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Manager
Joined: 19 Feb 2015
Posts: 113
Given Kudos: 0
Concentration: Marketing, Technology
GRE 1: Q159 V161
GPA: 3.49
WE:Sales (Advertising and PR)
Re: Oxford (Said) MBA Admission and Related Blogs!
[#permalink]
17 Aug 2016, 17:01
17 Aug 2016, 17:01
| FROM Yudanashi - Current Student: Life Skills |
|
Answering the question “Where are you from?” is never easy for me. My family moved around a lot growing up and along the way I learned some critical life skills. My ability to meet new people and form solid connections even if only for a moment comes (in part) from all the moves we made. But the more important skill I’ve learned is how to pack up my life and ship out. With all the moves my family made we got pretty good at moving-truck Tetris. At rearranging things to make them fit with no gaps – be it in the car (stuffing with lose towels and other odds & ends) or in a suitcase itself (why leave shoes empty when you can stuff sucks inside them). This skill has become so engrained in me that yesterday when I found out that my lease ended not on the 31st of the month, but 4 days before – while I’m en route from Tokyo to Montreal – My only concern was where to store my stuff. I knew that given 3-4 hours tops I could clean out my home, pack everything up tight, and be ready to move it somewhere. I found that place to store my stuff this morning and as a result came home from a long day of work, made some dinner and unpacked the suitcase ‘d already made up for my upcoming trip. Before I had the luxury of using whatever suitcase I wanted. Now I had to maximize space on both my trip and my move.  Now, inside this small backpack, is everything I need for the beaches of Barcelona with a classmate’s last trip before his wedding; the humid climate of Japan including cold-weather gear, a sleeping bag, and hiking shoes for Mt. Fuji; and Montreal bachelor-party attire. All inside this – albeit overstuffed – backpack. The rest of my belongings, from art, to books, to clothes, to tech, to fencing gear, to chocolate chips, to 9 suits/blazers all are in 1 carry-on roller, 1 school backpack, 1 laptop bag, 1 fencing bag, 1 duffel, and 1 backpacking backpack and 3 garment bags.  All packed up in under 3 hours. It would have been done sooner had my big giant roller-bag not broken both zippers needed to close it as I was finishing up causing me to repack everything without that bag. The only things not packed, are my clothes for tomorrow and Friday, and the laptop I’m writing this blog post on. It may not be as important a skill as cooking or making a perfect powerpoint deck, but it is a critical life skill that I’ve been taught again and again and again. |
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it.
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Manager
Joined: 19 Feb 2015
Posts: 113
Given Kudos: 0
Concentration: Marketing, Technology
GRE 1: Q159 V161
GPA: 3.49
WE:Sales (Advertising and PR)
Re: Oxford (Said) MBA Admission and Related Blogs!
[#permalink]
19 Aug 2016, 05:01
19 Aug 2016, 05:01
| FROM Yudanashi - Current Student: Call Centers |
|
Anyone who has sat near me for long knows I love and loathe call centers. At times I find them convenient and easy to use (Delta) and on the whole I use them to get things done faster than tinkering online myself. But every once in a while I need a good rant. When I’m worked up about life and frustrated by bad logic I’ll do some life administration and call up a call center. I’ll look to score points by nitpicking the errors they make in logic or at times just call them on their bs. Today I had the chance to visit a call center and see it first hand. I listened in to calls and saw the Half truths told to comfort the client ‘our system is slow today bear with me one second’ while stalling for time being chief among them. I also saw how rigidly the staff are held accountable. With audits of their calls to see if they step one toe out of line. Their job is intense and difficult and it made me see the other side of the line for when I call in. They have very little power to make their own choices and I have to question, why. When I call Delta now, and to be fair it’s due to loyalty status, I get connected to a representative who has a lot of flexibility in their job. They are empowered to make things amazing for customers within a range of options. They have helped me book a crazy itinerary on multiple carriers and then switch it all around because they saw a way to book it to save me $800. Getting your organization’s customer service staff to be able to do that is hard. It takes a culture of trust in your staff and a level of sophisticated training, it takes investment that I lyrics a few places are willing to commit to. While I can’t change a company’s culture and training from the outside I can change myself. I can stop being a jerk on the phone and start treating everyone, including those who are telling me a little white lie, with a lot more respect – respect deserving of the humanity they and I share. Note: After only a month it happened. I missed a publishing deadline. I did write most of this article yesterday but unfortunately had a night out with work and wasn’t able to get to finish and publish this. I apologize and hope this occasion is rare. |
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it.
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Manager
Joined: 19 Feb 2015
Posts: 113
Given Kudos: 0
Concentration: Marketing, Technology
GRE 1: Q159 V161
GPA: 3.49
WE:Sales (Advertising and PR)
Re: Oxford (Said) MBA Admission and Related Blogs!
[#permalink]
19 Aug 2016, 10:01
19 Aug 2016, 10:01
| FROM Yudanashi - Current Student: Small and Simple Things |
|
The smallest piece of information can have a monumental impact on your life. At 19, I beat out the other candidates for an internship in DC solely because I knew the name of my Member of Congress and US Senators while the other candidates didn’t. That small detail in my head changed my life. Why? Because that internship was taking a chance on a guy who had been expelled from BYU and was just starting to find himself at the University of Utah. It gave me something professional to put on my resume that wasn’t retail or restaurant work. The internship gave me the connection I needed to pick up the phone and recommend me for my first salaried job in DC a few months later. That job exposed me to digital media and politics and got me hooked. Because of that hook, the job led me to Google where we were a client. Google where I caught a passion for more than just politics but the role of ‘business’ in a broader context. That passion led me to apply and get into the University of Oxford where I have met some of the most amazing people who exposed me to what ‘consulting’ was really all about and who helped me practice and prepare for my interviews with Monitor Deloitte. I just turned in my laptop at the end of my 8-week internship with Monitor Deloitte where I saw first hand how the skills I’ve picked up along the way could be used as a consultant. I’ve also seen the breadth of exposure to the business world and the hands-on depth with each client I could gain as a consultant. Breadth and depth that I can parlay in many directions moving forward. The internship gave me a taste and worked partially like an 8-week long interview. Both the firm interviewing me and me interviewing the firm. On Wednesday I had my final exit interview with two partners in the firm and I think it went well. If all goes well I could have just spent 1 yr accomplishing the difficult task MBAs around the world look to do, the triple jump. Changing function, industry, and location all at once. A complete professional redefinement. From Political Sales in DC to Strategy Consulting in London. I don’t know how it will go but I am hopeful. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t have had this entire journey and opportunity had it not been for that simple, trivial fact in my head. So thank you to Rep. Jim Matheson, Sen. Bennett and Sen. Hatch for landing me the first step on this journey. Thank you to the teachers and mentors who taught me to value learning for getting me to where I am today. And thank you to everyone who has made this journey as amazing as it has been. |
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it.
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