MBlog07

[Debbie] Best four months ever!

I haven't done this much learning since I was a toddler.  Instead of going "Look ma, I can walk!" I'm going, "Look ma, I know why the nice lightbulbs are cheaper than the shitty lightbulbs!"  And ma goes, "That's nice, dear. Eat your mashed potatoes."  Man, I love those potatoes.  Once I finish them I'm going to start a cult so I can get the word out about MLOG.

This time last year, before I got into MIT, I had half as much confidence. But by finishing a mess of hard assignments, by working with accomplished global thinkers, and by tackling impossible but important and relevant problems, I've changed.  Last year I would have shrugged and said, "There's no way I can do that."  Now I can say, "Let's see what I can do."  And if I can't do it, I'll find someone who will.

I never had such career aspirations as I have now.  I can choose between companies and industries and coworkers.  I can have a lot more input into how problems are tackled.  I can apply my math and conversational skills and save a lot of money and time, and make lots of people happy!  How cool can life get?

All my fall classes were interesting and intelligent.  I loved it all, except for database management - and best of all, the problems I had in that class are being addressed.  I'm rather blown away by how well professors and support staff use feedback here.  I feel like my opinion counts.  I've never experienced that at any other school.

Another special, completely unexpected highlight of the semester was Professor Saar's leadership course.  I've taken personality tests before, but only in a vacuum.  By analyzing my soft skills in a structured setting, and giving them context, I have tripled my self-awareness and collected important action items for next semester.  MIT may make me a nicer person!

Superlative count: 20.  Exclamation count: 5.  I promise more in the next(wonderful) entry.(!)

[Debbie] On Tour

Just thinking about today's session with a consulting recruiter has me rolling on the floor laughing.  Sean did an incredible job in the hot seat, answering insanely tough questions in front of 20 people for 20 minutes.  I would have gotten up and walked out.  The rest of us were too chickenshit to follow his great performance.  So what did we do?  We put the presenter on the hot seat.  The guys in my class are amazingly smart - but also loyal to one another.

I'm lucky to go home and see my family over Thanksgiving, but some of my international classmates can't afford that luxury.  I was bowled over by my classmate's hospitality - inviting everybody to his place in California for the long weekend.  Some of us are also planning to vacation together in December.  In the running are skiing in Switzerland, lounging in Greece, or visiting Ali's villa in Morocco - even though he swears there is no villa. 

Somehow the semester's half over.  I got to tour UPS and General Mills distribution centers and a Yoplait plant.  I got to climb in the back of a UPS truck and startle a plant manager by mis-reading the expiration date on his product.  Fun times, including choking on sweet fumes in a warehouse full of ten-foot-tall cubes of powdered milk.  I'm organizing a Supply Chain Club tour of the Port of Boston.  We'll get to see containers full of calculators and socks on thursday.  On Friday I'm flying to JFK to take a look at Jet Blue's operations, and then root around in the back rooms of MOMA.  I've taken time out of my schedule to interview with a few companies but I haven't found the perfect match yet.  I have started a sponsored thesis project, found a great study partner, and met with a really responsive corporate advisor - I have high hopes for my future as a researcher. 

I just started two new half-semester courses: Strategic Market Management and Negotiation Strategy.  Before Christmas, I will be designing surveys and talking about game theory with ease.  I love all these little courses that I can fit into my schedule - they keep life interesting.

[Debbie] Intro to Classes

September 20

Amazing.  I never expected to learn anything from a writing class.  However, I both enjoyed and benefitted from a lecture by Bill Haas.  He put clips of many students' papers up on the board, and had us critique each other's work.  It was fantastic, practical, and eye-opening.  I realized the hard way that humor is a no-no in the academic world.  I had a talk with a friend who's a professional academic, and he says that the only way to tastefully add humor is with understatement.  I thought I did that well, but apparently my last homework assignment lacked taste.  At least it gave the class something to laugh about.

October 1

Found a new motivation - I need to succeed so I can come back and join the Sloan Fellows program.  They have the most fantastic seminars, with Jack Welch and Dr. Axe, the guy who may have invented Operational Strategy.  With what grace, wit, and projection these masters of science speak!  A few mloggers snuck into the first sessions, to get a taste of everything that MIT has to offer.  This was a fantastic experience, even if there isn't space for us during the rest of the semester.  There also wasn't space for me in Sloan's Negotiations class, but that didn't stop me from sneaking into the first session.  It was an absolute riot - business students sitting on top of one another in the aisles.  I soon found out why.  One of the exercises was arm wrestling!  In another exercise, we broke into teams and communicated with other teams using numbers over the internet.  I was picked to be a delegate of my team, since I was not going to stay in the class, and had few(er) qualms about lying to the other team about our pricing strategy!  The other students had to be more cautious, as they had reputations to uphold within their business network.  What a riot.  I suprised myself by being a shrewd negotiator, and somehow had the upper hand by sticking to an unfavorable position, until the other team gave fantastic concessions.  It felt great to be patted on the back by second-year MBA students.

Fortunately there's another negotiations class offered later in the semester, and that is more theory-oriented.  Also, there's plenty of space for us in the Sloan Ops Management club.  Hearing Jeff Bezos of Amazon speak was thrilling - here's a guy who laughed his way around a million obstacles to become one of the century's greatest tycoons.

[Debbie] The first month

Sept 2

Orientation couldn't have been more fun and relaxing.  We walk in the first day and we have these huge binders that tell us everything we need to know about classes, getting a job, picking a thesis, and navigating the campus.  Dave tells us companies are paying $35k and up for a chance to give us a thesis topic.  John tells us that the average starting salary of last year's class was $97k.  It's virtually impossible for us to fall behind, cause the program is counting on us to succeed and spread goodwill for future classes.

Orientation has a party atmosphere from the beginning.  Either we're having beers at one of the three pubs on campus (R&D, Muddy, and Thirsty,) or we're being wined and dined courtesy of the Grad Student Council.  I can't believe the sense of community here.  Everyone's automatically in the in-crowd, a member of the student council, part of the engineering systems division, and an
affiliate of all the other scientists in the room.  Future braintrust central feels great.  I feel like I've arrived.  The only thing missing is ice cream, so I'm taking a break to enjoy my personal stash.

Sept 5

Orientation is getting wild.  The mock classes totally kicked my butt.  It took me a while to get everything set up on my machine, but at least the IT guys were friendly, thorough, and happy to help.  I realized I know absolutely nothing about Excel, not having used it since I got my bachelors.  But now I know how to make charts like a pro again.  Necessity breeds invention.  I might even master pivot tables and access queries by the time I graduate.

I've lived here six years and I've never gotten off a ferry to explore any of the Harbor Islands.  The Outward Bound leadership training day was fantastic, for that experience alone.  But it also forced me to hug quite a few people.  I'm happy to report that all my classmates (so far) use deodorant. 

Look at how amused I am!  ===>

Sept 10

I walk in the first day of classes to get a cup of coffee from the lab kitchen.   A fellow classmate (hi, Anindya) asks, "Have you done your homework?" and I almost drop the pot. I must have looked horrified, because he and a few others burst out laughing.

Sept 15

Today was resume submission day.  Somehow word got out that I was a decent editor.  With a flair for buzzwords.  Suddenly there was a queue of five guys waiting for critiques.  There went the afternoon.  But editing is its own reward. I'm a dork and love grammar, at least more than most engineers.  So I
moved a few commas, and got to write red ink all over the most amazing resumes ever.

This guy generated millions of dollars of sales in Russia!  This guy kept a billion bucks worth of trains running!  This guy made cool computers and rearranged the product's supply chain already!  Why isn't he teaching our class?

Yeah, well, at least I'm still a rocket scientist.

About Debbie

Debbie is a 2003 graduate of Northeastern University with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering. She held electrical engineering coop positions at Panametrics, Teradyne and Bose leading to a Systems Engineer role at Raytheon's Ballistic Missile Defense Systems division. At Raytheon she saw the impact of logistics, security concerns, and contract negotiations on engineering decisions. Debbie hopes to gain technical supply management skills to complement her engineering skills, and to apply them in a technical project management role after graduation next June. She is a member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), and is on the support staff for their annual conference in San Antonio.