Friday, December 16, 2011

Goodbye GE!


WEEK 27 (December 12- 16)

Sigh…it’s my final week at GE Aviation and it’s going to be a crazy one. Here's a little overview (and it’s abbreviated) of what I have to do in the next six days:
  • Finish co-op at GE. This involves a big final report-out, processing-out documents, wrapping up all projects, etc. 
  • Submit final paper in my Market Research class(this is worth 34% of my grade)
  • Attempt to finish 40-page Living Document 3 before leaving for my trip 
  • Buy all holiday gifts for family and ship them to California
  • Pack all necessary items for trip
  • Fix broken tooth
  • Physical therapy (x3)
  • Errands, errands, errands

....I’m already exhausted. 

Monday I’m in the office and off running. I have to leave early today to get my tooth fixed (it broke very glamoursly on an Au Bon Pain sandwich) and do a two-hour physical therapy session so I wanted to make up as much work as possible.

I barely stop for air as I make final edits to my proposal process checklist, folder mapping of 1,000+ documents and more. Nearly 20 people are invited to my report-out tomorrow so there is definitely no room for error on any of the above items.

I take a small break for a special Team Time meeting focusing on safety before running out the of the office at 3:00pm.

Once I factor in how lost I get, it takes me more than an hour and a half to get to my dental appointment. Luckily, the procedure is quick (try 30 minutes) and moderately inexpensive. I get out of there with just enough time to run to my physical therapy appointment (much to my knee's chagrin).

The session lasts more than two hours tonight and I don’t manage to limp home until 8:30pm. I quickly eat (I haven’t had anything since 11:30am), make final edits to my TRU Chocolate final paper for Market Research and crash around 9:45pm (don’t judge).

Tuesday is the big day: My final report-out to several managers in the LTTD department on my efforts at streamlining and organizing the proposal process. I get into work and spend all day making final edits, doing a dry-run of my presentation and more. I only stop for a joint goodbye lunch with my Women in Technology Mentor and my Northeastern Buddy at Panera.

When I return from lunch I have about two hours to put the finishing touches on my proposal streamlining pitch. I practice in the conference room, write up note cards and more.

When all is said and done my 45-minute report went as well as I could have hoped. While many individuals were unable to attend due to some pressing issues with another international campaign, I ended up getting about 10 people who took time out of their busy schedules to sit in. What was even better was that many were quite forthcoming with suggestions and questions- which I love because it shows me that they actually care!

That night is, again, filled with errands. From a visit to the post office and CVS to attempting to pick up coursepacks for next semester (they are, of course, not ready) to printing out final trip itinerary stuff I am busy well into the night. When I get home I crank out a third blog post for the week (oh yeah, I’m that good) and work on my Living Document 3 before ending my night with some physical therapy exercises.

Wednesday feels like a light day compared to what I’ve been used to. I get into work and set about filling out all of my processing-out documents. At GE these are quite extensive and include updating my resume, filling out about 20 pages of forms, organizing and transferring my computer files to my boss and more.

I break at about 10:30am to do go over my final process appraisal workflow with my boss. We play some musical chairs around the office but finally manage to review the entire document by around 11:15am. While my boss and I had just recently gone over my Northeastern review, I always welcome constructive criticism and insights into my professional performance so I really enjoy the session. 

Right after we wrap that up, it’s off to my farewell lunch at Red Rock Bistro (the go-to nice lunch place here at GE Aviation). I spend an hour chatting with several people I've worked with during the past seven months and in during the course of lunch that inevitable nostalgia kicks in.

The rest of my afternoon is spent finishing up all of my processing-out documents and beginning the organization of my paper files. 

After work I head home for a quick dinner before it’s off to my last physical therapy session before I leave for my trip.

I’m up late that night as I do the final edits to my TRU Chocolate project before passing out at 11:30pm.

Thursday is busy with wrapping up. Among my tasks is cleaning out my desk, handing off important papers to the appropriate person and last project wrap-ups. I also attend my last PM council meeting *sigh*. It’s all becoming so real… Am I really leaving tomorrow?

At noon I receive notification that my Market Research group has submitted our final paper (all 81 pages of it! Yikes!). While it was a bumpy submission, involving several different versions being sent to different people, I’m glad to have it finally done. Another big hurdle in my path to vacation has been cleared!

That night I hit up the Laundromat and clean my apartment. I also receive my Christmas box from my family. I got quite the haul including cases for my camera and Kindle, gift cards and some nice ‘travel fun’ money. Awesome! Good thing too because these fun items keep me going through another late, but necessary, night.

Friday I’m a bit sad coming into work. I try and enjoy my last bus ride in (though I won’t miss getting up at 5:00am every morning to catch it!). When I get into the office I continue to clean out my stuff. I only have until 11:30am to get everything done before I have to turn in my computer, badge and process out.

After all that 'official' business is done I make my rounds and bid everyone adieu while trying not to tear up in the process.
Luckily, my cube mate and I have been invited to a holiday event for part of our department taking place immediately after we process out. We will be hitting up Salem Beer Works for lunch followed by a private tour of the House of Seven Gables. What a great way to end my tenure at GE!

Around noon my cube-mate and I head up to Salem to meet the group. We all enjoy some delicious food and beer at Salem Beer works (I opt for one of their beer samplers and the Mako shark skewers with mango salsa and raspberry vinagrette). To make the event even more fun, my boss gives me a heart-warming tribute and a verifiable bushel of GE swag. Score! My favorite take-away: a poster of a F414 engine signed by everyone I worked with. Love!

The House of Seven Gables
After that we all head over to the House of Seven Gables for our private tour. I haven't been to this historic location since I was 12-years-old so it's super fun (and surreal) to be here 13 years later with my GE co-workers. 

Perfect New England scene from the House of Seven Gables
After we've had our fill of history and Nathaniel Hawthorne several members of the group walk to a local coffee house, Jaho Coffee. I definitely order up a heaping slice of Boston cream pie and savor the last few moments I have with my team.

And so, faithful readers, ends my corporate residency at GE Aviation. It was an amazing experience and one I never expected to have. I went from knowing nothing about aircraft or engines to working on some of the most successful military jet engine lines in history. I started talking the talk (GE alphabet soup, that is) and somewhat walking the walk with a final report out and several projects throughout my seven months that I was pretty proud of. I worked with some of the leading minds in the American aviation industry and made fabulous connections. I can only hope that, if you decide to join me at Northeastern, you manage to make your way into a company like GE for your co-op. 

With those parting words, Living the Northeastern MBA will be on a three-week hiatus while I jet set across Portugal, Spain and Morocco (tough life, I know). But rest assured my friends, I will return ready with posts and (literally) thousands of travel photos.

*The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of GE Aviation, Northeastern University, their employees, staff or affiliates.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

GE's Global Research Center

WEEK 26 (December 5-11)

Monday goes by in a blur. I start out my morning shooting off some e-mails and getting in touch with several proposal checklist team members for final approvals. 

I work through lunch plugging away on a manual of sorts for the India program I've been working on since I’ll be getting ready to leave soon and the process of looking up which parts we need to procure must continue after I leave. That arduous task has me sifting through every old e-mail I have, deciphering messages from at least 10 different people and trying to put it all together into a coherent guide.

In the midst of my gathering, I also get back the bids and proposals DAN tracking ‘tree’ that a Finance co-op put together for me. It’s quite the chart and I’m super grateful for her help (I don’t think I could have done it!).

The rest of the day is spent fine-tuning my parts procurement manual, cleaning out my computer and organizing files and other end-of-co-op preparations. 

After work I manage to quickly sneak in some holiday shopping for my family. Since I won’t be home this year for the holidays (the first time ever!)  I have to make sure I ship everything this weekend before I leave for my trip. I then grab a quick dinner at home before heading to campus for a three-hour working meeting with my Market Research group on our TRU Chocolate presentation. We run analyses on cross tabs, correlations, frequencies and Wordles (www.wordle.net) and work to help prep our PowerPoint slides for our other team members who will put that portion together for our presentation on Thursday. I don’t leave campus until past 10:00pm and don’t make it to bed until after 11:30pm as I continue to plug away on the project once I get home.

Tuesday morning is rough getting up. I’m definitely not getting my requisite 6.5 hours of sleep a night and it’s starting to show.  Nonetheless, I make it to work by my normal 7:30am hour.

Today, as seems to be the theme of my life as of late, is very busy. My morning is spent frantically working on my proposal checklists, sending out reminder e-mails and doing other wrap-up work.

I have an hour-and-a-half ‘how’d it go’ session for Northeastern co-ops  over lunch where I present a couple of slides on my experience at GE Aviation, provide suggestions for improvement, etc. to the entire Northeastern co-op population. While I had to duck out before all were finished I was grateful for the Panera lunch.

After my stealth escape from the co-op meeting I rush downstairs in time for an hour-long meeting with my boss, which he dubbed my ‘end-of-tour’ meeting (love it!). We go over everything from my schedule for the last couple of weeks, to my report-outs, to final reviews. I can’t believe how fast this is going and I really wish I had an extra few days to wrap it all up.

I get in a couple more hours of work that day before I leave to catch the bus. But, since I wasn't able to complete all the work I would have liked, I bring my laptop home with me for the first time. This makes me feel trés grown-up.

That night I meet at friend at Panera for a study session. I manage to (after much error) send out the discount codes to all of our TRU Chocolate respondents, get their names and e-mails to our client for cross-reference on codes and work a little on my Living Document 3.

Can't wait for my prize to arrive!
 At least one ‘happy’ thing keeps me going tonight. At work I received a Tweet directly from Lindt & Sprungli (makers of those amazing Lindor truffles!) notifying me that I won a giant basket of chocolate Lindt holiday bears. See kids, Twitter is good for you!

I stay up late doing more work but I take some comfort in the fact that I get an extra hour of sleep tomorrow because I’m going to GE's Global Research Center!

Wednesday morning I meet up with four GE co-ops at the Marino Center near campus for our four-hour carpool to Niskayuna, NY to visit the Global Research Center. I’m lucky to have gotten in such a fun group for the drive and we quickly pass the time. All 14 of the co-ops meet up in Schenectady before the tour for lunch at Bombers Burrito Bar. While it satisfied my hunger, the island wrap and rasta fries I ordered left me unimpressed (despite my car-mate touting the restaurant's amazing food). 

Our tour of the GRC lasted about four hours. We stopped by several departments including electric vehicles, metallurgy and composites. We even had a panel of researchers stop in to answer our questions. Overall, I was very impressed with the facility (a far cry from the ‘retro’ Lynn site) and enjoyed seeing the future of GE business while getting a wider perspective of all of the companies that make up the GE conglomerate. While we don’t get home that night until about 7:30pm, I’m glad to have had such a unique experience.

Thursday morning I’m up early as if I’m heading to work, but I’m not…I will be attending the Northeastern/GE Strategy session on the Northeastern campus. I'm so honored to have been invited to help shape the 2012 strategy! But first, I have to get some work in. I bring my laptop to the Curry Center, somehow manage to log onto my work system (it was more complicated than it sounds, believe me) and squeeze out a couple of hours of productivity. I check my e-mails, work on my pitch to the recruiting team and manage to lift some of the pressure off my shoulders. 

The GE/Northeastern Strategy session goes quite well. In fact, I kick off the meeting with my pitch. I speak for nearly half an hour and seem to be getting some positive response from the group (which includes individuals form Corporate, Capital, Home and Business Solutions and Aviation). Unfortunately, I can’t stay for the entire six-hour session and bolt out of the room at 12:15pm to grab my train. I do see the Director of the Career Center as I walk out though and give her a quick 'hello'.

While waiting for my bus I hurriedly eat an Au Bon Pain sandwich I snagged while running to Ruggles, but after a few bites I notice that my tooth has broken! Yikes! This is the last thing I need, especially considering that the Northeastern health plan I belong to doesn’t include dental insurance.  Trying not to be too upset I call the referral office and manage to schedule an appointment for Monday to have it capped. I’ll have to leave work a bit early but it was the only slot they had and I need this front tooth fixed before I head on my trip.

I get to the office that day at 1:30pm and cram work. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with GE work for one of the first times since I’ve been here. I have my dry-run of the report-out I’ve been putting together due tomorrow to my boss. In fact, even with the three plus hours of work that I get that afternoon, I end up taking my computer home again.

But, of course there is no rest for the weary. I head right to campus for a 6:00pm meeting with my Market Research group for our final presentation. The presentation will cover our findings on the TRU Chocolate survey we developed. I think it goes quite well and we even had some more advanced analysis than many groups. Fortunately, this is the last class of the year which means I have the two hours the class would have run next week to work on the craziness of the rest of my life. Now, don’t forget, my group still has our final paper worth 34% of our grade due on Thursday at noon! Yikes!

I make a beeline for my apartment and am up until midnight working on my GE report-out presentation for tomorrow. I might have spent too much time on making it look ‘pretty’ but this is pretty much the only report-out I’ve done to my team (the other being to recruiting) and I want to make a good final impression.

Friday morning I’m exhausted but I still have to get a ton done before my 10:00am dry-run pitch to my boss. I make as many edits as possible to my checklists, add some nice graphics to the pitch and generally take every last moment to prepare. 

Fortunately, the pitch goes quite well. We even end up taking half an hour more than allotted to discuss my Northeastern final review and the coming week. I’ll be honest, I’m beginning to get a little nostalgic for my GE co-op and it’s not even over yet!

After that both my boss and I head to a ‘Lunch and Learn’ that covers international trade compliance, specifically, how to account for third party nationals and dual citizens in your licenses. This is important when transferring proprietary information to another country both while on contract and before because the U.S. Government applies restrictions to certain nationalities.

The rest of the day is busy with more proposal checklist tasks, processing-out documents and the like. 

When I leave work I head right to my first physical therapy session to tend to my knee. It goes as well as it can considering I apparently now have both hip and knee issues – sigh. Oh well, I guess when I turned 25 I also inherited the body of an 85-year-old. I get my sheet of directions for my exercises and am instructed to complete them everyday.

This weekend is dedicated to one thing: errands. I do everything from packing for my trip, to buying holiday gifts, to hitting up campus for some group work, essay-writing and buying textbooks for next semester (yeah, I’m that on top of things). 

Well hello, cupcake!
In fact, the only real ‘fun’ activity I partake in all weekend is a sophomore visit to the South End Buttery with my classmate and her parents. This time it’s all about the breakfast bread basket (including amazing handmade scones and pumpkin bread), some delectable huevos rancheros and a strawberries and cream cupcake. 

As the weekend ends you’d swear I did nothing with the laundry list of items still looming over me but I promise that I was super productive. Now bring on my last week at GE!

*The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of GE Aviation, Northeastern University, their staff, employees or affiliates.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

"Drive your life like it's stolen."

WEEK 25 (November 28-December 4)

Monday morning is filled with an obscene amount of meetings. I spend my morning actually skipping my one and a half hour safety PMT meeting to work on my boss’ bids and proposal budget tracking slides for the November Ops Council meeting this afternoon. I really like putting these slides together because it involves getting inputs from a Finance co-op upstairs.

At 10:00am I head upstairs for a meeting with one of  LTTD's former Senior Financial Analysts. He has graciously agreed to meet with me to go over my proposal checklist and provide his inputs even though he has technically moved on to another position. He agrees to send me a checklist he helped to put together to supplement the one I’m creating.

I have a couple of hours after that to work on assignments, meet with my boss to discuss my remaining three weeks at GE and inhale some food at my desk before my meeting with the Manufacturing Programs Leader to go over his portion of the checklist. He also gives me a ton of new information to go on and I leave his cube promising to send him an updated version as soon as possible.

Next I all but run upstairs for our bi-monthly Team Time meeting where I learn all about the offerings provided by the Health Center (including massage therapy and a nutritionist – nice!) as well as some compliance updates.

I get back to my desk with just 30 minutes to spare before the November Ops Council meeting. This is one of my favorite meetings because all of the managers/directors from different departments present a couple of slides (nice and concise) to our General Manager. Topics range from safety to spares to bids and proposals budgets. It’s a really great opportunity for me to get a flavor for the plethora of activities that it takes to make this department run smoothly.

The rest of the day is spent prepping information for both my GE and Northeastern processing-out documents (including a mandatory review sheet and corporate residency profile write-up for the Career Center) and laying out my tasks for tomorrow.

When I get home that night I force myself to grab some groceries as my break (so thrilling, isn’t it?) and then it’s right to work on my Finale case write-up for Market Research. Let me just say I truly admire individuals in the part-time program because it is exceedingly difficult to concentrate on work and assignments after a nine-hour day of work plus two-hours of commuting. Ugh! At least the assignment appears to be coming along alright.

I close out the night with a phone call to my boyfriend. It’s our three-year anniversary today! While it may not have been the most exciting way to celebrate, the distance makes this the best we can do.

Tuesday is a busy day as well, though mostly with processing-out/Northeastern tasks.

I start out my morning working on a set of three goals for my boss to use for my Northeastern Career Center exit review. He seems happy with them and says he’ll inform me of any edits. Next it’s on to working on my corporate residency profile summary for the Career Center. They will use this in their ‘Profiles of Success’ book that describes every students’ co-op experience for distribution to future MBA classes and employers. It’s funny how, when I started GE, I was a bit worried about having enough work to put down on my resume and now, I can’t seem to keep the 400-word summary below 700! I guess this is a good thing? Time for some editing.

Around lunch time I hop over to the desk of the TF34 upgrades manager to review edits we received from the reclamation vendor on the reclamation checklist I sent out last week. I’m glad to see that the vendor took the time to carefully review his section and provide helpful feedback. Editing will take some time but it’s a good start.

I get an e-mail from my boss after lunch requesting some additional information for the Bids and Proposals DAN tracker I sent him yesterday. DANs are codes we use to charge work for projects. It is critical to charge work to the appropriate DAN to be accurate in budgeting and charging clients. He has asked me to do some more digging and get the ‘parent’, or overarching DAN numbers, for each DAN listed. Confused? Yeah, so was I.

I spend much of the remaining afternoon working on the DAN tracker, reclamation checklist edits and some processing-out material for GE including a set of slides for a co-op report-out and the first draft of my final process appraisal workflow step which involves analyzing my growth values and goal completion.

That night I head to the Northeastern health clinic to get my aching knee checked out in preparation for my Europe trip. I’ll be walking a ton and don’t want to be in pain. Unfortunately, they refer me to a specialist and I schedule an appointment to come back Friday. I’ll have to miss work in the morning, which I hate, but this doctor keeps lazy hours and it’s the best I can do to snag the 8:20am slot.

The rest of the night is spent working on my Finale case for Market Research. With the aid of Google Docs my teammate and I make some great progress. 

Wednesday, while sparse with meetings, is busy none the less. I begin my morning finishing up my corporate residency profile write-up for the Career Center and getting it approved by my boss. This is followed by putting some more work into my final process appraisal workflow step.

After co-op stuff is done I move on to making the requested edits to the reclamation checklist that I received from our vendor. While it’s a bit arduous to go through the whole document with edits, it’s nice to know that someone outside of GE sees value in the document I created and cares enough to edit it and use it later on in their own company.

I take a break at lunch for my final *sniff* manager luncheon with the Shop Operations Executive at GE Aviation, Lynn. The food was over-the-top and included towers of Panera boxed lunches, food from the cafeteria, a huge cake and more. Going out with a bang I see. This luncheon was pretty different from all the others. The speaker barely touched upon his role/responsibilities and instead gave meaningful life lessons that included: don’t succumb to fear, be positive and my favorite "drive your life like it’s stolen".

The remainder of my day is spent updating the PBL contract matrix with a new modification, creating a visual folder map for my boss as part of my proposal streamlining project and reviewing the B&P DAN tracker I put together for him.

Before I leave I make a point to send out some follow-up emails on that parts procurement project I have been working on throughout my co-op. The project seems to have died down but I want to make sure that everything on my end is tied up before I leave in a few weeks.

That night I spend another good amount of time working on my Finale case write-up (which is due tomorrow).

Thursday is a busy day. In the morning I rush and try to finish up some of the proposal checklists I’ve been editing. I manage to complete the Engineering one and send it back for a final edit before I head upstairs to meet with a Finance co-op.

This Finance co-op is graciously helping me with a project for my boss that involves looking up DAN numbers (codes we use to charge work to) in a software program called EMCS. She looks up all the DAN numbers and their overarching parent numbers and beautifully places them in an organizational chart. It looks like a ton of work and I feel bad that I can’t be of more help (what with my non-existent access to the program) so I just thank her for all of her efforts.

When I return to my desk I plug away at another segment of my proposal checklist, this time the Finance one. I incorporate all of the edits the former LTTD Financial Analyst suggests, including a checklist of his own that he created a while ago and send it off to him for a final stamp of approval.

I take a short break from checklists to send out a request for some help with my LD3- yes, the Living Document continues to, well, live. I can’t believe that the TF34 Upgrades Program Manager gets the questionnaire I sent him back to me so quickly! I’m really grateful for the input as it will add some serious weight to my document. While LD isn’t due until after the break, remember I will be sans technology for three weeks while I jet-set across Europe and Northern Africa so I’m making it a point to be (nearly) finished with it before I leave.

After lunch it’s time to head to the PM Council meeting where we continue to discuss process improvements to hardware returns and broach a new topic: Ops and SII. I actually pipe up in this meeting, though whether I said anything of value I cannot discern.

The remainder of my day is spent working on yet another proposal checklist- this time industrial cooperation (where we allow another country to manufacture parts of our engine in their country).

Class that night is awesome! We discuss our Finale case write-ups and have the current President of Survey on the Spot (Finale used their services in our case) as a guest speaker. What is even cooler is that he was the former CMO of Dunkin’ Donuts! Gah! I die! I, of course, stalk him after class, exchange business cards and ask if we could set up an information interview. He agrees! On top of that my professor explains that she has several connections at the company and offers to put me in touch with them! Yes! When I get home that night I shoot of an e-mail to the President of Survey on the Spot and request to be ‘linked’ to him on LinkedIn.

Friday is the day I've been waiting weeks for: the GE LTTD holiday party! But before I can celebrate at  the Black Swan Country Club, I still have my work and a doctor's appointment.

That morning I get to sleep in a little as I have a doctor’s appointment at 8:20am and will be coming into work late. My knee has been finicky and bothering me lately so I decided to get it checked out. Unfortunately, it turns out I’ve done some damage to the cartilage. Luckily, the specialist offers some non-surgical suggestions to try first including shoe inserts, a knee brace and physical therapy. I hope those work because I really don’t want to get arthroscopic surgery…

I manage to get to work by 9:30am that morning and immediately get going. Because of my late start and my early departure for the holiday party I only have so much time to get all my obligations done.

I finish up my Northeastern residency profile, get the stamp of approval on it from my boss and send that off to my career adviser. I also submit my final process appraisal workflow! How crazy! I can’t believe my 27 weeks at GE is coming to a close. Now my boss will review this final appraisal step, grade me and go over the results with me before I leave. I also manage to update my final checklist and send that off for a final review to the Manufacturing Programs Leader.

After handling that I have just enough time to send off my PAMS questionnaire for LD3 to another manager in my department who has graciously agreed to help me out with it.  This will make for some great material for my LD3 which I am set on beginning to write this weekend.

I leave work around 3:30pm in order to get back to the city and change before my date for the GE holiday party, a friend from school, picks me up at 5:15pm.

Behold the battery-operated glory that is my Yankee swap gift!
The holiday party is wonderful! There were just the right amount of people, an open bar, a good three-course dinner and more! We all quite enjoyed the Yankee Swap game as well, though the gift I ended up with (a battery-operated candle with birds and glitter), was decidedly ‘take it to the car’ material. But not to worry because we all got huge gift baskets to take home (I picked up one overflowing with Lindt chocolates) Win!

My weekend is the first in a long time where nothing exciting at all happens. I spend a good 3.5 hours each day at the library working on a group project for Market Research, my blog and LD3. I manage to prepare a bit more for my Europe trip by printing out all of my reservations, pulling out my backpacking gear from the nooks and crannies of my apartment and starting to lay out a checklist of things I will need. Other than that it’s errands, homework and sleep. I’m glad to have had such a productive weekend (even if it wasn’t that fun) because I only get one more before I jet off to Europe for three weeks.

*The view expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of GE Aviation, Northeastern University, their staff, employees or affiliates.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Thanksgiving in Florida

View from our condo in Cocoa Beach, FL
 WEEK 24 (November 21 – 27)

This is Thanksgiving week and I cannot wait for my four-day trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida to spend the holiday of eating with my boyfriend and his family. But before all of that ‘stuffing’ (pun intended) can happen I still have to conquer three days of work.

I’m glad I had that relaxing weekend with the bf because Monday I’m off and running with a total of seven meetings for the day! 

After getting into the office at 7:00am I have my first meeting at 8:30am to discuss single engine safety on our engines in service. We touch upon dozens of occurrences and make sure each is being attended to.

In the middle of the meeting I’m forced to rush back to my cubicle for a half an hour conference call with the Lynn Northeastern/GE Recruiting team. I had been invited by a former Northeastern MBA as part of my efforts to strengthen the recruiting presence for Northeastern’s MBA program. 

After the call it’s back to the safety meeting for another half an hour before returning to my desk for my second Northeastern/GE recruiting conference call. This one I am a little more involved in as I introduce my intentions and ask if there is a way I can provide my pitch for their December 8th recruiting strategy session. They have me send it over. We'll see whether or not it will be included.

After that it’s off to one of my last manager luncheons of the year. Fortunately for me, I get to see not one but three managers from the Product Integration Center (PIC) present on their positions at GE. I have never attended a manager luncheon where more than one person spoke so this was a nice chance to get an even more well-rounded picture of their department. Plus, lunch today was an early Thanksgiving feast complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberries. Fun!

Pretty Floridian Pelican
After lunch I meet a proposal teammate from the integrated logistics support team (ILS) in a conference room to review the edits he has provided me on the proposal checklist I’ve been working on. It is a very valuable meeting and I’m able to add several good items to the existing list.

After that I review my reclamation checklist with a member of the PM Council. He has a few edits for me but overall it looks like I’m nearly ready to send it off to people outside of GE for edits. 

After that meeting I get some time in with my boss to go over my last four weeks at GE (can you believe how fast it has gone?). I realize how quickly my time is passing once I count my remaining work days (16 to be exact).

I spend the next several hours (yes, I am at work until 6:00pm) reworking the reclamation process checklist, redesigning the proposal process organization chart and more.  When I leave the office that day I have completed my longest work day yet at 11 hours.

Tuesday morning I’m  back in the office at 7:00am but, despite feeling a bit under the weather, I manage to be quite productive.

I start out my morning finalizing the rework of the proposal team organizational chart and leave it on my boss’ desk for when he gets in. Next I move on to sending out some meeting invitations in the hopes of getting some proposal team members to meet with me to review edits for my proposal checklist. After that I put the finishing touches on my reclamation process map after incorporating yesterday’s edits and send that off to a manager in the PM Council.

I break at 10:30am for a meeting to provide some suggestions on a recent license presentation a co-worker put together. We spend the next half an hour rearranging slides, editing text and hopefully, making the presentation a bit more clear.

When I get back to my desk I get an e-mail asking for any material I might contribute to the upcoming GE/Northeastern recruiting strategy session along with an invitation to attend. Yes! I make some quick edits to the pitch I gave several weeks ago and send that off. Oh how I love crossing off deliverables!

That afternoon I have a call scheduled with the Principle Contracts Manager to help me edit and improve my proposal checklist. She gives me some great suggestions and even points me to some places I could find additional information.

As I’ve been fighting a cold for the past couple of days I decide I won’t force another 11-hour day on myself and opt instead, for a 9-hour one, heading home around 4:00pm to pack for my flight to Florida tomorrow for Thanksgiving break. I’m going to be extra bag-ladyish at work tomorrow and bring my suitcase in so I can leave directly to the airport (and fit in an extra hour of work).

Wednesday morning is not off to the best start...I get up before 5:00am (ugh), finish packing and head to work with my suitcase in the rain and the wind (extra ugh). I come to work at 7:00am looking like a sad, wet cat. 

I’m actually quite busy all day with activities including a meeting with the a Senior Engineer to review my proposal checklist, a super fun Mexican lunch with my boss and several GE employees at Border CafĂ© and tons and tons of work on my proposal project. 

It’s a good thing I’m so busy because my 6:20pm flight from Boston Logan to Orlando, Florida for the Thanksgiving break is pushed back an hour not once, but TWICE! At least I get in a couple extra hours at work to make up for the unpaid holiday.

All in all, after working a 10+ hour day at GE I don’t get into Orlando until midnight and don’t make it to bed in Cocoa Beach until nearly 2:00am. Phew!

Unfortunately for me I have to be up and ready early next morning for Thanksgiving festivities and to meet my boyfriend’s grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin for the first time. I shrug off my sleepiness and put on my best to make a good impression.


Dinner (or rather lunch as we eat at 1:00pm) is amazing. I’m so happy to have found Nick’s family to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal with as my family is too health-conscious for items such as sweet potato casserole, gravy and pie. 

Frolicking in the sand- obviously
 After the feast the rest of the day is spent frolicking in the sand (we are in a beach-front condo, after all) and relaxing.

Friday finds us up relatively early to go see some manatee at an observation deck along a protected stretch of water. Alas, they are quite elusive and not nearly as inclined to show their faces as I would have hoped. Our manatee scouting is followed up by a lunch at Dixie Crossroads of rock shrimp, sweet corn balls in powdered sugar, cheesy grits and key lime pie! Yum!

The rest of the day is spent cruising Jetty Park and relaxing before our dinner at Grills Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar for shark kebabs and key lime pie cocktails. Yum!

Watching the launch!
For my last day in Florida Nick, his dad and I watch the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory that Nick’s Dad worked on and scarf down some Cuban food at Roberto's Little Havana.

The afternoon we hit up the Cocoa Beach pier, an ice cream shop and relax before Nick and I head out for a pre-anniversary dinner at Shark Pit Bar & Grill. It’s a super classy joint (not) in a semi-mall and I definitely leave with a red, plastic souvenir goblet my Mai Tai came in. Nice?

Sunday morning I wake to a phone call from the driver who is taking me to the airport (apparently I slept right through my alarm) and rush out into the 5:00am darkness for my flight home to Boston. 

Fortunately, when all is said and done, I make it home by 11:00am with plenty of time to work on my case write up, unpack and head to the library for several hours of Market Research group work with my partner. What a week!

*The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of GE Aviation, Northeastern University, their staff, employees or affiliates.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Spring Semester Course Registration

WEEK 23 (November 14- 20)

Monday morning is stressful because…at 8:00am sharp registration opens for Spring semester classes. After some blips (a glitch existed for one of our required classes) I am happy to say that I was able to secure a spot in every class I wanted! My schedule for Spring semester is as follows:

 

After registering I head over to a few buildings around the plant to hand out my combined action item list for the LTTD proposal process. I’m trying to get input from each department in order to create a more comprehensive list. I drop off two more sections to the Senior Engineer in the Repairs Department and the Export Project Manager in the International Trade Compliance Department and make plans to return later this week and discuss edits with them.

That day for lunch our entire department gets together for a belated Veteran’s Day celebration. We take over the third floor auditorium and enjoy catered Italian food, a hilarious slideshow showcasing old photos of employees while in the service and generally enjoy each others company.

When I get back to my desk I only have an hour to continue my work on my Green Belt project before it’s back upstairs for our bi-monthly Team Time meeting. There we get a pretty cool overview of some cutting edge technology our facility is working on as well as a summary from our resident Black Belts.

After that I’m back at my desk for the next 4 hours – in fact, I don’t leave work until nearly 6:00pm (a 10-hour day!). Since my cube-mate is out for the afternoon I tried to take advantage of the quite to progress with my Green Belt project. I get quite far. Also, in order for me to even have the SLIGHTEST chance of making up the hours I will miss for the Thanksgiving Holiday (remember, co-ops aren’t paid for those days off) I need to work as many hours as possible this week and next.

I do get a nice little surprise to break up my day, though! I receive an e-mail from my former boss that I’ve been approved to return to my job during spring semester! I’m so excited to get more work experience there and, hopefully, with a larger time commitment per week (15 hours) I will be able to help complete some more in-depth projects. Yipee!

I get home around 6:45pm that night but there’s no rest for me. I head right to the grocery store so that I can eat more than oatmeal for dinner. When I get home, I finish up my blog post for the week and make it to bed by 11:15pm. 

Tuesday morning begins with some meetings. First up is one to discuss a new engine option for our international proposal we submitted back in September. We have to make sure we have calculated the correct pricing for this new, improved engine option and so we pull some Engineering and Finance folks into the meeting.

Today lunch is during another manager talk series- this time with someone of particular interest to me: LTTD’s General Manager. He gives a brief pitch about his past experience and the department and then spends a good while answering our questions. It was nice to see that he had a sense of humor and was open to any co-op scheduling a meeting with him to discuss career paths, the industry or anything else. 

That afternoon a continuation meeting from this morning to discuss the engine option pricing continues. This time we have an even fuller house in the conference room with several representatives from Finance, Engineering, Contracts and Project. It kind of brings me back to when we were putting together the proposal months ago.

After the meeting the rest of the afternoon is spent working on a reclamation process checklist for a member of the PM Council. I have my cube-mate review my summary and begin breaking it down into more easily digestible bullets categorized by stage and responsible party. 

It’s another late day at the office.  I don’t leave until nearly 6:00pm, logging a more than 10-hour day.
But, alas, I cannot just go home and fall asleep after work. I run some errands first. Then it’s down to some homework for class. I update my contact list for the TRU Chocolate survey distribution I'm doing for Market Research (I’m happy to note that I have exceeded my minimum quota for respondents!), then I send an e-mail to my executive mentor (I have been guilty of waiting several weeks between contacts) and close the night by preparing my business cards, suit and more for my networking/lecture series tomorrow evening.

Wednesday morning I’m up far too early for my tastes. I decided to go into the office early to compensate for my early departure today for my lecture series so at 6:10am I’m already on the 'T' to work. 

I spend the morning hashing out my new, revised reclamation checklist and make some good progress.

Continuing with my theme of free lunch every day this week I head over to another building for a ‘Meet your Leader’ lunch with the Executive for Lynn Advanced Technology and Preliminary Design. I really enjoy hearing about all of the new engine developments he works on, and, as always, am impressed with how young he is and how much he has accomplished! I hope to be nearly as successful one day.
 
When I get back to my cubicle I have a meeting with a manager from the International Trade Compliance Department to review his portion of my proposal process checklist. The meeting is very beneficial and we’re done, with a lovely list to show for it, in less than 20 minutes. Excellent! I hope my other reviews go as smoothly.

After he leaves I only have about an hour left to incorporate his edits and continue to work the reclamation process checklist. I leave the office at 3:00pm to catch to bus to my early evening lecture series on online marketing effectiveness being put on by the ARF (Advertising Research Foundation) and Research Now. The brief, one hour meeting covers, among other things, Research Now’s business offerings and ways to leverage your digital marketing budget to help pay for your other media buying.
When I get home I do some errands before passing out at 10:00pm, exhausted.

Thursday I wake up early (again) and am back in work at 7:00am. I start out with e-mail, checklist revisions and other administrative tasks.

Lunch today is courtesy of my boss in a belated celebration of my 25th birthday. We head to RedRock Bistro and spend a good hour and a half chatting and discussing how fast my co-op has gone by.  It was really nice to have some one-on-one time with my boss to talk about things outside of work.

When I get back into the office it’s right to a meeting regarding a compliance plan for the United Arab Emirates. We review the license, provisos and foreign parties involved.

I break away at 2:00pm for a PM Council meeting that lasts all of 15 minutes since very few people showed up. We plan to try and meet sometime next week (though honestly, with the holidays approaching I have a feeling most meetings will be sparse). 

I get an hour or so to work on my reclamation process map, meet with the manager I’m working on it with and discuss a renewal of a reclamation contract before I head into a review meeting for our international proposal.

In the meeting we all come to an agreement on how to portray the financials of the proposal, which edits to call out and more. With decision time for our client fast approaching (December) everything needs to be perfect and strategically thought out.

After work I head to campus an hour before class. I’m meeting with my professor so that I can review the lesson on SPSS from last week (if you recall, I was totally lost!). The hour I spend with her really helps to clarify the software program and give me some insights into the case write up on Finale (a dessert restaurant) I will be writing up in the next couple of weeks.

Most of class that night is spent reviewing SPSS and working to finalize our questionnaire distribution and project plan. I can’t believe we only have four weeks of class left to get all of it done! Yikes!

Friday at work involves some more of the same: the reclamation process checklist, my pseudo-Green Belt project on the proposal process and other such tasks.

To break up that I sit in on a “Lunch and Learn” focusing on International Trade Compliance (ITC) or more specifically, marketing, technical and manufacturing licenses. We spend more than an hour covering everything from DSP-5 to MLAs to TAAs (if that’s all a foreign  language to you, don’t worry, about six months ago I felt the same way!).

I’m back at my desk for a little while, working on getting an extension for a reclamation contract with the Air Force when it’s time to break for another fun team event: an ice cream social! And, since GE is so generous with food, we didn’t just have some fudgsicles in a freezer; no, we had an ice cream man come in and serve it to us with a full sundae bar to boot! Delish!

I spend a couple more hours after that finishing up some work and then head home to rush and complete a slew of errands in anticipation of Nick’s arrival.

Nick gets in at about 11:15pm so there’s only one place we can go to: New York Pizza! Yes!
Churro fondue at Max Brenner
Saturday we wake up and make our way to a chocoholics dream brunch at Max Brenner. Nick gets the smoked salmon platter but I opt for some fried eggs with sausage, cheese, spicy home fries and a sugar encrusted biscuit. Since this is a chocolate restaurant, my dish even came with a cup of melted chocolate. We end our meal with some Mexican hot chocolate and a churro fondue platter with white chocolate, toffee caramel and raspberry puree dipping sauces.  

After brunch we decide to go to a movie (it was Twilight - don’t judge), a Target run and round out our night with dinner at Regina’s pizza in the North End.

Breakfast at South End Buttery
 Sunday starts with brunch at the South End Buttery where I indulge in some pancakes decked out with fresh berries and whipped butter and finish that up with a couple of gourmet cupcakes from their bakery (salted caramel chocolate and brown sugar and spice to be specific). 

Nick and I go home and relax before he leaves at 2:00pm. Then it’s back to work for me. I type up my blog, read my case for Market Research on Finale (in preparation of the write-up I have to do the week after Thanksgiving) and add a disclaimer to our TRU Chocolate questionnaire.

*The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of GE Aviation, Northeastern University, their staff, employees or affiliates.