Back to real world

Back to real world. That may be the expression that summarizes best how one feels when he has to come back to work - even if it is roughly for a 3-month internship - and temporarily forget about his still very recent MBA days.

Furthermore, most of the times, there is a need for MBAs to do things well enough to be offered a full time position after graduation. That's not gonna be case since the media industry does not work as the banking and consulting ones do. However, making a good impression to try to leverage upon it in the coming months is still key.

I am back to the country and city where I lived for almost 4 years before joining Stern. I am living with the friends I used to live not many months ago. Life seems to be pretty much the same right now - much less stressful, though - but I can't help feeling different. I guess my head is somehow in NY and I am aware that this stage will be temporal and rather sooner than later I will be back in NY to play the very final hand. I hope that my summer experience will help me in getting good cards. The jackpot? The full-time job that I will eventually decide to pursue.

I have only worked for 10 days so far and the first impressions are good. People have welcomed me in a great way and the work looks interesting. However, I am gonna wait for a while to lay down any conclusion. These months will be of utmost importance for me in shaping my near future or, at least, in leading me in one way or another. As I said before, I need some more time.

Time to sleep now. Tomorrow I have to wake up early....to work!!

Ciao

Summary of a year

NY is beautiful at night. It is even more beautiful with the present weather. It’s almost 2 am and I have come walking from Union Square to my place in Alphabet City and it’s been a really nice walk. I’m definitely gonna miss this as from Saturday.

While I was walking back home I was listening to some quiet and easy listening Brazilian music on my ipod and, for some reason, it’s made the walk rather nostalgic. As I was walking south and then east, a bunch of memories from the whole year have gone through my head.

First, my mind has set on the city itself, on how much I have enjoyed it, on how much it has become a part of my daily life, on how happy I am for the decision made just a few months ago, although it seems like an eternity has gone by. Then, all the people that I have met so far have passed in front of me in one way or another, either friends, school colleagues, girls that I have gone out with, the girl about whom I took an “all in” bet after a long time and who did not feel the same way than I did, the people in my neighborhood… everybody!

While I was thinking about all this I couldn’t help but feeling that this experience I’m going through is over, although, thank God, it isn’t. Maybe it is because my MBA2 friends have officially graduated today. I’m lucky that I have another year ahead of me and I’m sure that it will be great too. Maybe next year I will feel in a slightly different way but, right now, I don’t see myself leaving NY (voluntarily, so to say).

However, I also think about the challenges that I will be facing soon. First, and above all, my summer internship. I am going to take a position in which I have no experience at all and I am curious (and a little afraid to be true) about how I am going to respond and about what it is gonna be expected from me. I will be thirty soon but I feel like I’m gonna start working for the very first time. And that is tough! Furthermore, will it be what I really want? Shall I be completely wrong trying to make the switch I am trying to make? What if I have to start from scratch with some other thing after the summer? There are a lot of questions and few answers so far.

But the main challenges will start next September, at a time when I will have to focus on my full time job. If this year the nerves and pressure to find the right internship have been high, I prefer not to think (yet) about what it will be like next year. Everybody just tells me about how much fun I am having in NY – which is true – but people tend not to remember that my fellow classmates and myself have quit our jobs and invested heavily in this MBA venture and that if we don’t find what we are looking for the deception will be big. And this is our very main goal.

Anyway, I will have time to write about all this after the summer. In a couple of days I will be coming back to my country and, leaving work aside, I will meet my family and friends again and I’m sure it will be a great time. On August 26th I will be flying back to NY and my second MBA year will start. But that will be a different story.

Last post for an amazing 9-month time. Madrid is waiting for me now.

Ciao