Traveling Woes

I traveled for an interview this week. The interview was in New Jersey and consisted of two days of activity. I was apart of a group of about 15 candidates, 8 of us from the University of Arkansas, and the rest from various schools on the east coast. The first night in New Jersey we had dinner as a big group. They had employees of the company sitting at the table with us discussing various aspects of the company. It was an interesting way to really understand what a company is all about. They were really honest about their company culture and its impact on its employees. The next morning, we had an all day assessment which consisted of a couple group activities, an interview and a case competition. All in all, the whole experience was kind of fun. That was the good part.

The very, very bad part of the trip were all the traveling woes I experienced. Before this trip, I had never had any problems traveling by plane, but that all changed. Our intital flight from XNA was canceled, which by the time we got that figured out, we eventually ended up in Jersey 2.5 hours past our originally scheduled time, leaving me very little time to get ready for the dinner that night. We got back to the hotel from dinner pretty late, and had to get up very early. It was a constant time crunch.

On our journey home, in the Memphis airport I finally got a chance to relax and little, and was really looking forward to getting home. Well, our gate was changed, twice, and we had to walk clear across the airport (which was no good for me, I had just had the biggest plate of BBQ nachos ever). Once at the new gate, we found out that 20 of the 55 passengers weren't going to be on the new flight, luckily I was one of them. About 20 minutes after that, they announce that the flight is canceled altogether. Now, we are stuck in Memphis at 8:30pm, plus I have to be in Fayetteville in the morning, no exceptions. I only had one choice, rent a car, and drive the 5 hours to Fayetteville, which is what I and another candidate did. I got home around 2:30am, and from all the traveling and interviewing, etc, I was totally and utterly exhausted. It was a really, really long couple days. But, I should find out about the job pretty soon. Fingers crossed.

Had a very restful weekend, which is good because I am about to have a long week. I've got a big interview Tuesday, and I start a new internship Wednesday. I am really looking forward to the internship because it will be the first time since I quit my job to enter the MBA program that I will actually have some real work to do. It will definitely be a refreshing change from school work, even though it will drastically cut down my free time. In preparation for the internship, I taught myself how to iron. Google knows all.

NCAA brackets were just released and I already have a rough draft. First run through I had three teams from the Big 12 in the final four, and I don't even like that conference. I had to make some adjustments, now I have 2 teams from the Big 12 and 2 from the Big East, but I have Kansas all the way. I will make some further adjustments over the next couple days as ESPN analysts sway my picks, but Kansas will stay my winner. Not that I like Kansas, but they are freaking real good.

We have a really late spring break this year. My sister goes to Missouri State, and they are on their spring break right now. We won't be on spring break until the week after next. Meaning, once we get back, there will only be like 5 weeks of school left. That's crazy. Anyway, much like last year, I have zero plans, and also much like last year I will probably spend some portion of spring break working on my course project for Dr. Jandik's finance class. Last year it was corporate finance, and we had to calculate WACC for a multi-segment firm. This year, in advanced corporate finance, we have to value a firm's stock using a DCF model and a comparables model. It is actually pretty cool stuff.

Midterms are over, although this semester has been the easiest I have had since starting the program. Of 4 classes, I only had one test. First semester I had four tests.

May 8th is the official graduation day meaning someday before that I will have officially completed all requirements to earn an MBA. That "someday" is less than two months away. I can't wait.

Strategy test tomorrow. Time for blogging is thus reserved for breaks between studying. The test is partially open note, which I am not a big fan of. I have found that when teachers allow for open book tests, the tests end up being way harder than they would have been had it not been open book. The hardest tests I have encountered in the MBA program were logistics exams first semester, and they were open note tests. Anyway, I've got class tonight until 9 so I need to get back to these strategy notes.

Got up early this morning and took my car to Wal*Mart to get an oil change and to have my tires rotated and balanced. I purchased the tires I currently have on my car in 2006, at the time they asked me if I wanted to purchase lifetime balance and rotation for 8 bucks a tire, which I did. Since then, I have balanced and rotated my tires 4 times, for free. Actually, by this time, I have made money on the deal. It made me think, man, I am really sticking it to Wal*Mart on this one, then I realized, while getting my tires worked on, I spent 40 bucks on an oil change, and almost 200 on groceries. Wal*Mart wins again.

While I waited on my car, I built a "goals" speadsheet for the next two years. I like building spreadsheets and budgets and stuff like that, I don't know why, I just do. Anyway, with my spreadsheet I can enter in a prospective salary of a job and see if it will allow for Steph and I to reach a couple of our goals the first two years out of the MBA program. The spreadsheet accounts for all of our expenses, which can be adjusted to any cost of living change we experience if we move. So, now I know for sure what kind of salary I need, what kind I want and what kind I would be thrilled with.

Got inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma society. It is a pretty cool honor considering before

entering the MBA program I had never taken a business course in my life. I graduated with a Bachelors in Psychology, so the type of course work I experienced in the MBA program was something very foreign to me. I would be more excited about it if I had already reached my ultimate goal of finding post graduate work. Being inducted in this society, and even my upcoming graduation, is hard to fully enjoy knowing at this point I will be unemployed in two months. But, I am trying to stay positive....

Took a much needed break from school work last Sunday and went and saw Shutter Island. It was really boring, which is unfortunate, because I really like Scorsese movies. While there, we saw John Pelphrey walking out of a movie at the same time we were walking out of Shutter Island. That guy is super tall, which is dumb to say because you expect him to be tall since he played basketball in college, but still, his tallness surprised me. Since we lost to the winless in conference LSU tigers last night, this is probably what Pell is doing right now....

Went to the University of Arkansas career fair this past week. Past career fairs had always been disappointing due to a lack of interest from recruiters, but this time was different. I think it mostly had to do with graduating in a couple months as opposed to a year. I actually had one interview stemming from the fair, and think I might have at least two more down the road. But we'll see. I have learned not to get too hopeful or discouraged in this job hunt.

Other than that, not much going on. My team got second place in a cereal selling simulation game using SAP. It was nice retribution from my Markstrat days, in which my team got last out of the whole class.

No plans for this weekend yet, expect for getting some rest. I am exhausted.

I told Steph the other day that I can't wait for this period of my life to be over. All its been for the past two months is school-homework-job searching, school-homework-job searching, and repeat. This has turned out to be the most stressful and busy semester of all, which is definately disappointing. I was hoping the worst of it was over. Its not, I am right in the middle of it.

However, I did get to meet this little person yesterday....

...her name is Remy and she is my best friend's new baby. They live in Houston now so this was the first time we got a chance to meet her. It was a pretty surreal moment, kind of like the first time one of your friends gets married. Not surprisingly, seeing Remy gave Steph "the fever", really bad. Yeah, it won't be too long before we have one of our own. I think it will be pretty cool.

But until then, school-homework-job searching, school-homework.........