MediaTech Trek: Silicon Valley

A few others have already blogged about our LGO Domestic Plant Trek so I thought I'd write about another trek I went on in the first week of January - the MediaTech Trek.  Before I do though, I thought it would be worth sharing at least one picture from the Plant Trek:

Don checking out a Tesla at the Detroit Auto Show!

Outside one of the Google buildings

I was able to go on the MediaTech trek because I am a member of the Sloan MediaTech club and also because the Domestic Plant Trek started on the second week of January.  There were about 25-30 of us on the trek, and the companies we visited in Silicon Valley included: Intel, Zynga, Charles Schwab, Cisco, Google, Facebook, VMware, eBay, and LinkedIn.  It was great to get more of the Sloan perspective of a few of our partner companies, as well as learn about some companies and their cultures that were more on the startup end of their life cycle.  It was also very interesting to visit all of these companies and to hear about the opportunities available to MBA students in the tech space.  Operations roles were always presented as potential career tracks we could follow, but other positions in product management, strategy, and business development to name a few were well represented as well.

Me and Limor at Facebook

For a few of our visits, we integrated with some of the Sloan E&I folks who were also out in Silicon Valley for their E&I trek.  Also, on one of the nights, we went to an MIT Sloan alum reception that was held at the Computer History Museum (go figure) in Mountain View so we got to see the rest of the E&I group, some of the alums who spoke at the companies we visited, and other alums who were from the area.  Overall, I had a great time visiting the companies, seeing Silicon Valley for the first time, and hanging out with MediaTech people on this trek.  The Silicon Valley portion of the trek was from January 3 - 5th.  Most of the group went on to visit Seattle for the remainder of the week, but I went back to Boston to tie up loose ends for plant trek and to repack for weather ranging from 20 degrees to 85 degrees, which was definitely tricky.  After having a few weeks off in December, things ramped up pretty quickly with all of the treks, InternshipFest, and InterviewFest.

By the way, good luck to all of those who interviewed!!          

Looking Back on the Fall Semester

Even though it's already February, Happy New Year!  Actually, I guess it's appropriate to say according to the Lunar Calendar.  :)

Before posting on more recent events, I wanted to blog my two cents on the fall semester.  As you might have already read in several of the other bloggers' posts, there was a definite contrast between the summer and fall semester both socially and academically.  A lot of applicants I spoke to over the semester asked how it's possible that we earn two degrees in two years.  I will admit that it's not a walk in the park.  Although the perspectives vary from LGO to LGO, there are definitely challenges faced and certain trade-offs (both good and bad) that need to be balanced in this program.       

Time was easily my biggest constraint in the fall.  Between all of the classes I was taking and clubs and committees I was involved in, I definitely felt like I was spreading myself thin.  For the most part, although I didn't do the greatest job in branching out, I'm happy with the relationships I've built through Sloan (i.e. my core team and Marketlab team) so far.  Below is a picture of my core team.  I only ended up being in three classes with them, but overall, I had a positive experience working in such a diverse team.  Between the seven of us, we represented San Diego, NY, Boston, Washington (state), Indonesia, Korea, and Brazil!

Mediterranean Penguins: Steve, Chris, Caesar, me, Luiz, Janet, and Giuliana