The Epilogue: Eric Moves From LA

Woodland Hills, California

As most have you have probably already heard, my long search for a post-MBA job has finally come to an end.  It was a journey that essentially began when I first started at Anderson almost two full years ago, and that finally culminated in an offer in late July.  I'm just over one full week into the new job, and although I think it's a little too early to give a fair evaluation I think it'll be interesting and a good situation for me. The quick summary is that I will be working as a Financial Analyst for a real estate investment firm called Alliant Asset Management, working on financial models to evaluate their prospective investments.  It's a bit of a shift  from the stock market-focused jobs that I had mainly been recruiting for, but its still investment related, and with my rising interest in real estate over the past few months, I'm happy with my last minute industry change. Since I was out of town for the last couple weeks of July, I didn't officially accept the offer until early August, but my transition since that point has been very abrupt.  In just a span of a couple days, I changed my apartment, city, car, and employment status.

My new cube is in one of those buildings

Keeping consistent with my past efforts to minimize commute time (I walked to the office for much of my tenure at Cambridge), I decided to move from the consistently beautiful weather of West LA to the more desert-like life in the Valley. In the midst of a heat wave, the temperatures have been between 100-110 almost every day I've been in Woodland Hills so far.  However, aside from the summer heat, it seems to be a lovely place to live. The weather starting in the fall should be really nice, and I'm looking forward to exploring the many hiking trails in the nearby mountains. Despite being "in the Valley", it doesn't feel any less like a city than the sprawled out Los Angeles, and the building I work in would actually be among the tallest buildings in LA. All types of shopping needs are a short walk or drive away from my apartment and office, and most areas of LA itself can be reached in a 30-45 minute drive.

Living room of my new apartment

After visiting numerous properties, I ended up signing a lease at the Archstone Warner Center, about a mile and a half north of my office.  Needless to say, my new apartment is a major upgrade over my previous one. My old home was falling apart from age, was noisy, with painfully inadequate temperature control, and lots of Mexican neighbors. My new apartment was constructed only a couple years ago, is almost eerily quiet, with central air, and lots of Mexican neighbors. There is also an awesome pool area with a hot tub and fire pit, a well equipped gym, gated parking, plus my very own balcony and washer/drier/dishwasher.  And making it even better, my new rent is lower than the current rate of my old apartment.

The final major change this month was when I finally said goodbye to the 97 Civic that has served the Schaaf family so well for over 15 years.  Although it was a bittersweet moment, I am certainly happy with the exchange.  I decided to go with a 2011 Infiniti G37, and among its many features, my favorite is that the back bumper and right mirror are still attached.  (I have a few more pictures of the apartment, office, and car on my Picasa album)

The final picture ever taken of the car that helped Eric Move To LA

With so many sudden changes I briefly considered starting up a new website, eric-moves-to-woodland-hills.blogspot.com, to chronicle the start of this next chapter in my life, but quickly dismissed that as silly talk caused by heat exhaustion.  As I settle into a regular work schedule, with a long time to go before I accrue any serious vacation time, I know I won't have enough writing material to compare with my MBA journey or some of the more exotic trips I took over the past two years.  Although I'm excited about all these new changes, that does necessarily make for an overly interesting read.  I will probably still make an occasional update if something warrants it, but let's consider this the unofficial end to my blog. I would now like to take a minute to thank all five of my readers for their continued support, the heavy use of the comments section of my website, and the home cooked meals when I came back east to visit. I couldn't have done it without you all.  Hugs and kisses.

Business School Wrap-Up

Graduation Day with Mom and Dad

Although it's been official for several weeks, I'm proud that I can now say I have an MBA from UCLA Anderson.  I've been wanting to do a final wrap-up post of my reflection on the overall business school experience for awhile, but also have been putting it off because I'm still looking for a job, and think I can only grade my business school experience as "Incomplete" right now.

There are a lot of great things that can be obtained from attending a full-time MBA program, but for everyone the main goal is career improvement.  Many students need the MBA to completely switch career tracks.  Others go to business school to help them build the network and skills to turn their business idea into a fully functioning start-up company.  For others (such as myself) it is a little subtler, and a way of jump-starting a stagnating career by making themselves more marketable and increasing their movement within their current industry.  So from a purely financial/career standpoint, I can't yet evaluate whether the MBA experience was worth it or not. If next week (or next month, or even sometime next winter) I land an awesome job that I really enjoy, that pays well, and that really increases my long-term career prospects, then it'll be easy to say business school, and specifically Anderson, was a great decision. On the other hand, it's very possible that I'll continue to contribute to the poor US employment numbers for a while longer, or end up taking a less than ideal job just to start working again.  In that case, it might be tougher to justify the two years of forgone salary, excessively high tuition and other student expenses, all of the time and energy spent, and the mounting levels of debt I was so willing to take on.

However, I tend to be an optimist by nature, so I'm pretty sure that in the grand scheme of things I'll look back on the whole Anderson decision as very positive and worthwhile.  Even if the initial job situation doesn't work out as ideally as I may have wanted, there are so many other intangible aspects to business school, and so many experiences that I wouldn't have had without it, that I think the positives will heavily outweigh the expenses, and the time and effort of getting the degree.  Since I'm in reflective mode, I wanted to highlight several of the ones that really stood out:

Cross Country Road Trip: Ah, this was where this whole blog and this whole business school adventure began way back in August 2010.  4,700 miles traveled through 15 states over 20 days.  Every now and then I look back at my old blog posts or pictures (I only saved my favorite 1,049 from this trip on my hard drive) and get very nostalgic. I still consider this one of my most personally rewarding trips.  As I wrote in a blog after the trip:  I think contributing to this is that I planned almost the entire thing myself, the activities and sites were so varied, there was a sense of accomplishment (the distance involved, the planning required, the strenuousness of the hikes, etc) and that it happened during a major transition point in my life.  I'd really love to do another large road trip some day.  So many places left to explore.

Spring Break in Ghana: The road trip may have been my most rewarding trip, but ten days in Ghana may always be the most memorable and unique trip of my life.  It really opened my eyes to a part of the world and life that I had never seen or realistically thought of before.  One-part MBA business project, and one-part sightseeing tour, it was thoroughly enjoyable and felt like we were doing something really productive.

Living in LA:  One thing that attracted me to choosing UCLA over Maryland or UNC (the other MBA programs I got into) was that I would get to live in LA and experience the west coast for the first time.  I had no idea if I would ever have that opportunity again, and it was a chance I didn't want to pass up.  I think now I can agree with a lot of people and say that I have a love/hate relationship with Los Angeles.  As an active, outdoorsy person, the year round beautiful weather and the proximity to both the beach and the mountains are huge pluses for me.  Surfing is fun.  I also think there is more of a laid-back attitude in SoCal that fits my personality better than on the east coast.  However, I also prefer to walk than to drive, and I hate wasting time sitting in traffic and looking for parking, but that's unavoidable out here.  My stance has been that I'd love to remain in LA a little bit longer, because I feel that I haven't fully experienced the city yet, and it would be nice to experience the city while also getting a paycheck every couple of weeks.

I met Warren Buffet:  That was cool.  And I have a picture to prove it.

Expanding Network:  I've often said that the student body at Anderson is easily the smartest, most successful, hardest working group of individuals I've ever been around before.  Although I may not have forged as many close relationships as I initially thought I may, the number of acquaintances and potential business contacts that I have has significantly multiplied in two years, spanning the entire globe.  I got to know a lot of great people here that I hope to keep in touch with for years to come.

Improving My Soft Skills: One thing I've recently learned is that personal improvements are a lot more subtle than expected.  For example, I seemed to think that attending business school with its nonstop emphasis on networking, leadership, group work, and class participation would transform me from an introvert to a A-type personality.  Two years later, when people meet me for the first time they still think "really shy" and when they get to know me they may only upgrade the description to "kinda quiet."  That's who I am, and I realize now that's never going to change, certainly not from a two-year masters program.  But that's not to say that I didn't improve in a lot of these "soft skill" areas.  I think my communication and presentation skills are much improved  I successfully led teams organizing numerous events and activities such as career nights, alumni banquets, and Anderson's first ever national stock pitch competition. Especially evident in leading my consulting team for six months as the main client contact, I learned that I can play those roles when I need to, and I'm a lot more comfortable in these situations than I had been in the past.

It was Fun!  "Work hard, play hard" is such a cliche, but it really is true in this case. We all worked extremely hard during the duration of the MBA program, but when you put a group of 370 students, most of them in their mid to late 20s together, good times will be had.  Beach days, camping trips, bar crawls, sporting events, Casino Night, Halloween parties, Dis-O, turtle races, and tailgates are just a small sample of the organized Anderson events.  I spent much more time with Anderson students in non-Anderson events, usually just simple evenings hanging in friends' apartments or at bars, but also in bigger events such as the Sundance Festival trip, going skydiving, and driving race cars.  I can't imagine another time in the future  where I will know this large of a group of people to hang out with and do this many fun, varied activities again.

And, on a personal note: I've never been one to share much about deeply personal stuff, and certainly not on the internet, but a list of best aspects of my business school experience would be incomplete if I didn't at least mention it.  Obviously I met someone very special at Anderson and ultimately this alone could be reason to say going to b-school was worth every penny, no matter what happens with my job search. 
It's made the stress from school and recruiting over the last year much more manageable, and the times outside of school (such as my trip to Taiwan and our spring break California road trip) so much more special.

Like I said earlier, it's a little tough to fully evaluate the worth of the MBA experience, at least financially, until I get an offer and know where I'm heading next in life.  However, I still believe that the job search will sort itself out eventually, and after going through this list and thinking back on all the amazing adventures and other positive aspects of the last two years, its even tougher to think of it as being anything but a great experience.

Dis-O 2012

Strong Section A showing at Dis-O pool party

Saturday, June 9 - Monday, June 11

As mentioned in the last post, Dis-O (short for Dis-Orientation) is the annual final MBA party weekend before graduation day, and bookends Orientation, which started our MBA experience.  Most of the class of 370 graduating students had signed up for the package, which included two night stay at the Palms Resort and Casino, a club night at Haze, a Palms pool party, and a "white party" in a Fantasy Suite at the Palms.

Josephine Bruin made the trip to Vegas too

I was a little disappointed with our lodging, since the Palms is pretty far off the strip and isolated from the rest of Vegas.  The rooms and casino were nice, but they didn't seem to have any unique charm and were nothing special.  It was tough to get better accommodations, though, because the weekends was the same as the EDC festival (which brought in 200k attendees) and the Pacquiao-Bradley boxing match, hosted at MGM Resort on the strip.

Our first organized event actually was on the strip - a club night hosted by T-Paine at Haze in Aria.  I'm not a club person, but it also happened to be my birthday, so a constant supply of birthday drinks kept the evening entertaining.

If clubs are my least favorite aspect of Vegas, then my favorite has always been the pool parties, and this trip was no exception.  Our weekend package included entrance to the Palms Pool, multiple reserved cabanas, and unlimited beer, champagne, and juice.  With temperatures in the mid 90s and an ample supply of mimosas to sip on, this was my favorite part of the trip.  I spent about five hours relaxing in the sun, before it was time to head inside to eat and get ready for the last organized event of the trip.

White Party in the Sky Villa Fantasy Suite

For clarification, "The White Party" was not Anderson's attempt to end diversity after preaching its importance for two years straight.  Rather, it was an event where the only dress code was to wear all white. This Anderson-only event was hosted at the stunning Sky Villa Fantasy Suite in the Palms Resort, and amongst a long list of amenities included an outdoor jacuzzi pool overlooking the Strip, a glass elevator, and multiple open bars. The rent on that penthouse typically goes for $15,000-$20,000 a night. We had the penthouse booked through the whole night, and many people stayed until the sun came up over the strip.  With an early flight in the morning and being the old, 29-year old man that I am now, I was long in bed by that time.

This was my third Vegas trip since September, so I'm a little Vegas-ed out, but this was definitely a fun, memorable trip.  It was great to be able to spend time outside of LA with the majority of my graduating class before everyone goes their separate ways in a few weeks, and was a worthy final celebration after two intense years of school.

Spring Quarter Recap (Part 2)

At The Happiest Place on Earth, in Anaheim

Yesterday was my last day of classes.  I still have a take home final to finish, and a diploma to grab, but the MBA experience feels more or less done.  I've been feeling more nostalgic this past week every time I thought I had reached another "last" (last Anderson Afternoons, last overpriced coffee from Il Tram Cafe, last class presentation, etc).  Tomorrow I leave for a two day Vegas trip along with 250 other 2nd year students for one last full MBA class party.  Before we get to that, a quick look back at some of the non-class related highlights from the past quarter:

AnderProm:  The name is lame and it's not my top choice for a social event, but Anderson's spring formal was still a lot more enjoyable than high school prom.  It was hosted at the stylish Millennium Biltmore Hotel, home of several past Academy Award Ceremonies for the Oscars, and featured an open bar, a buffet, plus lots of dancing and photo booth opportunities.  One of the rare times I get to put on a suit without sweating through an interview or having a friend say "I do."

Brunch with Allen and the Reich's at Taste on Melrose

Out of Town Visitors: I had visits from Tara, Kolko, and Mark during the quarter which were all a lot of fun.  While Tara was in town I pulled out all the stops: a Runyon Canyon hike, a walk through Hollywood, dinner at the douchiest bar in LA, a standup comedy show with Tim "The Toolman" Taylor (aka Tim Allen), Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo, a self-led ghost hunt through Old Town San Diego, tours of UCLA/Westwood and the Santa Monica Pier/3rd Street Promenade, and of course, a meal at In N Out Burger.  Allen's visit was shorter but was highlighted by a day of brunch, a Reich Daydrinking Bar Crawl and a Clippers playoff game.  Mom and Dad also had a brief visit for one day last weekend, which featured a Father-Son Salmon Cookoff and a belated Mother's Day celebration. 

Tour de Strand: This annual Anderson bicycling bar crawl brought over 400 current and past students to a 16 mile stretch of beach towns near LA.  I had never used the beach bike path before (which I had always heard is a must-do LA activity, glad I finally got it in), and as you can imagine, it got more difficult for us with every bar we stopped at along the way. 

LA Racing Experience:  Shortly after going skydiving over the summer, I bought a LivingSocial deal to drive NASCAR quality race cars.  We didn't finally make our reservation until this quarter, but it was a really cool experience.  Four of us got to simultaneously race (and pass each other) around a half mile track getting up to speeds of 120 MPH. 

Other activities: UCLA Night at Dodgers Stadium (all you can eat food tickets!); a second Clippers playoff game; SIF Mixer/Roast; Cabaret Night; and a bunch of birthday celebrations

Spring Quarter Recap (Part 1)

This is what my school looks like

Time for an update!

We're already in Week 8 of the Spring Quarter, meaning there are only 2.5 weeks left of classes in my academic career.  The pace has been a lot better this quarter (meaning slower), since the AMR Consulting project is over and I'm only take three standard classes which seem to have minimal group work.  Extra time spent looking for jobs and preparing for interviews has been filling the void.

Recruiting: Ahh, if it wasn't for recruiting my life would be so stress free.  I had a few interviews between spring break and the first few weeks of the quarter, some of which seemed very encouraging.  Unfortunately nothing has turned into an offer, and opportunities through the school seemed to have died down.  Lately most of my job applications have been random resume drops on company websites, which, unfortunately, are much less likely to be looked at than through campus connections.  The spreadsheet I'm using to track what companies/positions I've applied for and their status tells me I completed my 50th application of the year this past week. So that's a nice little milestone.

It's really not the potential loss of income that's bothering me so much (although I guess that will become increasingly more important as student loans start coming due in the near future).   It's more the uncertainty of not knowing where I'll be living, when I'll be moving, or anything about my future that's so stressful.  There's also kinda a bad stigma in b-school about graduating without a job, but I don't let the embarrassment of being jobless bother me as much as I used to, and besides, it seems like a lot of classmates are still looking.  Either way, I try to stay as positive as I can.  Plus, I can look forward to all the extra beach time I will have this summer while all those suckers with new jobs are slaving away in the office. 

Classes: This has definitely my favorite quarter of classes at Anderson.  I decided to select highly rated professors and classes instead of enrolling in more boring finance classes that I felt obligated to take based on my career focus.  This quarter, I'm taking two real estate classes, both taught by professionals who have their own real estate development companies and actively work in the field.  Cases In Real Estate taught by Professor Sussman, a multiple award winning faculty member, is probably my favorite class I've taken at Anderson.  I'm also taking a Global Supply Chain class, which sounds like a boring title, but the professor is one of the most interesting I've had and the case discussions are interesting.  All three professors are hilarious and extremely knowledgeable in their fields, erasing any pain of  waking up for class before 7 am three times a week.

Student Investment Fund: We still have weekly meetings for the Student Investment Fund, but at this point we have now passed the portfolio management responsibilities to the new class of 1st years.  I'm pleased to announce that I was the top performing manager on our Growth Fund, and had the 2nd highest returns (out of 11 students) in the entire Fund.  I also selected the highest performing stock in the Growth Fund, none other than Madison Square Garden (MSG). Thank you Jeremy Lin. 

An update on all the fun happenings in my last quarter at Anderson in the next post. 

Spring Break - Day 6 (Death Valley)

Devil's Golf Course in Death Valley

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Wanting to get started on our longest hike earlier in the morning before the desert sun got too hot, we got up at 7:30.  After packing up the car and doing some last minute shopping at the Ranch General Store, we drove to the Golden Canyon trailhead. The first part of the hike was an easy, one mile trek through a canyon (a golden one, at that).  At the end of the trail it led to the Gower Gulch Loop trail, which I had read was much more interesting, although it would add another 3+ miles to our hike which were more strenuous than the first.  We had gotten through the Golden Canyon trail pretty quickly, so we decided to keep going.  The next trail was indeed a lot more interesting, with a steep climb up "Manly Beacon" which had great views of the area, lots of different colored canyon and mountain walls, and finally some rock scrambling near the end.  We finished everything up in around 2.5 hours, and besides the Manly Beacon climb, it really wasn't too strenuous.  It also helped that the weather was great in the morning, with a perfect hiking temperature and consistent refreshing breeze. 

Relaxing in between hikes on our patio at the Furnace Creek Ranch

We headed back to the Ranch for grub at around 11, but found out that the restaurants were done serving breakfast and wouldn't open until 11:30 for lunch.  Even though we were already checked out of our hotel room, we headed back to the porch behind what used to be our room, and played a game of backgammon (always a Schaaf-favorite).  By the time we had finished our game, the 49er Cafe was open so we headed there.  I found the one egg dish they had on the lunch menu and promptly ordered the omelet, unconcerned with what ingredients they had selected for it.  Service was a bit slow, but food was decent.  Probably better than anything we would have cooked up at our campsite, if our lodging plans hadn't gone astray last night.

Badwater Basin: There is no sand in this picture - everything is pure salt

After lunch we had a list of nearby attractions that we wanted to explore, which could all be reached by doing a loop of the nearby Badwater Road.  Devil's Golf Course was a 200 mile area of salt rocks.  Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America (282 feet below sea level), and is a seemingly endless field of pure table salt.  Natural Bridge was  pretty much what it sounded like -  a bridge-like structure naturally formed from the mountains.  Having been to Arches and some other national parks, Death Valley's version was a little underwhelming.  Finally, Artist Drive was a scenic drive through an area of multicolored mountains.

After one final quick stop at the Ranch we headed to Dante's View, which would be our last stop in Death Valley.  It was about 25 miles to the east, a small detour from the exit.  This spot is known for having the best and most ranging views of Death Valley.  Another fun fact: from this spot you can simultaneously view both the lowest (Badwater Basin) and the highest (Mt. Whitney) points in the United States.  We hung out here for a bit, but eventually it was time to make the last drive of our trip - back to LA.  The drive back went relatively smoothly, and we made it back to West LA around 9:30 pm.

Dante's View, overlooking Badwater Basin and the rest of the park.

At the onset of the trip, I wasn't really sure what to expect.  I had done almost all of the planning myself, but much of that had come in the last couple days before we left and a lot was still left unplanned when the trip started.  But overall, everything really exceeded my expectations and it was a really great vacation.  The only major problem we had was that our campsite was overbooked, but I think the upgraded lodging ended up making for a more pleasant experience.  We ate a lot of good food, stayed in some nice places, spent lots of time outdoors, got plenty of exercise, developed skiing skills, and really got to explore some great California spots.  PCH, Tahoe, and Death Valley had all been on my "California Bucket List" of places I wanted to experience before leaving the west coast, so I was happy I got to cross three off on this one trip.  [As a sidenote, I also crossed a 4th item off my list this spring break, by attending a live taping of Conan O'Brien show the very next day, which was very exciting for me].  Not to take away anything from my usual dude-only trips, but it was also memorable being me and Stephanie's first real vacation together.  If comparing it to past vacations, it might not have been the most unique trip I've ever been on (last year's spring break in Ghana may never be beat in that area), nor the most extravagant or wild, but it is definitely up there as one of the most overly enjoyable.

*** More complete photo gallery of the trip:  Spring Break 2012 ***

Spring Break - Day 5 (Leaving Lake Tahoe)

View of Lake Tahoe from the private beach behind our hotel

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Although today was mostly going to be a travel day, we wanted to keep a more strict schedule than we had earlier in the trip.  Our plan was to camp at Death Valley National Park this evening (almost a 7 hour drive away), but the problem was that none of their campsites took reservations.  Although I figured that a weekday wouldn't necessarily sellout, the earlier we got there the better, plus we wanted to be able to set up camp before the sun went down.

So we got up at 8:30 and spent some time packing and cleaning the townhouse.  Then we snapped some pictures of Lake Tahoe from the beach behind the resort before heading to breakfast.  Sprouts Cafe was the location of choice based on a recommendation from one of Steph's friends.  It was pretty tasty, somewhat healthy, brunch spot.  We made another stop for some more Lake Tahoe pictures from a higher elevation, before hitting the highway for our long trek to Death Valley.

My very own bakery in Bishop, CA

Around halfway through our drive we passed through the town of Bishop.  It logically seemed like a stopping point for lunch, but this became mandatory when I saw a billboard for Erick Schat's Bakkery.  Yes, I realize that there are quite a few spelling mistakes there, but that's the closest I've ever seen a restaurant named after me, so I found this very exciting and made it our lunch stop.  Erick Schat seemed to have trouble deciding what he wanted to sell, as the restaurant was a combo of a deli, a bakery, and a general store.  We each got ourselves a sandwich and a pastry, which were pretty good, so overall we thought it lived up to the strong name of Erick Schat.

The rest of the drive to Death Valley was pretty uneventful except for one key mistake with gas management.  With a little under half a tank left, I didn't fill up in the last town we passed through before getting to the park.  I realized later though that we weren't going to make it to the campsite  with what we had, and our GPS showed no stations before we got deep into the park.  Because of this I decided to backtrack almost 20  miles to go to the nearest gas station, which caused a 45 minute delay in total.  It's a good thing we got it when we did, though, because Death Valley is much larger than I anticipated.  It was around 100 miles of driving from the park entrance to the campsite, and when we got there, the gas station had the highest gas prices I had ever seen, at $5.90 a gallon for unleaded.

The poor gas decision notwithstanding, I had been thinking earlier in the day how everything had been going pretty perfectly throughout the trip.  No real mishaps or major curveballs.  Well that changed when I passed the sign that said that the campground we wanted to stay at was full.  This caused quite a scare because it was already getting late, and we had no idea where else we could stay.  There were some hotels in the park, but we made a couple calls and they were booked.  There were some other campgrounds, but we wouldn't know if they were full unless we drove to them, and they could be an hour or so away from our current location and from the attractions we wanted to see the next day.  This had the potential of derailing our Death Valley plans, and we started to wonder if we should just drive the five hours back to LA tonight.

Furnace Creek Ranch, our oasis in the desert

Even though the Furnace Creek Ranch (a hotel resort within the park, right near the campsite we were trying to stay at) had no vacancies for tonight when I was looking into lodging for the trip a week ago, we still gave them a call as a last resort.  And as luck would have it, they had a cancellation and now had one room available, for a fairly reasonable rate.  We booked it immediately, and were relieved that our Death Valley plans could be salvaged.  We had to spend a little more money than planned, and wouldn't have the camping experience we were looking for, but the Ranch was actually a pretty nice mini resort.  Several restaurants on site, a heated pool, outdoor games, and several other amenities which we didn't use.

Semi-sunset picture at Zabriskie Point

Before getting settled in the new room, we quickly headed to Zabriskie Point,which was a nearby lookout point known for having great views of sunrises and sunsets.  We ended up missing the sunset by several minutes, but it was still a cool view.  We finished off the night with dinner at the Corkscrew Saloon, and a few games in the room. 

Spring Break - Day 4 (Tougher Ski Runs)

Another beautiful day on the slopes

Monday, March 26, 2012

We woke up a bit earlier today, but didn't make it to breakfast until about 10:30.  The location of choice this morning was Jazz Kat Cafe.  This was a pretty chill, small place, with jazz music and interesting art on the walls. There were only two other patrons in the restaurant the entire time we were there, and both were happily surfing away on their laptops using the free Wifi.  Besides enjoying the ambiance, the food was good too.  I got a Meat Lovers Scramble and Steph got an Eggs Benedict, both portions were quite large and relatively inexpensive for the area.  The service was nice too, with a very pleasant waitress who kept our coffee mugs full at all times.  No, I'm not practicing for a career in Yelping, but if I did happen to be a Yelp reviewer, I'd give this place five stars.

Action shot, sorta

Along with our leisurely paced breakfast, the overnight snowstorm and early morning flurries made the drive back to Sierra at Tahoe a bit slower.  We ended up on our first ski lift at 12:15 pm, which left us about 4 hours until the park closed.  So we decided to use that time as effectively as possible - meaning four straight hours of skiing with no breaks.  The cafeteria and bathrooms could wait, we wanted to pack in as much skiing as possible.  During that time we expanded to a much bigger part of the mountain than yesterday, mostly utilizing the Grandview Express ski lift that goes to the very top of the mountain and the 2.5 mile run that goes back to the bottom.  We did runs on pretty much every green slope in the mountain, and I also mixed in a few blues (intermediate level runs) along the way to spice things up a bit.  The whole day was a blast and we could feel proud about the noticeable improvement in our skiing skills over the course of two days.  Steph looked like a completely different skier from yesterday morning, and I felt that I had solidified a lot of the skills I had been trying to develop my last several ski trips.  When we finished our final run at about 4:15, it was probably for the best that the lifts were closed; the snow was coming down very heavily and the winds had really picked up.  The temperatures were in the low 30s when we started the day, but was feeling considerably colder by the time we left.

We returned our ski gear to the rental shop on the way home, and then after showering and changing into normal people clothes again, we headed to dinner.  Our first choice was closed, so we ended up at Rojo's Bar and Restaurant.  Having skipped lunch and burned a ton of energy throughout the day, we had no trouble putting down full rack of baby back ribs, a burger, mozzarella sticks, fries, and bread before we left.  I doubt it was the best food we had on the trip, but it might have been the most satisfying.

Evening entertainment included playing pool in the hotel game room, and then a short trip to a nearby state park for some stargazing.  According to this random website, South Lake Tahoe is a Top 5 location to look at stars.  So how could we pass that up?

Spring Break - Day 3 (Bunny Slopes)

One of the slopes at Sierra-At-Tahoe

Sunday, March 25, 2012

We started our day by stopping by the hotel continental breakfast at around 10 am, which was basically just pastries and yogurt.  When we walked in, one of the staff members was in the dining area (actually  just the game room where the pastries were) and was in the middle of listing the best nearby ski resorts for beginner skiers.  Since we were wondering the same thing, we listened intently and decided to make Sierra-At-Tahoe Ski Resort our day's destination.  It was only about 25 minutes away, and our resort was able to give us both discount lift tickets and discount rental coupons.  To really pack on the savings we signed up for a two-day lift pass at Sierra, hoping that we wouldn't be so sore from today's activities that we wouldn't want to go back tomorrow.

We stopped at the rental shop across the street from our hotel, and then made the drive to Sierra at Tahoe, arriving a little after noon.  It was nice driving around the mountain for a bit in the daylight so we could see all the sights that we missed in last night's near pitch black drive.

Hanging out on the bunny slopes

Steph had only been skiing once before (almost a year ago), and I always need reminders on how to ski, so we started out using the shortest lift (aptly named Easy Rider Express) and making runs on the basic slope.  We did variations of that several times before breaking for lunch.  In our second session we decided to use a different lift (the only slightly more manly named Rock Garden), which went up a little higher than the one we had used earlier.  The main path from Rock Garden led into the easier slopes we had done earlier in the day, so we did that connecting run a few times.  I mixed in a few steeper, more difficult runs from that lift as well and only had a problem when I accidentally found myself skiing off a jump, became airborne, and was unable to stick the landing.  A little painful, but it wouldn't be a day on the slopes without a few good falls. At 4 pm the lifts stopped running for the day, so we headed out.  We really only used a tiny fraction of the mountain today, but it was a good training day with some great weather, and a whole lot of fun.  We're aiming to get an earlier start tomorrow, and expand to some longer and more difficult runs as the day goes on.
 
When we got back to our hotel, some soreness was already setting in so we decided to hit up the outdoor hot tub.  It was a little bit further of a walk in 35 degree weather than we would have liked, but the tub felt great once we got there.  The hot tub area is right before the edge of the hotel property where it meets Lake Tahoe itself, so there was some really great views of the lake and of the snow capped mountains surrounding it.  Evening was pretty chill with dinner at a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant cleverly named Los Mexicanos.

Spring Break - Day 2 (Monetery Aquarium)

Lots of fishies at the Monterey Aquarium

Saturday, March 24, 2012

We checked out of the motel around 10 am and went searching for breakfast. We first tried the highly rated Breakfast Club, but the line was out the door so we went to Denny's instead. Three pancakes, two eggs, two sausages, a pile of hash browns, and about three cups of coffee later, I was satisfied with our choice.

The Monterey Aquarium is regarded as one of the best in the world, and was our next activity for the trip. We arrived around noon and spent about 2.5 hours exploring. There were a lot of cool stuff to see but the highlights were the jelly fish exhibits and the gigantic tank which had thousands of fish, a giant sea turtle, and several other sharks including a hammerhead.  The $30 student entry fee was a little steep I thought, but I'd still recommend it for the jelly fish and big tank alone.  There also a lot of animal feeding and instructional talks (we watched the otter and albatross feedings) and video presentations.  Either way it was definitely a good stopping point and way to spend a few hours while in town.

We left the aquarium around 2:30 and were unfortunately hit with a $35 parking ticket a couple minutes earlier for illegally parking in a nearby supermarket parking lot.  There was a rain storm for most of the day, but luckily we were either indoors or in the car almost all of this time.  Our next quick stop was in San Jose for a very late lunch around 4 pm. We went to Togo's, which is a local sandwich shop that was tasty, but not really worth mentioning any more about.  This was followed a little while later with a mini ski gear shopping spree at Any Mountain, which we hope ends up being cheaper than the stores in South Lake Tahoe.

It was a long drive through twisty, dimly lit roads in the mountains to get to Lake Tahoe.  We had been afraid of weather forecasts predicting snow, but luckily the night was as clear and precipitation-free as could be.  It was around 10 pm when we arrived in South Lake Tahoe, and we picked up some Italian food since we hadn't eaten dinner yet, and then checked in for our stay at the Lake Tahoe Beach and Ski Club.

Our living room and kitchen at the Tahoe Beach and Ski Club

We had gotten a really good deal on the accommodations through a LivingSocial online deal ($225 total for 3 nights in a 1 bedroom townhouse).  We figured that was a pretty reasonable deal for a non-motel in Lake Tahoe on a weekend during ski season for three nights, so didn't know what to expect with how nice the room would be or the resort space, but were very pleasantly surprised.  Our room had been recently renovated and had a large master bedroom, a good size living room, full kitchen with a center island, two full bathrooms including a jacuzzi, a balcony/outdoor patio, two HD TVs and DVD players, and was fully stocked with kitchen and dining equipment.  Since we got in so late we didn't have a chance to check the premises yet, but we were told that there are two hot tubs, an outdoor heated pool, a gym, a game room with pool table, plus a lot of outdoor sports areas that would be nice if it wasn't 40 degrees out.  The plan for tomorrow is to spend the day skiing, but now am also looking forward to plenty of relaxation time at the resort.

Spring Break - Day 1 (PCH Drive)

One of the many fantastic views along the PCH drive

Friday, March 23, 2012

I was debating for awhile what I wanted to do for my spring break this year, the last spring break of my life, and the last guaranteed vacation I have until I have a job to have a vacation from.  Having not been on a road trip since my cross-country adventure almost 20 months ago, and with a more exotic international trip not in the budget, this break seemed like a good time to hit the road again and explore California at greater length.  About a month ago, Stephanie and I had booked a three night stay at a hotel in Lake Tahoe with the idea of hanging out and skiing, but it wasn't until the day before the trip that the rest of the itinerary was mostly finalized.  The basic plan for our 5-day, 6-night trip was: Santa Barbara, a scenic drive up the coast via the famous Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) through Big Sur, three nights in Lake Tahoe, and one night camping in Death Valley National Park.

Featured car of the Spring Break 2012 Road Trip

Luckily the Civic (which is still going strong, by the way, at least when on flat terrain) wasn't going to be our vehicle of choice for this trip, being replaced by a newer, more structurally sound Nissan Sentra.  However, to prepare for the potentially treacherous snow conditions I had to research what snow chains are, purchase them, and then learn how to install them in the past two days.   Packing also required some thought, as it included a mix of warm weather clothes, cold weather clothes, skiing gear, and camping/hiking gear.

With the prep behind us, we hit the road at 10 am Friday morning, arriving in Santa Barbara around noon. We went to a restaurant called Andersen's Restaurant & Bakery for lunch (even on spring break, we can't escape Anderson). Initially I was disappointed because they told me that they no longer served breakfast, but they also happened to have omelets on their lunch menu so I had one of those. Steph had a crab salad Napoleon thingie with mango sauce and avocado and split pea soup. All the food was fantastic, definitely recommend this place. We walked around Santa Barbara for around an hour after brunch. I had never been there before, but it's a really nice, clean town with some interesting shops.

Danish architecture abounds in Solvang

Our next stop, about 50 minutes away, was a Danish style town called Solvang. This place was really interesting with Danish architecture, windmills, horse and buggies on the street, and delicious Danish pastries. We only intended it to be a short stop but ended up walking around for about 1.5 hours, enjoying the unique atmosphere and progressively improving weather.

The next stop on our itinerary was about 115 miles away at Hearst Castle. Since we took longer at our first two stops than anticipated, we didn't get to the castle parking lot until 6 pm.  We realized once we got there that we'd have to purchase a ticket tour to take the tram ride up to the actual castle (still a distance away).  Since we really wanted to be able to enjoy the PCH drive during as much daylight as possible, we decided to skip the castle tour and use the visitor center as a potty break and a chance to switch drivers before returning to the road.

This was a fairly typical view for about 200 miles

We still had 100 miles left until we arrived at our hotel, but this portion of PCH was supposed to be amongst the nicest drives in the country and I think it lived up to its reputation. Miles of coastline and mountain ranges greeted us as we drove around winding mountain roads. We made one stop for some great photographic opportunities as the sun was close to setting and then drove the rest of the way in darkness, eventually arriving in Monterey around 9:30 pm.  We were craving some BBQ and after our first choice was closed, we settled on Henry's BBQ which really hit the spot. We checked in to the luxurious El Castell Motel around 10:30 and relaxed after a long day of travel.

Miles Traveled Today: 330

Winter Quarter Recap

BMP couples dinner in March

I did a much better job this quarter of keeping up on the blog, so I don't think there is a lot new here, but I feel like I have to add a "recap" post each quarter.... so here it is.

The beginning of the quarter was a lot of fun with my January trips to Vegas, Sundance, and DC, and then my February Omaha trip to meet Warren Buffet was definitely one of the most unique experiences that I've had at Anderson.  After the trips were done though, it was time to get back to reality, and realize I had a lot of work to do.

Classes were decent.  The VBA/Excel-based class was my favorite, and I'd like to continue to educate myself in VBA in the future.  I'm glad that I took the Venture Capital/Private Equity class because I think I learned a lot, but it was so stressful with the heavy workload and cold calling nature of the professor that I couldn't actually enjoy the experience as it was going on.  The Investment Management class which I hated in the first half of the quarter, I actually liked a lot in the second half as it moved from heavily theoretical to more practical topics.  I ended up dropping my Mandarin class seven weeks into the quarter.  The Thursday night schedule conflicted with a lot of my trips (first Sundance, and then the SIF trips to Omaha and San Francisco) so I had to miss three classes and I felt that I was really falling behind.  It was only a two credit class anyway, so dropping it didn't effect my graduation requirements.  On top of the classes, though, the big time commitments were SIF speaker events, the stock pitch competition that I mentioned in the last post, and the AMR consulting project. 

My job search continues with little progress.  During the quarter I had four rounds of interviews with one company, so I thought that I was getting very close to getting an offer, but they've given me the silent treatment for almost a month now.  I haven't been eliminated outright yet, but I certainly get the feeling that I'm not their first choice and am not very optimistic.  Unlike a lot of other career verticals, most asset management positions don't open up until late in the school year because the firms are smaller and only do just-in-time hiring.  I guess it was wishful thinking that I would be able to land a position earlier in the year and be able to relax more as the year goes on.  There is a very clear divide between the difference in lifestyle and attitude of students who already have jobs lined up and those that are still recruiting.  I've already seen more opportunities pop up in the past week in my industry than in the entire quarter before that, though, so I'm hopeful that things will still get sorted out before graduation. 

I've already written about most of the random fun activities which happened earlier in the quarter such as Casino Night and Joshua Tree.  Jay's visit to LA two weeks ago was a highlight of the last few weeks.  Also, two cool celebrity sightings in the past two weeks: Darryl from The Office was playing pool at the table next to me, and we were sitting at a bar last night with Cutty from The Wire. 

Not as good as in Asia, but we still found some tasty Taiwanese restaurants in LA

So now with the quarter over, I am on spring break until April 1.  With the post-grad job situation uncertain, this is also the last guaranteed vacation I have on the horizon.  Two days removed from my last final I'm already feeling so much more relaxed, and have been productive, catching up on exercise, cleaning, and cover letter updates.  Last night we had our quarterly Man Dinner with some of the guys from school.  It should continue to get more fun though.  Although the details still aren't finalized, I'm planning a mini California road trip over the break with stops at Big Sur, Lake Tahoe and Death Valley National Park.  I'll be sure to blog about its progress. 

First Annual Anderson Stock Pitch Competition

Aside from my six month AMR consulting project that I've mentioned a couple times, the other big outside-of-class time sapper this quarter has been helping organize a stock pitch competition.  Last spring when we formed the Anderson Investment Association (AIA) we listed a few grandiose ideas of new events that would help improve the investment management career vertical at Anderson.  These included the New York recruiting trip in December, and the highly successful UCLA Anderson Inaugural Investing Conference last month.  Another big initiative was to create a stock pitch competition that would be hosted on Anderson's campus, have industry professionals as judges, and MBA students from across the country as participants.  And I was in charge of putting it all together.

(Sidenote: I recently read an article that said that wannabe bloggers like myself should frequently link to previous posts to improve their blog.  So I'm being a little link happy today. This kinda reminds me of a time that I tried to book a stay in the Dakota Inn.  Well not really, I just wanted another link.)

The really good news that made this competition a realistic idea initially was that last spring one of the SIF fellows (let's call him Ben, because that's his name) who graduated last year told us that he had secured $10k from an alumni to fund prize money for the competition.  This was huge news naturally because no one is going to travel for a competition without prize money, and this meant we didn't have to do additional fundraising on our own. 

Even with funding secured, there was a lot of logistical work to be done to plan the competition.  Throughout the past two quarters important tasks have included picking dates, reaching out to other MBA programs, finding judges, creating rules and a competition structure, booking rooms, organizing catering and the award reception, and setting up/hosting a preliminary UCLA-only competition to see who got to represent Anderson in the actual competition.  Luckily I had three helpful first years and another second year helping out on the project.  Unluckily, things did not go as smoothly as we hoped.

The first main issue was that we scheduled it poorly.  March 9th seemed like a great date.  It worked well with the Anderson schedule, and we figured east coast schools would love to come to LA in the winter.  Unfortunately we didn't realize it coincided with a lot of spring breaks and finals weeks for other schools, so interest in the competition was very low.  We originally wanted 10-15 teams, but ended up with only 6.  This included 2 from UCLA and 2 from USC, plus NYU and Columbia.  We had commitments from Harvard and Michigan but they each dropped out during the last week.   

The biggest curveball during planning, however, came two weeks before the competition when I emailed the alumni asking how and when he was planning on sending his $10k, and he replied that he had no idea what I was talking about.  He was under the impression that he would be making a significantly smaller gift, as part of a larger group of alumni, and that all donations would be going to charity rather than winning MBA teams.  Long story slightly shorter: there had been some major miscommunication dating back almost a year between all parties.  Ben had certainly given us incorrect information.  But I, and a couple other 2nd years who had been speaking with this alumni over the past year, never properly confirmed it with him either.  Each of us had on multiple occasions thanked him for being the event sponsor, but never mentioned a dollar amount (b/c we thought it was already agreed upon, and thought it was somewhat tacky or inappropriate to bring up the exact amount).  And the alumni never questioned why we kept referring to him as the only sponsor for our competition.

So finding out this news led to two extremely stressful days.  Without funding, we were extremely close to cancelling the whole competition, which would have been very embarrassing to Anderson, would have set AIA back significantly for future projects, and we'd have to eat the cost of schools who had already made travel arrangements.  Fortunately though, we got really lucky because after meeting with the executive director of the Fink Center (a campus finance research center endowed by Larry Fink, Anderson alum and CEO of Blackrock) and presenting our dilemma to them, they agreed to sponsor the event in its entirety.  This was largely possible because they were so impressed with the Investing Conference (which they co-sponsored) that they were happy to help AIA out again.  All we had to do was change the name of the competition to the Fink Center AIA Stock Pitch Competition, and $10,000 was ours.  

We ordered giant checks and everything!

The actual event itself went very smoothly.  A few hiccups along the way and we wish we had more than six teams, but it turned out to be a success (plus UCLA's team won - it wasn't rigged, I promise).  The whole missing funding ordeal might have actually been a blessing in disguise because the Fink Center will sponsor the competition every year now.  They have  extremely deep pockets and an even deeper network of contacts, so getting their support on an annual basis will really increase the chances of this event being a regular, highly successful event in the future.  The event took a lot of work and caused a lot of stress over the past several months, but of any activity that I've been involved in at my time at Anderson, this has the highest chance of having a lasting impression on a wide range of people for a long time.  Who knows how long this event will go, but I think it'd be really cool if one day I can read about how Anderson is hosting its 20th Annual Stock Pitch Competition, and I can remember that I was a major part of getting it all started.

My Trip to Omaha

Celebrating the Super Bowl with the Oracle of Omaha

I've said before that one of the best things about attending a top level business school is the exposure you have to top level business leaders.  Anderson brings in a lot of big name guest speakers and gives students the opportunity to interact with them in ways that wouldn't be possible outside of the program.  Through my involvement in the Student Investment Fund, I've attended a few dozen company offices and alumni presentations.  These were interesting to us since we're trying to get into the industry, but most of the people we met with aren't names that I'd go out and brag (blog) about.  Last weekend, however, I did finally meet one especially notable investment professional worth talking about.  In case the big picture at the top didn't give it away, his name is Warren Buffett.  (For those of you who read the news even less than I do and are not in the know, he's widely regarded as the most famous and successful investor of all time, with a net worth of around $40 billion, making him the 3rd richest person in the world).

The story begins back in the Spring of 2011 when we were warned that the previous class of SIF students waited too long to look into joining one of Warren Buffett's MBA student events and missed the opportunity altogether.  We didn't want to be equally lame, so we had one of our classmates (an Omaha native) be in charge of making sure it happened. The first curveball was that Buffet requires at least seven female students to be part of each school's 20 person group to attend his event.  Although Anderson always talks about diversity, there happens to be zero female members of the 11-dude Student Investment Fund.  It's not that last year's recruiting staff hates women, its just that not a single girl applied. Second problem was that if SIF went on the trip, ASAM (Anderson Student Asset Management - another student-run investment group, more quant based, and mostly part-time students) wanted in on the fun too. They have 16 members (2 females).  Arguments ensued over the next 6-9 months over how to split up the trip between the two funds, where the females should come from, and if the two ASAM girls should count as ASAM members or as females or both.  In the end, there were two lotteries run: 1) all male members of SIF and ASAM; and 2) all females at Anderson.  I actually didn't get picked to go on the trip in the first lottery, but someone who did couldn't make it, and I got their spot.  Luck must have been on my side.

Well, maybe not.

Last Thursday (February 16th) I packed my bags for Omaha, as excited as could be.  Friday's activities would involve a full day of Berkshire Hathaway fun: tours of two of their partner companies, a 2-hour Q&A with Buffett, and lunch and picture opportunities with the man himself.  Unfortunately, my plans almost got derailed from the start.  My flight out of LA was delayed about an hour, which caused me to miss my connecting flight.  The next flight to Omaha left the following morning and wouldn't land until a little before noon.  I briefly considered just booking a return flight to LA, but after re-checking the itinerary I decided to head to Nebraska anyway.  Although I'd miss one of the tours and the Q&A session, at least I would be able to make the lunch.  I only spent a few hours in the Salt Lake City hotel that Delta put me up in before my alarm went off at 4 am.  My 5:55 am flight to Minneapolis, my layover, and my flight to Omaha were all relatively uneventful.

Lunch at Piccolo Pete's

I was the first person to arrive at the restaurant, Piccolo Pete's, since the Q&A ran long.  My plan was to wait until my classmates arrived and then sit with them.  In a stroke of good luck, right after Warren walked through the door, my UCLA classmates were right behind him.  Since the restaurant was open seating, that meant we were able to sit down at the featured table.  (There were 8 schools of around 20 students each, so only around 20 students sat at Buffett's table).  Unfortunately because of the large number of people in the room, and my seat in the corner of the table, I couldn't really follow the conversations too much.  But I did hear enough to pick up on his charming and humble personality.  Without knowing who he was, there is no way anyone could think this was was one of the most successful and richest people on the planet sitting at my table.  He just seemed like a classic cheerful grandpa, telling stories about his youth, making cheesy jokes, and playfully chumming it up with the students.  Extremely down to earth and genuine guy.

After lunch we got a chance to take pictures with Buffett.  Since there were 160 students or so in attendance they wanted to keep the process moving quickly, but Buffett was open to posing for funny or alternative poses in addition to the standard serious pose, if requested.  I had my NY Giants winter hat in my jacket pocket, so I quickly pulled it out and asked him to hold it as part of my Super Bowl celebration.  Some other students flexed muscles with Buffet, had him put them in a headlock, or had him get down on one knee and propose (to a female student).  Pretty cool experience all around, so even with two more flights and another layover in Minneapolis that evening and despite all the other logistical shenanigans (5 total flights and a 4 am wake up in under 24 hours), it was still worth the trip.