MBA Hustle

Yeah I know, it's been a while...

2007-05-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

But I've been hustling as usual...

Finally got my housing arrangements taken care of in Philly! I found a condo (condo, in the most liberal definition of word) that's right in between Wharton and Rittenhouse Sq. It'll be a 15-20 walk to either or a 5 - 10 min trolley ride if I'm feeling lazy. I've already found about 10 other Wharton students living in the building so that's great. I'm really glad to get the housing scene wrapped up because it was becoming a pain working with some of these Philly landlords.

The other thing that has had me occupied over the last couple of weeks has been application essays. Yes essays! If you think the essays end when you've submitted your applications, you've got another thought coming. Fellowships, scholarships, professional programs, leadership programs...seems like everybody wants an essay. I did my fellowship essays way back when, and this past week I submitted my MBA JumpStart and NBMBAA applications. Next up is Wharton's BCG boot camp application which will require even more writing.

On the work front....

All in all, I'm really enjoying this interim between ending work and starting school. It makes for such a low stress life. For example, my current company just got acquired by Equifax and everyone's worried about job security - as they should be since Equifax is big on outsourcing. Me, aside from hoping that things work out for my friends and collegues, I'm chillin, couldn't care less. My biggest concern at this point is planning my vacation. After MBA Jumpstart I wanted to spend the rest of July in Trinidad, but I promised my boss I'd wrap up some loose ends on this reports project- I'm beginning to regret that.

Anyways, I've been thinking I need to do one of those "here's what I learned through the whole process" posts. I started writing one but it got to be way longer than it was worth. I'll try and get a short and sweet one to post on here next time.

Laters

Decisions decisions….

2007-04-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

So I decided on Wharton. It was a difficult decision because I got accepted at four awesome MBA programs and also because there was a lot of money on the table. In the end, Wharton won out because it was the program best positioned to help me explore opportunities in the Caribbean. Also, I’m looking forward to a couple of years on the east coast, closer to family and friends. Good luck to everyone faced with the same kind of decisions! I know it’s not easy.

Now all I have to do is apply for some fellowships, find an apartment, move 900 miles, attend a few conferences, plan a vacation, stack some bills….

laters

And Chicago says....

2007-03-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

Admit!!!!

Awesome deal! I've got a hard decision to make in the next couple of weeks.

Laterz

Keepin' it real

2007-03-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across a post that I had to share. It's a must read for all MBA aspirants...click here

The funny thing is that even after reading it, I'm still gung-ho about getting my MBA...make sure you are too.

Laters

It gets better

2007-03-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

$$$$ from Stern.

I'm truly blessed.

The latest

2007-03-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

In @ Stern.

$$$$ from Darden.

$ from Wharton.

Life is good.

Laterz

Still Hustlin'

2007-02-16T17:41:00.000-08:00

I have much to report since my last post.

First, I got accepted to the Darden School of Business! Yeahhhhhhhhhh!

Second, I got interview invites from Chicago and NYU! Yeahhhhhhhhh!

I’m absolutely thrilled with these developments. Throughout this process I’ve tried to stay disciplined and wait until all of my options are on the table before making a decision as to where I’ll be doing my MBA, so it feels good to see a few more of those options come into play. This doesn’t mean that I don’t have a favorite or two-I’d be lying if I said that, but rather that when I make the decision I want to know exactly what I’m foregoing.

In other news, last week I attended the Wharton Winter Welcome and had a blast. Wharton was serving some strong Kool Aid and I definitely had a belly full: from the Wharton Follies, to the MBA Pub, to the cocktail reception, to the Copa Miami spot where we kicked it Friday night – loads of fun.

As usual, the high point for me was all the cool people I met. Most of the stuff in the presentations I either already knew about Wharton or could have found out through the web site or message boards. Getting to meet people and experience the culture of the place was my primary goal. I was glad to find that most of the people I met were pretty down-to-earth cats. I had almost expected to meet at least a few unusual personalities, but I can't say that I did - maybe everyone was just on good behavior ;-)

I didn't get to explore Philly as much as I had hoped, but from what I've seen, it's definitely a very livable city - perhaps not long term, but great for a couple of years in b-school.

I also managed to submit my fellowship application for Wharton. I think I wrote a really solid essay so hopefully the fellowship committee agrees and lines your boy up with some much needed funding. I have to say the most sobering moment of the Welcome was the financial aid session – it ain’t cheap. I won't know what my award package looks like for a couple of weeks so in the mean time I’ll be doing some heavy duty praying and I'll keep y'all posted on the happenings.

Laterz

Post Wharton admit update

2007-01-14T19:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, so a post is long overdue, but work has been kind of hectic these past few weeks. I’m caught in the middle of a political squabble between two big wigs at work, one of whom wrote one of my recommendations and the other who’s my boss’ boss. The end result is that despite all of my team’s analysis and design we can’t get the powers-that-be to agree on a roll out approach. Normally I get stressed out in situations like these, but I’m totally chill…must have something to do with getting in to Wharton….hehehe…

Anyways, in the midst of all of this I still managed to submit my Chicago and Consortium apps in time for round 2. I put a lot of work into those apps so I’m cautiously optimistic that they’ll have at least some success. I had to give some thought as to whether to even bother applying to my round 2 target schools given that I’d gotten the Wharton admit in round 1. I couldn’t make up my mind in the couple of weeks in-between getting the news from Wharton and the round 2 deadlines, so I went ahead and submitted. I figured that would give me a couple of months to see which other options pan out and the extra time would allow me to weigh those options and make the best decision.

Finally, HBS is releasing decisions this week and since I haven’t gotten an interview invite to-date, I know what to expect. It’s all good though, best of luck to all those still in the HBS race!

Next up is the Wharton Winter Welcome which ought to be a blast. It will be a chance to drink some more of the Wharton Kool-Aid (or Fresco for my West Indian readers) and see what Philly is about.

Laterz

In at Wharton!!!!!

2006-12-21T07:14:00.000-08:00

Yeahhhhhhhhhh!

Dread, I couldn't even sleep last night. I'm cheesin' from ear to ear; callin' everybody I knowto tell them. God is great! Plenty prayers and plenty hard work. I really put myself into this process and it is difficult to describe how it feels to have made it out the other end. I know this is just one point on a long long journey, but for now I'm just going to chill and enjoy the moment.

A bunch of my coworkers new I was applying and they could tell from my reaction that I'd gotten in. There was a lot of pressure with them knowing, but in some ways it was good to know they were rooting for me.

Big up and congrats to everybody else with good news. If you didn't get good news, keep the faith, keep hustlin.

Laterz

It's been a long time...

2006-12-17T14:50:00.000-08:00

Wow, it’s been almost a month since I posted something on here. I’ve been getting stuff done though. In the last few weeks, I managed to get my Consortium interview done. I did my interview at Wash U and it went extremely well. The standard questions: why MBA, why now etc, and few leadership/team work questions as well. I did it shortly after my Wharton interview so I was still pretty sharp and didn’t need a whole lot of prepping. My Consortium essays are almost there but they still need some work.

On the Chicago front, I got some great feedback from a few friends on my essays that prompted me to re-visit them. It’s funny how you miss things in these essays that are right in front of your eyes after you’ve been reading them for a while.

I made a huge decision not to pursue Kellogg for the second round. With the changes I’ve been making on my Chicago essays and the work I’ve been doing on the Consortium ones I just haven’t had the time to invest in my Kellogg application that I would have liked. Worse come to worse, I figured I’d take my chances with a third round app rather than ship off a sub-par 2nd round one.

Well, its a few short days away from d-day for Wharton. As you can tell I’ve been trying to immerse myself in other applications, but Wharton has been in the back of my mind and is certainly dominating my thoughts this week. By now the decisions have probably already been made and are sitting somewhere on a server waiting to be sent. A friend of mine, who is a Stern alum, told me to enjoy the application ride. I’m trying, and at times it’s been fun and revealing but the wait is killing me.

Best of luck to my fellow Wharton and second round MBA hustlers.

Laterz.

Recap - Wharton interview and Kellogg open house

2006-11-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

So I got my Wharton interview done last week. I think it went well so hopefully that translates to an “Admit” come Dec 21st. None of the questions were particularly hard; the ones I remember were:

Why MBA, why now, why Wharton
What do you feel are your strengths and weaknesses
What do you do outside of work
What happens if you feel strongly about an idea that the rest of your team is against
What do you do if a team member isn’t pulling their weight

There were some resume specific questions and maybe one or two others, in addition to the list above, that I might have forgotten. Overall the interview was very conversational. We went over the slated 30 mins and I think that was a good sign especially since I wasn’t the only one doing the talking. My interviewer was really cool, genuine and easy to talk to. She put me at ease right from the start. I also had a chance to check out the campus and sit in a strategy class and it all just reinforced what I already knew: Wharton would be a great fit for me.

But with Wharton pretty much being a done deal (nothing left to do but hope and wait) it’s time to change gears and focus on my round two applications: Chicago, Kellogg and The Consortium

Chicago, another school where I feel like there is a really strong fit, is pretty much done- I’m just reviewing essays at this point and I’m feeling good about the application as a whole. I’m halfway through with the Consortium app: I have my interview scheduled for tomorrow and one other school specific essay to write.

The one app I’m way behind schedule on is Kellogg which is bad because it’s definitely a program I’m interested in especially after attending their open house a couple of weeks ago. The open house was a blast: great information, great people, great after event mixer, great everything. I met a couple of Trinis, a few of my mbaDiversity family members were there, and the usual road crew (people who I see at every event I go to) so it was like a reunion of sorts. The highlight for me was the mock-class we got to attend. Dean Chopra was da bomb; I don’t think anybody wanted the class to end.

Anyways, I already have a few drafts of my Kellogg essays done but I’m not in love with anything I’ve written so far. I’ll probably dedicate the month of December to closing out my Kellogg app so I guess that means everybody I know will be getting gift cards and certificates this Christmas since I won’t have time to go hunting for more meaningful presents.

Good luck to everyone going through the process.

Laterz

Breathe!!!!

2006-10-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

Whooo!

Dread, your boy was starting to panic for a minute, but I finally got my Wharton interview invite - you should have seen me jumping around like I already got in. Of course this just the halfway point, but God's gotten me this far and I just have to have faith that everything will fall into place.

I'm still working on my Chicago app. My goals essay is good to go and so are two of the three shorter ones, but I'm all over the board on the second essay. I know what I want to say but I just can't strike the right tone. I got to get that done this weekend so I can start focusing on my Consortium apps.

Good luck to everybody else waiting on invites! Keep the faith.

Laterz

Two week recap - Chicago, Wharton, HBS

2006-10-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since my last post so I have a ton to report.

For starters, I went to the Chicago GSB’s open house and it was absolutely fabulous! I had already known that Chicago was a perfect match from a career goals and curriculum perspective, but after the open house it was clear that it was a good fit in terms of the culture of the program as well. As usual, what made it great were the people. The current students, particularly the members of AAMBAA and HABSA, were very open and welcoming. The admissions staff was friendly and candid in discussing the strengths and weaknesses of some sample applications that we reviewed. We had dinner at the home of one of the Nobel Laureates on staff (Prof Fogel) and after that kicked it at a lounge with the members of AAMBAA and HABSA. All in all, it was great weekend and was well worth the trip. I encourage anyone thinking of applying to b-school to go check out their target programs open houses; they are invaluable as a source of info for your essays and in finding out if you really want to be there or not. With the info I gathered at the GSB event, I feel like I can put together an even more compelling application. As such, I've decided to delay my Chicago and Kellogg apps until the second round.

The following Tuesday I was back in Chicago for a Wharton Diversity session at Goldman Sachs. The entire event ran about two to three hours and consisted of a presentation, an alumni panel and some Q&A afterward with the alumni and admissions directors. The session was great, particularly talking with some of the alumni panel members. The admissions folks were cool too. Since I had already submitted my Wharton app, most of my questions centered on what to expect during the admissions interview (hopefully that wasn’t too presumptuous of me). Based on what the admissions folks covered I think I did a good job on the application. The thing about my top four schools (Chicago, HBS, Kellogg and Wharton) is that you can count on everybody coming with strong applications: great stories, solid scores, solid LOR’s etc. At the end of the day you have to just put to together the best possible app and hope for the best. That’s something I learned from track and field- focus on your own race; don’t worry about what the guy in the next lane is doing.

Finally, this past weekend I went out to HBS for their prospective student day. Unlike the other events I've attended this one seemed to be almost entirely student-run; I didn’t get a whole lot of interaction with the admissions folks at all. Aside from this though, the event was great. The students again were very welcoming and helpful. Again, I had already submitted my HBS app so I was less focused on application questions and more on interview questions (there I go again assuming I’m getting an interview). From an interview perspective, the feedback was inconclusive: some of the folks I talked to said their interview was cool and laid back, some said it was pretty tough with hard questions about their application and the decisions they made in their career thus far. There was an application tips and strategies session and I almost wish I hadn’t gone. From what they discussed I feel like I covered all my bases in my essays but the session left me wishing I had focused on a few other areas of my story and even wishing that I had gone a different direction on the first essay question. Let this be a lesson to all of you- once you submit your app don’t even look at it again; it’s out of your hands and it makes no sense driving yourself crazy thinking about what you should have done differently. Still, I’m lowering my HBS expectations from “Cautiously optimistic” to “hopeful”.

Next up is Kellogg on 11/10. By then my essays for both Chicago and Kellogg should be close to final and by then I should have some idea of if I’ll be interviewing at my two east coast schools. Fingers crossed.

Laters.

Wharton's in...

2006-10-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

...and I'm out. I think MIA has finally caught up with me, I'm about to get some much needed rest.

Laters.

HBS, Wharton, MIA

2006-10-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

First things first, I finally submitted my HBS app and confirmed that my recommenders submitted their lor's. HBS.edu was down today and the application site was acting kinda janky. I'm not sure if it was because of heavy network traffic or not but I had a lot of trouble uploading my essays. The technical support people were very responsive though, even offering to upload my essays for me if I sent them the files. Eventually the site allowed me to do it myself; I was glad that I didn't have to email my essays around.

I am probably a couple hours away from submitting my Wharton app. I can't seem to stop fussing over it - dotting i's and crossing t's. While I am really happy that this part of the application process is coming to an end, I'm not really looking forward to the waiting game that I know is up next. I think I will be most happy in January or February when I know my fate.

MIA was a blast, I haven't had that much fun in quite a while. The carnival was great, every night was a fete 'til sunrise and I even managed to do some work on one of my HBS essays. I definitely feel that MIA is an option post-mba. It's got everything I want: easy access to the Caribbean, strong West Indian community i.e. I can get a roti when I want one, great weather (except for hurricane season), closer to family and friends.

Next up is a trip to the chi for Chicago-GSB's diversity/open house event, followed by a trip to Boston for the HBS diversity event. Hope to see you folks there.

Laters.

Kellogg visit recap

2006-10-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

Aight folks,

These past few weeks have been rough and it doesn't look like it's going to let up. So last week yuh boy went up to Kellogg to check out a few classes, and it was well worth the drive. First off, Evanston is great. I lived there for a couple of years after graduation. I liked it then and I like it now. In general, I like Chi-town, even though a lot of my east coast friends don't. I also lived in Hyde Park for a minute, which is where University of Chicago is located, and that's a great neighborhood too. The main advantage Hyde Park has over Evanston is access to downtown is much easier.

Anyways, before I get to the actual class, I have to say that the students I met at Kellogg were really cool. From the time they found out that I was visiting, folks were ultra friendly and went out of their way to make me feel welcome. I sat in on Business Strategy with Prof. Mazzeo. The discussion started with a review of Porters definition of strategy and then segued into a case analysis of a business proposition. The discussion was lively with almost everyone contributing. The ideas and points of views were as diverse as the students. There were folks from almost every part of the world:Europe, Australia, Asia, South America. For me, the biggest thing was that I was able to follow along the discussion, and formulate some of my own ideas about what was being discussed. The whole experience reassured me that I was ready for this. I highly recommend a class visit to the schools in which you are most interested.

Speaking of which, I'll be heading out to Boston in a couple of weeks for the HBS Diversity weekend. Hopefully I'll run into some of my MBADiversity people there. Before that, i.e. next week, I'll be going to the Chicago GSB Diversity event and before that, i.e. this weekend, I'm headed to MIA for Miami Carnival and a much needed break. Now that's going to be mad fun.

As far as applications go, I've got my essays done for Wharton and HBS. One of my recommenders is kinda lagging behind, but I spoke to him today and he gave me his word that he would get it in on time. My goal is to submit everything on Friday before I head out to MIA. When I get back, I'll put the finishing touches on my Chicago and Kellogg essays and then get to work on the Consortium. Like I said, the next few weeks are going to be really rough.

Laterz.

Progress

2006-09-24T14:12:00.000-07:00

Finally some progress to report. My Wharton essays are done. The drafts had been completed weeks ago, but I'm only just now done with the revisions. I'm actually feeling pretty good about them. Five of the six HBS essays are ready to go as well. My goal is to complete the sixth in the next few days. I still have a lot of work to do on my Chicago and Kellogg essays though, and with about three weeks to go it looks like it will be down to the wire.

Anyways, talking about revising essays- everyone should own a copy of The Elements of Style! Don't write your essays without it. I used to think I could really throw down when it came to penning an essay, but after a friend read through an essay for me she sent it back with red all over it and loaned me the book. It's been a great help. I already know half the stuff in it, but having not written this much in years it was easy to make simple mistakes.

On the school visiting front, I'm planning to visit Kellogg on Thursday. I was supposed to be at a reception for Chicago last week, but I rescheduled to attend their upcoming diversity weekend instead. I'm still hoping to make it out to Wharton in a couple of weeks, but it's looking less and less likely.

Anyways, I'll post something about the Kellogg visit when I get back. I already know what the campus is like since I lived in Evanston for a while when I worked in Chicago. What I'm really looking forward to is sitting in on a class to get the vibes from the students and profs. I'll let you all know what's up.

laterz

Everyday I'm hustlin'

2006-08-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

What's good folks? I decided to rename this blog to "MBA Hustle" because since I got back from Chicago all I've been doing is hustling. Plus, most people, even my friends from back home (shame on them), didn't get the "Cotey ci Cotey la" reference. Loosely translated it meant "...yada yada yada.." which is a good description of this blog. Anyways the hustle wouldn't be as bad if I didn't have so much crap to do at work. Still, over the last couple of weeks I managed to crank out draft essays for one of my target schools, get all the info I needed to my recommenders and start on the drafts for two of my other schools (I suppose one day I'll publish a list of the schools I'm applying to. One day.) Not bad, but I need to really get cranking. I'm trying to submit 4 apps for round 1 and I still need to refine my drafts, get a few extra eyes to review them, refine some more, fill out the actual applications (which after looking at one of them I realized would require substantially more time than I originally thought), visit a few programs/events, order transcripts, order GMAT scores, update the resume....Damn I'd better get back to work.

Laterz

MBADiversity Symposium

2006-08-07T21:11:00.000-07:00

Dang, it's been a while since posted something on here. The application process is hectic and it doesn't help when projects at work are equally demanding of my attention. Anyways, this past weekend was the MBADiversity Symposium in Chi-Town. The symposium was great. The breakout sessions were informative. The school fair was especially helpful in clarifying what some of my target schools were looking for in their essay questions. All the admissions people were really cool and helpful especially Chicago, Dartmouth, Berkeley and Boston U.

But far and away the best part of the weekend was meeting up with the other MBA hopefuls. What an interesting and intelligent group of people. Everyone had impressive backgrounds. We laughed and exchanged stories and tips. I got a whole bunch of email addresses and business cards. I really hope everyone gets into their school of choice and I wish them all the best. Handle all yuh business!!!! To everybody I met gearing up to take the GMAT, study hard, stay focused and knock that sucker out. Just do it.

On the down side I had signed up to attend a HBS Minority Event on Monday in Chicago but ended up waitlisted. My original plan was to just stay a couple extra days after the symposium. But when by Saturday night I didn't get an email indicating I was off the waitlist I decided to head back home early Sunday morning. Imagine how pissed I was when I got back home and saw an email sent Sunday morning indicating that there was room available for the event. Oh well...I'm planning on making a trip out East in September anyways so I'll have plenty of time to explore HBS.

Anyways it's like 11:30 and yuh boy need some sleep so 'til next time...

laterz

My GMAT post and a little about the World Cup final

2006-07-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

It seems like every MBA applicant blog has some sort of story about the blogger's experience preparing for and taking the dreaded GMAT. Not to be out done, I've decided to add a post about it as well. Now, the details a little foggy because I actually did the GMAT back in December 2004, but what little I do remember I think some folks might find helpful or at least relate to some degree.

I probably spent about 3-4 months studying for the GMAT. Three to four months of going to the library after work almost every day of the week and weekends too. Aside from reviewing the test content, my main strategy was to do as many practice tests as possible so I ended up buying almost every book on the market just for the sample exams. This strategy had the obvious benefit of getting me "test fit" i.e. knowing when to move on from a problem that might be taking too long, manage time, staying focused etc... The main disadvantage was that my confidence had to take a beating sometimes esp with the Kaplan practice tests on which I don't think I ever managed to break 700. Anyways, Kaplan's exams are way harder than anything on the real test any way. The only tests I didn't do during that 3 month period were the actual PowerPrep tests. I left those for last. Literally. I did them the day before and the morning of the exam. I knew that those were closest to the real exam (and they are) so I felt they would be the best final warm up for the test.

As I mentioned earlier, on the day of the test I did the last PowerPrep exam, then I went to the gym to workout and relax, then headed over to take the test ( I had an evening appt. ). The test itself went well. My goal on the verbal and quant was to not get any of the first 15 questions wrong, I'm certain I pulled that off for the verbal but not so sure about the quant because I remember drawing a blank on number eight or nine.

Anyways I got a great score and it felt even better because I knew how much time I had put in. So to summarize, review the material, practice taking the test as much as possible, keep in mind that the PowerPrep exams are truly the closest thing to the exam (how you choose to use that is up to you. I left mine for last). After that there's nothing left to it but to do it.

Good luck!

On a side note, I'm totally dismayed at the world cup final. For those of you who missed it click here to see ZiZou practice his header technique on Materazzi. I'm still waiting to hear what it was that Materazzi said to ZiZou to provoke that kind of response. Not that it would make what ZiZou did excusable but it would at least shed some light on the other guilty party involved (Mr Materazzi) who so far has been playing the victim role. If you had told me four weeks ago that France would finish the world cup final with neither Thierry, Patrick, Saha or ZiZou on the pitch I would have said you are crazy. Oh well, there's always next four years.

laters

Nothing but net

2006-07-06T04:44:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had one of those days when everything just went great? Yesterday was one of those days for me. First of all I had my annual review which went better that I could have ever imagined. I've been really working hard on my current project and it felt great to get the recognition on "paper"... Swooosh! Then that discussion led into my long awaited talk with my boss about my MBA aspirations and he was totally on board with writing me some solid recommendations.....Swooosh! Then I knocked two long overdue items off my list of things that needed to get done for my current project, and had an overall status meeting where for once these consultants who are doing some of the development work for us didn't ask for more money.... Swooosh! Finally, to top it all off ZiZou, Zinedine Zidane, buried the ball in the back of the net from the spot to put France, my last remaining pick, into the World Cup final against Italy.....Swooosh!

The only down side to today is work on my essays is still taking more time than I would like but I can live with that as long as it means I hear Swooosh! come Jan/Feb from my top choice schools.

Laters.

World Cup, Work and Finance

2006-06-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

It's been a quick minute since my last post. I've been caught up with world cup, work, and a Fin Mgmt class I'm taking over the summer. Aside from Brazil my world cup teams aren't doing too well. Cote d’Ivoire and T&T got their walking papers last week. France looks suspect and even if they pull it off against Spain they’ve' got to face Brazil (assuming Brazil beats Ghana). So essentially I get to see Brazil beat up on two teams I otherwise was hoping would have gone even further

Anyways on the application front I'm working on narrowing down the list of schools to which I'll apply. I've got eight schools in mind and I just can't see how I wouldn't apply to any of them. On the other hand I think trying to produce 8 solid applications might be biting off more than I can chew even if I split it up between the first and second rounds. I’ll probably try to do a mini MBA tour late August/early September to check out some of these programs, sit in a few classes, and meet a few students. I think after that it’ll be clear which ones are keepers. I also started work on my application essays, and by that I mean writing drafts, getting totally disgusted with what I wrote, throwing it out and starting over. I can already tell I'll be glad when the whole application process is over.

On the work front, my meeting with my boss got postponed till the 5th. While I kinda want to get that conversation out of the way I'm kinda glad for the delay because I need to get my spiel together to get him to write me a super recommendation, possibly eight times.

I'll keep y'all posted.

laterz

Unbelievable!!!!

2006-06-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

T&T 0 - Sweden 0

I've already lost my voice.

The cat is out the bag

2006-06-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I'm driving back from lunch with my boss yesterday and we end up talking about future projects I might work on and in general what direction I wanted to take my career.So I figured this would be as good a time as any to bring up my plans for business school.I'd been really nervous about having this conversation with him. He's a good person and a great boss but I knew he wouldn't be too thrilled about me leaving. So anyway, I tell him I'm looking at a number of programs,and he asks if I had considered the part time program at a nearby university which has a pretty decent program but is not quite what I need to successfully transition from IT to management consulting. I indicated as much to him. By this time we were back at the office and we both had meetings to go to so he asked me to schedule something for us to get together and talk. The problem is he's out of town all next week so I get a whole week to sit around and be even more nervous than I was before about the whole thing. Fortunately the World cup is underway and being as I am a huge football fanatic it will be more than enough to take my mind off of that. For all you football fans out there I've got four teams that I'm following...Brazil, France, Cote D'Ivoire and of course T&T. It's always easier to tell after everbody plays their first game but going into the tournament I think Brazil will go all the way. France can as well since there not going in as overly confident as they did in 2002 and also because Thierry Henry had another phenomenal year at Arsenal. By the way I'm also a huge Arsenal fan. Cote d'Ivoire is my dark horse team..they've got Drogba, Eboue, Toure and I think they can do what Cameroon did back in 1990. I hope they go even further. T&T I'm hoping can do one of two things make it to the second round or get at least 4 pts from the group stage. Neither will be easy but this is a game of upsets - any thing can happen. Anyways the T&T/Sweden game is starting in a bit so I'm out...

laters

Wassup!

2006-06-01T17:56:00.000-07:00

What de man say? Wassup!

My name is Neto (pronounced Nato) and after perusing many-a-MBA applicant blog over the last application season, I decided to start one of my own to chronicle my application experience.

A little bit about myself…I’m from the West Indies…went to college in Chicago…and now I work as a Software Systems Engineer at a mid-size business services firm in the Midwest. I like my job because even though it is mad hectic I do get to lead some interesting projects and that leadership experience is precisely what I was looking for when I accepted the offer to work there. This is actually my second job out of college. My first was ok but I was working more as a “code monkey” which was cool at the time but when it became clear to me that I wanted to go the MBA route I knew I would have to seek out other opportunities.

Anyway, the application season is underway with most programs already having announced this season’s deadlines and some already having published this season’s application essays. It’s going to be a long summer and an even longer fall. I’ll try to keep everybody updated on how things go…hopefully this blog doesn’t end up being a compendium of what not to do when applying to b-school ;-)

Laters