About November

One of my managers from my old job recently brought up the fact that I have posted less on this blog as a student then when I was working full time. An odd but definitively accurate observation. But while the student life can seem like a life of leisure, the truth is that the last month has been anything but relaxing. A brief, hopefully interesting rundown of the month is below. To be safe, you probably shouldn’t keep reading unless you’re having difficulty falling asleep.

October 31st – A relatively uneventful Halloween for me due to looming midterms and fantasy basketball draft related events. I did dress up as Joe the Plumber (white t-shirt, ‘Joe’ nametag, plunger).

Nov 1st – 11 dudes and I hole up in my apartment with beer, pizza, and snacks for an epic 12-hr long fantasy basketball draft. The resulting smell lingered for weeks.

Nov 2nd – Epic 12-hr midterm cram session as a result of putting studying off until the last minute (in favor of preparing for the basketball draft instead).

Nov 3rd – 2 midterms. 0 fun.

Nov 4th – Day of awesome. More pics from Night of awesome here.

Nov 5th-22nd – Kind of a blur. This was the peak of recruiting season, the time of year when first-years spend just about every waking minute networking (attending meet-and-greets, corporate presentations, information sessions, lunch-and-learns, etc) with all different kinds of companies, with the ultimate goal of securing an internship come interview season in the winter.

Highlight: One particular technology company that I’m known to have an affinity for held a ‘contest’ at the end of their presentation to see which student could name the most of their products. I didn’t just win; I won with f-ing authority, accurately naming a product that the recruiter herself hadn’t even heard of (luckily other employees in attendance validated my answer). I got a round of applause from my peers and a digital picture frame as a prize.

Fun fact: Due to professional dress codes at these events and the sheer frequency of them, I did not wear a single t-shirt this entire period, a fact I am only aware of due to the fact that I did laundry right before this stretch started, and the next time I touched the pile of unfolded t-shirts was when I was packing for Thanksgiving.

November 15th – Attended our school’s annual Golden Gargoyles event, a showcase of the short films created by the various cohorts in our first year class. More on this later (using this as an excuse for another post in a few days). But for now, let me just say this. Two words: Maury Ballstein.

November 16-26ish – With recruiting distracting and causing procrastination for nearly all of us, my group for my Competitive Strategy class scrambles to complete our term project analyzing the solar technology industry and First Solar, Inc. Miraculously, after a number of marathon group sessions, we pull together our report and presentation.

November 27-30 – Florida (!) for some much needed home cooked food and R&R. This was the first trip home where I’ve been too exhausted to do anything but sit around at home.

December 3 – In our last Competitive Strategy session, the professor reviews each of the 16 groups’ industry/company analyses and the key takeaways from each. The 10+ minutes spent on auto/GM, versus 40 seconds spent on ours left us questioning of the quality of our work. 20 minutes later (after completing discussion on all of the groups), he presents a bottle of wine to dropped jaws as he awards us the prize for the best presentation/analysis. While this may seem to trivial to you, remember:

Student + free booze = Awesome

(Also, validation of the quality of our work is also nice.)

That brings me to now. I have a final project, two take-home finals, and two in-class finals over the next 7 days, so its safe to say the next week will suck (and you probably won’t hear from me). After that, I’ll spend a week on the left coast, and another week in Florida for the holidays. But maybe hopefully possibly I-make-no-promises I’ll post more next month.

Oh, and winter has started to set in here. Let me tell you, it already sucks ass.