It was nerve-racking to book tickets before having a corporate residency, but at the same time, it’s a huge relief to have that done.
The ticket purchase, combined with the arrival of my India-themed reading for our class and I’m in full-blown travel mode now. Three weeks can’t come soon enough.
Besides all that fun jet-setting stuff, our course load continues to grow. Monday morning I’m at the library again, fine-tuning my Supply Chain case write-up on a fertilizer company (thrilling) before setting up a communal Google Document for our Ann Taylor interdisciplinary project.
Finance passes and I head to work and then meet my Supply Chain teammate to finalize our paper. She promises to turn it in for me, as I’ll be at my interview in New Hampshire during class tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Tuesday I wake up early and try to get as much homework done as possible before leaving at noon for my interview with Transparent Language in New Hampshire. I don’t get as much completed as I would have liked, what with prepping for the interview and getting all dolled up, but at least I start my Statistics deliverable.
The interview goes well (I think). I meet with the Social Media Manager and the General Manager for about two hours. They give me a nice run-down of the company and what I might expect to accomplish during my time there. I’m told to expect a call by the end of the week with their decision.
Driving home that day I can’t help but get nervous. I’m really cutting it close with my residency. I have just two and a half weeks before I’m on a plane to the other side of the world. I just have to take a deep breath and selectively ignore the looming time pressures if I hope to keep my sanity.
On my way home, since I have my Zipcar until the end of the day, I stop by Old Navy and Target to do some shopping for my India trip. I manage to make out well: snagging some linen pants, capris, t-shirts and flip flops to help me battle the 100+ degree weather there.
That night I fight a losing battle with my attention span as I desperately try and study for my Operations quiz tomorrow and prepare for my interdisciplinary project.
Wednesday sees me living on campus- again. I arrive at school early after waking at 6:00 am for some coffee and last minute cramming. The quiz was more challenging than I expected, but at least my group got an A on our third Boston Globe project! After Finance I grab an energy drink and some pizza from our second Wednesday lunch and head to work.
While at work I receive an e-mail from my career adviser asking me to stop by her office as soon as I can. While this could very well be good news, I can’t help but feel that it most definitely is not. A ball begins to form in my stomach.
After work I hop into the Career Center to see my adviser. I sit down and she proceeds to nervously tell me that she doesn’t have good news for me. Transparent Language has decided to go with someone else. Originally the company had planned for two residencies, but, with my luck, it appears as though they have decided to just have one intern. I sit there shocked. This was a job they had told me was all but mine. While a week ago this might have resulted in tears, I’m just too exhausted. I sit there in shock; anger and fear starting to grow. My adviser and I talk for a bit and she tells me there is nothing I can do but wait for more jobs to be posted and prepare for my April 25th interview with Vention Medical.
With the burden of a corporate residency not yet off my shoulders, I drag myself to the graduate lounge for some interdisciplinary project group work before breaking for my scholarship awards ceremony at 5:30 pm.
It is then that I learn I also did not get the teacher’s assistant position for the India trip. Fantastic…
The scholarship ceremony was a much bigger deal than I had expected. There were what looked to be nearly 100 people from the entire college of business. We had an flowing supply of hors d’oeuvres and an open bar. I meet with two of my fellow scholarship recipients as we make our rounds, chatting with our past and present professors, administration and the like, including our Strategy professor who is up for the teacher of the year award.
During my rounds, I come up to the Associate Dean of the graduate program and she gives me a kind smile and lets me know that she heard about my interview. Well, I guess that’s a good thing: that it’s so shocking that I don’t have a residency yet that everyone knows? Right? Right? Ok, just throw me a bone here.
I excuse myself at around 7:30 pm and my friend and I grab a frozen yogurt and put off working on our Statistics homework for an hour.
That night I’m up past 1:30 am working on my deliverable and when it is finally time for bed, I can’t help but toss and turn fretting about what will become of me in two weeks. Ugh….
Thursday is a short class day as Strategy was canceled to give us time to work on our interdisciplinary project. After Statistics my interdisciplinary project team rushes to the lounge for a powerhouse group session. We’re not out of the lounge until 7:30 pm.
During our 8+ hours of work I sneak away for a few moments to partake in the student employee appreciation reception in the business office. I make a quick ice cream sundae and grab a word with my career adviser. She tells me that I have an invitation to interview with both GE Aviation for a customer service role and with Hamilton Sundstrand for a platform operations position. While neither is remotely related to marketing, at this point, I’ll take what I can get. I’ll be interviewing with GE on Tuesday and Hamilton on Wednesday.
My career adviser also puts me in contact with a second year student who held a residency at GE Aviation last year to see if I might garner any useful information from her. It is comforting to know that everyone really seems to care and wants to help me get a residency. Plus, their patience with me deserves some sort of reward.
My career adviser also puts me in contact with a second year student who held a residency at GE Aviation last year to see if I might garner any useful information from her. It is comforting to know that everyone really seems to care and wants to help me get a residency. Plus, their patience with me deserves some sort of reward.
Then it's back to the lounge with a brave face to take on group tension and mounds of work when all I can do or think about is my non-existent residency.
When the sun sets, I join two of my classmates for a drink and appetizer to unwind before heading home to practice my presentation. I, along with one other teammate, are carrying the presentation tomorrow. Since we all finished so late, she and I will not have time to practice until 15 minutes before our presentation tomorrow morning. As if I needed any more stress.
When the sun sets, I join two of my classmates for a drink and appetizer to unwind before heading home to practice my presentation. I, along with one other teammate, are carrying the presentation tomorrow. Since we all finished so late, she and I will not have time to practice until 15 minutes before our presentation tomorrow morning. As if I needed any more stress.
I get less than four hours of sleep that night as I fine-tune the slides, edit the paper and practice.
Friday morning I’m up at 5:30 am to dress in my suit and get to campus early to print our slides for the panel and meet my co-presenter to practice. Then I have a breakdown. My stress, compounded with a week of little sleep percolates inside me and I’m in a horrible mood. I snap at my teammates and have no patience. I begin to panic. This is not me. I'm not an angry person and I usually am quite patient. I feel horrible at my attitude but don't have the energy to fix it. Please let me just pull this together for the presentation.
Luckily our presentation is smack dab in the middle- the perfect position for obscurity. In reality, I think our presentation turned out to be one of the best. When it’s over I breathe a sigh of relief.
After the presentation, awards are given for the top three groups. Unfortunately, my team is not one of them. But I don’t care about that because two of my groupmates and I are off to lunch at Sel de la Terre and it is nothing short of amazing. I get a delicious burger with crispy pancetta and a spicy aioli sauce, rosemary french fries, a glass of wine and a fabulous sundae of brown butter ice cream, salted caramel and candied nuts.
I go home after that and send out a somewhat desperate sounding e-mail to my executive mentor for his advice about my rather unfortunate residency situation. I then proceed to watch about 5 episodes of Glee in a row before falling asleep. What a week…
Saturday I’m up early for a haircut, pedicure and general errand running. It’s been so long since I’ve had a spare moment to take care of 'me' that I relish in this day. I also get a response from my wonderful mentor. He sends me kind words and some helpful guidance. I’m so lucky to have been paired with him. It’s been very nice in my situation to have some outside insight from someone who has had a successful career.
Sunday is another day of relaxation. I’m just too darned tired to do anything except for my Supply Chain reading, Operations case and some India trip required reading.
Monday is a state holiday: Patriot’s Day. Oh bless Massachusetts for all of their holidays. I wake up early to meet my travel buddy for some India trip planning.
It’s also the 115th running of The Boston Marathon today. What a fun event that was! The whole city is shut down for the race. Vendors line the streets hawking their free samples to thousands of onlookers. Nearly 26,000 people ran the 26.2 miles today. It was so inspirational and the energy in the air was contagious.
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| The Boston Marathon - Go runners, Go! |
That night it’s down to business. I do some necessary trip planning: stopping my mail, pre-paying my rent for the month of May, calling my bank so they don’t block my card when charges from India start showing up, suspending my Comcast service, etc. It’s crazy how much there is to do when you’re leaving for a month!
I also start some research (even though I told myself I wouldn’t be as preparation-happy as I usually am) for my GE Aviation interview tomorrow. Dare I say, wish me luck?
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