Thursday, July 17, 2014

Recent Updates - Baby, Housing, Laptop, and Some Other Stuff

It’s crazy how fast time flies.  There are still a ton of things I would like to get done before classes start in September.  However, the past month or so has been packed with putting my house on the market and everything that goes along with that, winding down at work, handing off projects, training new hires and interns, etc., oh ya, and my wife and I welcomed a new baby boy.  That’s boy number three for us!  So needless to say, things have been crazy.

In spite of all that is going on, I have been able to cross off a few essential items off my pre-MBA checklist.  I purchased my laptop for school.  I decided to go with the MacBook Air.  For those that are considering a Mac, Apple is offering a $100 gift card to those that purchase one now.  Although this wasn’t on my checklist of things to do, I decided to buy and iPad Mini with the gift card I got from Clear Admit for winning the Best of Blogging.  Thanks Clear Admit!

In the past month we have been able to get our house under contract too!  As long as things go as planned, we should close just a couple days before we are able to move into our place in LA.  Which brings me to my next checklist item, finding a place to live.  We were lucky enough to get into graduate student family housing in LA.  I am very glad, because we needed a 3-bedroom, and anything near campus that wasn’t university owned was about twice the price.  Also, the elementary school my oldest son will be going to has great ratings, so that is a huge plus.


There are several other things on my list that I am currently working.  Unfortunately, a lot is getting pushed back because we have been busy packing and cleaning up our house.  I am currently reading a couple great books.  Quiet, by Susan Cain, and The Start-up of You, by LinkedIn co-founder, Reid Hoffman.  I have also been working on learning some coding.  I started taking the HarvardX CS50x: Intro to Computer Science.  I have also been playing around quite a bit on Code Academy.  If anyone has any other good learning sources, please share.  Although things have been busy this past month, we will be heading down to LA almost a month and a half before I start classes.  So, that should give me plenty of time to finish things up, and be ready to hit the ground running!

Monday, July 14, 2014

McKinsey & Company Emerging Scholars Interview Debrief

I just wanted to say congratulations to everyone that was selected to the McKinsey & Company Emerging Scholars Program.  Unfortunately I did not make it passed the semi-finalist interviews.  The being said, I was honored to be selected as a semi-finalist, and true enjoyed the process.  I was able to interview with the recruiter in charge of UCLA Anderson recruiting, as well as two consultants that were Anderson alumni.  I am grateful for the time they took to get to know me (each interview was about 45 minutes), and I enjoyed getting to know them and McKinsey a little better.  Luckily I had two weeks off for paternity leave during the times the interviews were scheduled (we just welcomed out third baby boy to the family).

Although I was a bit nervous at first, the interviews were actually pretty fun.  With my interview with the recruiter, I had to complete a creative exercise.  I chose to do a single-slide PowerPoint about the person I admire most.  It made for a great conversation.  We discussed my work experience, extracurricular involvement, and my thoughts about McKinsey.  The recruiter was really nice and created a very relaxed and conversational environment.

My next two interviews were with consultants, both UCLA Anderson grads.  Again, both were great experiences.  We were able to go a little bit deeper into my work history and then we worked through a mini-case.  I really enjoyed working through the mini-case, and if that is the type of stuff McKinsey consultants get to see on a daily basis (although I am sure real cases are much more complex), I would definitely enjoy it.

Although I tried not to get my hopes up, as the notification date drew closer, I couldn’t help but imagining myself being selected.  It would have been a great opportunity.  Unfortunately, I didn’t receive the news I was looking for on July 3rd.  It was ok though.  I heard from another semi-finalist that over 1800 people applied to the program, so just being selected as a semi-finalist wasn’t too bad.  Anyway, it was a great opportunity, and I was able to meet some fantastic people.  I was told by all three people I interviewed with to stay in touch, and the recruiter said she would be looking for me in the fall.  I am definitely excited for what the future holds in store. just wanted to say congratulations to everyone that was selected to the McKinsey & Company Emerging Scholars Program.  Unfortunately I did not make it passed the semi-finalist interviews.  The being said, I was honored to be selected as a semi-finalist, and true enjoyed the process.  I was able to interview with the recruiter in charge of UCLA Anderson recruiting, as well as two consultants that were Anderson alumni.  I am grateful for the time they took to get to know me (each interview was about 45 minutes), and I enjoyed getting to know them and McKinsey a little better.  Luckily I had two weeks off for paternity leave during the times the interviews were scheduled (we just welcomed out third baby boy to the family).

Although I was a bit nervous at first, the interviews were actually pretty fun.  With my interview with the recruiter, I had to complete a creative exercise.  I chose to do a single-slide PowerPoint about the person I admire most.  It made for a great conversation.  We discussed my work experience, extracurricular involvement, and my thoughts about McKinsey.  The recruiter was really nice and created a very relaxed and conversational environment.

My next two interviews were with consultants, both UCLA Anderson grads.  Again, both were great experiences.  We were able to go a little bit deeper into my work history and then we worked through a mini-case.  I really enjoyed working through the mini-case, and if that is the type of stuff McKinsey consultants get to see on a daily basis (although I am sure real cases are much more complex), I would definitely enjoy it.

Although I tried not to get my hopes up, as the notification date drew closer, I couldn’t help but imagining myself being selected.  It would have been a great opportunity.  Unfortunately, I didn’t receive the news I was looking for on July 3rd.  It was ok though.  I heard from another semi-finalist that over 1800 people applied to the program, so just being selected as a semi-finalist wasn’t too bad.  Anyway, it was a great opportunity, and I was able to meet some fantastic people.  I was told by all three people I interviewed with to stay in touch, and the recruiter said she would be looking for me in the fall.  I am definitely excited for what the future holds in store.