Montreal: Part Deux

Fall Foliage at Mount Royal Park

WEEK 22 (November 7-13)

My Monday morning starts out with my first ever Safety PMT meeting! As part of an effort to get me more exposure to different areas of the business my boss invited me to attend these weekly safety meetings. I spend the next hour and a half learning about some of the most pressing issues with our F414 engines that are out in the field.

After the meeting I only have an hour or so before my manager luncheon so I spend it coordinating the hanging of my posters in the five conference rooms in the LTTD and playing catch up with e-mails about possible GE/Northeastern Recruiting efforts.

My manager luncheon today is with the Manufacturing Programs Executive. I enjoy hearing about his 25+ years of work at GE Aviation while munching on our delicious catered lunch.

After that it’s back to work on my attempted Green Belt makeshift project. I continue editing my Microsoft OneNote document and plugging through the several hundred page Six Sigma training book. I’m definitely starting to feel the pressure of time and am determined to get down to business quickly. I spend the rest of the day on this, with only a short break for a meeting with my boss to discuss elements of the project.

The Salty Pig

 That night I had resigned myself to a dull evening of laundry and Market Research reading. Luckily for me that changed! While finishing up the wash cycle a classmate called me and asked if I’d like to join her for an industry event at The Salty Pig. An up-and-coming smartphone application, The Level Up, was hosting an event at the restaurant. Not one to pass up free food and wine I immediately agree. The evening was fabulous as is sipped my free vino, tasted delectable spreads of cheeses, cured meats and flatbread pizzas topped with all sorts of delicious salamis. They even had a cotton candy and popcorn bar! Yes! What an unexpectedly fun evening!

Tuesday morning starts off with me strategically placing Post-it notes on all five of our department's conference rooms to designate where my new posters will be hung. This activity may have involved moving some pretty cool F/A-18 and Nighthawk posters behind doors and cabinets to make room... let's hope no one notices.

After my stealth redecorating it’s on to working on the TSTP marketing OneNote book, editing my proposal action item list in preparation for review by department managers and other general administrative stuff.

I take a short break in the afternoon to head to a mandatory co-op session on our processing out procedure. True to form, GE has a TON of paperwork each intern needs to complete before leaving the site on their last day. I make a mental note to start organizing them early.

The rest of my afternoon is spent updating my Proposal Development Checklist and sending it to my boss.

Beautiful South End street on my way to Orinoco

That night I rush home to meet a former University of Washington classmate for dinner at Orinoco in the South End. It’s hard to believe it’s been more than three years since we last saw each other. We catch up for a couple of hours over delicious Venezuelan food.

Wednesday morning starts off with some Microsoft OneNote work (obviously my new addiction!). I set up a new book for my boss for all current, potential and future F414 customers. It includes country histories, engine descriptions and more. I hope he likes it!

Around 11:30 I take a break for another manager luncheon, this time with the manager of Lynn Turbofan/Turbojet Engineering. It’s impressive to see how much he has accomplished in his 10 years of post-graduate work. I hope I can make an executive band position that quickly (but don't worry; I'm not holding my breath!).

That afternoon I work on a proposal process organizational chart for reference as part of my green belt project efforts. I also send out an e-mail requesting that all of the department managers review my list and meet with me. I hope to get a comprehensive, yet concise list to help any future campaign efforts.

That night it’s right to campus for the final meeting with my Corporate Residency (CoRe) learning team. We meet up at Starbucks in the Curry Student Center and spend half an hour discussing our co-ops and getting feedback from our professor on our one-page interventions.

Because of the three-day weekend in celebration of Veterans Day, Thursday is my Friday! Yes! 

I start out work today by meeting with my boss to review my progress on several projects. With just five full weeks of work left it is critical for me to meet with him often to ensure I complete everything on my plate.

That afternoon I attend the PM Council where we discuss issues with hardware returns and even have our local Six Sigma black belt in the meeting to get his input.

The rest of the day is filled with cramming my Green Belt book and trying to make progress on my plethora of deliverables.

That night in class we (attempt) to learn SPSS. I feel like I’m having a MiniTab/Statistics déjà vu as we rush through a ton of new software concepts and I’m left in the dust. I make a point to schedule a meeting with my professor next week to get a one-on-one review session. I really want to learn this stuff and definitely need more practice.

My steak frite at Le Steak Frites in Montreal

Friday morning it’s off from work and off to Montreal! I make the six-hour drive and arrive by 6:00 pm. My boyfriend and I head right off to dinner at the Canadian chain called Le Steak Frites. It’s lovely and boasts bring your own wine. We each indulge in their steak frites plates (mine the original, his the Saint Paul) punctuated by an appetizer of shredded duck confit! Ummm, yum!

Nick and I in Mount Royal Park, Montreal

Saturday it’s up (relatively) early for our day of sight-seeing. We head up to Mount Royal Park, a huge park situated on top of a hill overlooking the city. Our hour-plus drive there (we got a bit lost) was definitely worth it for the stunning fall foliage and skyline views.

One of the many buildings comprising the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

 After that it was off to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The museum was so neat and was actually comprised of several, very different buildings (including a former church, what looked like a government building and a modern structure) all connected through underground tunnels.

That night dinner was poutine (I couldn’t very well leave without it!) at Maamm Bolduc. The quirky restaurant, that also served as a B&B was warm, friendly and perfect after a long day.

Sunday is spent lounging until the clock ticks 2:00pm at which time I pack it up and face the six –hour drive home.

Luckily, I make it to my apartment  by 9:00pm with enough time to review my questionnaire for Market Research, send some e-mails and review my course schedule registration plan for tomorrow morning.

*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.

Joining the Quarter Century Club

Week 21 (October 31- November 6)

Monday is Halloween! Though, sadly, my office is noticeably lacking in festive attire or candy. How can I work on Halloween without buckets of candy around? Honestly! So, instead of feeding my inner child I feed my meeting quota for the day.

First up, was my very first monthly Ops Council meeting that ran from 8:30-10:00am. The meeting was a great way to get an overview from all of the directors and managers in my department, plus, a little face time with the General Manager never hurts.

After that I don’t have much time in my cube before an 11:00am meeting to help with a new PM Council initiative. I will be constructing a process map/checklist for a new reclamation contract. Reclamation, from my understanding, is when GE will take used engines, modules or parts off of a client's hands, ‘demilitarize’ them by melting, cutting, etc. and then provide the client with a credit for future purchases. I really enjoy getting to learn about a whole new side of the business and one that, oddly enough, my boyfriend works on at his position as a mechanical engineer for an aerospace company.

After my meetings I am tasked with transferring (many) more engine parts from DSP-5 licenses to a massive spreadsheet I created months ago (do you remember those HUNDREDS of parts I had to manually transfer? It’s O.K., I tried to forget too). While most of these parts for an Indian engine were already covered in my previous efforts, some are still missing.

That afternoon I head upstairs for our Team Time meeting. Among other things, we learn about our holiday party on December 2^nd! I’m so excited! I’ve never worked at a company where we had a fancy pants holiday party. After all the excitement over the future festivities dies down I get to help present the posters I’ve been working on for the PM Council. I must admit they look pretty snazzy all framed and I even get a request from another department for my template and suggestions on how they can create their own versions. 

That evening I come home to my new Canon Powershot Elph 310HS camera (courtesy of the GE employee recognition program)! Hallelujah! My faithful readers no longer have to suffer from blurry photos from my old iPhone in my posts.

Tuesday is another busy meeting day.

I start out my morning with a great meeting my boss set up to introduce me to a senior marketing manager upstairs in the TSTP Department (Turboshaft/Turboprop). He has a ton of amazing sounding projects I can help with but we decide to start out with some additions to a marketing book using OneNote  - a new Microsoft suite software I get to learn how to use. Beyond the OneNote project, in the future, I might be able to help with initiatives that involve using pivot tables to determine market segmentation and more!

Just half an hour later I have to review the PBL contract matrix manual I’ve been putting together with a Senior Financial Analyst.  A couple of months ago I had created the matrix for her to outline all of our current Performance Based Logistics contracts (PBL) and now she has requested for me to compose a manual on how I did that so future co-ops can update it as needed.

Just a half hour after that meeting it’s off to discuss some changes that have been made to our international proposal. These changes might involve completely reworking our spare engine/module calculations. I do not envy the Finance department let me tell you!

The rest of the afternoon is spent looking up mounds of part numbers (like, try hundreds) for an India license, plotting out a process map for my new project on engine part reclamation and indulging in far too many leftover Halloween treats. 

Before leaving work that day I head over to another building to present my Northeastern/GE pitch to some recruiters who were unable to make it to the original presentation. They seemed pleased with it and I’m glad to be growing my support on the topic.

Wednesday morning is spent finishing the parts look up for the India licenses that I started on Monday. I feel no shame in bragging about the 600+ parts I manually entered. Go me!

Later that morning I have a meeting to review the provisos (parameters) we submitted on a license for Japan. Apparently we had not been specific enough or something did not agree with the powers that be because now we are faced with rewriting the license application. This is giving me a first- hand glimpse into how these processes can take so long. I’m told this rework could set us back an additional two months or so! Yikes! 

That afternoon I have a follow-up meeting with the marketing manager up in TSTP. He gives me a great run-down of Microsoft OneNote and the marketing book he has been working on for rotor craft using the software. I’m going to be helping him out so we request access for me to the T700 shared folder. I’m very happy to be practicing some secondary market research skills. 

After the meeting I resume my work on updating the question matrix I created to keep track of the questions and answers we received for our international proposal. We recently received a slew of new questions from the country so this task keeps me busy for a while.

In the middle of this question and answer logging I receive the official invitation to our department’s holiday party! It will take place on December 2 at the Black Swan Country Club. I am so stoked because I’ve never worked for a company that hosted a holiday party. Since my boyfriend will, for obvious reasons, be unable to attend, I set about planning who will be my lucky date.

Wednesday continues to be busy. That night when I return home I begin pursuing part-time work for spring semester (it is never too early to start!). Unfortunately, Financial Aid is working against me. I recently discovered that because I was awarded the Stephen Riley scholarship last semester, I now no longer qualify for work study. How ridiculous! You’re really going to punish me for getting a scholarship for academic achievement? Seems odd… Since I am trying to get back into my old position this could cause some serious issues (my job last year was a work study one). Cross your fingers that something will work out for me.

After shooting off some e-mails I rush to the AT&T store because, drumroll please…. my new iPhone 4s has arrived!  It is quite possibly the most amazing thing I have ever owned and the complete opposite in terms of usefulness compared to my sorry 3G version. 

Alas, I don’t have too much time to play with it because I have to cram my case write up for class tomorrow and complete my questionnaire edits for our TRU Chocolate consulting project. Phew!

Thursday morning I get an e-mail from a Northeastern Alum now working in Supply Chain at GE inviting me to join a monthly NEU recruiting conference call. After I presented my pitch to him on Tuesday, this former Husky offered to let me in on these calls that he attends. I hope that this will give even more weight to the Northeastern recruiting cause.

After that I continue my work on my newly-appointed reclamation process map task, breaking at lunch for another manager luncheon, this time with Engineering Executive for military propulsion. I’m loving the Fall series of manager luncheons because there are fewer co-ops at GE so we are able to sit at round tables with these higher-ups and get a more intimate feel from our hour with them.

After my break I return to working on the question matrix I set up for our international proposal. I review all of the files, discuss some answers with team members and make sure the matrix is as up-to-date and accurate as possible.

While doing this I get permission from my boss to attend a co-op field trip to GE’s Global Research Center (GRC) in Niskayuna, NY. I’m so excited because, as I mentioned previously, this is where all of the cool, top-secret research and development for GE happens. It will be a long day of driving but it’ll be totally worth it.

After some more afternoon meetings, including one for the PM Council, I’m off to campus for class.

In Market Research that night I hand in my Communispace case write-up and pray that I was able to accurately remember how to compose those from last year. In addition to this deliverable, my team hands in our final questionnaire for TRUChocolate after having incorporated the edits our classmates provided last week. Since it was a homework-rich class, our professor kindly lets us leave an hour early. Thank goodness!

Friday I join the quarter century club. Yes, that’s right, I’m finally 25 years old. Oh the wonders;  I no longer have to pay incredulous fees for car rentals! Yes!

The day even starts our great: I get serenaded on the T by a woman who shares my same birthday. The song lasted a good minute and definitely got me some funny looks but it put a smile on my face (tough to do at 6:30am).

At work, my cube mate was kind of enough to bring me an entire box of Dunkin’ Donuts munchkins (heaven help me) and another co-worker brought me in a little gift as well. I love birthdays!

But, alas, I am at work so my birthday cannot be all fun and games.  I take some time to finish up my draft of the reclamation map I’m working on for a manager from the PM Council and hand it over for my cubicle mate to review for accuracy. I want to make sure I interpreted all 19 pages of that legal jargon correctly.

That night I meet my friend for a celebratory birthday drinks dinner at Parish Café followed by dinner at KingFish Hall in Faneuil Hall. We meet at Parish at 6:00pm for a blood orange and mango margarita (delish!) before hopping on the T to Faneuil Hall for dinner. At KingFish I order up some smoked pork gnocchi and we share a delicious vanilla caramel bread pudding for dessert. 

That night I also get to open my gift box from my family. I pull in a pretty good haul, among the items is a new Kindle, shoes and perfume! Excellent!

So posh at the Four Seasons Boston

 Saturday the birthday fun continues as I celebrate my 25^th with afternoon tea at the Four Seasons right on the Boston Public Garden.  I fall in love with their royal tea that includes a flute of Kir Royal, an aromatic pot of Rooibos Vanilla tea and a tower of finger foods ranging from hot cranberry sugar scones with devonshire cream to walnut pear bread drizzled in honey. I even get a chocolate cake brought out to me. Gotta love service at a hotel like that. 

My fabulous tea session is followed up with a casual dinner of New York Pizza and movies with friends. What a great birthday weekend and may my coming year be just as amazing as my last.

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

Snow in October

WEEK 20 (October 24-30)

On Monday I take a step back in time (well, to two months ago) and create a compliance plan for Switzerland’s DSP-5 license. It's kind of neat to go back through my template and be able to quickly punch out a compliance plan that used to take me twice as long.

Tuesday morning is filled with meetings.

I start the day over in Building 42 for an 8:00am meeting with a supply chain sub-section manager. You see, he has several PM Council action items attributed to him and my cube mate and I wanted to offer our assistance in anything he needs. We review the overall PM Council pitch and promise to get him some additional materials. 

After the meeting I don’t have long to get back to my building before a 9:00am meeting with my boss to discuss a new project for me. He gives me a run-down of what B & P means (it’s bids and proposals, by the way). He explains that for each proposal that has not yet been started or completed, there has been money set aside to use for the process (printing books, help from engineering, etc.) and that he has to track our monthly expenditures to make sure we aren’t overspending. He now wants me to be in charge of updating his slides. Yes! I love having tasks that involve a consistent stream of work (no, really, I do!).

After that I run over to Building 29 for an hour-and-a-half tour of the plant that assembles and tests the T700, CT7 and CF34 engine lines. It’s a great tour and the guide makes sure we all understand the components. I learn that the 'T' in T700 stands for military while the 'C' of the CF34 means it's a commercial engine. We even get to go into a test cell! 

Right after the tour it’s off to a Northeastern University Co-op speed networking event. Lunch is provided as each intern spends five minutes each chatting with Northeastern alumni now working across GE Aviation. When all is said and done I ‘network’ with about 10 new people.

That night I get an invite from my friend working at Hasbro to attend an ARF and Research Now Thought Leader Series called "Beyond the Traditional, How are you Measuring Online Advertising Effectiveness" taking place on November 16^th. I’m super excited to hear from experts about a field of marketing that I'm (obviously) invested in with my past work with virtual admissions fairs and what not.

I don't have long to get excited about my pending lecture series because I have to make my way to campus for another interview with a first-year student about my GE Aviation residency. Luckily, I already know the student so conversation is easy. Plus, I've already had a bit of experience chatting about my day job with other firs-years so I feel like I'm getting better at it.

Starting Wednesday my boss (and about half of the GE office!) will be participating in an event in Washington D.C. I hope that this opportunity to be relatively alone in the office will allow me to knock out a bunch of action items.

I start my day with some help from a Northeastern Finance co-op as he helps me with an Excel issue I’m having. You see, despite my best efforts at online training modules I cannot seem to master V-Lookups. In about 30 seconds he completes what I spent a good couple of hours trying to learn. But at least it’s done! I can now send off the spreadsheet which details which F414 engine parts are listed on a Bill of Materials (parts list) and which are not. We needed to determine this to see which parts we would be able to request for purchase for engine testing for an international campaign.

After that I start work on updating that Bids and Proposals (B&P) pitch my boss will present at the next Ops Council. This task entails me tracking down the most current CFD costs for the month and quarter and tracking how they compared to our estimates for the year. I actually quite enjoy this task as it involved me getting some inputs from another Northeastern Finance co-op up in the TSTP department. I am beginning to realize I will leave GE completely indebted to every undergrad finance co-op in my office. They're just so darn clever!

Next it’s on to updating a combined action item list that I based off my department's most recent international proposal. The job required a ton of work, starting several weeks ago with going through months of action item lists and removing redundancies, standardizing the statements and formatting them into a appealing ‘check list’. I’m hoping that this will become part of my Green Belt Project (which I’m continuing even without my official Six Sigma course).

Thursday morning I set about comparing and removing redundancies on a newly added list of parts for that procurement project I’ve been working on. The list is for an additional altitude test that will occur as far out as 16 months after the project starts. Fortunately, there are many duplicates which is good for GE because that means there are fewer parts we have to worry about buying or borrowing. 

During lunch I partake in an informative manager luncheon session (just one of many put on by the co-op committee at GE). We spend more than an hour getting a great overview of the engine lines produced by GE, where they are being used around the world and the business strategy behind them.

After lunch its right back to a meeting for the Project Management Council. We have a new PM Council leader and so she reviews where we are as a group regarding our attempts at improving process defects and we begin our discussion of where to go from here.

I also learn about the potential for a field trip to the Global Research Center of GE in New York! The day trip would take students into an facility that is creating the most high-tech and modern innovations at GE! Few people ever get to see this research and development center so I really hope I can attend.

Thursday night it’s time for class. But before I get to listen to our guest speaker it’s off to the grad lounge to hash out some final edits to my group's Market Research consulting project proposal and my 4^th meeting with a first year student to discuss my co-op experience.

Class that night is great! We have an employee from Communispace come in and present on what her company does (community monitoring and creating, by the way). It touches upon my interests in social media so I definitely take away quite a bit from the session. After she leaves, it comes time to get our draft questionnaires reviewed by our classmates. I hope to get some valuable feedback.

Friday morning the posters I've spent several weeks working on for the PM Council are delivered! Now I’m tasked with getting them placed in the five conference rooms in my department so that people can review them when preparing for a 650.10 Review (a financial review) or when working on introducing a new product.

Later that day, I get proposed to work on a new project with one of the team leads of the PM Council. It would entail taking a newly minted reclamation process proposal and creating a flow process/checklist to help ensure that everyone is in line with requirements and to make the sometimes convoluted legal document easier to understand.

Next it's on to deliverables for other members of my department. First up: creating a manual for the PBL (Performance Based Logistics) Contract Matrix I have put together during the past several months. The Senior Financial Analyst whom I created it for wants a manual that can be handed over to the next co-op so that they can keep updating it in the same manner I have. How cool! I even upload my manual onto the GE library.

I spend the rest of the day diligently sending out deliverables to my boss. Included in these mass e-mails is a proposal folder map to help better organize the material needed for compiling a bid.

Snow on a car - IN OCTOBER!

 The weekend (despite being 'Halloween Weekend') is relatively dull - and I love it! I feel like I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to catch up on life, homework, etc. so that's exactly what I do. As a little spice (or ice?) to my Saturday Boston sees its first snow of the season! Snow? in October? Love it! 

*The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of GE Aviation, Northeastern University, nor their staff, employees or affiliates.

The Spirit of Boston

Boston Skyline - Photo courtesy of Mary Alice Hewitt

 WEEK 19 (October 17-23)

Monday finds my boss out of the office. In his absence I keep busy with a slew of activities.

I attend our department's bi-monthly Team Time meeting and hear about some recent company hires, financial status reports and new initiatives.

When I return to my desk I begin work on my move to a new cubicle. A recently-hired employee is coming in and has requested our current location. To accommodate the request, I set about coordinating with the site furniture movers and clearing out the cubicle I will inherit.

I take a break that afternoon and stop by the cafeteria building for my free flu shots! While I’m not fond of needles I am fond of the fact that this service is free. Heaven’s knows I wouldn’t have gotten one otherwise. Here's to hoping for a relatively healthy winter.

I spend the rest of the afternoon working on the PowerPoint presentation I will deliver Thursday on behalf of Northeastern to several recruiting coordinators from other GE businesses. I’m a bit nervous about it so I want my pitch to be perfect. Luckily I’ve received some more information from Northeastern’s Career Center Director to enhance my pitch.

After work it's straight to campus for my Market Research team's first meeting with TRU Chocolate, the new company we will be conducting research for. We spend an hour hearing about the early years of the company, its past marketing strategy and, best of all, taste testing the product (success!). We discuss the CEO's goals for our work and the managerial problems they would like us to help solve. I leave feeling excited to be working with a company that is so responsive to our project and with a product that seems like it will sell itself.

After the meeting I stop at the Career Center to pick up some marketing materials for my Thursday presentation to GE. Included in my packet is the brand new employer book and student co-op book. I excitedly flip through the pages. I can't wait to show them off on Thursday!

Then, it's off to the South End for dinner with a (very) long-time friend. She's back in Boston for a short vacation so we decide to meet at Giacomo's. We fill the next couple of hours with delicious Italian food, inexpensive wine and great conversation. It was such a nice treat to see her and hear how well she is doing out in California.

Tuesday morning I hold a catch-up meeting with my boss. We review what I’ve completed in his absence and he mentions the potential for working on some F414 marketing slides with the JOLP in our department. I’m super excited to be branching out into more marketing type tasks!

Around noon I take a break from my day for lunch at Panera with my Women and Technology (WAT) mentor. While we don’t discuss anything too earth-shattering, it was nice to catch up on the happenings of the past month. I leave promising to see her again at the WAT mentor reception later that week.

Back in the office that afternoon, I work on a transmittal letter to Malaysia to request a renewal of a DSP-5 license. It came to our attention that the license is nearly expired and must be renewed. It is of the utmost importance to keep them current so that GE can stay in compliance with government regulations.

Wednesday I am invited to attend a ‘Careers in Commercial’ panel during lunch. I hear from four representatives from across GE businesses who have spent years climbing the commercial ladder to impressive positions.

But the fun and food is not over for the day. Soon after the panel closes it’s right to the WAT mentor reception. I catch up with several ladies whom I now recognize from all of the events I’ve attended and listen on as some of them receive awards for their efforts in mentoring.

I leave work around 4:30 pm that day with my cube-mate for the first ‘Fun Team’ happy hour at Tavern in the Square in Salem. It was such a blast to see everyone loosen up and enjoy each others company outside of a work environment. I had so much fun that what I anticipated would be a stay of one hour turned into three and half! I leave super excited about the next event.

On Thursday I bid adieu to my cubicle home of four months in exchange for a new, smaller space just around the corner.

After I finish arranging my items just so, it’s time for my pitch to GE Capital and GE Corporate. Luckily it goes quite well and I get a ton of leads on how to proceed. There is still a lot of work ahead of me but I’m glad that the pitch I worked so hard on, my WebEx presentation and the conference call were all so well received and went of without a hitch.

After my call I meet my boss for my mid-term appraisal. As part of the GE corporate residency program each student is required to complete an appraisal workflow, beginning with goal-setting during our first week. I go over how I graded myself across the categories and am happy to report that my boss graded me better than what I gave myself. He takes plenty of time with me. It’s nice to see that, since that large international proposal is winding down, that I might be getting more face time with him.

That night in my Marketing Research class my group proudly submits our research proposal for TRU Chocolate. We're still playing a bit of catch up since our last company fell through but I think we all feel pretty confident in our efforts with this new company. During class I also get contacted by my third and a fourth first-year student to interview me regarding my corporate residency at GE! I love being able to talk about my experience there and help them decide if it's somewhere they might like to apply.

I spend my Friday trying to reconcile my cancelled Six Sigma Green Belt training course by contacting Black Belts in my department and asking if they would mind serving as a mentor during my project process. While my project won’t be ‘officially green belt certified’ I’ve decided to try and align it as much as possible with Six Sigma teachings.

I round out the day working with the JOLP (Junior Officer Leadership Program) on some new marketing tasks. He gives me an overview of what my boss is having him work on and agrees to let me help out on data sheets that provide quick overviews of our engines and their applications.

Friday after work I'm meet my Northeastern MBA mentee at Parish Cafe. I feel like it's been forever since I've seen her so I'm excited to catch up and hear how she is surviving the program.

Dinner! - Photo courtesy of Mary Alice Hewitt

Saturday evening it’s time for my dinner cruise on the Spirit of Boston! As part of my friend’s (belated) birthday celebration I purchased a Groupon ticket to a three-hour dinner on the boat. I'm particularly excited for it because my MBA program went on the very same cruise in May as part of an end-of-the-year celebration but I was unable to attend as I was (literally) on a plane to India. The cruise is fun and the food delicious and plentiful. While I don't know that I would have paid full price to do it again, the Groupon discount made it worth it and I think everyone had a good time.

Sunday rounds out my week with some working out, homework and general errand running.

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

Finance for Dummies, er, I Mean ‘Non-Financial Professionals’

WEEK 18 (October 10-16)

My week starts out on Tuesday after the long weekend and is jammed packed! You see, I’ll be out of the office on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for a “Finance for Non-Financial Professionals” course being taught on site at GE.  With, essentially, one day of work this week you can imagine all that I have to do.

I start out my morning with a dry-run of a conference call. I’ve never worked the GE phone system as an ‘administrator’ so a helpful co-worker offers his time to assist me. The call will take place next Thursday with a group of recruiting representatives from other GE businesses and I’ll act as a Northeastern representative so I want to make sure everything goes smoothly.

After the practice session goes by without a glitch I send out my official meeting invitation with the call in code, a reserved room and all! I feel so professional, especially when a slew of confirmations are sent my way within the hour! Who knows, I might even set up a WebEx presentation if I’m feeling daring.

But I don’t have much time for revelry because it’s off to the makeup session for last Friday’s cancelled parts procurement meeting. I’m a bit nervous to present my deliverable (the center of the whole meeting). We get in several key people and are able to cover all of the procurement lists through the next several months. I come out of it much clearer on what I need to do to proceed after encountering a few roadblocks leading up to this point.  I promise to update the Excel file categorizing all of the necessary parts and save it to the shared drive for the program.

When I return to my desk I find that my boss has dropped off two versions of a proprietary agreement statement. He asks me to scour the document for discrepancies. We want to make sure GE is covered and properly protected and that any changes since the last run of this document do not infringe on that.

The rest of the afternoon is spent deflecting teasing remarks about my Boston Business Journal article. You see, I had brought it into work to show my boss.  Another employee asked to ‘borrow’ it and instead made several photocopies and pasted my mug all over the office! I was humiliated and had to endure relentless teasing the rest of the day. Ugh! I just hope people don’t think I was causing a disruption in the work place or that I’m conceited.

That night my Market Research group and I come to the executive decision that we will need to pursue a new company for our marketing research consulting project: TRU Chocolate. We are all excited about taste-testing the new product and interacting with a company that is very responsive to our project needs. 

Later I get an e-mail from the Northeastern Career Center letting the second-years know that we should expect first-year students to begin contacting us soon regarding our corporate residencies! I’m so excited and hope that at least ONE will call me up for an informational interview.

Wednesday is the first day of my ‘Finance for Non-Financial Professionals’ course (but really, let’s call it what it is: Finance for Dummies). I have completed (nearly) all of my pre-work and am excited to be in a classroom setting again. I walk in and am greeted by a lovely spread of breakfast baked goods, coffee, fruit and a granola yogurt parfait. I’m also handed a pristine binder for the class, a name tag and crisp version of GE’s 2010 annual report. I soon learn that our professor for the course is from the Wharton school of business- wow! Nice job GE!

While the day is long, we cover a ton of useful information and the professor is great at applying all of the concepts to ‘real world’ GE business issues. It was a really great refresher of both Accounting and Finance from my first year and I was pleased to realize how much I remember! I even contribute in the class on topics regarding stock repurchase, dividends and more (I did my Finance case write-up on that topic, after all).

By Thursday we are really getting into the nitty-gritty of GE's financial statements. It was always a wonder to me how much information is out in the public sphere if only you know how to read it! All of GE's various business as diverse as GE Capital, GE Energy, GE Home and Business Solutions, etc. make for amazing material for discussion and analysis. During lunch that day, I check my work e-mail to find that my cube-mate and I have been directed to move cubes. While I'm a bit bummed initially I cheer up when I find out that we will be taking over the home of a former co-op we befriended during the summer months.

By the end of class on Friday I am filled to the brim with financial knowledge (and am consequently, a bit tuckered out). While all of the topics covered in the class ended up being review for me, I felt that having these three days to dedicate solely to finance really helped to solidify the subject.

When I return home that night I see that I have received not one, but TWO interview requests from first-years! Yay!  I immediately set about writing both students back. I will meet with one tomorrow and the other later in the week.

On my same e-mail list I receive a notification from Northeastern that the time has come to register for graduation! EEEK! Yikes! How can that have come so soon?

Saturday morning I’m up early go to pick up my iPhone 4s but, alas, just 24 hours after its release it is already sold out! Ugh! I will have to wait 3-4 weeks for it to come in the mail. Since I’m still rockin’ a 3G (yes, that’s 3G, not 3GS) I hope I can make it that long…

Roxy's Gourmet Grilles Cheese

After my phone debacle I'm a bit dejected but luckily I spot The Boston Book Festival occurring in Copley Square. Besides books, which I love, there are also food trucks (which, as we all know, I also love!). I peruse some prints, indulge in Roxy's Gourmet Grilled Cheese (hello mighty rib melt!) and even an apple crumble cupcake from the Cupcakory truck. Fabulous!

Luckily all of the food was of the fast variety because I have to jet back to campus to meet with the first of my first-year interviewers. He seems very excited about hearing about GE Aviation and my co-op and I try to give him the best run-down I can. 

Sunday is my catch up day. But, besides all of that boring stuff like homework and errands (blah) I put in my deposit for my winter camel trek in Morocco! The two-day trek is part of my three-week winter travel schedule that will see me in Portugal, Spain and Morocco. Eeek! I can't wait to spend New Year's Eve in the Erg Chebbi Desert! Now I just have to be patient...

*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.

My Boston Business Journal Article Plus a Weekend Visit from Nick

WEEK 17 (October 3-9)

Monday morning sees my boss back from his overseas business trip in support of that large international proposal we sent out in September. He brings back some good news; saying he feels confident in our chances of winning the bid but also warns us that the proposal process is not over yet.  You see, our team still has to be prepared for what may be several questions from the client, all of which must be answered within 72 hours!

To help aid in this process, my boss puts me in charge of managing a ‘question matrix’ to log new questions when they arrive, keep track of when they are due and record our answers.

On Monday afternoon we have our monthly ‘Team Time’ meeting which allows our department to get together and communicate on the status of projects, new initiatives and more. This month’s session was particularly fun because we were given a lovely overview of the F414 engine (the engine line I work on) and our first ‘Fun Team’ event was announced. Our department will be hosting a happy hour at Tavern in the Square on October 19^th as part of the new ‘fun’ initiative.

Boston Business Journal Photo

That evening it’s off to my first ever photo shoot! The occasion is my upcoming Boston Business Journal article.  Fortunately the rain holds out and the photographer was able to snap a few good shots outside of Dodge Hall. He says to look for the issue on stands this Friday! 

When I get home I try to be diligent about my networking and so make my first attempt at a LinkedIn introduction request. Luckily, it works! An employee working in the marketing department at one of my dream companies accepts my request.  Now I just have to initiate an informational phone interview.

Tuesday finds me in some more fun meetings. Today I attend a Northeastern/GE lunch event. We have a speaker come in and discuss his role in advanced technologies (a.k.a. all that cool, secret, high-tech engine stuff) while we all happily munching on Qdoba tacos. 

After lunch I sign off on the posters I am creating as part of the PM council’s list of initiatives. Now I’ll just wait for the full-size print out before I sent them to get framed.

I also set about completing my mid-term appraisal. GE requires all of its co-ops to complete an appraisal process workflow which begins when you start your rotation. It involves setting goals, discussing them with your boss and going through periodic reviews to make sure you’re on track.

I also run about tying up some loose ends which include desperately trying to find a solution to the Six Sigma green belt course cancellation. I feel like I’m becoming a stalker of all of the Master Black Belts on the Lynn site and anyone remotely related to Six Sigma.

The afternoon is also punctuated by a meeting with some additional PM Council members to introduce them to my cubicle-mate and I. We will be working with them closely in the future so we thought it would be a good idea to meet first. 

After my long day I jet to campus to meet with my Market Research team to work on our consulting project ‘problem definition’ for the NFPA which is due Thursday. 

On Wednesday I head over to Building 29, where GE tests engines, to physically look for parts I need as part of my engine test procurement project. It was nice to see the engine, test equipment and parts that make up my list of 4,000+ pieces first-hand. 

That afternoon I also send out an e-mail to the individuals from GE Capital and GE Aviation recruiting that I met during ‘GE Day’ at Northeastern with the hopes of getting a dialogue going on potential co-op, full-time and leadership development opportunities for the Northeastern MBA  program. I also spoke to the director of the Career Center at school and she’s all in so I hope something positive can come from this!

Braised duck at Hamersley's Bistro

In celebration of my classmate’s birthday I head to Hamersley’s Bistro that night for an amazing dinner of braised duck, mint and pea risotto and vino. Loved it! 

On Thursday I hand in a draft of a large, standardize action item list based on the steps taken during our most recent proposal process. My aim is to get a generic ‘checklist’ type form that project managers can use for future proposals to help streamline the process. My boss seems pleased with the initial effort and gives me some great pointers to help improve it.

I also get the posters back from the printer today! They look great and I’m super excited to get them framed and up on the walls of our conference rooms.

Before class that night I meet with a first-year MBA student, a former employee of Dunkin’ Brands, to chat about her experience working for one of my dream companies.  I ask for potential contacts she may have in HR, Marketing or elsewhere with whom I might start networking with. Ironically, this meeting takes place at a Starbucks – whoops! Don’t tell Dunkin’ Brands that!

That night in class my group begins to realize that we are not getting the participation we need from NFPA for our research project and will have to request an extension from our professor to complete our proposal. What’s worse, we may even require a company change! Yikes! It’s a tough decision to make but if the NFPA won’t even give us their contact list there’s not much we can do for them in terms of a market research project. Luckily, our professor is very understanding and tells us this isn’t the first time such a setback has happened.

We all agree to give it a few more days before we start contacting our backup company: TRU Chocolate.

Friday is an exciting day! My article for the Boston Business Journal comes out! Eeek! I try frantically to look it up online, but, alas, the newspaper is a paid subscription (even digitally!) and I can only access a small excerpt from the entire article. I immediately set about calling their offices and sending e-mails to the woman who interviewed me to see if I can snag a free hard copy or temporary subscription. 

I also am in high spirits because Nick is coming to Boston for the long weekend! Since he’s still in Montreal on business and has a rental car at his disposal, it is so much easier to visit than if he were back home on the West Coast. I rush home and start cleaning in anticipation of his arrival.

Since I just saw Nick last weekend it was a much less rushed visit. We indulge in the more ‘vanilla’ things in life like a visit to the Laundromat, an afternoon viewing of Moneyball and some other errand running.

Getting excited for BBQ from Spoon Truck

On Saturday we stop by Spoon Truck (owned by my classmate’s husband) for lunch. The newbie food truck serves up home-style barbeque. I order one of their bowls, piled high with pulled pork, burnt ends baked beans, vinegar slaw and bacon scallion hush puppies. Yum! We also splurge on some fried pickles and orange soda and park ourselves on a planter to devour our feast.

Sunday starts off with the best Huevos Rancheros in the city at The Otherside Café, followed by checking out digital cameras, picking out a tie for Nick, a visit the Lindt store, trying to locate my Boston Business Journal article (apparently the Boston Business Journal is not sold anywhere!) and afternoon coffee with my friend at Pavement Coffeehouse. We even do work together at Snell Library! It’s a glimpse into what my life could look like if we lived in the same city.

Pumpkin Ale at Boston Beer Works

That night it’s off to Boston Beer Works for their Octoberfest menu. I, of course, order the most sugary of beers: the Pumpkin Works Ale with a cinnamon sugar rim and to cleanse my palette before my dinner of Wienerschnitzel. 

I have Monday off for Columbus Day so after I see Nick off (he has a long drive back to Montreal) it’s back to work for me. I tidy up, grocery shop, do homework and prep for the week ahead.

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

Tweet Me!

Week 16 (September 26 – October 2)

Monday morning couldn’t have started in a better way! I log into my Outlook account at work to discover that I have been awarded a bronze medal for ‘Above and Beyond’ achievement for my efforts on a recent international proposal. I am certain that this cannot be correct, especially since it comes with a generous monetary award. However, after much checking and re-checking it turns out that I am indeed the correct recipient of that e-mail.  What’s more, later that day, I’m recognized during a quarterly awards ceremony. Not bad at all!

But the week is not all celebrations and awards, I do have some work to do! I start out by submitting some Excel charts I put together that track the 10-year, 5-year and year-to-date currency averages of the Australian dollar as it compares to the U.S. Dollar to a Senior Financial Analyst in my department. I, admittedly, stumbled a bit with the assignment but am happy to have learned and discovered some new GE internal sites like the Treasury page in the process.

I also submit a matrix I put together to track the results of a recent PM Council brainstorming session. I track all of the comments that were made, the level of importance assigned to each comment during the session and distribute my records to the head of the PM Council. I hope that my efforts will help the Council along their route to implementing all of their initiatives.

I also meet with a couple of individuals who work with International Trade Compliance (ITC) issues to sort out a notification I got regarding a suspended DSP-5 License for Australia and Malaysia. While the license doesn’t expire until February 2012, it is essential that we start the renewal process early since getting licenses passed through the government can take upwards of two months.

Tuesday I volunteer as a representative at ‘GE Day’ at Northeastern University. The goal of the event is to bring several GE businesses together to promote their co-op opportunities and leadership development programs. It was an amazing networking opportunity for me and I was able to make some solid connections with other businesses in GE. In fact, through my chats with representatives from GE Capital and GE Aviation, I realized that there was an untapped potential to further align GE's need for corporate residents and full-time employees with the Full-Time MBA program at my school. After some positive response from the GE representatives across several businesses, I promise to send out an e-mail and get an open communication stream going on the topic.

Back at work on Wednesday, I send in my draft of the poster I designed for the PM Council. I should be getting a full-scale mock-up back soon. How exciting!

This is just in time for my meeting with the PM Council, where the sub-team leader I am working with does a dry-run presentation of what he plans to present to the General Manager tomorrow. Now that the posters are done, I have to move on to the next items on the PM Council's ‘Go-Do’ action item list which will involve further exposure to new employees at GE (which I love!).

I am also nearly done with the PBL contract matrix I have been working on for the finance department. After adding a few new contracts, a tab for government support and continuously getting in new documents I am happy to say that I am almost there! The Financial Analyst I have been working with for this project also requested that I create a manual for future co-ops on how to use this reference guide and edit it accordingly. It will eventually be going on our internal ‘Support Central’ site for all of my department to use. How neat!

That evening I get an e-mail from Northeastern University formally announcing the Class of 2013 bloggers! Three girls will be taking over my role as a first-year correspondent. Make sure to check them out at: http://www.cba.neu.edu/grad/fulltime-mba/students/blogs/

In my inbox is also a lovely update from my Executive Mentor. He checks in and asks how I have been doing during the past month. I give him the run-down of some of the great news I’ve had recently and we agree to plan our next meeting for later in October.

I also am proud to say I have booked my first Groupon! I will be enjoying a dinner cruise on The Spirit of Boston later this month in celebration of my friend's birthday. Dinner, drinks and views of the Boston skyline at 50% off? Yes please!

Thursday I get to sit in on a great PM council meeting run by the Lynn Turbofan and Turbojet General Manager and all of the PM Council leaders. The session provides a great overview of the company and some key areas for improvement. It really helps to put in perspective the work I’ve been doing with the PM Council and how, even the small initiatives I’m helping with, can have a major impact on the performance of the division.

Thursday night in my Market Research class our initial problem statement and company background is due as part of our semester-long consulting project. My team and I will be conducting our market research project for a teammate's co-op employer: The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). We will be helping them determine how to better utilize their social media outlets to meet their customers needs.

Feeling particularly excited about social media I decide it is time to set up a *gasp* Twitter account. Now, keep in mind that prior to this I have never even been on Twitter, let alone “tweeted” but I figure I really enjoy blogging, so the next logical step seemed to be to sign over my life to the little blue bird. Follow my handle at @KatrinaGraves for more up-to-the-minute enlightenment about my life as a Northeastern MBA. If you want to comment about something you saw in the blog, please use the hashtag #LivingtheNortheasternMBA.You can even link directly to it from the snazzy Twitter button I've added on the upper-right hand corner of this page. Look at me being all techno.

With the permission of my boss, I throw in the towel early Friday afternoon and head for a weekend in Montreal with my boyfriend! He is there on an extended business trip and I would be remiss not to take advantage of the fact that he’s only a 5 ½ hour drive away! That morning I’m up at 4:45am to pick up my rental car at the airport and still make it into work before 8:00am.

Unfortunately, the high of my approaching trip across the border is dampened a bit by an e-mail stating that all Green Belt Six Sigma classes at GE have been cancelled through the rest of the year! Ugh! I was SO looking forward to it! Well, I’m certainly not going to let it go that easily. I make a note to start sending out e-mails and searching for alternative ways to complete the course and receive my certification.  Cross your fingers that a solution will present itself.

Kind of excited for my poutine

My weekend in Montreal with Nick is fabulous. The drive up north, while long, was beautiful and I could see the leaves starting to turn. When I meet him at the super-chic Le Centre Sheraton Hotel in downtown Montreal we immediately set about getting dinner. I am pleased to report that I indulged in an amazing Poutine from Burger Bar. It was quite possibly heaven- deep fried and drenched in gravy. Yum!

Notre-Dame Basilica

The next day it’s sight-seeing time! We start off our morning with a hearty breakfast at Eggspectation, where I order up an eggs Benedict on crepes (it is French Canada, after all). The rest of the day is spent strolling through the cobblestone streets of  Vieux-Montreal (the Old Town) and taking in all the cute shops, sights and, of course, food. I adore the Chinatown area and the Notre-Dame Basilica (the Canadian version, that is).

That night it’s off to Les 3 Brasseurs for a steaming pot of Provencal mussels, frites and beer spiked with maple liqeur. Love it! And what would a trip to a french-inspired city be without some dessert crepes. Of course, I order up the most grotesquely huge version they have piled high with strawberries, cheesecake filling and ice cream.

Biosphere

While rain did hamper our Sunday morning a bit, we still managed a jaunt to Ile Sainte-Helene to visit the Biosphere, a Calder sculpture (Modern Art History fan squeals in delight) and a gorgeous cityscape.

I don’t make it home to Boston until late that night but it was well worth it for such a fun taste of a new, international city with my lovely boyfriend.

*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.