And . . . . We’re Back: How I Spent My Time Away from Darden

Alright so what do the following have in common:

·         New York City;

·         Austin, TX;

·         Princeton, NJ;

·         Jeddah, Saudi Arabia;

·         Blacksburg, VA;

·         Washington, DC;

·         Las Vegas, NV;

·         Johannesburg, South Africa;

·         Atlantic City, NJ

·         Annapolis, MD;

·         San Diego, CA;

·         Stone Harbor, NJ;

·         Lexington, VA;

·         San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Yea, those are all the places that I’ve been since classes ended in Charlottesville a mere 13 weeks ago (you read that correctly: separate trips to Saudi Arabia AND South Africa in one summer; I’ve got some serious airline miles, don’t worry about it). Now the real challenge for you is to figure out whether each of those was for a:

1.       Wedding;

2.       Weekend getaway;

3.       My internship;

4.       Vacation;

5.       hA holiday (4^th of July or Memorial Day);

6.       Bachelor party.

I guarantee the answers will really confuse you.

 

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, it was awesome. I had an incredible summer that included an extremely challenging but rewarding internship, chances to catch up with friends and family, and a lot of travelling. I felt like I was a boxcar Hobo, never knowing where I was going to be heading next. But not one of those trampy Hobos with the stick and bundle; I was one of those very classy, dignified ones (ok really the only difference was I had a small backpack instead of a bundle).  

But there are tradeoffs. Now, I don’t want to speak for all B-school students, but I feel like this is just kind of the life of anyone getting a full-time MBA. In the year since I’ve moved to Charlottesville, between job treks, spring break trips, winter break, interviews, weekend ski trips, and everything in between, I’ve always felt like I was on the move. Which is good and bad. Good because it’s interesting, exciting, and life-changing; bad because you never really feel settled. That’s why I think it is important to get yourself anchored before you really get on the move.

Personally, I had no idea that I had anchored myself in Charlottesville. But while I was out and about this summer, I realized that as great as all of the places I was visiting were, not one of them was here. So while I was enjoying every minute of my travels, at the same time I couldn’t wait to get back here. I mean to me, what’s the point of travelling if you don’t have somewhere great to go back to at the end of it? I guess all I am trying to say is, it’s good to be home.

If you would like to contact the author, he can be reached at david.a.miller4@gmail.com.

Let's Get Ethical!!

Ok, so admittedly my last entry was terrible. Even my parents told me it was awful, and I’m pretty sure that by law they’re supposed love everything I do. I hadn’t written a post in a while, I couldn’t think of anything all that good to write about, and I was just happy that it wasn’t freezing outside anymore. Not much of an excuse, but from now I on promise to avoid extremely boring nonsense.

Anyway, this term I’ve been taking what is by far my favorite class so far at Darden. To my surprise, that class is Ethics, a subject I only thought was useful for philosophy majors and people who liked to pretend they always did the right thing. When I applied to Darden I heard all about the course, how the school was one of the only top MBA programs to require all students take a Business Ethics class, how it went hand and hand with UVA’s ethics code, and all that other good stuff. I pretended to care in my essays, writing about why it was a major reason I wanted to attend Darden and that I believed it would make me a truly principled leader. All the while, I didn’t really give two seconds of thought to the class and just assumed it wouldn’t be nearly as helpful as finance, marketing, strategy, etc. It wasn’t that I didn’t think the course was a good idea, I just didn’t think it would be very helpful. I envisioned a class where all the cases were about sacrificing profits in order to make the world a better place. Everyone would get on their soap boxes, talk about how they didn’t really care about shareholder value, and we would all feel better about what amazing people we were.

Well as you can probably figure out that hasn’t been the situation. Instead, our cases have been incredibly complex and usually the only possible outcomes involve somebody getting screwed over. The faculty is incredibly engaging and they challenge us to consider harsh realities. For the first time in business school, I’m taking a class that doesn’t try to make a decision easier, but rather much, much more difficult. In other classes, it’s generally simple: buy the company or don’t; release the product or shelve it; change the inventory system or keep the old one. But in ethics, I don’t have a freakin’ clue. I walk into class completely sure of what to do and leave convinced that there is no right thing to do.

Not that we aren’t given lots of tools to dissect and evaluate the decision. It’s just that the frameworks we use serve to ask questions that I normally wouldn’t think of. And that’s what I love about the class: the framework actually makes the case harder. Plus, I can use them in almost any other class to evaluate decisions more broadly than just what the numbers tell me to do (it was getting really boring to just think in terms of the numbers anyway). Decisions are no longer black and white; they involve a lot of gray area, just like they will be after business school.

This time last year, I would have guaranteed you I would be one and done when it came to Ethics classes. Now I’m planning to take as many as I can next year. Because anybody can run the analysis and know why the decision they are making is right. I want to know why the decision I’m making is wrong. 

If you would like to contact the author, he can be reached at david.a.miller4@gmail.com.

March

Today's a good day. I've never really liked January or February. They suck. It's cold out and I get SAD from not having enough sunlight (SAD = Seasonal Affective Disorder, but also having it does make me sad). Combine that with a relentless month and a half of recruiting and I got stuck in one really deep rut.

But that's finished now that it's March. Or at least I’m going to make sure I dig myself out. They say in Virginia that March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb but I've never really thought about it like. Everything gets better:

• Baseball is back (college and spring training)
• NCAA Basketball Tournaments start up
• I can wear sandals again
• The outdoor areas at bars open up
• Exercising outside instead of in the gym

Now add to that two weeks of Spring Break in Brazil (cha-ching!) and I’m feeling pretty damn good about this month. I’m a little disappointed in myself for being so worthless lately and I’m hoping to gain some momentum in March. It’s hard to believe I’m looking at a little more than two months left in my first year here so I’m hoping to enjoy it and not just survive it.

If you would like to contact the author, he can be reached at david.a.miller4@gmail.com.

Internship or Prom Date?

Do you remember that time in the spring of your senior year of high school when you were trying to figure out who you were going to Prom with? Whether you were a guy or girl, you were continually listening to the rumors floating through the halls, trying to figure out who was taken, who was available, or who might ask/say yes to you. If you were lucky enough, you were already in a relationship or you knew early on exactly who you wanted to take and they wanted to go with you. Boom, problem solved. If you were like some of my less-moralistic friends, you asked someone early so you had a guaranteed date, and then went looking for the girl you really wanted to take. And as word got out that somebody wanted to go with you, more and more people suddenly became interested. And if you were really screwed, all the people you thought you might go with got their own dates early on. At this point you settled for whatever you could get, asking everyone you could and saying yes the first invitation you got. Basically, you just hoped you could still get into the “cool” After Party and get drunk enough to salvage the night.

By now you’ve probably figured out (or at least you should have if you looked at the title), the entire process described above essentially applies to getting an MBA internship. Beginning this week and going on for the next month, Darden essentially turns into High School. First year students walk the Grounds all hours of the day and night begging (well, it hopefully hasn’t come to begging yet) for a job and companies try to figure out who they want to go with. And the rumors swirl about whose got jobs, final rounds, blah blah blah (by the way don’t get me wrong, I’m not above any of this, I’m totally involved). If you could hear the hallways, they would be silent. But if you listen more closely, there is plenty to hear. Just like High School Prom, it’s easy for some, exciting for others, challenging for many, and hopefully, just like a classic 80s John Hughes movies, everyone ends up happy. (Note: not everyone will end up happy).

Just to prove the awesomeness of the metaphor (is it a metaphor?), I will redo the first paragraph replacing types to high schoolers with the MBA students:

Do you remember that time in the winter of your first year of B-school when you were trying to figure out who you were going to intern with? Whether you were a guy or girl, you were continually listening to the rumors floating through the halls, trying to figure out what companies had already made offers, who hadn’t made decisions yet, or who might give you an offer. If you were lucky enough, you were already sure where you were going, either because you interviewed in the fall or you were going back to your previous job. Boom, problem solved. If you were like all of my classmates, you interviewed somewhere early so you had a guaranteed internship, and then went looking for the job you really wanted to take. And as word got out that somebody made you an offer, more and more companies suddenly became interested. And if you were really screwed, all the companies you thought you might get offers from took others instead. At this point you settled for whatever you could get, asking every company you could and saying yes the first offer you got. Basically, you just hoped you could still get into the “cool” jobs next year and get drunk enough to salvage that week’s TNDC.

Hmm, that worked pretty well. I should add as a caveat, however, that the above does not apply to those going after “nontraditional” internships or others that are recruiting off-grounds. These people are instead the high school kids that either dated a guy/girl that went to a different school or those hippy, hacky-sack-playing types that were too cool to actually go to Prom.

And I should add that amidst all this madness, we start classes and three cases a day again next week. Wowzer. In the words of Kristen Dunst, Bring It On.

If you would like to contact the author, he can be reached at david.a.miller4@gmail.com.

The Best of 2010

So I swore I would never become one of "those guys" and now look at me: I'm a deadbeat blogger. I swear that over the past month I have thought about writing many a posting. The only problem is that I like to write things that are fun. Or interesting. Or inspiring. I promise you that nothing I have done in the last 30+ days have been anywhere close to any of those things (well, except for the Santa Stumble, but that’s a topic for another forum).

Instead, the past month has been a barrage of networking, cover letters, job applications, exams, late nights, early mornings, and one awesomely bombed mock interview. I mean, it was bad. I’m not a complainer, so that’s not the point of writing this. No no, you see, I’m an excuse-maker. And I’m really good at it.

Therefore, here are my nine best things from 2010, in order and including Darden & non-Darden stuff.

9. Getting to have another “first day” of school
You might think it sounds dumb, but there is nothing quite like the first day of school for me. Then again, I am a nerdy loser. But nonetheless, nothing beats figuring out who is in your classes, meeting your professors, diving into the material, the whole atmosphere. Nothing was different about Darden, even if it is a much different environment and learning experience. At the end of the day it is still school. The only thing that could make it better would be if my mom could have packed me a brown bag lunch with a little note in it. Also, I haven’t really figured out who the cool kids are yet, but I know that I’m not one of them.

8. Vegas Trip
I would like to tell you more about this, but you know what they say about what happens in Vegas . . .

7. Back in the Valley for the Fall
I wrote about this earlier, but to reiterate, there is no more beautiful place to spend fall then in the Shenandoah Valley. From September to November the weather is perfect, the leaves are beautiful, and for the first time ever, I had D1 college football in my backyard. Even though the Cavs were just plain turrrrible, it was still an awesome experience.

6. Winning the Darden Brand Challenge


Given the brains of my fellow classmates, I really didn’t think I’d win anything academic at Darden except maybe Most Likely to be Voted Off an Island. But low and behold, my team won Darden’s annual brand challenge, a pretty big school event that pits first year students representing different brands in a competition to see who can create the most engaging, interesting, and insightful data survey and product exhibition. My team deserves more credit than I do, but I will still treasure my picture with Mr. Doughboy and will have the pink shirt for years to come.

5. Section E Darden Cup Domination
Another thing I wrote about earlier. Since the softball competition, however, Section E has rolled through several others and holds a comfortable lead going into the spring semester. Also, my play in flag football earned me the curious nicknames “Little Ball of Hate” and “Bret Michaels”. Not really if those are good, but considering my college nickname was Cupcake I’m going to take them as a complement.

4. Snowmageddon in D.C.
Well it was awesome for some reasons and horrible for others. But the back to back blizzards led to the following things: Three days of living in Glover Park (even though my apartment wasn’t there), Two awesome Georgetown basketball games at Verizon Center, One amazing 90s themed birthday party for myself, a 4:00a.m walk home from Logan Circle to Tenleytown (4+ miles), and exactly zero days off work (for me). Loved the snow, except that it didn’t go away until like April and D.C. gave up trying to plow it. Other than that, it was great.
   
3. Having myself as a roommate
If you’ve never lived alone, try it. It’s the best thing about moving to Charlottesville to me. I have people over when I feel like it, clean when I feel like it, watch whatever T.V. channel I feel like, pretty much do whatever I feel like. For those that know me, you know how incredible this is to me. I really hope I don’t have another roommate until I get married.

2. Doubling my # of Facebook Friends

You meet tons of people in business school. I mean the whole point of going to network. I never actually imagined that I would like so many of them though. It’s been the single most surprising thing about school and I’m really lucky to have met and connected with so many people.

1. Cruising Europe for 6 weeks


If you’re considering going back to school or even if you’re not, do some extended travelling at least once. I mean, 6 weeks wasn’t even that long, I wish I had done longer. But get out on the road, push your comfort zone and get a different experience. You will never regret it. The time I spent travelling this summer was definitely my best experience of 2010, maybe my life.


If you would like to contact the author, he can be reached at david.a.miller4@gmail.com.

Two Steps Up, One Step Back

I was talking with a recruiter last night about career development and he told me something interesting: Every time he has an amazing breakthrough, crushes a presentation, or excels in any other way which otherwise makes him love his job, he writes it down on a scrap of paper and places it in a jar in his office. At the same time, whenever he is grinding through a spreadsheet at 2am, making the 1,000th revision to the same slide deck, or otherwise doing something that makes him want to run into oncoming traffic, he also writes it down on a piece of paper and places it in a different jar. He tells me that whenever he goes back and looks in the jars, that the number of pieces of paper in the happy jar far outweighs the other one. And, he concluded, if that ever changes, then he’ll quit.

The point is this: in all phases of life, you need to have perspective. There are going to be huge highs where you think everything is set and life can’t get better. And there are moments where you are pretty sure no one has it worse in life than you. Well, if you thought either one of the above two sentences applies to you, you are wrong. Life is never going to be perfect but it should never totally suck either. You need to step back, take everything in, and figure out if you’re happy. And if you’re not, then don’t complain. Complainers are terrible. If you don’t like your life, then figure out why and change it. It’s as simple as that. But why should I care that you’re unhappy if you don’t intend to do something about it?

Right now, I’m happy. I can truly say that I’m happier now then at almost any point in my life. Yet, in business school, on any given day, I will have a trillion setbacks. And it will suck. But why should I complain or be in a crummy mood? At the end of the day I can look at my life, know how lucky I am and feel truly blessed.

For me it’s like two steps up, one step back. Make a good comment in class, get a nice thank you note from a recruiter, bomb a networking call. Do good on one test, do good on another, look like an idiot on the last one. Get invited to two company events, get left out of another. Sometimes I think I am literally the master of MBAs one day, a real “hitter” (for you wall streeters), and the next day I wonder if I can get a job tending bar or if I’m not the right “fit” for that either.

But at the end of the day, I can always look in my two jars and know that I am happy. What do your two jars look like?

If you would like to contact the author, he can be reached at david.a.miller4@gmail.com.

The Little Bears

When I first arrived at Darden three months ago, there was one thing I was more anxious about than any other aspect of B-school. It wasn’t my career prospects (although I probably should have been more nervous about this). It wasn’t the demanding class schedule and curriculum. And it definitely wasn’t the fact that I was going to be sans paycheck for the next two years. Nope, it was whether or not I would have a good Learning Team.

For those not familiar with Darden, Learning Team is kind of like a study group that you are assigned to at the beginning of your first year. I say “like” because in reality it is so much more. Essentially it’s an otherwise random group of six first-year students from different backgrounds, genders, and nationalities that spend two or three hours a night sitting around a table in a tiny room talking through the case for each and every class. Needless to say I had two questions about the people I would be hanging out with every night for the next year: 1) Will I like them? ; and 2) Will they like me? It really never crossed my mind that this could be a positive experience; I was just hoping it wouldn’t turn out to be miserable.

 

We like to spend most of time messing around, as you can see

Well, that is a long-forgotten memory. I’m going to make a bold statement: my Learning Team is the best in Darden’s first year class (I say “bold” because a lot of people would say the same thing about the LT, but they would be wrong). I don’t even think of my LT, which we named, by the way, The Little Bears, as a study group anymore. I could be a CPA with a background in marketing and investment banking and I would still show up to meet with them every night at 7pm sharp. Yes we crush cases all night and yes it is a lot of work but it never really feels like it. We always mix up the night with a healthy dose of jokes, gossip, and videos (like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmJcUlrkMNg ).  No one hesitates to stay late and help someone whose struggling with a particular case and everyone brings a unique perspective on each case.

In three months I’ve learned almost everything there is to know about them, including their families, relationships, future plans, and, most importantly, drink preferences. I’ve especially learned a lot of about the last point. You see, we are a social bunch of Little Bears (I know you’re making fun of me right now for referring to us as The Little Bears, but trust me, it’s awesome).  If there is a Darden social event, you can pretty much count on all six of us being there. Much like the rest of Darden, we work hard and play hard. We just happen to get after it a little harder, whether it is coordinating a sweet Breakfast Club costume ensemble for the 100 Case party (still waiting on the pics), taking on the dance floor at TNDC, or meeting on a Friday afternoon for LT “Happy Hour” where we can kill two birds with one stone (cases and drinks). This past Sunday is a great example: after a long weekend, “J”, who is originally from New Orleans, invited us over for homemade jambalaya and drinks so we didn’t have to meet at Darden to go through our cases.

I guess the thing that as surprised me most is how much (I think) my LT likes me. You see, I am a weird person. Like, sarcastic, corny, self-conscious, all-over-the-place, off-topic . . . just, weird. I was pretty worried that everyone would catch on and quickly write me off. Instead, my group knows I’m weird and still wants to hang out with me every night. And that, more than anything, is what helps get me through the long days.

Stay tuned for next week’s blog “Never Mind, They Didn’t Like Me and I Got Voted Off the Island”.

If you would like to contact the author, he can be reached at david.a.miller4@gmail.com.