Summer, Revisited (The Consulting Edition)

Linda, Management Consulting  
A.T. Kearney, Chicago

Friday, 06/13

First day of work, and I’m not even done with my last final. The new Chicago office is gorgeous but my brain is otherwise engaged in trying to figure out how much I don’t know for Lubos Pastor’s Portfolio Management class. Answer: too much. Second answer: it's ok, it was worth doing for the experience.

Key Takeaway: Don’t take morning AND afternoon Friday classes Spring quarter.

Wednesday, 06/18

Training, Day 2. Starting to remember peoples’ names. I’m in a group with two associates from the New York office, one in Toronto, and one in San Francisco. We're trying to figure out how much we can save in transportation costs. Our slides look pretty good for a bunch of people with zero consulting experience and negligible artistic skills. 

Key Takeaway: Listen to the full-time associates when they tell you the slide makes no sense. It doesn’t, even if you break out the fancy graphics.

Monday, 06/23

First day at the client site; first day getting up at 4:30AM to catch a 6:30AM flight out to Connecticut. This is the stress-test for career switchers—can you handle life on the road? I am armed with three apps, a Monster energy drink from the 7-11 across the street from MPP, and the ability to pass out on any moving vehicle in under 5 minutes. Verdict looks good.

Key Takeaway: Apply for Global Entry before your consulting internship.

Tuesday, 07/01

My manager is God’s gift to new consultants. I’ve been assigned to a workstream of my own (!) and am learning how to structure a well-reasoned hypothesis and analysis around investment income for the client. The transition from financial services is a little weird—whaddya mean we have to wait for data? Not having a Bloomberg is making me a little sad.

Key Takeaway: Structure your case and figure out what data you absolutely need, before you ask for it.

Saturday, 07/12

In New York, at LAF (Learn About the Firm) to get a better sense of the firm as a whole and get to meet Kearney folks outside of your case team and your office. On Friday, I had some great chats with the heads of the E&P (Energy and Processes) and PE (Private Equity) practices—the E&P teams who won the Client Impact award for their work in Saudi Arabia definitely had fun. Then the real fun began: afternoon cruise in the harbor around the Statue of Liberty followed by Top of the Standard followed by a great night in New York City.

Key Takeaway: Always remember to take something fancy to a firm outing in case you need it. 

Saturday, 07/21

Midterm Review! I would have spent the morning quaking in my boots except I was too busy building my new slides on international competitors in a new market segment. I’ve gone through a truly ludicrous number of historic annual reports and investor presentations in the last week.

Review is totally in line with what I expected. Everything’s great, I’m on track to getting an offer, but my slides still need to be improved. My manager: “They are…just a little bit ugly. Hahaha.”

Key Takeaway: By Week 5, you should know exactly where you stand. If you don’t, that’s Trouble with a T.

Thursday, 07/31

Cannot believe the end is in sight! The last two weeks have really started to ramp up. Gone are the leisurely team dinners—our key deadline is soon, our deliverable to the CEO is beginning to expand in scope, and the Head of Strategy is scheduling many, many meetings. Working past midnight most days at the client site; have eaten my way through 85% of the room service menu.

Key Takeaway: Make friends with your Information Services counterpart. They are very nice, and you get better, faster data when crunch time comes.

Friday, 08/15

Last day of the internship; went to salon to get a blowout for my final presentation. Hair looked awesome and presentation looked even better.  My fellow interns had amazing summers, and it was really something to see all the impactful work that they did in ten weeks. Are we really the same group of people who sweated through Excel Training 101 earlier in the summer? Unbelievable.

Key Takeaway: Work hard, work smart. Crush that internship.

Wednesday, 08/27

In Shanghai!!! Living with my aunt and uncle, and seeing my grandparents on a daily basis. The food is so amazing I nearly cried when I bit into my first xiaolongbao (soup dumpling). My grandparents did cry when I showed them all the pictures of my first year at Booth—dinners with friends, Chicago outings, hiking the Inca Trail with 25 awesome Boothies and partners during Spring Break.

Key Takeaway: When the work’s done, when the slides are in, remember how to take a step back and embrace the important things in life: your loved ones and your community. 

Top 10 List: What LEAD Teaches You About Navigating Booth

Your first “real” experiences at Booth come from the LEAD program. LEAD stands for Leadership Effectiveness and Development, and it is the only required class you’ll take at Booth. The class starts during orientation and lasts about six weeks into your first quarter.  It’s composed of various modules designed to prepare you for leadership roles. Modules range from learning about your personality traits and how that impacts your conflict resolution skills to practicing your presentation skills. It’s also where you meet many of your friends. In honor of the ten LEAD cohorts, here are the Top 10 things LEAD can teach you navigating life at Booth:

1. LOR (the Leadership Orientation Retreat) is a microcosm of your life at Booth. LEAD starts with a three-day retreat in Lake Geneva, WI. The days you spend at the retreat mirror what you can expect from life at Booth – you’ll be challenged during the three days, but you’ll also get personalized and reflective training through the LEAD programming. By the time night falls, you’ll be relaxing and partying with 600 of your closest friends across the resort.

2. Your Cohort and Squad from LEAD will be where you find the first of many friends you meet at Booth. Through LEAD, you’re divided into one of ten cohorts. You’ll attend LEAD programming in these cohorts. Even after your formal class time ends, you’ll still have events organized in/by the cohort throughout the year. To get more personal attention, you’ll be divided into 7 or 8 person squads. Since much of LEAD becomes very personal and intimate, you’ll get to know the members of your squad better than anyone else you meet at Booth.

3. Cohorts give you a sense for the uniqueness of Booth students. Knowing that Booth has a flexible curriculum, you’d expect a diversity of interests among students and your experience in LEAD really showcases that.  Unlike some other schools, your cohort isn't determined by an intended concentration or future function/industry. This ends up being a great benefit, because you’ll end up meeting people with the same interests through classes, student groups and recruiting events. But by mixing things up in the cohort system, you’ll already have a great start on a diverse network for when you graduate.

4. Culture of giving back. One of the greatest attributes of the Booth community is the prevalence of second-year students ready, willing and able to help first-year students succeed. While first-year students see this happening in a multitude of ways, your first taste of this culture comes from LEAD, where, instead of a professor, 40 second-year students design and run the course and make the various modules relevant to you.

5. Booth (and LEAD) are all about taking risks. As Dean Kole likes to say, business school is your off-season, and there’s no better time to take risks. Through LEAD you’ll give a speech in front of your cohort, participate in the high-ropes course at LOR and be asked to at least try things that you wouldn't normally do with your job on the line. These will all help make you a more effective leader after graduation. For example, business school is probably the best time to bomb while giving a presentation, especially compared to the final presentation nearly all internships will require!

6. LEAD (and B-School in general) mark a transition point. While your classmates come from a variety of backgrounds, everyone here is a high performer. By the time you graduate and have your first post-MBA job, it’ll no longer be enough to do well on whatever you’re assigned. Instead, you’ll have to accomplish goals by leading teams and working with others. LEAD will teach you that great leaders are made and not born, and that we all have individual areas to work on to make us better leaders. Through the introspective approach to development, you’ll learn exactly what those areas are for you.

7. To succeed at Booth, you have to be humble. Aspects of LEAD are intentionally uncomfortable, especially as you learn how others see you. The key to the LEAD program is your ability to take what you learn constructively and to not become overly defensive. If you can’t force yourself to listen, these programs become very difficult. For example, one LEAD module looks at how you are initially perceived by your colleagues. I learned I am initially perceived as being direct, candid and tough (as opposed to being warm and non-judgmental), likely because I often rely on sarcasm. Getting feedback like this can initially be unsettling, but it’s also important information to learn. Knowing this, I can try to avoid sarcasm when meeting new people and try to make myself more approachable.

8. But humility doesn't mean we don’t compete. LEAD helps foster a sense of healthy competition. From Fall Frolics (a field day-like competition) to the Golden Gargoyles (the Oscars, but for Cohort-produced videos), your cohort will be competing against the other nine. Eventually, these competitions build into the year-long cohort cup sponsored by the Graduate Business Council. There are also opportunities to compete as an individual through LEAD, with things like day-long leadership and/or public speaking competitions. While we’re not allowed to disclose what actually happens at these competitions, the thing that surprised me most was the school’s ability to bring in incredible alumni judges (including top partners at some of the best-known consulting firms), which indicates how the culture and community built at Booth doesn't end with graduation.

9. The diversity at Booth means you can always learn something from your classmates. In the Class of 2015, 36% are international students and 49% were born outside the United States. With the huge multi-cultural community, LEAD devotes an entire session to living and working in a country other than your own. For U.S.-born students, you get a sense of how your actions can easily be misinterpreted in other cultures and how you can help make the transition for your international peers easier. For international students, the session demonstrates some of the cultural norms of working in the United States and how these may differ from other countries.

10. LEAD creates a shared experience with Booth Alumni. Just as LEAD starts to wind down, recruiting will kick into high gear (for those recruiting on-campus, at least). Since LEAD is the only required class at Booth, and since the experience is pretty unforgettable, you’ll instantly have something in common with the many Booth Alumni who come back to campus to recruit. It’s not uncommon to hear them talking about how much fun they had at the ropes course during LOR, how they've ended up using  what they learned in the presentation workshop  in their new jobs and/or how they’re still in touch with the people in their cohort. 

Meet the new “THE BOOTH EXPERIENCE” Team (Post 2 of 2)

Hi!,

This week we have the second installment of current Booth students who will be writing during the upcoming school year and sharing their experiences with you. Last week we introduced five of the members of the team (Meet the new "The Booth Experience" Team / Post 1 of 2). This week, we present to you the other four!

First of all,  we are proud to introduce Darren Spicer, our own former MLS Star!

Darren is a Southern California native and second-year student at Booth pursuing concentrations in finance and strategic management. He studied international politics and captained the varsity soccer team at Princeton before getting drafted by Chivas USA in Major League Soccer. He then went on to play professional soccer for five years across the US and Germany. And yes, he played against David Beckham. Before Booth Darren also coached youth soccer and coordinated camps in Southern California for Slammers FC, one of the top youth clubs in the country. This summer, he is interning with The Cambridge Group in Chicago, doing growth strategy consulting. He also loves to surf, snowboard, bike, bike, hike, and golf, and he's never met a spicy curry that he didn't like.

Next up, Jatin Jindal brings an enviable startup experience to the table...

Jatin is pursuing a summer internship at Amazon Web Services as a Product Manager. Prior to business school, he worked with multiple startups in several roles. He started Hellointern.com with some classmates as an undergrad and later sold it to Angaros Group in 2012. He also worked briefly in 2013 for a startup in cab service space - Bookmycab. Prior to that, Jatin worked in the Investment Banking Department of Credit Suisse from 2009 to 2013, advising clients engaged in oil & gas sector on raising capital as well as M&A transactions. He obtained a Bachelors of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

In his free time, Jatin loves to read books and go on short hiking trips. He is also passionate about Arsenal FC, and has been supporting them for more than a decade now!

Favorite Booth memory: traveling with my Booth classmates to different places like Fiji, Mexico and Florida. He is looking forward to another amazing year at Booth and many more such trips!

The editor of Chibus, our school's renowned newspaper, is also part of our group. Meet Tyler Kearn!,

Tyler is a rising second year Booth student and co-chair of the Chicago Business newspaper (chibus.com) and the Family Enterprise group. Prior to Booth, he worked for COIT Services, a nationwide specialty cleaning and restoration company, as well as CBS Interactive and the San Francisco Giants (Go Giants!). His interests and hobbies include hiking, travel, skiing, and movies (including “bad” movies – movies so bad, they’re good).  

Finally, and last but not least, we have Suzi Singh!, 

Suzi has a PHD in psychology and will be certainly psychoanalyzing the entire Booth community in her posts!

Suzi is a first year student at Booth pursuing a concentration in marketing management. She earned her bachelor's degree from the College of William and Mary and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Prior to Booth, she was an assistant professor in an addiction studies program. This summer, she is a marketing intern at Campbell's Soup Company in Philadelphia. 

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Favorite Booth Memory: singing karaoke with friends at the LEAD retreat!

That’s it! We’ve introduced all 9 members of our team: Linda, Edward, Craig, Ignacio, Alex, Darren, Jatin, Tyler and Suzi

Once again, we are looking forward to sharing our experiences with you. We hope to give you valuable information and insights that can help you see another side of Chicago Booth.

Cheers for a wonderful year to come!

The Booth Experience Team

Meet the new “THE BOOTH EXPERIENCE” Team (Post 1 of 2)

Hurrayy!!,

We are very happy to introduce the new “The Booth Experience” Team. We are 9 second year Boothies who will be posting content throughout the summer and the rest of the academic year to keep you up to date with the latest about life at Booth.

From where to live, to the best coffee shops in Chicago and the coolest places to go on a date, you’ll hear from us on a regular basis to give you an insider’s perspective on what it’s really like to go to Booth to pursue your MBA.
We are very excited to share our experience with all of you and look forward to hearing your questions, comments, feedback, ideas, etc.

Without further ado (drumroll), meet five members of our team (we shall introduce the rest in a post next week)

By way of Boston, MA we have…Linda Yan!

After four years in finance, Linda decided it was time for a change. She came to Booth looking to round out her knowledge base, make friends, and test out different career options. She's at consulting firm A.T. Kearney for the summer, working on a project for a F500 financial services firm. In her spare time, Linda enjoys working on her first poetry collection, trying all sorts of new whiskeys and defending her title of World Krav Maga Champion!

Favorite Booth memory: Hiking the Inca Trail during Spring Break with twenty-five awesome Boothies and their partners

Next, we have Edward McDonald, the most interesting man at Booth without a doubt:

Computer Science and Information Systems Engineering at West Point? Check.

Film School (Master of Fine Arts-Tisch School of the Arts)? Check.

Runner-Up as the Most Eligible Bachelor in Colorado according to Cosmopolitan Magazine? Check.

Edward has it all!

In addition to all his accomplishments, he is pursuing concentrations in finance, accounting and entrepreneurship. Prior to business school, Edward worked for three years as an officer in the US Army, two years at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, two years at CBS Corporation and three years as an independent film producer in NYC. This summer he is interning at Deutsche Bank in New York City, working in their Leverage Finance and Health Care groups. Next year he will spend the winter quarter abroad studying at IESE in Barcelona Spain!

Favorite Booth memory: Raging in Hong Kong during a 9-hour Random Walk layover between Phuket, Thailand and Chicago with 17 random Boothies who became some of my closest friends.

With our first international representative we have Ignacio Vinke! He likes to hike, take pictures and managed to watch every game of the World Cup during his internship! At Booth, he is pursuing concentrations in Finance, Economics and Strategic Management. He studied Production Engineering from Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela, worked in marketing for three years and then opened Frigo, a healthy restaurant startup. At Booth, Ignacio serves as co-chair of BoothTech and Photobooth. This summer, he will be interning with Dish Network in Denver, Colorado where he is avidly training to run the Chicago Marathon in October (altitude training they say, harder than it looks).

Favorite Booth memory: Almost beating the Chilean team in the intramural soccer league! (They are very good)

Next up, we have Craig Carter!  Proud father of three, he is one of our brightest second years and is not only hoping to get concentrations in statistics and econometrics, finance, and operations, but also to do so while being the most amazing dad. Prior to Booth, he worked in corporate finance for the largest US freight railroad and is currently interning in the controller’s organization for a large oil and gas company. Beyond Booth, Craig loves exploring Chicago with his family (especially getting out along Lake Michigan) and is quite excited to be running the Chicago Marathon this October as well. Be sure to cheer for him and Ignacio if you come to Chicago next October.

Finally, our last introduction for this week, we have the amazing Alex Simon:

Alex loves to run, visit the latest Chicago festivals and all the new restaurants that open throughout the city. After going through the undergraduate program at U of C, he thought he was completely prepared for what the Booth experience would be, but couldn’t have been more wrong. What surprises him the most about the school is the number of students volunteering to help out their classmates or the different school groups in any way they can.

Favorite Booth memory: the winter formal at the Field Museum (you can party with Sue, one of the largest complete dinosaur fossils ever found).

Over the next year, we hope to answer as many questions as we can from all of you and post interesting content that can be helpful as you go through the process of trying to decide what school is best for you.

Cheers!

The Booth Experience Team.

Chicago Booth Admit Weekend II: Meet Your Co-Captains!

Admit Weekend is a terrific opportunity for admitted students to experience life as a Chicago Booth MBA for a weekend. Admits learn about the Booth curriculum, tour Chicago neighborhoods, and have plenty of time to get to know their future classmates. 

It takes lots of planning to make this happen, but fortunately we have a huge team of great volunteers. The students involved on the Admit Weekend Planning Committee take a “Co-Captain” role in a specific, key aspect of the Admit Weekend experience, from neighborhood and housing tours to partners’ programming.

Several of our Co-Captains offer reflections on their experiences and discuss why all admitted students should come to Admit Weekend!
--Matt Richman

John Choi
Volunteer and Operations Co-Captain

When I attended Admit Weekend last year as a prospective student, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of current student volunteers. It really spoke to Booth’s tight community and “pay-it-forward” mentality that is such a big part of Booth’s culture. I’ve definitely received a lot support from both my first year classmates and also the second years during my time at Booth, so I decided to join the planning committee to share this experience with the Admits. As the Operations Co-Captain, I work with over 200(!) student volunteers to ensure that the weekend runs smoothly and all your burning questions are answered. It’s a lot of planning and running around, but I have a lot of fun doing it. I hope you enjoy your Admit Weekend as much as I did and I look forward to meeting many of you!

Neha Poddar and Diego Ibarra
Student Fairs Co-Captains

                                                                                                                                                         

Having missed out on the opportunity to attend Admit Weekend last year, we are both very excited to be a part of the Admit Weekend 2014 organizing committee and to experience it as volunteers. Admit Weekend is the entire Booth experience condensed into a couple of days and as the co-captains of the student fairs, we hope to provide the admitted students a flavor of student life at Booth. We’ve organized some great events that will give you a sense of all of the resources and opportunities available to students, including:

• The Career Fair where co-chairs of the various career-focused groups at Booth answer questions about recruiting and professional development
• The Student Life & Resources Fair (SLRF), which will showcase the different cultural, social, diversity, and sports groups at Booth and give you an opportunity to engage with current students and envision what your social life might look like at Booth
• The Random Walk Fair, where you’ll learn about the far-flung destinations available to the Class of 2016. Click here to read about Booth’s Random Walk tradition!

It has been an incredible journey for us so far planning these fairs and we hope that you enjoy participating in them. We look forward to meeting you at the fairs!

Matt Riezman
Trivia and Events Co-Captain

My Admit Weekend experience confirmed for me all of the reasons why Booth was the best school for me. Admit Weekend gave me a great chance to experience the program and meet a lot of my future classmates, including my Admit Weekend squad mates, who are still some of my best friends at Booth. One of the highlights for me was the Booth Trivia Challenge. After a nail biter of a final round, my squad emerged victorious! Apparently, this qualified me to lead trivia this year (along with my sidekick Daniel!) Trivia is an awesome opportunity to learn more about Booth and Chicago in an exciting, challenging way. I can’t wait for you all to get here so we can try and stump you while having a lot of fun along the way. See you soon!

Meet The A-Team!

The A-Team is a group of highly trained operatives executing on a critical mission: planning the best weekend of your life. Ok, maybe I exaggerate, but Admit Weekend is a truly fun, incredible and memorable time. While hundreds of students come together to make Admit Weekend happen, a select group of 22 first year students, known as the A-Team, work behind the scenes for months to plan every detail of the weekend, from neighborhood tours throughout Chicago down to the music that will play during the weekend. Today, three A-Team members share how they’ve been involved.

Beth
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Kate Hui, Friday Night Dinner Co-Captain

After attending my own Admit Weekend, I knew that this was an event that I wanted to be a part of, and I found the perfect role as a Friday Night Dinner Co-Captain. Being a foodie from Chicago, I was really excited about the opportunity to showcase Chicago’s food scene, and using that as the backdrop for Admits to get to know both the Booth community and the city. Chicago is usually known for its hot dogs and deep dish pizza on one end and once-in-a-lifetime experiences like Alinea at the other, so I loved the challenge of finding interesting restaurants “in the middle” that are just as worthy of Chicago’s food fame and great for a relaxing evening out with a group of 20 friends!

Enjoying Korean BBQ in Chicago!

Chris Lewis, Trivia Event Captain

Working on the Admit Weekend Planning Team gives you the chance to impact how literally hundreds of admitted students and their partners perceive the Booth community. While our team of students works closely with Admissions, we are given a tremendous amount of leeway to inject our own creativity. In my case I’ve spent the last few months designing an interactive trivia game about life at Booth, from concept to execution. The game is meant to be lighthearted, and to that end I’ve scoured the ends of the internet to include some funny (but tasteful) pictures of faculty members and classmates.

Parvathi Suresh, Photography and Social Media Captain

It's been a wonderful experience being a part of the A-Team for Admit Weekend. Being the Photography and Social Media chair was a great way to draw upon some of my past experience in social media, and to have fun with the process! It's also a brilliant exercise in time management - juggling academics, recruiting, socializing and Admit Weekend responsibilities can leave one's calendar pretty full! The best part of the experience though? Definitely the fun conversations I've had with people roaming around Harper Center with my camera, trying to capture Booth in all its myriad hues.