Ramping up…

Well done to those who got accepted into Stanford following Round 1, and best of luck to those who have applied during Round 2. I can’t believe it’s been a year already, I can still remember what I was thinking during this period, the prospects of school interviews etc…

I will briefly touch on job interviewing- I attended my last meet the company presentation a few hours ago, and what a journey it has been over the last 5 months. I have selected to go and meet over 15 companies and it has been an amazing learning experience. For me, this was a key part of my first year quarter experience, learning about the different industries and companies that I am to select for my next career choice. Now the closed list interview invitations are starting to come in, which means the time I invested is starting to pay dividends.

I’d like to briefly touch on some of the cool stuff that’s coming up or has happened. Yes, need to remind myself how much fun being here is:

Skiing- There’s a significant commitment among a core group of people in the class to spending every possible free moment in Tahoe. Only 4 hours away, the prospect of learning this sport (or Snowboarding) after putting it off for while is tempting- I shall try and put in at least one or two weekends, and then commit more next year when I have the time. It’s also nice to get away to a nice chalet after being Schwab for a while. I should also note, that even though we are in the middle of Winter, the weather here in Palo Alto for me feels like a Spring in the UK with even more sunny days… But when it rains, it does bucket it down, unlike the constant drizzle in England.

Las Vegas- Vegas FOAM is coming up (a drinks social event that for the one night of the year, occurs in Las Vegas!) I can’t wait for this event in March, it should be awesome! But a lot of people have been going more often, including for the MBA series poker championships held last weekend, which was well attended by some of the classmates.

The rest of California- I’m continuing to explore the area, spending significant amounts of time in San Francisco and Santa Cruz where I’m building up an outside Stanford friend base, I consider this important as I really want to see how the real local Californians live, they also make excellent tour guides for International Students! Next to visit, Carmel, and of course I have not been to LA yet, but I’m holding this off for the right moment, although I nearly went this past last weekend (a long weekend) with a classmate, but decided I needed to polish off some cover letters and prepare for interviews.

Finally, a word on academics. Taking four classes now instead of the six last quarter has really made a difference for me, I focus more and I have significant time to worry about career issues as well, and the level of tedious problem sets is also slightly less (aside from finance!), with more emphasis on case work. But I love how everything we have learnt previously or are learning in parallel in other classes continues to be fully integrated into the current classroom. And yes, E-commerce is really handy! Classroom participation has ramped up as well, mainly due to proportion of the grade it is now worth, but also since classmates’ experiences are starting out really be valuable in discussions.