A Non-Traditional Thanksgiving

Watching some football after our Thanksgiving dinner

Ever since I first went to college nine years ago, Thanksgiving has probably been my favorite holiday.  Whether I was in school or in the working world, that holiday weekend was typically the first time I would head back to NY after the summer and get to see my family and high school friends.  Good people, delicious food, and just the right amount of football is a pretty winning combination in my book.  So naturally after realizing that flights back east would be too expensive this weekend, I was a little sad that this would be the first Thanksgiving that I wouldn't spend in NY.

Since a lot of students aren't able to travel to see their family this weekend or are international students who have never experienced the holiday before, our section tried to match people up with local students to ensure that no one spent the day alone.  I didn't sign up for one of these matchups though since the act of returning to see friends and family in NY was what I enjoyed most about the holiday, so I wasn't interested in forcing some sort of Thanksgiving dinner with a random classmate's family just to say that I did something.  However, it turned out a few of my friends in the class didn't have plans either, so we made some tentative plans to celebrate together.

At least we used ground turkey in the tacos

It didn't get finalized until late this morning, but we managed to get enough people together to play some football.  6 of us (4 Anderson students, 1 roommate, and 1 Sig-O) started playing in Westwood Park around 1 and went for about an hour and a half before the first person had to leave for their Thanksgiving plans.  We played a little bit longer after he left before deciding to start moving on our own Thanksgiving plans.  Since we hadn't done any grocery shopping yet, we headed to the store to buy some food.  Realizing that we couldn't actually buy a whole turkey because of the time it would take to cook, we had to get a little creative.  We threw around a few ideas of meats to cook up but once we saw the ground turkey taco meat, we knew it was meant to be.  To help promote diversity on this American holiday, we picked up a few more taco ingredients, some mashed potatoes and gravy, Mexican beer, and some Canadian pumpkin pie.  We all came back to my apartment, cooked up some food, scarfed down our American-Mexican-Canadian feast, and then watched some football before calling it a night.  It was certainly the least traditional Thanksgiving I've ever had, but I'm glad I had some people to spend it with it and had a good time.

Too much turkey and football means its sleepy time

And I think its a law that you can't make a blog post on Thanksgiving without mentioning something that you're thankful for.  Skipping over some of the lifelong ones (family, friends, health, etc) and some of the obvious ones from the last year (getting into good schools, a safe 4,500 mile road trip, etc) I think I'll go with that I'm really thankful of how small my problems really are.  There is so much stuff going on in business school that stresses us out (and I probably allow some things to stress me more than I should), and so much pressure is put on us, but in the grand scheme of things most of these aren't really all that important.  For example, a week ago my single biggest worry was that I had to give my presentation for my Communications class.  Most people don't like oral presentations, but if my biggest problem at the time was that I had to stand up in front of 20 classmates and talk about college football for five minutes, I think things in my life are going pretty well.

Anyways, I'm still full, sore, and tired, so off to bed for me.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

If You Play With (gun)Fire, You're Gonna Get (wey)Burned

The usual reading material in my apartment

Don't worry, I realize that this title doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  Anyways, I don't think I've written too much about living arrangements yet, so it's time to do that.

My room (it's not quite as small as it looks in this picture)

This quarter I've been living in a 2-BR, 2-BA townhouse in Weyburn Terrace, a graduate housing complex a few blocks from UCLA's campus in Westwood.  I didn't have the highest expectations when I moved in, but the unit itself really isn't too bad.  It's definitely small (something around 800 sq ft according to the website),  but it feels a little bigger because of the townhouse setup (bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs, living/dining/kitchen area downstairs).  My unit was furnished with some pretty standard furniture, so that was one less thing to worry about when I moved in.

Part of Weyburn Terrace (my building is in the background)

The complex itself is pretty nice.  Mediterranean style housing (I might have completely made that up).  Some of the amenities include BBQ areas, laundry rooms, courtyards with seating and tables, and study lounges.  All utilities paid for.  Parking is extra and kinda expensive.  It's a little further to class than I anticipated (about 20 minute walk to the business school) although there is a free shuttle nearby (still takes 20 mins but saves a lot of walking).  Most of my classmates take that every day, but I prefer to walk except on days when the weather makes that unpleasant or if I have to get dressed up for something.

Living area, w/ stairs, storage area, and kitchen in background

Living area, taken from the stairs

I think I can add this living arrangement to the list of strange random roommate situations I've had in the past, a list that includes: freshman year Brad Rage; junior year with Lance, the high school boy wonder who drank an obsessive amount of Diet Coke and had other way more disturbing habits; and even senior year with Tim who only lasted a couple months in the apartment before dropping out of school.  I get along with new roommate Jeff (2nd year dental student) just fine, and he seems like a pretty normal, nice, easy-going guy during regular conversation, although we don't really hang out at all unless one of us is watching TV downstairs and the other one is eating dinner down there at the same time.  His forever memorable attribute besides the gun obsession (issues of Guns and Ammo and Handgun magazines are all over the apartment, along with plenty of gun paraphernalia) is the video game obsession (all of his video games seem to be gun-related too, btw).  Now I know plenty of people who love video games, but he really really loves them.  And he really really loves his sound system that's attached to the games, and he also really really loves to play online with other people so he's constantly yelling or singing or cackling into his headset, so volume is the main issue.  It doesn't help that Weyburn has really thin walls, but I was hearing gunshots and explosions for hours every day and night.  I've talked to him about it a few times but he seems to forget by the time the next day comes around and he's playing again at the same full volume.  I've had to knock on the wall or door at 1:30 am a few times to get him to turn it down so I could sleep.  I thought it was pretty bad, but it got worse when Call of Duty came out.  I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that he's played that game for 12+ hours every single day since it came out over a week and a half ago.  It doesn't matter what time I get home from class or what time of day it is.  If I'm in the apartment, if he's not asleep, I know with 100% certainty that I'm going to be hearing explosions while he yells commands to his army and complaints that his character keeps respawning in a bad spot.  How he hasn't flunked out of grad school yet I'm just not sure.

Well that's my rant.  In conclusion, Weyburn is nice and convenient, but I would have really preferred if I had gotten the studio apartment that I had applied for instead.

Surfs Up

Definitely not a picture of me

One of my biggest goals that I wanted to accomplish at some point during my stay in Los Angeles (in addition to the relatively less important items like getting a degree and a job) was to stand up on a large object made of foam in the Pacific Ocean.  I am happy to say I accomplished this when I went surfing last month.

Anderson has their own surf club who held a Beginners Surf Day at Manhattan Beach on a Saturday in October.  I figured there would be no better time to knock something off my to-do list, so I signed up and after picking up our rental equipment (wetsuit and a board) we were off to the beach.  A few of the 2nd years gave us about 1.5 minutes of instruction and then told us to get out in the water and like totally hang ten, dude.  It took a little while before I was able to push myself up at all (mostly in a kneeling position) while riding a wave, but over the course of about two hours I was able to get myself into an actual standing position riding small breaks toward the shore.  There were a bunch of dolphins swimming nearby us in the water too which made it extra gnarly.  The water was freezing, the weather was crummy, and I swallowed a lot of salt water, but it was a blast.  It's something I definitely would want to do again, but the rental fees seem expensive (~$45) so if I want to do it with any regularity I think I should purchase some cheap equipment.  I haven't really had a chance to look into it, so I haven't gotten back since, but hopefully I'll make a point of doing that soon. 

Hanging with Sponge Bob at Universal Studios

So that was the highlight of random activities I've done since I've been in LA.  I realize I haven't really described any other non-school related activities since orientation, so I might as well give a short, vague summary to fill in some blanks.  I've actually been using weekends more to relax because the weekdays are so hectic, and there's actually still a decent amount of work to do on weekends, but I've been having fun and seeing different people.  Scattered in the past couple months with classmates there have been various birthday parties, pool nights, bbqs, beach days, and Halloween festivities.  One of my old friends from Cambridge lives in Long Beach now, so I met up with her last weekend, which was especially nice since I hadn't seen her in more than a year.  Also, I've actually hung out with Reich a decent number of times.  A couple weekends ago we played some basketball (and somehow ended up in a 3-on-3 game with some drunk gang members in the middle of the afternoon), and yesterday we spent the day at Universal Studios.  We did their backstage tour first, and then rode the rides and watched most of the shows, pausing only to pose with various mascots. Good times all around. 

Halloween Party in West Hollywood

Business Students Need AA

Graduate students are always celebrating something

Since the last few posts have been rather dry (learning teams, classes and career resources), let's talk about something a little more wet.... like drinking.  Apparently it's a very important aspect of the business school experience.  So much so, that on UCLA's entire campus, the only place alcohol is allowed is in select portions of the business school.  I guess they figure with all the networking they tell us to do, that it would be a little easier if we weren't completely sober.

Most of the time when the school is providing the drinks it is directly for an evening networking event when recruiters are on campus.  The exception is Anderson Afternoons (Fun Fact: many years ago this event used to be called Beer Blast.  I think they changed the name to clean it up, but the initials AA still make it an interesting choice).  This weekly event begins at 4:30 on Thursdays, after most classes are done for the week (there are actually some Thursday evening and Friday electives, but they're rare b/c who would want to take those?).  Sometimes the event is sponsored by a company (so even this could be a recruiting event for some), but all students are invited to meet up in the North Lawn behind the business school to partake in food, kegs, and wine.  The food goes pretty quick, but there are usually still some drinks flowing a couple hours later.  It's a nice opportunity to catch up with students from other sections on events for the week, and start formulating some weekend plans.  Since the Anderson Afternoons during midterms week wasn't going to be attended too heavily, they let us celebrate on the Friday after our last exam.  It was only 11 am, so it featured brunch and a large quantity of mimosas.

The other regular, large scale, Anderson drinking event is the Lit Club on Wednesday nights at a random bar either in Westwood, Brentwood, or Santa Monica.  This isn't sponsored by the school, but all students are encouraged to attend.  Lit is short for "literature" (also cleverly slang for "not sober") and during each event there is a "reading."  Except the reading is actually a power point slide-show and narration roasting other students in the class, usually involving embarrassing photos pulled from Facebook.  The lesson is to avoid getting any compromising pictures taken of you, b/c you never know when you might become a victim of the Librarians.  It's all in good fun (I think), and a way to bring everyone together to have a laugh at yourselves and each other.  When I came to UCLA for A-Days (the admitted students weekend), they took us to a sample Lit Club event.  The event was hilarious and was one of the most memorable parts of that weekend.  I've kinda soured on it a bit since I've been here though, because its always so overcrowded which also makes it's tough to even hear or see the reading going on, and it hasn't been as funny lately anyway.  Also the reading usually goes from around 10:30-11, and I have 8 am classes on Thursdays.  But of course part of the draw is that you don't want to miss a hilarious show that everyone is talking about the next day (especially if you're in it).  These are the type of decisions that make business school so tough.

Career Resources, and How I Became the Director of Something

This is a picture of UCLA students wearing suits.  I don't know who they are, but they look pretty important.  Perhaps one day I'll be in an important looking group photo wearing a suit.

Classes really are just one part of the total equation at business school.  The job search often seems to be the top priority, both from students' perspectives and from faculty's emphasis.  It seemed a little weird to already be thinking about summer internships in September, and although they don't want us applying for jobs quite yet, career preparation started almost immediately which has been one of the toughest adjustments this quarter, but Anderson does seem to do a pretty good job at least letting us know our options, providing avenues to increase career knowledge, and setting up a lot of internal support.  Here's an exciting summary of career related stuff on campus.

One of the first groups we join is an Anderson Career Team (ACT Team).  These are groups of students interested in similar career verticals, who are coached by a couple 2nd year students who just completed their summer internships in that field.  During the two meetings I've had in my Investment Management (IM, for short) ACT group so far, we've discussed events going on in the markets and evaluated some of the biggest investment firms in the area, and our ACT coaches have given some tips on giving stock pitches (an important part of IM interviewing).  I've heard past students say these groups are really helpful, so I'm looking forward to seeing what we get out of it.

The Parker Career Management Center (CMC) is the main source of career related goodness on campus.  They provide career counselors appointments, career workshops and events, but probably most importantly, their website.  In addition to its robust student, industry, and alumni databases, there are calendars on the site of all companies coming on campus with descriptions and deadlines, and job postings for off campus recruiting too.

Every day after classes end there are usually a ton of career-related events going on.  These include professional club meetings, networking events, career workshops, guest speakers, and company presentations.  The hallways are usually a sea of people in the hallways dressed to the nine's getting ready to collect business cards or have their resume ripped to shreds by a career counselor.  I'll admit I probably haven't taken advantage of as many of these activities as I should, but that's mostly just because networking is so darn scary.

I did have one big accomplishment so far though, which is landing the title of "Director of Investment Management" for the Investment Finance Association (IFA) at Anderson.  Although Investment Management is only a relatively small vertical, the IFA is the largest club at the school, and I (along with the other 1st year director) will be responsible for pretty much all investment management-related campus activities, including bringing companies to campus, and setting up training or workshops.  Our big event is the IM Career Night in January, where we need to bring in guest speakers and a lot of alumni and other professionals in the industry to campus for a night of networking.  Most investment management firms don't really recruit on campus (because they usually are smaller and don't have a set recruiting schedule), which makes this event all the more important for people looking to get into the field. It sounds like it will be a lot of work, but it should be pretty rewarding, and it'll give me a head start on networking with alumni and other professionals by having to contact these people early.  And the school has certainly been pushing the buzzwords "leadership" and "networking" on us hardcore so far, so at least I've notched that leadership position early.  Now I just need to work on those networking skills.

I think that's a long enough overview for now of what kind of career resources the school has for us.  Hopefully in the next career update I'll have some exciting stories as I blaze down the recruiting trail.

The First 5 Weeks of Classes

Not the most interesting picture of UCLA campus, but I really liked the sky in this one.

I'm exactly halfway through the Fall Quarter so now that I'm done with midterms, it's a time for a recap.  I'll start with the boring academic stuff, since this is school we're talking about. 

Classes have been alright so far.  They definitely feel a lot more interactive than what I remember from undergrad, but I'll admit that I've been a little disappointed with the professors in the first batch of core classes.  Our Leadership Foundations professor in orientation set the bar real high so there was a noticeable drop off once the Fall Quarter began.  Hopefully the better instructors are hiding out in elective courses.  Our accounting professor makes things more confusing by talking and is kinda a jerk.  Our econ professor is a 20 something Brazilian guy, is probably my favorite because he's hilarious, but he's not really that good at explaining things.  Our marketing professor is a nice older woman who agrees with everything everyone says and since her class is almost entirely discussion based, I honestly feel like I haven't learned anything from her this quarter.  Our stats professor is actually pretty good, but its a pretty dry class.  We also have a communications class and a career class once a week each.  The comm professor actually seems really good, but that class scares me because he wants us to, like, talk in front of people.

The workload has certainly been keeping us busy, as I alluded to in the last post.  However, I think since I took business classes as an undergrad and had studied for CFA tests over the past few years that I have a bit of an advantage this quarter over students who are completely new to the subjects, have language barriers, or have not taken an exam in 5+ years.  Midterms definitely led to a long, tiring week, but I didn't find myself stressing out as much as a lot of other students, and my first couple grades that came in were pretty good. 

Although people found a lot of the exams more difficult than expected, the one test that had everyone talking afterward was the marketing final (it's only a 2-credit, 5-week class which is why we had a final, not a midterm, last week).  The class had been case based, and it was widely assumed that we would receive a new case for the final and have to prepare a write-up like we did for previous cases.  To make a long, not that interesting, story short, we were instead given the case that we were supposed to have read for homework two nights before.  Although this might seem like a gift, especially since it was an open-book, open-note test, we weren't told to bring our old cases or case notes with us to the exam.  Some people did, and already had extensive notes and calculations or summaries written up already.  Others didn't bring the case and had to wait for the professor to print off additional copies (which cut into exam time) and had to basically re-read (or read for the first time) the entire 30 page document before starting their exam.  Either way, people were pretty upset because it seemed to put way too much emphasis (45% of the course grade) basically on one homework reading which had been assigned while all other classes were having their midterms, and people started off the final with a very unlevel playing field.  (For full disclosure: I didn't bring the case or notes with me, spent an hour of exam time just reading it, and didn't create any suggested exhibits to support my write-up because of lack of time.  I'm not overly concerned about my grade though because the majority of people seemed to be in the same boat as me.)

And a final academic update, post-midterms: Our intro finance class started this week to replace the marketing time slot.  The professor actually seemed really awesome (he's head of the dept, I saw him interviewed on CNN the other day, etc).  I found out though that because I've passed the CFA I can automatically waive the course and since it's only a 2 credit course I don't have to replace the credits to graduate.  So rather than hearing the intro finance material for the hundredth time, I decided to drop the class after the first day.  And now my Mondays and Wednesdays consist of one class, starting at 12:45.  I'm going to try my best not to sleep in and be productive on those mornings, but we'll see how that goes, starting tomorrow.

UCLA campus