Hello Friends & Family!
I hope this holiday season finds you full of yuletide cheer and hot cocoa! It has been a bit of hectic semester to say the least which pretty much killed my ability to update you all on the interesting and awesome things happening! But I thought I would update you all via my personal rendition of “Night Before Christmas” (this was started yesterday, so don’t judge the accuracy of the first line)!
Twas the night before my return flight, when all through the Midwest
Not a single update had been sent, because there was no time, not even to rest
My grades were posted by professors with care
And I hope my GPA is good enough that I can I go back there [Berkeley]
While the semester was so crazy I never got to snuggle in my bed
Countless update topics – jobs, parties, costumes, new hairdos – raced through my head
To start, I wanted to share I got a new job at Medtronic
I’ll be moving back to Minnesota in the summer and hopefully will stick … around J
Alright, I’ll stop there … I had hoped to do the whole update in poetic prose, but I realize now it is doomed! So let me hit on some fun highlights (<-foreshadowing).
Winter Break
First things first – I am heading back to the great white northland and mother ship, Minnesota, this Monday (12/16) and I am going to be around for a bit. Unlike the President, I have little worries about sharing my travel itinerary with the interwebs (though, it is totally subject to change):
- 12/16-12/21 – Minneapolis
- 12/21-12/25 – Grand Rapids
- 12/26-12/29 – Fargo
- 12/30-01/07 – International Travel
- 01/08 – Minneapolis for a bit and headed off to SF (tear!)
If you want to hang out – let me know! As always, it is way more fun to fill up my days with laughs and good meals with great friends versus cold leftovers and old reruns by myself (at this point, I wish I could insert some cartoon-esque sad music sounds…)
So I got a Job…
In the normal world, the job offer process looks like this:
Step 1: Intern/Apply
Step 2: Receive Offer
Step 3: Celebrate (note: celebration can range from a single fist pump to a huge party)
Step 4: Accept Offer
Step 5: Celebrate again!
However, in Business School the process is more like this:
Step 1: Intern/Apply
Step 2: Receive Offer
Step 3: Grimace & begin grueling soul searching process. This process should be filled with numerous conversations where you repeatedly ask if this is the “best” thing for you.
Step 4: Confirm you don’t know what is the “best thing” is for you and decide to solicit advice from EVERYONE!
Step 5: Decide your classmates going into consulting have a better plan than you do, invest countless hours preparing for and applying to top consulting firms.
Step 6: Don’t get consulting offers.
Step 7: Repeat Steps 3 & 4.
Step 8: Request more time from company.
Step 9: Repeat Steps 3 & 4.
Step 10: Accept Offer
Step 11: Repeat Steps 3 & 4.
Step 12: Celebrate!
As I mentioned in my poem, I accepted a job with Medtronic. I will be part of the Leadership Development Rotation Program (LDRP), which is a three year program with two 18-month rotations.
- Rotation 1: My first rotation will be in Minnesota working in the Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management (CRDM) business unit. Specifically, I will be helping lead a global product launch. Medtronic launches ~1-6 products a year, so this should be a unique and amazing experience.
- Rotation 2: Unknown – I am pushing to do something either Mergers & Acquisitions related or possibly international… stay tuned for future updates in 2015.
Silver Fox Changes His Coat
After almost 15 years of gradually losing the battle against graying hair and terrible nicknames that come with premature silvering (i.e., Silver Fox, 50 Shares of Gray), I took the drastic measure of dying my hair.
I’ll pause here for you to pick yourself off the floor.
In one of my courses the product we worked on was a permanent hair dye by a new startup, Madison Reed (they do good work)! In an attempt to garner some good will with the professor and to show efficacy we thought decided to dye one team member’s hair. I was excited to give it a whirl and all of my teammates had jet black hair… so, it was me or no one! So with no further ado, the before and after photo:
While I enjoyed my few days as a brunette, it freaked me out every morning when I glanced myself in a mirror. So, I embraced my carefree opportunity to modify my hairstyle to my all-time favorite:
The Mohawk!
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