Sunday, March 11, 2012

New Year, New Semester, New Job!

First off, I want to say congratulations to everyone admitted into the 2014 class!! Receiving the good news about getting into LGO is one of my most memorable moments and I'm so excited for everyone who got to experience that this past week. 

It's been a while since I've posted so I'll try to recap what's been going on since my last entry.

Internship Wrap Up and Job Update:
My final internship presentations were well received by the working groups I was a part of at Intel.    Overall, the experience was a great one due to the topics previously mentioned in a few of my blog posts (networking and Shanghai) as well as having such a supportive manager and supervisor and learning so much from my working groups and everyone else I had the chance to talk to.

It ended on an especially good note because I was invited to return to Intel as a part of the ALP Rotation Program.  After learning about the program and talking to several people in ALP, I knew it was a great fit for me and would be a wonderful career growth opportunity.  I wanted to do Product Management post grad school, and through this program I will not only have a chance to try out a PM role but will also get to explore other functions and groups before deciding where I want to be placed at the end of the two years.  I started interviewing for a couple of positions at other companies and at a certain point decided to forego additional interviews because even though the opportunities elsewhere would have also been great ones, I knew ALP not only was a good fit but was also in the ideal location for me as well as a place I had already started building a network.  Because I am changing industries, I liked the flexibility of trying out a few rotations before my final placement.  I also liked the idea of going through the program with a cohort of MBAs from other schools who I could also learn from and get to know.

In addition to being excited about the program itself, it was also really great to accept this offer because when I first got into LGO, I was presented with a very generous fellowship sponsored by Intel called the Robert Noyce Scholarship.  This scholarship wasn't binding so it's a great feeling knowing that I wanted to work for Intel anyway and that I'll have the opportunity to give back to a company that has helped me out in so many ways.      

Spring Semester So Far:   
Spring semester has been a lot of fun!  I somehow ended up with only having classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the first half of the semester and have been taking advantage of my remaining time in the northeast by traveling almost every weekend.  Our last big milestone in LGO is the thesis we have to write based on our internship projects so I've been largely devoting my Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to thesis writing.  Aside from that, I've been catching up with friends and attending as many school events as possible.
Mediterranean Penguins Dinner!

Leo, me, and Limor at the Israeli C-Function, Purim Carnival
I've also been doing a lot of baking this semester and had some fun with leftover chocolate chip cookie batter I had. :)


Upcoming Events:
The semester is almost half way over but there's plenty to look forward to in the second half.  I'm going on the Korea Trek during Spring Break with sixty other Sloanies for a little over a week.  I studied abroad in Korea in 2005 and haven't been back since.  I was a bit torn on deciding to go because b-school provides so many opportunities to travel to new places but since I haven't visited for so long and the roster included a lot of friends, I knew it would be a great time.  I'm also looking forward to Sloan's annual British Virgin Islands trip at the end of May.  It's a trip where all of the second years sail around BVI for a week and celebrate the end of school.  In addition to those two trips, I'm also in the process of planning a trip over Patriot's Day Weekend (a 4 day weekend in mid-April).  The rest of the semester should be a lot of fun and I'll be sure to write about my experiences rounding out my time as an LGO.