Getting Comfortable with Being Vulnerable

When Chris Hauck first approached me to be a DSAC Blogger, I immediately knew he would be a perfect fit for the team. Although it's only his first quarter at Booth, he is extremely involved and his photographs always capture the energy of the Booth community. In his introductory post, Chris truly lives up to expression "nothing ventured, nothing gained".

-Dana
***

I remember my hands sweating. My heart racing. Laying awake at night trying to quiet my mind as it raced to think of possible solutions to whatever hurdle was ahead. GMAT, applications, interviews – every step left me feeling exposed and forced me to examine every nuance of my life. And while getting into my dream school was a great feeling, it wasn’t the end of the process of opening myself up to critique and letting myself feel vulnerable. Every moment at Booth thus far has centered around stepping outside of my comfort zone and learning how to be a better person and professional than the day before.

For me, the first big adjustment was leaving California. I’ve spent my whole life there. I grew up in Sacramento and moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA. I loved LA; the city was filled with great friends, great opportunities and so many beautiful people. It’s a wonderful place to be young and explore the world. I spent the next few years there doing recruitment and then transitioned into strategy for an agency that specialized in online marketing and digital products. But I was also a little too comfortable and I realized that growing as a person would mean leaving California and getting outside of my bubble. Selling everything, leaving all of my friends behind and moving halfway across the country was harder than it may sound. However, learning to live with two new roomates coming from divergent backgrounds and meeting new friends who were previously living all over the world has been a tremendous experience, even if I still find myself thinking longingly of LA weather every time I see snow falling outside my window. Still, I have loved growing as a person and adapting to Chicago, my new home.





When LEAD started, suddenly I had to become vulnerable again. LEAD is Booth’s leadership development program. It’s a fantastic class which will help you grow as a leader both personally and professionally. However, it’s not a theoretical class where you read about great leaders from history. It’s experiential. It involves receiving constant feedback from facilitators, peers, past coworkers and even having to watch yourself on video. I have rarely experienced so many moments as simultaneously exciting and frightening as receiving detailed feedback on every word, interaction and non-verbal cue I have exuded in real-life situations. However, it’s not just sitting in a chair that constitutes vulnerability. It was letting my defenses down and hearing that I don’t always listen well enough or seeing a video where I clearly touch my face too often as a physical crutch that was difficult, but these instances spurred real growth for me in a short amount of time. And receiving positive feedback on that growth and seeing it for myself as the class progressed was a transformational experience.





And then my classes began. I came to Booth with a strong background in marketing and strategy. While my job entailed doing regular analysis, none of it was very complex. One of my big motivations for coming to Booth was the school’s strong reputation for rigorous academics and its focus on analyzing data and questioning assumptions. As great as my professors have been, this isn’t like "The Matrix". They haven’t quite mastered a way to download advanced regressions and econometrics into my brain. So stepping foot in the classroom for the first time and actually learning these concepts was a challenge. It would have been easy for me to take marketing and strategy classes aligned with my work experience, but that isn’t why I came here. Committing to hours of studying and the highs and lows of significantly upgrading my quantitative skills meant leaving behind what was comfortable, and challenging myself to grow as a person each and every day. Fortunately, I’ve found that I am not alone in this process. I have great friends, study groups, peer groups, second years, faculty and school advisors there to push me and support me even on the days where I am exhausted trying to overcome another plateau.



It’s not easy. And it’s not something I will be finished with this quarter. Recruiting. Co-organizing the Reaching Out MBA conference for next fall. Interning in a new city and in a new industry this summer. Even submitting this blog to my peers for review and no doubt, some tough editing. Becoming vulnerable and stepping outside of your comfort zone is a quintessential part of the Booth experience. It’s how you grow as a person. It’s how you become a better professional. And it will continue well beyond school and into your career. But despite the challenges, it’s been an energizing and amazing experience. And it’s why I encourage you to make yourself vulnerable and learn to embrace this process as you finish your applications for all of your dream schools. Even as your hands are sweating, your heart is racing, and you are lying awake at night trying to quiet your mind as it races to think of possible solutions to whatever hurdle is ahead of you now. Take a risk and learn to be comfortable outside of your comfort zone.

Summer Internship Series: Private Equity in Chicago

This week TBE caught up with Federico Gonzales, who shared his experience interning in private equity. Read on if you want to learn about what a private equity intern does, how Booth's Private Equity and Venture Capital lab course helped Federico land his position, and what advice he has to offer those recruiting for PE internships.

Beth
***

Where are you working this summer? What is your title? What are your responsibilities?
I’m working at Equity International as a summer associate. EI is a Chicago based private equity firm that focuses on real estate-related investment opportunities in emerging markets. During my internship I’ve worked closely with the investments team exploring potential deals. I’ve worked on several macroeconomic and industry analyses, as well as investment approval documents and presentations. It’s been an amazing experience and I feel that I’m definitely getting a lot out it.

Where are you from? What’s been different about working here versus your home country?
I’m originally from Colombia, and this is my first time living and working in the US. Before business school, I worked for an investment banking boutique in Colombia for 4 years. Thinking about the differences between my job back there and my internship experience in Chicago, I would say that they are significantly smaller than I’d originally expected. I think it’s in part due to the nature of Equity International, and the fact that the company has very close ties to Latin America. Maybe one of the biggest differences that I’ve found while working here is the nature of the relationships with my co-workers. I feel like there is a lot more camaraderie in the Latin American work environment, relationships have a more personal quality to them and there’s definitely more joking around. That’s not to say that I haven’t been able to develop very good relationships with a lot of my co-workers through many office planned events such as a Segway tour of Millennium Park and the annual bowling tournament (of which I am proud to say I am reigning champion). A significant change from my previous work life in Colombia is the commute. Coming from a city like Bogota, where the traffic’s a nightmare, and being able to walk to work in less than 25 minutes is incredible. I really like riding the water taxi back home every day, and enjoying Chicago’s fine summer weather.

How did Booth help you transition from banking to PE?
Booth provides students with a great deal of resources to help them transition into private equity. From the annual private equity conference to several PE competitions, there are many opportunities for students to learn more about the industry and continue to build their network. In my case, I think that probably the most important resource was being able to participate in the Private Equity and Venture Capital Lab in the spring quarter. The lab allows students to work part-time for a Chicago-based host firm while taking classes at the same time. My host firm was Equity International, which helped me to build a relationship with them and learn how the firm operated internally. Ultimately, this experience led me to my internship and allowed me to hit the ground running from the first day.

You’re a career coach for the class of 2014. Do you have any advice for incoming students interested in recruiting for Private Equity? Start early! Recruiting for an internship in private equity is a long process and it usually lasts longer than the processes for most other industries; however this does not mean that you can’t start preparing for it from day one. Get involved in the Private Equity group, volunteer to help out at the annual PE conference, and begin building a list of firms which you would like to intern for. Also, get to know and build relationships with your classmates recruiting for the same industry; they will be a great resource and especially a significant source of support throughout your recruiting process. Finally, remember that recruiting is only one part of business school, never forget to blow off some steam and enjoy yourself every once in a while!

One of the perks of interning in Chicago is that you get to enjoy the city at its best. What have you enjoyed most about Chicago summer?
I’ve been blown away by what a fun city Chicago is during the summer. There’s a lot of cool stuff going on, from street festivals to awesome rooftops. I’ve tried to make the most of my summer here, and so I’ve been to plenty of barbeques, played soccer at the beach and gone sailing on the lake. The thing that I enjoyed the most was Lollapalooza last weekend. After 3 days of singing, dancing and partying alongside over 150,000, I can genuinely say that I am completely exhausted, but also extremely happy to have spent my summer in Chicago!