Mammoth Moments

I feel like I just went through a US undergrad experience.Yes, my weekend in Mammoth with the FEMBA class was EPIC. (I hate how overused that word is, but trust me, this time there's no better word for it.) 6 villas, 60+ attendees, and memories to last a lifetime.

FRIDAY:

The weekend started on an ominous note, with flights to Mammoth being cancelled due to heavy snow and blizzard conditions. But that didn't faze anyone. The affected folks just rented cars at the last minute and drove up/down. That kind of commitment to fun set the mood for the entire weekend.

SATURDAY:
The morning was spent on the slopes. It snowed all day and there was a ton of powder which actually wasn't such a blessing. Snowboarding and skiing were both kinda painful. But I'm glad we all went because on Sunday the conditions were so bad that the mountain was inaccessible.

Saturday night we had a group dinner outing followed by a huge party hosted by Santa's Workshop. What is Santa's Workshop you ask?

Well, Santa's Workshop was the awesome villa which I and a couple other 2013s shared with a bunch of 2011 FEMBAs. Among other things, we had Christmas lights, stockings with our names on them, mistletoe,and hand-made ice luges! Yes, the enterprising guys actually designed and carved multiple ice luges. I've never been more impressed with party preparations. To complete the picture, our crew even dressed in Santa and Elf outfits while greeting the rest of the FEMBAs to our abode. Without getting into too many details, let me assure you the party was a grand success.

SUNDAY:
We woke up to a completely white world outside. We had received some 18in of snow overnight and it was still snowing so we had to stay in. But if we couldn't go to the mountain, the mountain had to come to us, right? So that's exactly what we did. The guys built a sled run outside our villa and we rode plastic sleds down it. It was AMAZING and totally worth the soreness experienced the next day. The rest of the day was spent in the hot tub and sauna, cooking Mexican dinner, playing Taboo, building a snowman, and more partying. In my more inspired moment, I attempted to bake cookies and ended up making one giant cookie because the batter expanded in the oven.

MONDAY:
We all braved the snow, the slippery roads and falling trees and drove back to our respective homes. Mammoth received the heaviest snowfall in 40 years this past weekend and southern California received the heaviest rainfall in a long time. And despite that, I hear one of the vans drove back in the rain with only one barely-functioning windshield wiper, held on by a shoelace! I need to get the details on that story. Between the ice-luges and this, I must say we MBAs are really creative!

This trip was easily the most intense and funnest networking event one can attend. I could get used to such getaways after every quarter end. A huge applause and thanks to our classmates who took the effort to set this up! 

1 down, 11 to go!

A bunch of new friends, a ton of newly acquired knowledge, few gray hairs, some extra pounds, and a boot-camp of final exams later, I'm done with my 1st quarter of MBA! I now have 3 glorious weekends off until winter classes begin! Yay!

All in all, the past three months weren't as bad as I imagined. Sure, it was really hard giving up Saturdays and balancing work with studies, but the excitement of doing something new and meeting new people really made up for it.

However, yesterday was brutal. 7 hours of exams! I had the stats paper first, followed by a break and then the OB paper. By 4pm, with an hour to go, I was already ready to walk off from the OB paper - I was that tired. To make matters worse, all our laptops heated up the classroom and it was starting to feel like a sauna in there. On the bright side, it only made us appreciate the subsequent happy hour celebrations more!

Now that life will momentarily return to a semblance of normalcy, I look forward to getting back to all the activities and loved ones that I've been neglecting. The holiday season feels extra special this year. :)

 Happy Holidays everyone!

Tale from the road

En route to work this morning - Unusual traffic jam on the road leading to the freeway. I was stuck right before the ramp, such that it was impossible to turn around and neither could I make it to 805-N ramp.

After the car had only moved 5 feet in 5 minutes, I decided to act smart. I got on the 805-S ramp (which was accessible), planning to turn around at the next exit.

Turns out other people had had the same bright idea so the next exit was jammed as well.

So I decided to take the exit after that one. I hit the accelerator hard, and promptly zoomed right past the next exit. Shit.

Just as I finally got off 805-S, my phone started buzzing. I looked away for one second to see who was calling and managed to miss the 805-N ramp.#$%!

After waiting (cursing) at the longest red light in the world, I got back on another freeway and exited near my office.

Being unaccustomed to that route, I proceeded to make some more dumb moves. Like hanging out on left-only lanes MULTIPLE times when I needed to go straight. I literally circled all around my office campus before I made it in.

It took me 50 minutes to cover 7 miles to work today. Other colleagues from my my neighborhood who just stuck it out in the jam made it to work in 35 minutes tops.

Certainly not the smartest day of my life!

Oh, Saturday!

Yesterday, thanks to the Thanksgiving weekend and no MBA classes, I took my road bike out for the first time in months. It was a glorious day, perfect for a long ride along the beaches. 

The  view along my biking route.

Of all the things people sacrifice for FEMBA, being stuck indoors all day, every Saturday, is the most painful. Especially for an outdoorsy person like myself who used to bike/hike/run outside on weekends. 

That's why I plan to make the most of the few class-free Saturdays we'll be getting between quarters. Ski trip, see you soon!

Defining Nothing

Last week:
Q: What are you doing over the Thanksgiving break?
Me: Absolutely nothing and really looking forward to it! I desperately need a lazy weekend to rest up.

Since yesterday:
Person A: You're coming to XYZ's place for the Thanksgiving dinner, right?
Me: Oh yes, I even promised to cook a traditional dish for the occasion.

Person B: We're on for long bike rides, yes?
Me: Absolutely. At least twice over the 4 days.

Person C: I'm hosting a movie night at my place, you in?
Me: Sure!

Girl friends: We totally need to shop on Black Friday.
Me: Of course! I have a long list of stores to visit and things to buy.

Mom: So are you still planning on turning out your closets and cleaning the house?

Me: Yea Ma, I can't push it out any further.

Atlas Shrugged/Under the Tuscan Sun/Liar's Poker: Dude, you gotta finish reading us.
Me: I fully intend to over the weekend!

Final exam: I'm right around the corner! Don't you need to study?
Me: Er, yes yes. I plan to catch up with stats over the break.

And that's how I'm doing "nothing" over the upcoming long weekend. I hope you guys do a better job of sticking to your original plans! Happy Thanksgiving!

All or nothing

Last week, from Sunday to Sunday I read 4 papers for OB, studied for and submitted 1 stats quiz, attended classes in LA, had a study group discussion for a case, finished a project at work, had brainstorming sessions for new projects and even wrote a couple of blog posts.

Additionally, I attended:
2 birthday parties (Clubbing downtown after a long day of classes? Sign me up!)
3 baby events (Naming ceremony, first meeting, baby shower)
1 movie (The Social Network)
3 boot camp workouts (SO painful but SO rewarding)
and an all day outing at Disneyland. (My first time ever and it was AWESOME! Especially because our classmates who were Disney employees or regulars knew all the best things to do in the right order and gave us the personal tour experience. Thanks guys!)

Till Sunday night, I was a bundle of energy.

Since Sunday night I have done:

Exactly nothing.

Work has been slow past couple days. I haven't worked out. I have a ton of regression to study, but I've simply been unable to get started with it. I even decided not to attend a friend's dinner tonight to catch up on studying and yet here I am writing this post instead. And if the past few days are any indication, I'm going to start yawning by 9pm. I don't know what's causing this inertia and lack of drive. My energy just seems to have fizzled out. Maybe I thrive on a busy schedule and if I pushed myself to attend events, I'd focus more on my studies because I'd be putting in concentrated effort? Or maybe I just did too much last week and now my brain and body are asking me to slow down?

Whatever the reason, I don't like this yo-yo-ing of my productivity levels, this all-or-nothing lifestyle. I think I'll just go run for a bit now and then attempt regression analysis again. Hopefully, I will be able to end the week on a better note.


p.s.: On second thought, I did write the first draft for the OB case and attend one boot camp and bake bread. Perhaps I'm just being too harsh on myself..? 

Who are you?

I started this blog for specific reasons. Not simply on a whim like so many things I do in life.

A) I love writing and love logging. So I figured I could combine both and maintain a detailed log a.k.a. blog of my life during FEMBA*.
B) I wanted to give mom/dad/sis a blow by blow account since my family is a  very curious bunch and I'm an impatient phone-chatter.
C) I wanted to escape the "what's up" type questions from friends. I imagined I'd get so busy with work and studies that I'd slowly fade away from the social networks (yeah, even I'm laughing right now). I wanted people to simply saunter over to my blog to see why exactly I couldn't make it to all their parties and events.
D) I want to be able to go back and relive FEMBA days many years down the line.
E) Lastly, I'm hoping the blog becomes useful in some way for people who are contemplating part-time MBA, especially the UCLA FEMBA.

So I found out that none of the people I actually started this blog for visit it often. My parents remember about the blog once a month and my sister flat out refuses to get updates from my blog when she can badger me on the phone instead. My close friends still insist on calling, texting or emailing. Fine, the objective failed but I feel very loved so I'll accept it.

Now then the big question is, who are you people who visit my blog?
You may have noticed the live-traffic tracker on the side. It shows when and from where people are visiting the site. When I installed it, I was skeptical about it working so I posted a link to the blog on Facebook just to check it out. The blog got around 170 unique visitors from Facebook that day. I only have around 500 friends on there, a quarter of whom are on limited profile settings, so that means about 40% of the friends who could see the link clicked through. I guess people were either very curious or very bored that day. :) After that day I didn't explicitly advertise the blog but I still seem to be getting regular visitors. Some of you have come up to me and told me how much you enjoy the blog (thank you very much, it means a lot!) but I have no idea who the rest of you are. I see that some people visit the site through Google search and other friends' blogs, but the majority of hits seem to come from Facebook. I'm a very curious person (family trait), so if you don't mind, could you please let me know who you are? I won't post your comment if you insist but it'll be nice to know. Or, if you want to make it more interesting, just give me a hint about  how (if) we know each other.

And with that, I'm off to tackle the performance review problem at Morgan Stanley. Yay for cryptic FEMBA talk. G'nite!


*FYI, I log my work projects in excruciating detail even though I'm the only one who sees it. I log my workouts, my dessert intake, social events, professional events, time wasted on the internet, etc. etc. As our stats prof would say - not obsessive compulsive at all.

Thoughts on Success

I watched The Social Network with a few friends today. There was some post-movie discussion about the authenticity of the storyline and individual perceptions of Facebook's use and abuse, but my thoughts kept going back to Zuckerberg's story. Idea -> implementation -> profit - > fame -> lawsuits. All before he's 26. Success!

When I was younger I thought success would mean having my picture on the front page of the daily newspaper. (For something commendable, not for robbing a bank or such.) Today, thanks to the internet, anybody and everybody can make it to the news for any ridiculous reason. Just hit refresh on CNN.com for proof. Andy Warhol recently updated his prediction about everyone being famous for 15 minutes in the future. He now says, "In 15 minutes, everybody will be famous." My point being, I no longer consider making it to the daily news prestigious or desirable or a yardstick to measure success.

When I mentioned the above to my friend, he nodded and said, "Sure, because news is cheap." He's right. But you know what's not cheap and way more enduring? Harvard Business School case studies. My new definition for professional success is now to become the subject of an HBS case study for efficiency/ innovation/ leadership/ best practices. Like Southwest Airlines or even Cirque du Soleil. To create a product, or service, or implement organizational practices that changes the way something is done for the better. And to get stinking rich in the process of course. Oh, and maybe even have a movie made about it? :P

Fat FEMBA

Halfway through the first quarter! Stats exam went okay, OB paper was submitted on time, a bunch of us celebrated with beer and ice-cream (Diddy Riese!) and for the first time in a week, I slept more than 5 hours last night.

But now comes my first major grouse about this whole work and study thing. FEMBA is making me unfit/unhealthy/fat.

How? Well, for starters (no pun intended), the program provides breakfast before class every weekend. There is -

1. Oatmeal/Cereal/Fruit/Orange juice

2. Bagels/Doughnuts/Croissants/Cakes/Scones/Muffins/Coffee

They're all laid out together but you can guess why I separated them. Which category do I help myself to? #2 of course. After waking up at 6am and driving two hours to school, I automatically gravitate towards the sugar and carbs! To make matters worse, there's no lunch available nearby and I always forget to pack a sandwich. So I've been skipping lunch and helping myself to the snacks which are laid out for the afternoon class. Cookies/cereal bars/some raw fruit and veggie and coffee. As a result, by the end of the day I've had about 7 servings of sugar and 5 cups of coffee. 

Even on weeknights, I don't find time to cook so I haven't been eating fresh or healthy. And given how busy I've been juggling school and work, I haven't been working out much either. Just 5 weeks of FEMBA and I'm already finding it hard to run 5K!

When I started the program, I was resigned to the fact that I wouldn't be regularly running/hiking/biking on the weekends anymore, but I never thought my entire diet and fitness regimen would come crashing down like this. I know it's not the program's fault, I just need to re-prioritize and plan my time better. I'm going to seek inspiration from classmates - the one who wakes up at 5am to workout, the one who ran 36 flights of stairs everyday at lunch, and the ones who are always training for some marathon or the other. If they can incorporate fitness into their schedules while juggling all the same responsibilities as me, I'm sure I can too! Time to haul my sorry ass to the gym now.

p.s.:

In the spirit of Halloween, the caterers got creative with our afternoon snacks yesterday. Ghosts and bats in my veggies! :)

p.p.s.:

Despite my rant, I don't regret pigging out at Diddy Riese. They have the BEST custom ice-cream sandwiches for just $1.50 and I can see why the place is such a UCLA legend. The espresso choc-chip flavor rocked my world and I don't even normally like ice-cream! Thanks to AH for taking us there:)

Mid-term week

Stats mid-term + 3 papers to read for OB along with a group case analysis due Saturday. Too much FEMBA work, and as it happens, too much work-work as well. I find myself unable to elegantly navigate between studies and my day job. When I'm working I'm worrying about studying and the case write-up, but when I sit down to study I start worrying about completing my project in time for the big meeting. And when it all becomes too much for my poor brain, I can't function at all. That's when I escape to blogs/gmail/facebook. A friend aptly captured this propensity here.

Don't be surprised if I change my profile picture everyday or post frequent status messages, or "like" all your updates on Facebook. I'm not bored, I'm just stressed. Okay, and maybe I really do like your update.

p.s. - Perhaps it's time for all my fancy time management gimmicks to kick in.

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

It is gray and rainy outside and I'm loving every bit of it. 


When I was around 8, I remember running outside to get wet in the first rains of the season, sailing paper boats in the flood waters, being punished for jumping in dirty puddles...
At 15, I remember studying for the boards with soft music playing as the rain lashed on my window, often reading by the emergency light because the rain had felled some electricity pole nearby. I remember throwing open the window in the school bus to get drenched on the way back home, and then drying my soaked books with a hair dryer before my mom found out.
At 20, I remember enjoying "cutting chai" and spicy "vada paav" in the college cafe as it poured outside, I remember sitting on wet seats in the buses and auto-rickshaws and entering the classroom dripping wet and very late, I remember watching the rains from the sloped terrace of our engineering school...


I will always remember the smell of first rains on parched Indian soil, the promise it brought far out-weighing the inconveniences. 


Oh California rains, you don't come close to the Mumbai monsoons, but I'll take what I get. 
In honor of the current weather, my typical Pandora and Youtube playlists have been replaced by old songs dedicated to the rains. And no bitching about the weather on Facebook :)


Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
Cryin's not for me
'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothin's worryin' me...
(from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)

Network,network,network

If the realtor's mantra is Location, Location, Location then a B-school student's mantra is Network, Network, Network. Sure enough, within a month of school we've had scores of opportunities to network with classmates, seniors, alumni and even prospective students. To be honest, it has been a little overwhelming. So much so that at the last breakfast event before class, I deliberately avoided eye contact with the prospective students in the crowd. (Yeah, I only went for the food. Sue me.)

The happy-hour events are more fun, but I'm still a nervous networker when I don't know people in the crowd. Past incidents certainly haven't helped. I'm never sure what to talk about! Conversation usually comes easily to me, but when it's labeled networking, it suddenly becomes a chore and I end up saying stupid things. One thing that happens frequently is that I get grilled about my choice of drink (water). The last time someone struck up a conversation asking why I was drinking water, I decided to answer the question with a question and said, "What makes you think it is water and not vodka?". The person replied, "You have a plastic cup. And no ice." Fail.

Sometimes though, when I'm not the awkward one, I have fun. For instance, last weekend at a bar after class.

PK: When did you graduate high school?

SK: 2012.

PK: Huh? High school, not FEMBA.

SK: Yeah FEMBA 2013.

PK: Dude, I'm asking when you graduated from HIGH SCHOOL.

SK: Oh high school! 1912.

There was a five second pause while we all stared and then:

SK: I mean 1992!

Moral of the story - Give a tired MBA student a beer for an assured return of conversational gems.

What I love about the UCLA FEMBA experience

Disclaimer: I'm not one to gush but right now I'm stressed  about a load of homework and upcoming midterms so this post is an attempt to focus on the silver lining.

I know it's only been 4 weeks but here goes in no particular order, what I'm loving about FEMBA life:


1. Our statistics professor - He's warm, easy-going, knowledgeable and funny. As someone pointed out, it helps that he even looks a little like Letterman. Also, he conducts snazzy online office hours on weeknights, which totally ups his cool factor. (Speaking of funny and cool, our Admisssions Director DS and Dean FG belong to that category as well!)


2. The carpool camaraderie - When you have to spend fours hours in the car with three other people every Saturday, you really appreciate the ability to have stimulating conversations with them. A, C, V and I discuss everything from finance to family and from class politics to country politics. I would love to share some of our more *interesting* discussions here but I'm bound by the "What's discussed in the car, stays in the car" vow. (I can tell this much though - A gets a Macy's gift card from us for his wedding, whenever that is.)


3. The surprise perks - I scored a free ticket to Disneyland! Some of our classmates who work at Disney very generously pooled together their perks to get a bunch of us free entry. There was a lottery, and for the first time in my life, I won at something like that! I've never been to Disneyland and now I'm getting to go for free with an awesome set of people.:)


4. The upcoming, much hyped Halloween party on the night after mid-terms!
Excerpt from the email from the student council:
Top 5 Worst Excuses Not To Go To FEMBA Halloween Party 2010- Debunked. 

5) I have to study.

Dumb.com. If you're studying on Saturday of Halloween weekend, that just makes me sad.

4) It's too expensive.  

Seriously? You're paying $$$K for your MBA, and you're flipping out about $70? Perspective, dude. Perspective. 

3) I don't have anything to wear.

Then go naked. There. You came as a streaker. Clever.

2) I don't drink.

There's plenty of other things to do (like watching others drink).

1) None of my friends are going.

Make new ones. I never liked your friends anyway.


5. Facebook community - It's heartening to see classmates commiserate over painful homework, cheer for each others' job successes, and laugh together over silly pictures from weekly post-class happy hours.


6. My study group - It could have been so wrong, but thankfully it feels right....We were all assigned random study groups and I'm very glad to be part of an affable yet assertive and sincere group. 

7. Last but not the least, I'm stoked about the ski-snowboard trip being planned for the week after finals!


With that, I'm off to hit the books. We have mid-terms next week and if I mess that up I'll be writing a "I hate FEMBA and I wish I hadn't jinxed myself" post here.

You say tomahto, I say tomayto

I watched this TV show called Outsourced the other night. It's about a call center set in Mumbai and it was amusing, but I have a peeve. The Indians in the show are British Indian actors playing regular Indians and their confused accent drove me nuts. Don't get me wrong, I love British accents and I respect Indian accents. But in the show, the British actors were trying hard to sound Indian and some of them just ended up sounding bizarre. I think the reason it bothers me is because I'm worried that I sound that way too.

I grew up in Mumbai, India, surrounded by friends who were natives of many different states, and who spoke as many different languages at home. While we conversed with each other in English, our accents and pronunciations tended to rub off on each other. My Indian accent has flavors of Tamil, Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi, to name a few.

Then I moved to the US. Not only do I work with a diverse cultural set of people but I'm now part of that most amazing melting pot of all, B-School. I have friends and colleagues who are American, Asian, Serbian, French, Israeli, German, Chinese, British, Ukrainian, Russian. The process of conversation involves understanding and making oneself understood. In aiming for the latter, I end up subconsciously changing the way I pronounce certain words. For instance, my 't's sound like 'd's or go silent when I'm talking to Americans. I roll my Rs when I'm talking to the Europeans or Mexicans. The letter 'a' which usually had an "ah" sound in India is now selectively "ae" or "ah" depending on who I'm talking to (think "dahnce" vs "dance"). I try hard to remember to say "victory" instead of "wictory" and "Vegas" instead of "Wegas". (Most Indians have trouble distinguishing 'v' and 'w' sounds. True story.) And sometimes, I just mix it all up and end up sounding confused.

I love the English language despite all its strangeness, and I'd like to sound comfortable speaking it at all times. Maybe I'm being anal, maybe it's a real problem. But until I learn to live with it, or fix it, watching Outsourced is going to be a tad annoying. Luckily, school makes sure I don't have enough time to actually follow any TV show regularly!

Rich Student, Poor Student

Last week, I paid my first-quarter MBA fees and almost choked when I hit 'submit' on the payment website. So MUCH money! I was once again a pay-check to pay-check poor student!

Well, perhaps not that poor, since I'm earning substantially more than my graduate assistant paycheck. That was one of my reasons for not opting for a full-time MBA. I already went through the extremely-poor-student phase at the University of Maryland (Go Terps!), and while I had a good time there, I'd rather not have to repeat that experience. I wanted to be a 'rich' grad student this time round!

Looking back, life was kinda tough then.
- Four girls shared a 2-bed, 1-bath apartment. The 2-bedroom part was manageable, the 1-bath part was a nightmare. Many an argument took place over time spent on showers.
- As if sharing the bathroom wasn't bad enough, one time, after a particularly violent snowstorm, we had to share my BED (to sit and study on) because that was the only spot in the house that was catching a wireless signal. I didn't have a car to drive out to a coffee shop as I would do now.
- Our only other furniture was a ragged couch that was handed down from earlier student generations.
- I survived on Taco Bell's 99c bean burritos for lunch and badly cooked frozen vegetables for dinner.
- We didn't own a TV set. Yep, two years without television. Dinner time was spent discussing our classes and job application status.
- I shopped for clothes only twice a year, mostly at Walmart.

Fortunately a FEMBA programs means that even with the fat fees, I can afford a lot of the things that I couldn't back then.  Good food, better apartment, a car, shopping in non-Walmart locations, cable TV, vacations, etc. However, with full-time work, classes and homework, now I don't find the time to enjoy any of that. No time for TV, no time for impromptu road trips or shopping sprees, no time to cook healthy or eat dinner with friends, no time to stop and breathe...

Suddenly, I'm not sure if I got richer or poorer.

Money Matters

Yesterday while discussing probability distribution, our stats professor showed us a picture of a 10 Deutsche Mark note. The note features the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, the normal distribution curve that he introduced, as well as the mathematical equation for the curve. Cool, eh?

Out of curiosity I googled other German currency notes and found that all their notes have had pictures of accomplished authors, architects, mathematicians, musicians or scientists. Apparently the Germans are genetically designed to be brilliant!  Of course I don't know much about other currencies.  All I know is that US dollar bills (except $100 which has Benjamin Franklin) have pictures of past Presidents, and all Indian notes have pictures of Mahatma Gandhi.

Speaking of USD bills, I recently found that $2 bills exist. It got me wondering how the expression "As fake as a $2 bill" came into being. Wikipedia as usual came to my rescue - The bill was discontinued in 1966, but was reintroduced 10 years later as part of the United States Bicentennial celebrations. Today, however, it is rarely seen in circulation and actual use. Production of the note is the lowest of U.S. paper money: under 1% of all notes currently produced are $2 bills. This comparative scarcity in circulation, coupled with a lack of public awareness that the bill is still in circulation, has also inspired urban legends and, on a few occasions, created problems for people trying to use the bill to make purchases."

Yes, I'm a sucker for nerdy trivia :)

MBA week one, no casualties.

Whatever happened to the concept of ramping up? After the very first day of classes, we were assigned 2 Statistics chapters to study, 2 cases to mull over, an online quiz, 3-4 readings for the Organizational Behavior class, an hour long audio to listen to, and a 3-page paper to write analyzing the issue discussed. All to be completed within a week, before the next class (which was yesterday). We now know why it's called a Fully Employed MBA program and not a Part-Time MBA program. I'm afraid that if the workload gets any worse, some of us may end up as FUMBAs - Fully Unemployed MBAs.

Last week was honestly insane. I had breakfast with stats, lunch dates with the OB papers and dinners with the guys discussing the subprime mortgage crisis on the assigned audio. The one day I managed to hit the gym, I read a paper on the treadmill. I missed a friend's birthday dinner, didn't call my family, and the gallons of coffee I consumed gave me acidity. (I tried to stay off coffee at work but then dozed off and hit my head on the keyboard. Thank goodness for a private office with a door.) On the bright side, I managed to complete the assignments aaaannd I feel smarter already so hi five!

Fortunately, the homework for the second week is a little less crazy. Of course, to maintain the balance, my day job workload has shot up but I can live with that. After all, I chose to do this. And as a classmate pointed out, the WEEKLY amount we're paying for the program, is as much as what we paid for a whole YEAR of undergrad engineering. Gulp. That is motivation enough for me to refrain from whining and giving this my best shot.

I sign off with an insight to why most of us found the OB paper so frikkin' challenging.

Have a good week y'all!

Cheers,
Femba Girl
p.s. : Hats off to my classmates who had work travel, wailing babies, talkative spouses and other such added distractions!

Bias

I just wrote a paper for my OB class on the psychological biases that contributed to the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US. (Wow, sounds fancy when I put it that way.) No, I'm not going to paste my paper here. But reading up for it got me thinking about how we all harbor biases without consciously realizing it.

Off the top of my head, the biases I acted out this past week -

Availability bias, where we only consider available information:

For a global market research project, I needed specific information and spent hours googling and browsing the company library website for data on different countries. I only found information for one country so I told my manager I was going to make that a sample case and extrapolate for neighboring countries. A colleague overheard me, and asked if I'd thought of calling up the library researchers. I hadn't (I was new to research projects). I dropped them a line and a day later I had a comprehensive and exhaustive database of information from them. I just needed to ask the experts.

Confirmation bias, where we tend to favor information that confirms our preconceptions:
Extreme celebrity worship (think fasting, self-immolation, sacrifices, building dedicated temples) is a common practice in India. It has been a sore point with me ever since I can remember because I've never looked up to any screen personality and cannot fathom how anyone else can practice such extreme adulation. I have steadfastly refused to watch any movie starring one of India's biggest superstars simply because I don't care for the craze. I smirked when I heard that in his latest movie he (at the age of 60+) is paired with a gorgeous young actress. I sighed when I read that fans were planning to 'bathe' the movie reel and posters in 100s of gallons of milk.  'Crazy', I muttered.Some of my friends implored me to watch the first show with them to understand the mania, but I refused.
Why? How can I be so judgmental when I don't know anything about the actor, his acting, his attitude towards the crowd mania for him...anything at all? Just from what I selectively read/heard about him? That, I realized today is confirmation bias. Perhaps I should go watch that movie after all.

Overconfidence/Optimism Bias:
I was given a new project yesterday. My manager's boss wanted an estimate of when I would have something for initial review and I told my manager "COB Friday". It was Wednesday morning and my manager looked at me in surprise and asked whether it wasn't too short a timeline. I said I knew where to find the market data so I just needed to get some data from engineering. My manager pointed out that I'd need to export and process the market information and that I may not get prompt responses from engineering. I then changed my response to COB Monday. Looking back, I've done this more than once before, only I didn't know it was a habit with me until now.

Social proofing (herding effect), where we accept something because others like us approve of it :

So after last Saturday's class, I told my carpool on the ride home that I was going to start working on the homework the next day. Two of them immediately pooh-poohed the idea and said they were giving themselves free Sundays. Guess what, I followed them. (And lived to regret it, but that's another post.)

Baby Bias, where you trust and like someone because they have a cute baby:
Neighbors who I had walked past without acknowledging for the past many months recently popped out an angelic baby and suddenly I feel like they're family. I smile broadly when we meet in the elevator, we discuss my work and their lives as I gush over the baby and I actually time myself to work hoping I'll run into them.

Okay, I made that last one up. But I'm sure it falls under some category of social bias! 

Time Management - Fail

In an attempt to be more efficient, I tried out a web service that logs the time I spend on various websites. Yesterday I saw the weekly report and was *shocked* to find that I'd spent an average of 2 hours (mostly past 4pm..hmm) each day on Facebook. Shame on me. So I decided to do something about it. I installed this software called Stay Focused and proceeded to set my allowed time for the entire day to 20 minutes. (Yes, very ambitious.) As you can expect, around 3pm, with one minute left for the software to block the site, I desperately rushed to change the setting to allow me 60 minutes.
This is the ensuing conversation I had with the SF software.

SF: You have one minute left, you're not trying to cheat are you?
Me: Proceed. (as opposed to the other given option - "You're right, I changed my mind.")
SF: Seriously, don't do it. You must stay focused. Do you still want to proceed?
Me: Yes.
SF: What's the point really? I'm supposed to help you be more efficient. Are you sure want to go on?
Me: Yes.
SF: Have you no shame?
Me: No.
SF: I can't help feeling our relationship isn't working. You're not listening to me. I'm afraid this may end things between us. Are you okay with that?
Me: Yes.
SF: I can't believe you said Yes.
Me: Proceed.
SF: Fine. But just so you know, if you click yes again it may cause a thermonuclear reaction that will kill millions and orphan many children. Do you still want to proceed?
Me: Yes.
SF: I'm telling your mom!

And then my settings were finally updated but SF wasn't done yet. A new tab popped up on my screen - http://www.sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/procrastination.html.

After that, I didn't need to actually log on to Facebook for a break. I had already been thoroughly entertained. :)

Update: A number of readers asked me about the tracking/blocking services I mentioned in the post. You can find the tracking site here - http://www.rescuetime.com/. It's pretty cool. Even tracks offline time spent on Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, etc.
The blocking feature is a Google Chrome extension - https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji. I'm sure there are tricks for other browsers as well, I just haven't looked them up yet. Good luck with productivity now. :)

I'm feeling lucky..

Why is it so cold in the midwest and SO hot in the west today? What is that song I heard on the radio that goes, "Swear I've seen you before, I think I remember those eyes, eyes,eyes.."? What are those pretty long stemmed flowers that wave at me against the clear sky on the freeway ramp? Should I watch Wall Street? How hard is it for an adult to learn to swim? What does bootstrapping mean in the business context? What did my friend mean by "muy bien"? How does one counter caffeine related acidity? What is netvibes? Where exactly is Casablanca? Is the attention span of a goldfish really 3 seconds? What is the difference between attention span and memory span?

All the above questions came to mind today as part of work, conversations, IMs, while driving, or simply out of the blue. Luckily, I have a very reliable and super efficient go-to person for everything I could ever want to know. Anything and everything.

Happy 12th birthday dearest Google!

Stuff I learned this weekend

- I am a worry wart. On Friday night I agonized that my phone would shut down and not wake me up at 6am and that my carpool would leave for school without me. I must buy an old fashioned alarm clock.
- I have forgotten how to take notes on paper. My handwriting has become a free flowing scrawl.
- I couldn't recollect much from any paper I read before Wednesday.
- But, I have a creepily photographic memory for peoples' updates on Facebook. Thrice during casual conversations, I had to bite back "Yes, I saw that on Facebook."
- I clearly remember the first letter of peoples' names but nothing else. Hence I mistakenly referred to three Js as John and two Bs as Brian yesterday. You'd think I'd learn after the first couple times.
- I can consume copious amounts of caffeine, be wide awake, and still yawn in a class. From the first row.
- I will eat raw vegetables if I'm hungry enough i.e. after all the cookies and cereal bars provided have been exhausted.
- I am a grad student at heart. I was just as excited about free pizza as I used to be during poorer school days.
- I will find any excuse to put off starting the next assignment. Case in point, this blog post.

First day of classes done!

It is Sunday morning and I'm feeling surprisingly refreshed despite the loooong day yesterday. Here's a recap.

7am-9am : Drove up to school with three other classmates.

9am-930am : The school provided an impressive complimentary breakfast spread for all sections. (Well, I think I'm paying for that somewhere in my massive tuition bill.)

930am-1245pm : Data and Decisions (otherwise called the Statistics course).
We had been asked to read up the chapters on probability before class. I planned to get around to it in the car ride, but then the professor emailed that he wouldn't cold call anyone on Day1, so that plan flew out the car window :)
Prof. M is funny, seems easy-going and knows his stuff. He started teaching probability with the interesting history of why it began to be studied. History in a math class was a first for me and I appreciated it. The rest of the class was a slow ramp up to probability concepts but I fully expect it to speed up from next class.

1245pm-145pm : Lunch break (where the school doesn't provide lunch).
There was a kick-off meeting for the Entrepreneurship Association so a bunch of us attended that. ( I heard there was also an interviewing skills workshop at the same time but the EA provided free pizza...)

145pm-2pm : I gleefully discovered that the FEMBA lounge has fancy coffee machines which had options for lattes, espressos, mochas, cappuccino etc. Sadly, the machine broke down just when I was trying to get my fix. Luckily there was fresh coffee and more snacks laid out when we got back to the classroom.

2pm -515pm: Organizational Behavior.
Prof. B partly grades us on classroom participation so I was worried about dozing off. They've assigned us fixed seating positions alphabetically and as luck would have it, I'm on the first row, right in front of the teacher's podium. Great. Fortunately, the class was pretty engaging, especially the part where we had a very entertaining and heated in-class auction for a $20 bill that ended with two classmates owing the teacher $80 each. This NYT article explains exactly how the escalation of commitment happened.

545pm-645pm: Anderson Toastmasters meeting.
We were greeted by the VP of the club (FEMBA'10) with the words, "Welcome FEMBA '13. Sorry I don't look as enthusiastic as you guys. That's what happens once you've been beaten on the the head with GAP (Global Access Program - it's like a thesis project in the final year)".  Ouch.
The meeting was fun, we got to hear a few speeches and evaluations and some of us may consider joining the club.

7pm-900pm: FEMBA meetup/happy hour at South. (Celebrity spotting - Cuba Gooding Jr. at the bar.)
Quick dinner at Rubios.

9pm-11pm: Drive back home. I'm very thankful for having a carpool gang (more on them later) because I sure as hell wouldn't have managed the drive alone.

Overall, very fun day that went by really quickly. I'm just amazed I was able to sit through two 3-hour long lectures. It's been a while. :)
For next week, we have a handful of papers to read, a movie to watch, an assignment to write up, and an online quiz to submit before Saturday. I'm just glad there are 279 others with my workload. Misery loves company ;)

Reason #43 why I miss my former room-mate(s).

I picked up random groceries on my way back from work. This is what I found in my bags when I got home.

1. Milk
2. Bananas
3. Cereal
4. Bran muffins (some mornings I don't feel like cereal.)
5. Granola bars (I may get hungry during class.)
6. Frozen veggie burgers (I may be too tired to cook after work/gym/class/studying.)
7. Bread (for the burgers)
8. Gingersnap cookies (taste awesome with chai, will ensure I don't finish the box within a week this time.)
9. Feta cheese (they taste good on salads! Umm, no other salad ingredient bought.)
10. Canned soup

Hmmmm. No vegetables, no fruit (other than bananas) and all processed foods. Until last week I was regularly cooking daals, curries, rice dishes, pastas, hakka noodles, thai curries, and making salads, panzanella, smoothies and soups from scratch. Sigh. Hello again student life.

Speaking of food, favorite email comment of the day from a former roommate and close friend - Good luck for school tomorrow! I wish I could pack you some lunch in a box and wave you bye =)


:):)

Fear of embarrassment - conquered!

"When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance." 

- from one of my favorite songs, by Lee Ann Womack.

I would like to live by those lines but sometimes, just sometimes, I get an attack of shyness. I am fairly confident and extroverted for the most part, but there are certain situations where I'll take a backseat and become reserved. It is almost always in scenarios where there's a potential chance of embarrassing myself. Like getting up on stage for the improvisation session during orientation week. I'm sad to admit that I was among the very few people who chose not to participate for a round of improv.  I was terrified of blanking out or saying the wrong word or simply being unfunny. Needless to say, I started regretting my decision exactly one hour after the session ended.

That's why, when asked if I'd like to participate in a surprise flash mob sequence for my company's anniversary celebrations, I readily agreed. The plan was that we flash mobbers would be mingling in the crowd until the music began. We would start casually swinging to the music and then suddenly break into choreographed steps with the professional dancers.

To be honest, everything about the plan made me anxious. Right from the part where we start dancing in the crowd, up until when we finish the sequence on stage in front of 10,000+ people including all our executives. There couldn't possibly be a worse situation where I could make a fool of myself. I had visions of forgetting my steps, tripping up on stage, or worse - tripping up other people in the crowd! A friend who was part of the plan sent me this before the event - ‘Nervous? In 5 billion years the sun will burn out and nothing you did will matter. Feel better?’  Mmph, thanks Alex!

But I'm happy to report that yesterday, I did it! No fiasco and no injuries, just a whole lot of fun. I even got rewarded with VIP access  for my participation which meant front row seats to the Dave Matthews band, VIP lounge, open bar and hobnobbing with executives. Not a bad deal, huh? :)

We're not being pretentious, we're networking!

Sometime last month -

It is a class of '12 and '13 FEMBA networking event at a downtown lounge. It also happens to be the night of a bachelorette party and a high school reunion so the place is chaotic. I walk in with a couple of girlfriends and start looking around for familiar faces when an NDS (nice-looking but drunk stranger) suddenly grabs my arm.

NDS: "Be my date tonight and let's go make new friends!"

If I weren't caught so off-guard I would never have let him drag me away but the next thing I know, we're in a crowd of people and NDS puts his arm around me and starts talking to a friendly looking couple.

NDS: "Heeeyy good to meet you both! How's the night going?"

At this point I'm squirming and trying to get away but his grip is tight and I don't want to create a scene.

Friendly couple: "We're great! How about you guys? Where are you from?"

NDS: "We're great too!We're from around here and looking to make new friends!"

Friendly couple: "We're here with our MBA friend. Are you here for that party too?Where do you work?"

NDS: "I studied sports medicine but we don't wanna talk about jobs and careers okay?"

Me (finally struggling free): "Actually, I do want to talk about it. But I need to go find my friends so if you'll all excuse me...."

NDS: "Yes, let's get out of here. Such a pretentious crowd! Asking me right away about my job and stuff. Damn these MBAs!"

Me (grinning): "Yeah, I can see why you think that's pretentious. And Oh!, I'm with that crowd. So I think this is where we say goodbye."

Don't feel too bad for the NDS. I believe he had a grand time with the bachelorette party later that evening ;)

Odyssey

odyssey n. , pl. , -seys . An extended adventurous voyage or trip. An intellectual or spiritual quest: an odyssey of discovery.


The Leadership Odyssey we went through during the LF week certainly lived up to its moniker. We were divided into groups of 18 and taken through a series of intellectual and physical tasks that tested our skills and mental strength many times over. I won't elaborate on all the tasks here, but a couple of them really stand out and I feel I must mention them.


THE POLE:
We were taken to a shaded corner of the field and asked to put on harnesses and helmets. At this point I wasn't sure what we were expected to do but I noticed a trapeze swinging high up and I was starting to get a tad nervous. In the next few minutes, after we were told what we had to do, I was not just a tad nervous but positively chattering with fear. Turns out, we were expected to scale up the 40-feet high pole, STAND on top of it, turn around 180 degrees and then LEAP out to catch the trapeze! For a minute I thought it was a joke. You know, maybe they were recording my reaction or something. But then reality hit me as I watched the first of my group mates go for it. It was harrowing to even watch the others go through it. Until then I had only heard the expression "knees shaking in fear" but that day I saw it and I felt it. And when the knees shake the entire damn pole shakes. And you're STILL expected to go through with it. 


I yelled encouragement to all my mates who went before me. "You can do it!", "Remember you're harnessed, so you can't fall!", "Don't look down, look at the trees!". 


And then it was my turn. I scaled up the pole quickly enough, but when I got to the top, I froze. There was barely enough room on top for my two feet! Also, how does one stand up in that situation with nothing to hold on to?! And I was waaaay above the ground! All the words of encouragement I'd shouted simply flew out of my head and before I realized it, my knees were shaking and the pole was dancing. I refused to stand up when the pole was still wobbling but the instructor shouted up at me,"The balance is in your body and your mind. The pole won't stop shaking until you calm down. Put your hand on your knee and stand up." I didn't want to do it. My mind and body both rebelled. I just wanted to get the hell off that pole. I looked at the trees in my line of view but it only reminded me about how high up I was. The next few seconds were a blur as I gritted my teeth and somehow managed to stand up. That was it. I didn't have it in me to slowly turn around. So I simply swung around in one swift motion and lunged for the trapeze. Of course I didn't catch it. But at least I jumped. And I couldn't have done it without all that encouragement from below.


What was the whole point of this exercise you ask? Well, I'm not sure but it was something about facing your greatest challenge and getting through it. Mind over body. Or vice versa. 


RIVER CROSSING:
My heart rate had just about returned to normal when we were taken to this task. Two people scale up ladders side by side and stand on parallel ropes facing each other. The ropes are arm distance apart to start with and then diverge. The task was to walk sideways across the ropes to the other end, while leaning over and pushing off on each others' shoulders for support. This was a less frightening but way more physically challenging task. I experienced the knee-shake again, but my partner AH was wonderfully calm and she got us through most of it. Due to the divergence it was hard to judge how much to lean over and push and I kept worrying that I'd push AH off. 


Me: "OMG this is hard, my rope is shaking too much!"
AH: "It's okay. Don't look down. Look at me. Push me more!"
Me: "Okay I'm not looking down but I'm still nervous and my arms hurt!"
AH: "Talk to me. Don't think about it. So, tell me about your family. Any siblings?"
Me: "Whaa?!" 


The surprise question actually managed to calm me down and we got through a decent distance while chatting about family. Props to AH! :)


Both the activities taught me a lot about myself, my strengths and weaknesses. As a bonus, I met wonderful people who I hope to continue being friends with. I realize the Odyssey isn't over. It's only just begun. And I think I'm ready for it. Next time, I'll catch that trapeze ;)

Leadership Foundations

The 5 day orientation for the FEMBA program was everything it was hyped to be. Intense, exhausting, challenging and very, very enjoyable.We had to take a few days off from work (and make our arrangements for accommodation in LA,) but I consider it vacation time put to excellent use.

LF highlights :
- 4 sections with a total of 280 students for the class of 2013, with each section having a dedicated professor for the duration of our stay.
- Catered breakfast, lunch and dinner where we got to network with fellow classmates from diverse industries, cultures, and educational backgrounds. (+ Decadent desserts with every meal!)
- Leadership lessons, classroom discussions and keynote talks. (We had some 15 papers to pre-read for the classes. Sign of things to come?)
- Student-initiated happy hours after 12 hour sessions at school, stumbling back to our rooms to read for the next day, crashing at wee hours and waking up in time for the 7am breakfast. Rinse, repeat.
- Improv comedy coaching and side-splitting improv sessions in the main auditorium.
- A day long outdoors session called the Leadership Odyssey (my absolute favorite part!)
- Mount Everest simulation - one of the many group activities. This one tested our decision making skills and scored us for successfully battling and navigating various adversities during the climb.
- A final written exam on the last evening followed by cocktail reception. (Never been less refreshed before a test!)

A crazy, unforgettable week in every sense. Hopefully the rest of the ride is just as thrilling and rewarding. :)

Action, Reaction

Me: "So I'm going back to weekend school for my MBA."

Parents and sister: "So proud of you! You're gonna rock!"
Colleagues: "Good for you!"
Hang-out buddies: "Cool but why do you need another degree? This means we won't ever see you at weekend activities!"
Close friends : "Wow, that's awesome. Maybe you'll meet some great guy at the program! :)"
Other relatives : "WHAT! When will you ever get married??"
......