Up in the sky

I am several thousands feet above the sea level. It is the very first time I am using a computer in an aircraft. It sems like in the last 10 days I have evolved several hundred years from a tech standpoint. Damn, Thievery Corporation in my ears, some blogging, maybe a little bit of Jack Bauer after this. When you have 6 hours before hitting the Bay Area you can a lot of things if you have the right tools!

I am a little bit tired since I have only slept five hours today. Yesterday I had dinner with some school friends in Soho and after that we bounced to Pravda and then Stanton Social in the LES. It was a fun night, full of margaritas on the rocks, actually. I have been jittery and hangovered all day and I have even lost the $15 train ticket from Penn Station to Newark, so I have had to buy an extra one. I hate coming to Newark, it is a pain in the ass…

I have not still assumed that I now have a real oportunity to stay in New York, which is something I have been working on for two years. Yesterday I ran into a couple of friends who are still looking and I was talking as if I had nothing. At some point one of them told me “dude, you have one offer already”. I’ve been for so long in the dark side that I am not very conscious yet about my new “status”.

Anyways, I am heading back to San Francisco again, after a couple of months. It is gonna be my second time in the city after last Spring Break trip. You all know the reason for this trip (if you don’t remember, check the posts from Spring Break!). I am somewhat surprised about my being on this plane right now. I have never done these kinds of things but, what the hell, I have said to myself, carpe diem. There is nothing to lose, right? Should be fun and, if it is not… well, I guess that’s life, then!

This coming week is gonna be critical, I believe. I am gonna have to pretty much decide what the future brings to me in the short term. It will definitely be my choice but I just hope that those companies I am waiting final responses from will be coming back to me so I have all the elements to decide.

I am gonna switch now to 24. I have been willing to watch from episode 17 onwards of the 6th season for months (my older laptop was too slow to play the episodes I purchased!) so now is the time. Is you and me now, Jack!

First offer

A day to remember. May 22, 2008. Today. They day when I got my first full-time offer in the U.S. I was actually ding my weekly laundry when I got a call from an HR person. She told me that she had been “authorized” to extend me an offer. After two long months and 6 or 7 interviews, after providing past professional references and after some uncertainty, I got it.

It is funny but I am not super excited. On the one hand I am proud of this accomplishment, it’s been a lot of work to get this and now I look back and I am struck by the amount of networking, interning and so forth invested so far in this. But on the other hand it is hard to take that the sports industry pays this bad. It is something I already knew and expected, but still…

Anyway, I am better off than two hours ago, when I had nothing yet. I have not accepted the offer straight away and I have asked for just a few days to make up my mind and to perform some calculations as to whether I can afford to take a job that would be a lot of fun and that I am sure that I would enjoy, but that pays so badly. At the same time, I am waiting for some final responses from a couple of companies I am interviewing with, in particular one of the TV sector where I am close to the finish line (actually it is just me or one other candidate). It would be a great opportunity in terms of career development and well paid.

I was talking to a couple of friends a while ago and they had very different views about taking or not the job I have been offered: (a) do not take it, the pay is too low and you should not move in at that price after completing the MBA; (b) take it and keep looking in the meantime. If something better comes along you can always take it. I am not sure about any of them.
I feel like I am being to innocent. I somehow tell myself not to take a job if I know that there is a decent chance that I will be leaving in a few months. I wanna be true to whatever company hires me. At the same time, it is obvious that companies look after themselves and they do nt hesitate when it comes to keeping salaries low, firing people and so forth. People in the US are not as change-averse as we are in my country. Here people behave like companies: do whatever you have to do at any single point in time. Maybe I should follow this since I am in the US. If at some point I am willing to leave for somewhere else whatever company may always try to retain me, right? I gotta think about this thoroughly…

By the way, today I also got my authorization (called OPT) to work in the US for an extra year. It is a formality since MBAs almost always get it but I was scared of not having met all of the application requirements. It’s an extra step, an important one.

Now it all comes down to deciding about jobs. Damn, let’s go out celebrate that, for the first time in this process, I can choose!!!!!

I'm a masters

It’s over two years are finally gone. It happened yesterday, at the Radio City Music Hall. 400+ full-time colleagues and a bunch of part timers – as well as our families – got together to celebrate the graduation of the Stern’s Class of 2008. It was a perfect venue and a not-so-perfect commencement ceremony (I can’t believe that we did not throw our caps in the air at the very end… what about all those American movies!?) that included a speech (mostly about the current credit crunch???????) by Bank of America’s CEO.

But it will always be an unforgettable day to me. Seeing how my dad’s face filled with pride and joy, having a bottle of champagne with my folks after the ceremony, taking dozens of pics with my classmates… standing up there over-viewing all the crowd right before shaking the dean’s hand as my name was aired through the speakers. Two years are gone. End of the story, end of one of the most amazing chapters of my life.

It’s been around three years since I started the whole process of coming to business school, it was the spring of 2005. GMAT, TOEFL, applications, letters, the stress of not knowing what was gonna happen…what a pain. It seems like it’s been 10 years since then! But now I look back and I could not be happier. It’s been the best thing I’ve done in my entire life, an amazing experience and I will do the same thing again if I was standing in my own shoes three years ago.

I have had an amazing time, I have made great friends, I have learnt quite a lot, I have made true that dream of mine from 6 years ago (that first visit to the Big Apple) of living in the best city of the world, I have traveled around the US and abroad, I have made great connections…and I have definitely build the foundations to allow myself a career change outside of the law ring, which was the primary reason to start this adventure. It has not materialized yet but I am confident that it may happen in the next couple of weeks…

Time to finish this morning post. I have my folks in town and it is time to go for a walk in this rainy day in my beloved NY.
Later

Two days to go

Time goes by quickly. Two days to go. I have delivered today a presentation with my brand strategy group, I will deliver an individual one tomorrow for business coaching and on Wednesday I will take the final new venture financing exam. And that will be it, I will be graduating in 8 days from today. Unbelievable. I will have time to write down my impressions in the coming days.

On the job front there are no news. I am starting to feel like a couple of options that I had opened are vanishing now. It’s been a week since the last interviews and I have had no news at all. Bad sign. Let’s not lose hope, anyway.

Gotta go to sleep now. Second to last academic day tomorrow.
Ciao