hour Relevant Costing is all about. As Napoleon Dynamite would say: "GOSH!"

lunes, 3 de marzo de 2008

My Socially Responsible Weekend

Friday was the start of the 5th Annual IESE Doing Good Doing Well conference, a weekend to promote socially responsible business. I skipped lunch to go to the keynote speaker, who spoke on the evolution of capitalism to include social responsibility in business.

Then there were the Strategy presentations, then I skipped the rest of the conference to take a nap.

Woke up at 20:00h, showered, ran to Antonio's birthday dinner, arrived an hour late. When I got to the tapas bar, La Taberna Del Cobre, Antonio was the only guy surrounded by a table of beautiful Section B women. It was hilarious, and somewhat comforting. I was the only Section A girl.

As they were telling the stories of Section B, this strange feeling passed through me. This cohesiveness, this family, this laid-back attitude was what I always imagined my MBA to be like. That was how Tulane was like. Instead I think that Section A is sometimes run like boot camp: no one arrives late, no one speaks out of turn, no phones go off, everyone prepares the cases, everyone is serious. In Section B, when someone makes an out of place comment, the whole class would defend him. In this way all the shy people are encouraged to speak. I always wanted that. That is how I came out of my nerdy shell in college. (Yes, I was a nerd once).

After a while some second years and more of the Section A crowd joined the dinner. We chatted and reminisced, then headed out to Handbar. I went with some Americans to the Latin party hosted by IESE, ESADE & EADA, 3 prominent business schools in Barcelona. It was funny, we arrived at 0030h, and we were the only 5 people in the club... 5 Americans extremely early to a Latin party. It was so embarrassing. Plus, they were playing Michael Jackson.

Fortunately, the crowd livened up and I was able to dance some salsa, merengue & vallenato songs. It was interesting meeting the ESADE and EADA people because it was like looking into another portal: I had applied and was accepted to both schools, and might have gone if things were different...

I had a socially responsible night & headed home early at 330h.

At 800h, I was up again and off to the DGDW Career Forum. So there were these tables, in the comedor. Mike Rosenburg announced: "These tables back here are looking for summer interns. These tables over here are looking for full time hires. These tables up front don't promise anything. After 15 minutes I ring a bell, and you switch. It's like speed dating."

And I thought: Wow. This is amazing. I wish real dating were just like this. If I can know up front which guys are looking for serious relationships, which are looking for flings, and which are not interested at all, I'd be all set.

After the Career Forum, I went to Bala's seminar about ethical investing: do socially responsible funds earn higher returns? Believe it or not, this is a very interesting topic to me. Here's a taste:



"Because in the long run, we're all dead!"

Things are shaking up. Section A was strange today. People actually came in late, and some phones went off. One guy's text message beeps kept going off and it was obvious that he was exchanging messages during class but did not bother to turn off the sound. People came in very late. I felt so sorry for the teacher. After class, Section A received a note from Section B on how to have more fun. Awesome. It's about time. I can feel things shaking up...

After Spanish, we had our second salsa practice for Spring Fling. Our program is very fun, to "Con Fuerza" by Calle Real. It's a somewhat sexy program, but not in a seductive way. In a powerful, yet beautiful way. I think we are going to have a lot of fun.

For the MBA Olympics, we are going to have a completely different choreography. I hope we do it to Eddie Torres' "Caravan"...