Everyone could use a Bob in their life

As I mentioned in my last post, there are tons of ways to go about deciding what’s best for you. One guy who has been invaluable to me in my decision making process is my friend Bob from the gym.

Bob is about 50 something. He’s the local head of a foreign marketing company in Tokyo. One of the most down to earth people you’ll ever meet. We run into each other in the gym once or twice a week.

When I met the Director of Admissions of Smith for dinner in early February, I wasn’t sure what to wear as it was a Friday night and I wanted to be able to go out afterwards. Plus it was the first time to go to a dinner with such a person, so I figured why not ask Bob. He seems to know his stuff. Bob said to wear a blazer, dress shirt and that I could go with jeans as long as they were nice. I went with that recommendation and it seemed like it was okay. My offer wasn’t rescinded at least.

Turns out Bob went to Harvard to get his MBA. You would never know that by the way he carries himself, at least if you’ve met someone else from that b-school. Since then he’s given me tons of advice regarding my search. The day of the dinner he gave me some great questions to ask and just a few days ago he told me why Marketing was such a popular MBA concentration (you’re basically not pigeon-holed as much as with other concentrations). Bob also had a son that went to USC so he knows a little about moving to the area like don’t register your car in California. The insurance premiums are crazy expensive. He also happens to know the person in Tokyo handling alumni relations for USC so hopefully I’ll get a chance to get introduced.

This week has been quite busy and will continue to be until the end of the week. I started a temp job at a company trying to create software that helps inexperienced investors currency trade. My job is to research similar companies in the US and gauge interest in potential partnerships.

The director of the MBA program I applied to at the University of Hawaii is also in town. I met with him for lunch today. He’s an Economics professor although he only teaches MBA students. Very nice, smart man. We met for lunch and I asked him as many questions as I could in the short time we had. I am scheduled to attend the program’s graduation ceremony in Tokyo tomorrow before returning to the night shift at work.

On top of that my sister and fiancé are in town. I went from unemployed to super busy in a span of a few days. Not complaining though. If you couldn’t tell, I am a happy boy.

Oh, and one last thing. Here are the 2010 grad school rankings from US News.

Cost doesn't matter

Probably the best advice I’ve received thus far came from the Foster MBA Admitted Student newsletter. Ironically, it probably pushed me away from their program. In the newsletter, Dan Poston, Assistant Dean for Masters Programs at UW says:

“Cost doesn’t matter. How can I say such a thing? Because I firmly believe that a free ride to ‘Anytown U’ cannot possibly match the value of a top MBA program, even if you must borrow every cent of the tuition. If a degree from School A leads to exactly the job you want and a degree from School B does not, does that $20,000 scholarship from School B still look like a good deal?”

There are two types of people that go to business school. The first are people that go to improve their skills so they can be better at their job now. The other group are career changers. Regardless of what category you fall under, you need your investment to lead you to the job you want. Even if you are getting a free ride, you are investing two years of your life in your 20s or 30s.

I fall under both categories. I worked in Financial Communications and Investor Relations consulting where I helped companies from different secotrs/industries/countries tailor their communications geared toward their investors. My goal is to do the same type of work in Japan, but in-house (i.e. for one company as opposed to clients). It is completely possible that I change my mind while in school, but this is what I would like to do at the moment.

There are two ways to look for a job in b-school: via on-campus recruiting or networking/finding one yourself. Unless you’re Harvard, Stanford, or Wharton, most companies that recruit on-campus are companies that are based in the same geographical area as the school. For example, 75% of students in Smith’s Full-time MBA program that graduated in 2008 chose jobs in the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast region, while 70% of the same class at USC/Marshall’s program stayed on the West Coast to work.

Not many companies recruit for their in-house investor relations positions. They are usually filled internally or handpicked from investment banks that helped the company raise capital. Even if they do recruit for them, they aren’t going to business school campuses. There just aren’t enough positions for that. What this means is that my job search is going to be done by me, myself, and I as I would like to come back to Japan when I finish, and the job I want falls into a niche category.

So if I take cost out of the equation, what factors do I need to look at when choosing a school? I need a school with a big international alumni network. It also needs to have a good ranking as Japanese people really care about rankings (although American people do too). The school’s career services center also has to have a good record of placing graduates in international jobs. As mentioned earlier, there will be no recruiting for the job I want at any of the schools I got into. However, they must be able to provide as much assistance where necessary.

I am currently in at 3 schools – Maryland, USC, and UW. Given the criteria mentioned above, USC/Marshall is the best fit. USC has the largest population of foreign alumni of any university in the U.S. Its ranking is about the same as Maryland’s in most polls, sometimes better sometimes worse. A greater percentage of its graduates work abroad than the other schools I am considering. Marshall also has a greater focus on international business. They are the first business school to require its students to travel abroad.

So as it stands at the moment, I’m going to LA and pretty excited about it. I do have an interview with Hawaii this week and do not have to make my final decision on USC until next month, but Maryland’s $1,000 non-refundable deposit is due on April 8 and I do not have any plans to pay it, nor do I plan on asking them for an extension since I already asked them one to make it April 8.

I am quite relieved that the whole process is almost over, but I do have a lot of things to worry about going forward. Mainly where I’m going to live, how I am going to get a car, etc. Luckily, this isn’t the first time I am moving to a big city. At least I can speak the local language there! I also have a good amount of friends in LA (that I would hide and would hide me!) to help me out with the process.

How do you measure success?

The Beers for Books event at IBEX was a huge success. Thank you to everyone that helped out especially Romano, Gary B, and the pole dancers that worked for free. We raised almost 30,000 JPY for Room to Read. Special thanks to my boy JG whose been one of my closest friends in Japan through thick and thin. From time to time we piss each other off, but after all these years we’re still friends.

One of the things I am doing to evaluate the schools I am applying to is reading student blogs. I came across an entry from one of the students at Texas. It was about their opportunity to meet superstar investor Warren Buffet. Here is an interesting excerpt from the entry:

“There was one particular story that Warren told that really had an impact on me. He told a story about an old woman who befriended him several years ago who took a while to open up to him. She had escaped the Holocaust, but before coming to the United States and settling in Omaha, she had been in a concentration camp in Auschwitz with her sister. Unfortunately, her sister didn’t make it out alive, but this woman had been one of the lucky ones. As Warren told us this story, he described how at some point the woman had said to him, ‘I’m sorry I have been slow to open up. It is hard for me to get close to people, because when I evaluate my relationships with them, I always ask myself, ‘Would they hide me?’’ In jest, he remarked that there were several people in his life whose cover he’d intentionally blow (”HE’S IN THE ATTIC!!”)….But Warren went on to equate this to how you measure success…not by how much money you have, or how many letters are after your name. Warren paused (for emphasis), and asked us simply, ‘How many people would hide you?’”

The rest of the entry can be found here, but I found it a pretty interesting way to evaluate success. I never thought about it, but I have close to 1,000 friends on facebook and I wonder how many would hide me. JG and DC def would. I’d hide them in a heartbeat too.

No word from Texas. I read the fine print on their admissions website and it said 10-13 weeks after submitting my application online. We just entered the 10th week, so I’m sure that’s what admissions will tell me if I send them an e-mail asking them what’s up with my application. Question is: should I do it anyway? I don’t know the etiquette for asking admissions about where your application is when the waiting period hasn’t ended yet. Does it hurt my chances? I think I’ll give it until the end of this week and if I don’t hear back by then, I’ll give them a little nudge.

Why I like Japan

I’ve been back in Tokyo since last Friday. I didn’t think I was jet lagged but I slept all day on Monday and was up all night on Monday night. Last night I barely slept as well. We’ll see how today goes.

At my USC admissions interview, I was asked why I like Japan. I guess I don’t really talk about it that much, but I have certainly thought of it and was ready to answer the question. What I like best is how its traditional culture, for the most part, coexists in harmony with its modern culture. Just taking a walk outside you will see signs of westernization within seconds. There are McDonald’s and Starbucks everywhere but isn’t that for the better? LOL. What I mean though is how Japanese people still spend time with their families over the New Year’s holidays, participate in tea ceremonies, visit temples, etc. They certainly do non-Japanese things, but what I like is how the traditional stuff is always available to do, and people freely choose to do them.

No good updates at the moment. UT says that I should hear back from them 4-6 weeks after my interview. The 6 weeks will end this Friday, Texas time. I should hear back from USC on April 1. It’s all a waiting game. And annoying one at that. So at the moment I am filling out financial aid forms and reading books. I bought Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and two books by Malcolm Gladwell. Haven’t made much progress on any of them.

Finally, just a reminder that my last bartending gig is this weekend. Proceeds will be going to the Beer for Books charity. Details below. Please stop by if you’re free!

Beer for Books - Cocktails & Dreams finale
When: Sunday, March 21 at 8pm
Location: IBEX Roppongi - ARIES BLD 4F, 3-15-24, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Map
Entertainment: Live DJ spinning hip-hop and R&B, pole dancers
Cost: FREE
Phone: 03-3746-1075

Mid-trip update (WARNING: This post is more boring than usual)

I am finally over the jet lag. It took me a few days but I’m on EST at the moment. Unfortunately I am flying to Seattle tomorrow so it’ll get messed up again. Hopefully it won’t be as difficult when I head back to Tokyo.

Yesterday I went to my third school in a week. It actually wouldn’t have been that bad except yesterday was an all day event. Besides listening to presentations I had to meet and greet dozens of my future classmates. There was a really random situation at lunch. The MC of the day sat down and asked me about my background. It turns out he went to the same undergrad institution as I did. He was a freshman when I was a senior and we had never seen each others faces until yesterday. One girl overheard our conversation and said her brother graduated the same year as me. Her brother was actually some guy I knew very well.

Business schools tend to all have the same marketing plan. They all talk about the world-class education you get but for the most part emphasize the experience working with your fellow classmates at your school. Whether or not they live up to that billing is for the candidate to decide.

When I went to Maryland/Smith’s admitted students day, I got that vibe. It felt like a cult, but in a good way. I had never seen so many people genuinely happy to be affiliated with an institution like that. Whether it was a company, school, or club. They did a great sell job and my interest in the school has certainly spiked. We also saw a professor teach a class. He did an unbelievable job putting the concepts in plain language and got us to work together to solve it.

I am not sure if I got the same feeling at USC. The other candidates I met during the visit did not impress me when I talked to them. Granted it could've been an off day. The student "ambassador" I met, however, was great. The guy was so into USC you would think they make him down a jug of USC kool-aid before he meets prospective students. He is the type of person I want to go to school with.

My visit with Texas was somewhat in between the USC and Maryland visits. The other candidates I met were really smart guys. The current student was also very informative and smart as well. This wasn’t a “welcome day”, it was just a campus visit so I didn’t get the same sell job I got at Maryland. I attended an “Energy Law” class which was interactive, but did have some animated students talking about nuclear power waste. Overall I got a good impression but wish I had the chance to attend one of their admitted students days.

Up next: University of Washington. They have a very small class – around 100 students. The other programs I am applying to have a significantly higher enrollment. The advantages of a small class is that you know everyone. The disadvantage is that you get less opportunity to network. I don’t mind that however, as I don’t really have a problem making those connections outside of school. Hope this will be a good visit.

Eating crabs w/ my boys from growing up. Then the Oscars tonight (sorry I couldn’t think of anything else to write). Should be a chill day.

REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK

I just got to LA this morning. Flew United. They ran out of beer so I tried to drink myself to sleep on wine but it didn’t really work out. It basically means I’ve been up since around 8am Monday morning Tokyo time. It is now noon on Monday… California time. You do the math.

I’ve been living in Japan a long time. Enough that I look right first when I cross the street. Almost got killed today because of that. Luckily I got to the Taco Bell in one piece. There is one about 1000 feet from my motel. And this is the first time I’ve been in a motel since I was a child. This place reminds me of the movie Monster with Charlize Theron. To make matters worse the chain lock on the door is broken. But even if I got it replaced I wouldn’t feel any safer since it was broken last time.

So I’m sitting in Taco Bell (my traditional post-flight meal) I am wolfing down a Chalupa and see two girls sit down. One of them had two tacos on a tray and her friend had 6 tacos on a tray. So I’m thinking to myself wow she can put down tacos like a champ. At which point I notice a car waiting in line for the drive-thru. A couple, the guy is driving. He’s got both hands on the wheel while his girlfriend is feeding him fries. So yeah if you’re following this story correctly, they bought fries and are now in line to get tacos as well. Yes, I am definitely back in the States.

I also had to tip a driver of a shared van that didn’t even put my bag in the car, then told me to pay him in cash after I already pre-paid via the internet.

I think this might be the right time to move back to the States as I am losing touch with what was once normal to me. My buddy DA says that I am going to be the first and only person in my class to drop out of business school to move back to Tokyo. I hope he’s not right lol. But living in Japan for the past 5 years has me convinced that Japanese people are the most normal people on Earth. That is a compliment.

My motel is less than a mile away from the USC campus. I am attending an information session, followed by a class visit and tour. Afterwards I will be interviewing with a “Senior Associate Director”. So far I feel like I have been doing well, or at least as good as I possibly can be at all my interviews. So I won’t change anything. Perhaps I will wear my glasses instead of contacts but that’s about as big as any change will get.

Staying here until Wednesday at which point I will move to Austin, Texas until Friday. Looking forward to going out on a Thursday night in a real college town. Hopefully I don’t end up in the gutter on 6^th street.

I am flying to DC/MD/VA on Friday for Smith/Maryland’s admitted students day on Saturday. Staying till Monday, at which point I will move on to Seattle for a visit to UW. Flying to LA on Wednesday then get on a plane Thursday that arrives in Tokyo on Friday. It’s a lot for 11 days, but pretty important towards my decision and I’m sure their decision about me. Hopefully the people at USC and Texas like what they see.

Leadership

I started reading Leadership by Rudy Giuliani. I have a lot of time on my hands these days and figured it would be a good read going into b-school.

The book is a pretty easy read. To put things in perspective – I NEVER read books. The last book I read was in 2002, and I pretty much read half of Leadership in a day. A lot of it has to do with how he handled the events and aftermath of 9/11. As I was in the city at the time, it is interesting to see how he balanced running the city and not letting his emotions get the best of him. Don’t get me wrong, it was a time where you should show your emotions, but a lot of people looked up to him and he was responsible for getting the city back to normal as quickly as possible. He did a great job in my opinion.

I agree with a lot of the things he says on leadership. For example, one of his principles is to “Always sweat the small stuff.” Basically, it is the manager’s responsibility to know what’s going on with the organization he is running. If he knows why his people is asking him for something, he won’t need them to explain why they need what they’re asking for every time need something. It’s also good to know why an organization does things a certain way. Not everyone will love every aspect of their job, but if they know how it fits into the big picture then it certainly makes it easier for them to bear doing the things they don’t like to do.

Got some good news yesterday – I got into University of Washington Foster School of Business. I guess the admissions director liked what she saw as I was not expecting to hear from them until the end of March. The early notification also bumped up my interest in Foster. Not to say I wasn’t interested (I did in fact apply there), but as I mentioned in my last post - it's nice to feel wanted. After I received word I did a lot of research on living in Seattle. It sounds like a fun town.

So far here’s the tally:

Maryland – IN
Foster – IN
Texas/McCombs – Anxiously waiting to hear from them on a final decision. Should be any day now.
USC – Interview and campus visit on March 2
Hawaii – They never received my transcript so I had to resend it. This was delayed about a week due to the Northeastern snowstorm. Hopefully they received it.
Duke – 95% chance I am getting flat out rejected. No waitlist no nothing.

I will be in the states March 1-11 looking at schools - LA, Austin, College Park, Seattle and back to LA in that order. I didn’t plan on going back again before school started but I anticipate my decision being harder than I initially thought. This trip should make it a little easier.

One last thing, James and I will be doing my last bartending gig at IBEX on Sunday, March 21. Proceeds going to BEER FOR BOOKS charity. Details below. Please stop by. It’s for the KIDS!

Event page here.

When: Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 8:00pm
Where: IBEX Roppongi - ARIES BLD 4F, 3-15-24, Roppongi, Minato-ku
Cost: FREE, 100 yen of each drink will go to Beer for Books charity
Entertainment: DJ spinning R&B/Hip-hop, pole dancers, stud bartenders

Map: http://bit.ly/cpOH9k