End of internship is nigh…

So the weeks have been going pretty fast now, lots of interns are having their final presentations and a flurry of good-bye dinners. As I speak to many of them, I try and keep rough poll in my head of the likelihood of people coming back full-time, and I would say it could be between 30-50%. That’s fairly high in all respects. I think for those who want to stay in tech the battle will rage between Google & Microsoft. And one of the things I hate most about whenever you hear those 2 companies in the same breath, is that it’s like setting up a battle between good and evil, when in fact the two are in some respects very different companies focusing on different markets and at different levels of maturity. I will leave it a future date to dedicate an entire post on this subject. But at the heart I do feel that when people try to back either of the company it comes down to some superficial arguments along the lines of - “Microsoft is evil- Google has smarter people and a better work environment- have you been to the Google Café??? “, “Microsoft has a much stronger competitive culture, they have never lost a fight!”.
I am hoping interns make their final choices on much more than just on the surface notions such as the ones mentioned above- it reminds me of when I am trying to convince an Englishman of the value of an MBA with this all too common reply- “its sooo expensive- management is a load of cr*p”. Comparing that with what a phenomenon first year of business school has been and the number of opportunities that seem to be panning out- it turns out this could be a good year for MBAs, definitely on the cyclical up-turn. The biggest challenge I think for an MBA, is how to rationally choose a full-time gig without being paralyzed by choice, there a so many variables in the mix- age, marital status, career aspirations/ambitions, lifestyle choice, cost of living, friendship base etc, not to mention strategic career management… For me, geography was a big deal, do I stay in the US, go back to UK or Tanzania? That answer is seems to have been resolved- stay in the USA for the foreseeable future. There’s too much to see, too much to do, and many opportunities to develop. I was lucky that being in the UK allowed me to go back often to Tanzania, and I think those days of returning twice year are gone, and adding some distance will do me some good and make me appreciate Tanzania even more. In the meantime, I'm thinking of launching a non-profit in the near term to keep me engaged and making an impact at home- for those long time readers of my blog, it's obvious that this makes sense- when I blog, I blog about what’s on my mind- since there are fair share of my outside b-school posts are on Tanzania compared to say the progress of the NASDAQ- so its apparent that I try and juggle that avenue whilst pursueing a for profit career...