Onto the S(e)oul of Asia!

The flight to Seoul was awesome. My ploy on cheating jet lag worked - I was dead to the world the moment I boarded the flight. The guy next to me claims there was a lot of turbulence in the first hour of the flight, but I think he was just being a sissy - I sure would have noticed the turbulence from the other side of my almost-coma.

I woke up to a pleasant air hostess offering me orange juice. I should say one thing about Korean Air - they have the prettiest air hostesses I have ever seen. My travel buddy An tells me that most Korean women get plastic surgery done. No wonder they all look the same!! But hey - as long as they look pretty and smile at me I don't mind.. ;-)

The best part of the flight was the "Bibimbap" they served me on the flight, along with an instruction card on how to eat it. I found that to be pretty cool! So, you put the rice over the veggies and/or meat, put all the spicy chilli-paste you want on top, throw in some soy-oil and mix it all into a yummy rice dish. And then you eat it with soup and other pickled side-dishes. I loved it!

I used the rest of my flight to contemplate on my ethical foundation and how it would apply to business. If you are wondering where that came from, that was the essay I had to submit for my class at Owen and that I procrastinated till the last minute. The only discovery I had from the contemplation is that I did not really care about them, and I should really stop procrastinating!

The Journey Begins

Sitting here in the Atlanta airport waiting for my flight to South Korea, the clock shows 8:10 and I have two simultaneous thoughts:

1. I have been without sleep for 24 hours now. In my effort to get a head start on the jet-lag (and because I procastinated all my packing till the last minute) I stayed awake all night.

2. I don't know when I'll see the 8:10 cafe again. And I have an IOU of $0.75 pending. Maybe someone who owes me money will clear it for me? I'm sure someone owes me money...

As my sleep deprived brain feels less and less excited, the euphoria of finishing school and the joy of traveling are wearing thin. And what is finally creeping up on me is the feeling that I'm going to miss Owen. All the lovely friends, the awesome things we did together, the silly gossip, the petty politics... everything! I suddenly don't want it to be over anymore. This is probably the last time I'm going to be in school and it is over quickly. Too quickly!

At least I have the China trip to look forward to. There will be friends from Owen again, and this time around I'm going to take my time saying goodbye!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Job Hunting and Business School

After accepting the job offer from Deloitte, I suddenly feel like a mountain has been lifted off my shoulders. I seem to like my classes a lot more and actually put in some effort into my homeworks. I pay a lot more attention in class, now that I don't think about the cover-letters I would be submitting at the end of the day.

All this makes me wonder, did the uncertainty in the job market destroy some of the value of an MBA? I am guessing that learning and gaining knowledge were one of the top reasons why most of us came to business school. The amount of work that is needed for job search and the sheer fear and uncertainty of being jobless are sure to distract us from our endeavor to learn.

Being in an MBA program felt like paying a glorified hiring consultant first, and a graduate school next.

And this makes me wonder... is there a better way to structure an MBA program? Or is this exactly how it is designed to be?