Road trippin'

Here's the story of six 1st year MBA's who embarked on an exciting adventure to sunny Southern California.

For the first time ever, the BYU Powers That Be planned a three day break from classes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for the express purpose of visiting companies, networking, having interview flybacks etc.

So the six of us jumped in the car and took off for the hotbed of commerce, Southern California. Here are the featured players :

Me

Marci

Derek

Rob

Gordon

BrandonHere's a rundown of the week's events:

Tuesday

After the brain-drain of taking our Operations mid-term, we were more than ready to get on the road. We made really good time, stopping only for really important stuff like gas, potty breaks and to grab some choice grub at In n' Out in Las Vegas.

Rob, me, Brandon, Gordon, Marci

Wednesday

Our destination for Wednesday morning was in one of the many areas of SoCal on fire, so we got an early start just in case of delays. On our drive down into the LA area Tuesday night, we could see the fire light on the tops of the ridges just over the mountain from us. It was pretty crazy, so we were a bit concerned about road closures etc. Everything was fine but the aftermath of the fires along the road was evident. Check out the smoke and burned land just off the road:




Rob's brother-in-law works in finance for Black & Decker Hardware & Home Improvement Group in Lake Forest, CA, just outside of Irvine. Rob arranged for us to meet with some folks there and it was awesome. (In my next entry, I'll talk about what we learned/discussed from our meetings.)




After lunch and a good time at B&D, we made our way down to Long Beach to visit Boeing. We met with an hr representative who works in Global Recruiting and learned more about how one of the largest airplane manufacturers and defense contractors finds talent.



And since we were so close, we decided to stop by the Newport Beach Temple. It is a bit unique because unlike many other LDS temples, it is pink and looks like an old spanish-style mission. So incredible (I think I might have found a new favorite temple!) Notice the smoky air from the nearby fires.




With our business done for the day, we changed into our street clothes and started the quest for our dinner. On the recommendation of Brandon's roommate who used to live in the area, we settled on Rockin' Baja Lobster, a nifty little baja seafood mexican place on Balboa Island.

Oh baby. It. Was. Good. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

They are famous for their seafood buckets...and there is a reason why...they are A-maz-ing. If you are ever in the area...make this a stop on your itinerary.

Thursday

Our next stop was Edwards Lifesciences in Irvine. They are a medical device company most famous for their heart valves. We met with a Utah native working there in marketing and had the opportunity to view the clean room where they "manufacture" the heart valves. Very very cool.


That night, we met for dinner with another Utah native who works for Mercer, an HR consulting company.

Friday

Of course, we couldn't go to SoCal without visiting the Happiest Place on Earth...Disneyland. Our newly acquired business training in marketing and operations threatened to derail the fun as we noticed all the line bottlenecks and promotion opportunities in the parks. But finally we relaxed and through the magic of FastPass, we hit all the top attractions, watched the best shows, and experienced the magic of Disney.





We decided to ride Splash Mountain and all got soaked...

But I think it brought us closer together as a group. :)

So in conclusion...this week was fantastic all around. I met with some incredible people at respected companies, spent the week with my amazing classmates and got to know them in ways (both good and bad) just not possible sitting in class, laughed, learned, laughed some more and basically had a blast. (MBA professors are you listening? This was an incredible experience and well worth the time out of class).

Tomorrow I'll post some of the "key takeaways" I learned from our meetings this week. But for now I've got to get to bed. :)

Battle of the '09ers

Our MBA class is divided up into three sections. We have all six of our classes with the same people, all day every day. So we get to know our fellow section-ers pretty well. And while I do everything I can to meet as many people in our program, there are still a lot of people in the other sections that I don't very well or really even at all.

After much trash talking, Section 2 challenged Section 3 (my section) to a football game on Saturday morning. And what's a little healthy competition to help us bond with the rest of our classmates. We had a lot fun, got a little exercise, and enjoyed the crisp fall morning air.

Below are some shots of us in action. We didn't really keep score but I think everyone was glad they dragged themselves out of bed to come.

Synergy

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the Office. While the show is entertaining (and a clever satire of life in corporate america), it is also often at the forefront of the latest media trends.

With the growing popularity of Tivo/DVR, advertisers being forced to find unique ways to connect messages to their targets. Viewers can now forward through the commercials with just a few clicks on the remote. And while not new, product placement is one of the best ways right now to tivo-proof messages and connect their product/service with a show/character that the audience already knows/loves. (I'm beginning to sound like a marketing class. Dr. Swenson would be proud.)

So...back to the Office. This week's episode "Money" featured Dwight's beet-farm-turned-bed-&-breakfast. And Dwight is worried about its ratings on a little travel review Web site called...what was that again?...TripAdvisor.com.

Yep, that's right, in case you missed it...that was the product placement. Pretty clever really. Because Office viewers are smart (yep, that's me), they are going see right through any attempt to push products on the show...so they promote them with a little *nudge, nudge*wink, wink.

And here's the best part. My friend Dave Dickson has a blackberry, so during the show he surfed on in to TripAdvisor's page about Schrute Farms Bed & Breakfast. There were already details about the (fictional) b&b and even reviews.

Synergy at its best. Genius.

Don't Mess with Texas!

Last weekend, myself and 116 of my closest Marriott School MBA friends headed down to Houston, Texas for the National Society of Hispanic MBA (NSHMBA) annual conference. Over the last few years NSHMBA has developed a reputation for being THE job fair for b-school students. It did not disappoint. More than 300 companies were there recruiting for internships and full-time positions and more than 8000 students were there to network/schmooze/work-it and try to get that once in a lifetime job or internship opportunity.

Here are some of the highlights:

The Show Floor.





The off-the-hook Target party.










And the aftermath of being on your feet (in heels) all days for two days...



(Yep those are our feet soaking in the bathtub).

We had a fantastic time during out 48 hours in H-town. I interviewed with three companies, talked to countless more, and got to meet some awesome MBA students from other schools. It was well worth the money, time and extra stress. Plus, more than anything else and most importantly, it really forced me to get myself into the finding-a-job mindset. We did mock interviews during orientation but nothing prepared me for the real thing.

I'm still waiting to hear how some of my leads from the conference will pan out. But even if I don't get an internship directly from NSHMBA, I know the experience I gained will play a large role in the internship I eventually land. It was valuable just from a personal and professional development perspective and I'm already thinking ahead to next year about ways that I can make it even more valuable.

Also, there is also one more thing I learned that I will carry with me throughout my life....