Bad day

I had already said that these days would come along. I am down today. I am injured after the Austin, TX, MBA soccer cup, I am tired and I feel a little worried and depressed with my job search.

Last week I met with one of the career counselors at Stern. I seem to be doing everything right in terms of my homework (networking, looking, etc) and apparently it is still early for media recruiting purposes. I believed her since she knows the shit much better than I do. But weeks go by and I don’t hear back from the companies I apply.

I was feeling ok with that until today. I was talking to a girl from school who is committed to the media search too. She has got nothing yet either, but she is interviewing. She was in L.A. last week, she has told me about another girl who lined up 5 interviews for next week. In the meantime, I do not even have a first round.

Last week I could confirm that some big media companies are not recruiting b/c of economic uncertainty. Today, a professor that teaches us a film course has told us some “realities” about the industry and some life lessons that one is not usually told at biz school. The gloomy ones. It’s been really useful and eye-opening.

In a nutshell, today I am feeling like it is really cold out there. It’s less than three months until graduation. Things have not changed much since my last “happy day” but today I kind of look in a different way.

Well, I just needed to write about it.
Later

My own happy Valentine's

A great burrito from the Mexican restaurant around the corner and “28 weeks later” on my HDTV. And the first listening to Radiohead’s “In rainbows” album while I write this post before going to bed. By myself. That’s been my Valentine’s night master plan. And I feel pretty good about it.

It is funny because it seems like these kinds of festivities have to be celebrated in a very specific way. In the way merchants tell us to. I never celebrate Valentine’s. I never celebrate mother’s or father’s day. I do not need to wait for such days to buy something for somebody I love. That’s just the way I see it.

Today I have gone for a haircut and the lady who has cut my hair just asked me if I had specific plans for tonight. I said no and explained my theory. She agreed. She also explained to me some theories about why she preferred Hillary to defeat Obama for the benefit of the democrats. At some point later today I was at school filling out a form and when I have unconsciously asked what day it was the girl behind the counter has looked at me in a weird and funny way…just like thinking, “wow, you’ve got a great love life right now, my friend” :-) I can't complain, anyways.

I am rather happy today because it seems like I am doing things right in terms of job search. I have been talking to one of the Stern’s career counselors and she insists that I am on the right track. It is still early for media jobs. I just have to persevere with my networking and the pay offs will come. She was super optimistic. Though I am not that much, I am still confident.

Going to bed now. We are facing NYU Soccer Varsity team tomorrow. A serious test for the old MBA guys. Playing against some kids 10 years younger than I and in a much better shape is a challenge. But we will not be an easy opponent. I hope not, at the very least!!
Later

Course impressions

A couple of weeks of my last semester are gone already and it by now I have some first impressions about the courses I am taking. On the one hand, I can preliminary say that I am rather excited about them; on the flipside, it seems like it is gonna be a little bit more work than I wished for my very last semester as a student.

Brand strategy: a famous marketing course at Stern taught by Scott Galloway, a former entrepreneur and current hedge fund guy. Maybe you have heard of him because his fund is trying to get a few board seats at The New York Times. I remember some friends last year telling me about this course and how nervous they felt in class. I know now what they meant. Galloway is cocky and self confident and he thinks he is a hot shot (and I think he is). He will challenge you in class and put you on the spot if necessary. He has told us today that he will cold call during next class about the “brand identity model”. If we do not know the answers he will kick us out of class. It is not a joke. He may be a little scary but I feel like these kinds of professors are necessary. Not everything works in his class, and in more classes than it would be desired anything you say seems to work.

Restructuring firms and industries: a general corporate finance course, focused on conflicts of interests between shareholders and managers in a variety of fields such as excess cash flow or M&A. This course, taught by Professor Yermack, is a Stern classic. A good way for us foreigners to learn a bit about US corporate history. Yermack is a great storyteller and a little dorky, in my view. He does the work. And I suspect that by the time I finish this course I will have a bunch of his interesting quotes (e.g. “Warren Buffet has just been lucky outperforming the market every single year for the last 52 years”).

New venture financing: a course on venture capital and entrepreneurship. I just had my first two sessions today. Professor Ljungqvist seems to be a nice guy and I liked the way he taught today. It’s gonna be kind of too much work, though. I am just concerned about whether the course will add value to the Foundations of Entrepreneurship course that I took last semester.

Movie marketing and exhibition: a course to enjoy. Our prof. Reed Martin, a former WB guy and media consultant is such a character. Super entertaining and fun. He seems to be hung up on red bull! I will learn some key aspects of the industry and definitely I will get to know a bunch of “must see” movies. The one that I took away from yesterday’s class was “Juno”. The idea of writing a marketing plan for my favorite movie sounds like a great term assignment.

Collaboration, conflict and negotiation: I am taking this course because people have recommended me. I am a little bit skeptical about actually learning to negotiate. Is it possible to learn to ride a bike by taking a course? I doubt it. You need to practice. We will be practicing in class and hopefully I will take something useful out of it.

Private equity and investment banking in media: first session shall take place tomorrow. Hopefully I will improve my quant skills. The professors are two bankers with a long track record. We’ll see.

Now it is time to chill a bit. I am gonna finish watching “There will be blood”. I have seen part of it already and I was not super excited. But it is one of those “must” for this year.
Ciao

Priorities

It’s Thursday, 926 pm and I am back home after going to beer blast for roughly two hours. I have had a couple of glasses of wine and I have had to leave. A pity because today there was a pretty good Stern welcome party at Libation, LES… and the talent look pretty good too.

But it is time to prioritize and tomorrow at 9 am I have an interview. At a sports marketing agency. And this comes first. At least, things start moving forward.
The media industry has been – and still is – traditionally late when it comes to MBA recruiting. It is a random, unstructured process. Companies seldom come to campus, candidates have to search openings for themselves and be patient. It is easy to tell but it is not easy to remain calmed and confident when the majority of your classmates have jobs already.

Anyway, as a guy from a digital media company told me last week, it is still rather early for media recruiting. It is already February and graduation is around the corner, for God’s shake!!

We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Either way, I will be celebrating this weekend! :-)

Super Bowl champions!

Speaking of sports, I just wanted to highlight that the NY Giants are the new NFL Champions after a terrific game against the New England Patriots!

The Pats were the favorite team after not losing a single game throughout the season, but the Giants, led by Eli Manning, really ramped up their level as the play-offs progressed.

Before the game I was not sure as to what team to support. Giants vs. Pats, NY vs. Boston,… but ultimately, my city vs. Gisele (Tom Brady’s – Patriots’ QB – girlfriend). By the time the game started I realized that the Giants were my choice :-)

Historical day to be in NY!! Go Giants

Pau

Hi there!

Tuesday night and just a few lines before going to bed. It's been a rather quiet day. I have essentially arranged a short lease of an apartment for some friends visiting NY in a few weeks from now.

Today I have taken a break re: school work. I am mostly done with my readings for my Brand Strategy and Restructuring classes of tomorrow. Today I have just finished my first assignment of the Movie Marketing course, an assignment on Starship Troopers, the largely undervalued Paul Verhoeven's picture from 1997. It seems like the course is gonna be a lot of fun!

But the fun part today has been going to the Izod Center, home of the NJ Nets to see the Lakers beating the Nets (90-105). It was Pau Gasol's debut with the "yellow fever" (i.e. the LA Lakers, as a famous commentator would say). Great game for Pau: 24 points and 12 boards, plus 4 assists and a block. Happy to see him out of the Grizzlies. What a great plan has been going to the game!!

I have always been a huge Laker fan. The reason for that is that I started watching basketball back in the "Showtime" days of Magic (my all-time favorite player), Byron Scott, Worthy and Kareem.

The Lakers were back in the game after a long time when Shaq and Kobe got together. And now it is great to see Pau in a winning team. It will be really hard to make it to the NBA final (can you imagine what a series against the Celtics of Garnett, Allen and Pierce would be? Great re-edition of the 80's games vs Bird & Co) but there is definitely a chance.

Who knows, maybe next year I will have the chance to see Gasol's and Kobe's Lakers at the Staples Center more often than I ever thought. Too early to tellbut there may be an opportunity there...

Until next time.