I feel so special

I have recently (re)realized just how fortunate I am to have support from a lot of different people. There are not a lot of MBA graduates (or college graduates for that matter) in my family, so the fact that I am going to Michigan is a BIG DEAL. During the months of March (I applied R2) and April, as I provided admission/decision updates to the family, I often got asked “so, is your mom planning a send-off for you”? I then called my mom and said “umm, I guess you are having a sendoff for me”. She had wanted to get the family together, so this was perfect timing.

What made me feel all special was the fact that A LOT of my family and friends came over to send me off. And people came from all over Southern California – from just outside of San Diego to just south of Ventura County to my cousin in Vegas. It really made me feel special that I’ve got the love and support of my family as I get ready to leave. In addition to the family, quite a few friends are taking me out to dinner. One set is taking me to a Giants game so I can see (Name-of-Phone-Company) Park again. Another set is taking me to Napa. And yet another set of family friends is chipping in to buy me winter gear . Aww. :) I’m really going to miss them.

Now for things I’m NOT going to miss – well, that would be good ole’ Oakland International Airport. Yes, I know DTW isn’t that much better. But flying Southwest out of Oakland is an experience! I missed my flight down there, but since there are flights leaving all the time to LAX, I just took the next one that left ½ hour later. Well apparently it was really important that we take off on time otherwise we’d lose our spot in the takeoff line (?) and have to wait for another one to free up…this isn’t a bakery! But if it’s so important that we take off on time, then why board a really full flight only 10 minutes prior to departure. But I digress. On my return trip, we landed in the non-Southwest terminal, but our bags went to the Southwest terminal. So after walking to terminal 2, I see literally 4 flights full of people who were waiting for their bags to come out onto the baggage claim. 45 minutes later, my luggage finally came. They could really use a more efficient baggage claim system. Oh well, for the time being, I'm going to go back to my "no checked-in baggage" thing.

Self-discovery is going well. The OCD, MBA2's, and alumni have been very helpful. I am definitely learning a lot about myself and the different types of marketing careers, so I will feel better when I get to school in the fall. I don’t think I’ll be quite as overwhelmed – but that’s easier said than done. I'm not waiving out of any classes (somehow organic chemistry classes don't lead to knowledge in accounting), so I'll be overwhelmed enough with Fall A classes.

Now to get back to mentally packing. I keep having this dream that my apartment will magically pack and clean itself. Hey, girl can dream, right?

Self-reflection and confusion...

I’ve been feeling very reflective (introspective?) lately. I tend to get like that right before I make a big change (graduation from college, starting first job, changing jobs). So it should really come as no big surprise that I’m starting to reflect on my experiences and trying to figure out the way I want to approach my b-school experience.

The Office of Career Development has been having career workshops in certain cities. They also recorded one of their sessions for the people who were unable to attend one of the workshops. The basic idea is that the more students can get done in the summer before B-School, the better Fall A will be. I like that idea.

Anyway, the first step listed is to conduct a self-assessment. Now, I thought I did before I applied to school. I recently took the CareerLeader test and it said I had a very high interest in marketing and marketing management. I thought “great, I want to go into marketing, this test says it’s a good match, all is good”. Well, I have a lot to learn. “Brand Management” is a term that is apparently used to describe a variety of different functions, dependent on the industry. I worked in tech for several years, so I’m used to the term “Product Management”, which is also different.

So, in order to really learn what it is that I think I want to do, I decided to talk to people in the following industries: CPG companies, healthcare/pharma, tech, and services (ex: a bank or an online retailer’s marketing efforts). I’ve also started contacting some students/alumni in these industries (who are VERY receptive, by the way), and have still discovered I’m even more confused about the differences than ever. I’m hoping that I’ll learn a ton over the summer, so I am not quite as overwhelmed when I start in the fall.

As part of this introspection, I started thinking of my first job out of college. I was excited at the opportunity more than I was the company and industry. And while I was hand-picked for special assignments, I kept thinking that I wanted to do this type of work for something different. I’ve realized that in addition to being excited about the opportunity that may be presented to me, I need to feel passionate about the industry I’m looking to join, the company I’m hoping to join, as well as several of that company’s brands. I don’t want to necessarily choose something that’s a potential bad fit just because of the "opportunity". So, when I network with companies and go to their receptions, I’ll keep this in mind.

I think my mantra will be a couple of lyrics to that Rolling Stones song: “You can't always get what you want, and if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need”. I'll amend that to be "you can't always get what you (think that you) want..."

School's getting closer...

I've had June 5 circled on my calendar. That's the day when I can get football tickets! There's a window of about 2-3 weeks, but I'm travelling quite a bit over the next couple of weeks and I wanted to be sure I remembered to buy them. I joined the MBA seating group, bought the football ticket, and now I'm super excited! Go Blue!

On another front, school is getting closer and closer. I’ve gotten various e-mails regarding “expert-level excel”, getting immunizations, a payment plan for tuition, and an enrollment survey. Those are relatively mundane tasks. However, I just saw one that requires a 360 feedback from 9 people! I have to pick 9 people that will be honest – and not just say “fromcali is great!” I’ve done this before and some of the stuff can be hard to hear. But I need to go through this process so I can continue to grow.

I've also kind of been postponing this whole "find-an-apartment-and-move" thing. I'm probably one of the last people who doesn't have an apartment. Oh well. At least the new IKEA will be opened when I get there. So I won't have to worry about furniture!