Sunday, November 29, 2009
FROZEN ASSETS
On Sunday, the ladies of Johnson ("Frozen Assets") took on the Faculty and Staff in a display of terrible but hilarious hockey. Next up, the men of Johnson dress in drag and take on the "Frozen Assets." Looking forward to participating!!
DIWALI
Last weekend, the Indian students put on an AMAZING two hour play ("My Big Fat Johnson Wedding") that included no less than 7 dance sequences in true Bollywood fashion. We had a packed house for the show.
The plot was an Indian student's journey from his home country to Cornell to an eventual wedding. Required jokes about Indian GMAT scores, IT backgrounds, slacker Americans, and ridiculous parents were included. A bunch of first years participated (including my fellow blogger Ekta who choreographed two numbers). I don't know how they had any time to practice... what am I doing with my time is what I was left thinking....
The plot was an Indian student's journey from his home country to Cornell to an eventual wedding. Required jokes about Indian GMAT scores, IT backgrounds, slacker Americans, and ridiculous parents were included. A bunch of first years participated (including my fellow blogger Ekta who choreographed two numbers). I don't know how they had any time to practice... what am I doing with my time is what I was left thinking....
DIVERSITY CONFERENCES
I spent the weekend of October 16th-18th at the Reaching Out MBA Conference in Atlanta. This is the annual LGBT (gay and lesbian) diversity conference. Tons of fellow LGBT MBA students (over 600 I think) and over 50 companies attended. We had a group of 4 people from Cornell attend.
There are several other diversity conferences: Black MBA, Hispanic MBA, and the new Asian MBA conference. As strange as it may sound, if you are not affiliated with one of those groups (you are a straight white guy for instance), you can still attend if you would like to meet a recruiter from a company that does not come to campus. The Career Management Center actively encourages people to attend. Often, people come home with job offers. I had three interviews for a summer position while I was in Atlanta. That said, I would say there is a bit of "unease" with people attending who are not really part of that diversity group. Just be respectful and reach out to the people there. At the end of the day, everyone understands that we are all looking for a great job.
There are several other diversity conferences: Black MBA, Hispanic MBA, and the new Asian MBA conference. As strange as it may sound, if you are not affiliated with one of those groups (you are a straight white guy for instance), you can still attend if you would like to meet a recruiter from a company that does not come to campus. The Career Management Center actively encourages people to attend. Often, people come home with job offers. I had three interviews for a summer position while I was in Atlanta. That said, I would say there is a bit of "unease" with people attending who are not really part of that diversity group. Just be respectful and reach out to the people there. At the end of the day, everyone understands that we are all looking for a great job.
CAREER FOCUS
Career focus is huge at business school. You will meet with the Career Management Center staff during Orientation and your new career work group (a group of students interested in your same career led by second years) within the first couple weeks of school. Also, the recruiters start arriving a month after school begins. If you are even the least bit unsure of what career you wish to pursue, I would suggest spending some significant time over the summer investigating careers. Great resources are the WetFeet and Vault Career Guides. They break down the different functions, jobs, and show you what your daily life will look like. You also need to be drop-dead honest with yourself. Do you want to work 100 hours a week? Do you want to travel 4 days a week? What impact will those choices have on your life? Cornell gave us a free subscription to CareerLeader which is a diagnostic test -- similar to Myers Briggs but focused on business school careers.
I wanted time to explore different careers, be thorough, and make sure I was making a good choice. There just isn't the time, unfortunately, to do that. If you can narrow it down, you won't run yourself ragged at company briefings and cocktail hours.
I wanted time to explore different careers, be thorough, and make sure I was making a good choice. There just isn't the time, unfortunately, to do that. If you can narrow it down, you won't run yourself ragged at company briefings and cocktail hours.
FIRST HALF FINALS
Wednesday, October 14th (I'm doing some catch-up blogging -- apologies for the delay -- I'm keeping them chronological though)
So after three intense days of finals, we are now officially done with the first half of this semester. We started on Sunday (Sunday!) and had the next two finals on Monday and Tuesday.
This first half-semester has been a whirlwind.
I think everyone would agree that the intensity has been extremely high. You first have to cope with getting into the school mode and getting adjusted to a new location. Then you have the student clubs, school activities, workshops, symposiums, lectures, etc, etc. You are also knee-deep in career activities.
Plan on working 10-12 hours a day and spending a chunk of your weekend on school. We only had class on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday but it always seemed like my Wednesdays and Fridays were the busiest. If you are coming with a significant other or have one back home, you should have a long talk about what this semester is going to look like. That said, it's all really interesting and fun. Completely worth the time -- just busy.
So after three intense days of finals, we are now officially done with the first half of this semester. We started on Sunday (Sunday!) and had the next two finals on Monday and Tuesday.
This first half-semester has been a whirlwind.
I think everyone would agree that the intensity has been extremely high. You first have to cope with getting into the school mode and getting adjusted to a new location. Then you have the student clubs, school activities, workshops, symposiums, lectures, etc, etc. You are also knee-deep in career activities.
Plan on working 10-12 hours a day and spending a chunk of your weekend on school. We only had class on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday but it always seemed like my Wednesdays and Fridays were the busiest. If you are coming with a significant other or have one back home, you should have a long talk about what this semester is going to look like. That said, it's all really interesting and fun. Completely worth the time -- just busy.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Hello! (and how I got to Cornell)
Hello everyone!! Apologies for starting a bit late -- it's proven to be a busy semester.
I'm guessing that you are in the process of thinking about if you should apply to business school or where to apply to business school. I did a lot of research and reflection that I thought might be helpful - so I'll start there.
When I was researching business schools, my first default approach was to look at rankings. I think that is inevitable for most people. I started there and then added where I wanted to live. City + Rankings = Perfect School.
This process did not really seem thorough enough for what I was going to be investing in the decision. I decided to dig a bit deeper and to visit a couple of very different schools to see if I could make some educated guesses about all the schools. The visits were huge for me. I started to see that there were some other really important factors for me.
One was class size. I felt that the people I was going to meet at business school were going to be my biggest take-away. I would know these people for a long time. I wanted to be in a school where I could really know them. For me, this meant that I wanted to be in a smaller school.
Two was academic focus. After spending time reflecting, I knew I wanted to learn more about marketing, sustainability, and entrepreneurship. I then spent a lot of time digging into the programs, the activities, the centers, and talking to people that worked in all of these.
Three was culture. It is interesting how much you can pick up by interacting with a couple of students and visiting the school. I wanted to go to a school that was cooperative, supportive, and fun. This is where I knew I would have the best experience over my two years.
My very small recommendation is that you spend some time thinking about where you are truly going to be happiest and be most successful. You can get whatever job you want at any of the top schools – so do not worry about that. And after your first job or two after business school, all they will look at is your experience.
Just my two cents. :)
Adam
I'm guessing that you are in the process of thinking about if you should apply to business school or where to apply to business school. I did a lot of research and reflection that I thought might be helpful - so I'll start there.
When I was researching business schools, my first default approach was to look at rankings. I think that is inevitable for most people. I started there and then added where I wanted to live. City + Rankings = Perfect School.
This process did not really seem thorough enough for what I was going to be investing in the decision. I decided to dig a bit deeper and to visit a couple of very different schools to see if I could make some educated guesses about all the schools. The visits were huge for me. I started to see that there were some other really important factors for me.
One was class size. I felt that the people I was going to meet at business school were going to be my biggest take-away. I would know these people for a long time. I wanted to be in a school where I could really know them. For me, this meant that I wanted to be in a smaller school.
Two was academic focus. After spending time reflecting, I knew I wanted to learn more about marketing, sustainability, and entrepreneurship. I then spent a lot of time digging into the programs, the activities, the centers, and talking to people that worked in all of these.
Three was culture. It is interesting how much you can pick up by interacting with a couple of students and visiting the school. I wanted to go to a school that was cooperative, supportive, and fun. This is where I knew I would have the best experience over my two years.
My very small recommendation is that you spend some time thinking about where you are truly going to be happiest and be most successful. You can get whatever job you want at any of the top schools – so do not worry about that. And after your first job or two after business school, all they will look at is your experience.
Just my two cents. :)
Adam
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Welcome, Adam Conderman
I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida and graduated from the University of Florida majoring in political science and international studies. I spent a couple of years in Washington, DC working for a political affairs and public relations firm before leaving for a Rotary Scholarship to Ecuador. I lived in Ecuador for 6 months and traveled for another 6 months around South and Central America. Coming back to the US, I jumped from the corporate side of political affairs into the campaign side. I moved to Miami where I worked as a political fundraiser for a series of campaigns including: Florida Governor, US Congress, Florida Attorney General, and a statewide ballot initiative. I also spent a year in Liberia working for the United Nations on their 2005 national election. I chose the Johnson School because I wanted to be in a place where I could build strong relationships with my classmates and have an incredible network of friends when I leave. Career-wise, I'm interested in marketing, entrepreneurship and sustainability.
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