Looking back

With my two years at Haas are coming to an end, I have recently started to reflect back on my time here in Berkeley and on the intense period of time ever since I have started applying to business school.

When I started the application process in the summer of 2007, I spent a long time thinking about my goals for business school. I will use this post (warning: long post) to share some of those goals and whether I was able to achieve those goals here at Haas. In case you don’t want the read through all the details, here is the short summary: Mission accomplished.

Leadership
Like most people applying for an MBA program, I wanted to develop and refine my leadership skills. In my career goals essay I wrote that I wanted to “improve my interpersonal skills and gain confidence leading teams through applying my leadership skills in clubs and through classes…“. Let’s see: I ran for and won an elected office, held speeches in front of 240 classmates and really enjoyed the leadership communications class, the Peers @ Haas coaching program and my Power & Politics class. As a member of the MBA Association, I was the voice of the international student community and led a workshop at the Graduate Business Conference. I organized events for the international student community, led a consulting team, and developed and delivered a communication skills workshop. Confidence building? You bet. Improve my interpersonal skills? Absolutely. Applying my leadership skills? Sure.

International exposure
From my application: “The program will allow me to meet people from different backgrounds, to learn from their experience, and to contribute my own perspective. At the same time electives like the International Business Development program, international study trips and the possibility to spend time at a business school in another country will help me to build on my existing international experience and to improve my understanding of doing business all over the world.“
I went to class with students from more than 40 countries. I traveled to Japan with some of my Japanese classmates and really got to know the country and its culture, worked in Finland (IBD) and Italy (Internship), and explored Mexico. I worked on project teams with people from at least 5 countries and lived with housemates coming from 4 countries and moving to 4 (different) countries after graduation. I also worked on case studies dealing with companies from at least 10 countries, learned from professors from countless places all across the world, and saw speakers from a variety of countries who are doing business all over the world. Oh, I also spent 2 years in the US. For me, that counts as international exposure. Meet people? Check. Build international experience? Check. Improve my understanding of doing business all over the world? Check again.

Business fundamentals
Even though I had worked as a management consultant for two years before coming to Haas, with my background in Computer Science, I felt I could use a more structured and formal introduction into business and economics. I also really wanted to better understand the various functions within a company, and the different economics and strategic challenges of various industries. “At the current point in my career the Berkeley MBA will give me a solid foundation to take on new business challenges of various sizes and shapes: It will be a good opportunity to deepen my understanding of business fundamentals…“
Without going into too much detail about my classes here: Check. I also worked on consulting projects in mobile communications, social networks, payment services, building materials, and renewable energy. Check again.

People:
I won’t copy anything from my applications essays, because that would sound really cheesy, but I met a bunch of wonderful people here at Haas and have been able to build up an extremely strong network and to make great friends. Fortunately some of my good friends are going to Europe after graduation, but I am sure I will stay in touch with many of my class mates in the years to come.

Giving back: I knew I would get a lot out of my years at Haas. Over my two years at Berkeley, it also became increasingly clear, that I wanted to give back to the wonderful community and to contribute to the success of the Haas School. I was amazed by how much every single one of us was able to do to make Haas a better place and by how much room the administration gave me and others to improve the student experience at Haas, to support our classmates, and to form a stronger community.

To sum things up: Has Haas delivered? Yes. Has the program enabled me to achieve my goals and aspirations? Yes. Have I been able to grow during my two years? Absolutely. So once again, mission accomplished.

—olistrut

Raccoons!

My name is Elad, 31, from Israel, and I’m also a first year MBA student here at Haas. I moved to Berkeley with my wife and our two cats and dog (actually my wife and the dog will join me and the cats next month). I already started capturing the experience on my blog – West Coast Story – and I am excited to share some of the posts here from time to time. Here’s the latest one.

Around 5am last night, deep into my (short and unsatisfactory) sleep, I started hearing noises coming from the area of the cats door – which is installed on one of our walls that heads to the porch. As our cats are new to Berkeley they are not going out yet. Still, they are extremely interested in opening that door and take any opportunity to try and do so. Naturally, I assumed they are simply trying to open it again.

I woke up all dizzy and went there to make them stop so I can go back to sleep. To my surprise, both cats were sitting in front of the cats door, giving it their “hunt look”, all charged and ready for action. I was even more surprised to hear the noises continue even though the cats were not causing them.

At this point I became a little scared. I was pretty sure there’s a thief trying to break into the house (well, not a very talented one considering the level of noise he was producing. Coming to think of it now, he had to be a really tiny thief if he tried to break in through the cats door). I turned on the light on the porch and looked out. I was amazed to see a beautiful animal staring right back at me – a raccoon! A real raccoon at my porch! Here’s one thing that would not have happened to me in Israel…

We stood there for about 20 seconds, just staring at each other, not sure what to do next. After recovering from the shock I ran for my camera, but when I came back he was already gone. My landlord explained to me that the raccoons learned how to open the cats door and were using it occasionally in the past to sneak into the house and steal some of the the cat food. Quite impressive, isn’t it?

—Elad Ganot

Back in Berkeley

After more than 3 months on the road for IBD and my summer internship, I came back to the Bay Area yesterday.

First day highlights: The Strawberry Canyon pool (again), Noodle Theory on College Avenue, and of course meeting my friends and coming back home.

I haven’t finalized my class schedule for the next semester yet, but I was mostly successful bidding for classes and I am really looking forward to my Negotiations and Marketing Research classes.

—olistrut

Vacation? No, this is my internship.

I know my blog posts are starting to look like I am on vacation, but during the week I am actually busy working. After a very interesting week in Milan with a great team, I spent the weekend at nearby Lago d’Iseo. Saturday was mostly reserved for Gelato, swimming in the lake, and eating fantastic Italian food, while Sunday, I visited some of the mountains town around the lake, including Zone, where I caught a nice glimpse of the “Pyramids of Zone”, large rock formations formed by glacial erosion.

I had been to Lago d’Iseo once as a little kid and was still able to recognize some of the places around the lake, but it seems I missed the pyramids the last time I was there.

Now, back to work.

—olistrut

Underdressed

Coming to Milan I had expected that people here would wear business casual just like in most of our other offices in the world. But on Monday morning, as I was walking from my hotel to the office, I already noticed that pretty much everybody was in full business formal outfit and when I entered the office I realized I would be terribly under dressed for the rest of the week: It is a cliché, but Italians care about clothes and they certainly know how to dress well.

—olistrut

Summer update: Spain 1 – Germany 0

My summer project brought me to Milan, so instead of watching the Euro Cup final with my friends in Germany, I was wandering around Milan Sunday night to find a place to watch the game. After Italy lost their quarter-final against Spain, enthusiasm in Italy had cooled off significantly and a number of local bars did not even bother to turn on their TVs.

On the Piazza del Duomo, however, a large outdoor screen presumably had been set up to allow people to celebrate the Italian team’s victories, was still up and running and a group of around 100 Spanish fans and quite a few Germans had already gathered there by the time I arrived a few minutes before the start of the game. (Please excuse the bad picture quality – I had not brought my camera and had to take pictures with my phone.)
Around 5 minutes into the game thunder set in and it started to rain heavily within an instant. By that time I could have known the game would not end well for the German team: As all the German fans had fled into a nearby “shopping mall” (not as big as your average American mall, but way cooler) a group of Spanish fans was still out there on the Piazza soaked, but still waiving their flags. With fans like this and a fantastic game, Spain definitely deserved to win the cup.

I will be in Milan for the rest of the week and then go back to Germany for the rest of the summer. So far, it is fun being back at work. As much as I love school, it is nice to be able to apply your freshly learned skills in the real world. But: I really look forward to coming back to Berkeley for my second year. It is too bad there is no third year… I kind of like the idea of going back and forth between work and school.

Pictures: Inside the “mall” and Spanish fans out in the rain.

—olistrut