[this post was largely inspired by our Marketing prof (who hates being called prof) Duncan Simester, on loan to us from MIT, or visiting from MIT depending on how you look at it, who makes marketing… well…interesting. His favourite phrase is ‘bad customer’. OK, now that you’re all set, here comes the actual post]

OK, I forgot my train of thought. I had this brilliant blogpost in my head during yesterday’s Marketing class (not that the class wasn’t interesting, on the contrary, it inspired a whole host of new thoughts), and then somehow I lost it. Didn’t write it down and lost it. Forever and ever. Bad, bad Suzy.

I’m feeling better now, the cold has run its course and I’m back in the saddle. Good thing too, since I’ve started feeling a tad guilty about not putting on my suit and relentlessly hunting down an internship. So I made a list of 10 people/companies that I’m interested in or want to talk to (the people, not the companies), one for every week of this term, and I’m going to get in touch with all of them. And the best thing is: I don’t have to wear a suit yet. Bad, bad suit.

The Milkround is still raging on campus (providing ample opportunity to ogle all my cute male classmates in suits) and I’ve seen the first cases of Milkround fatigue (‘please just let this be over and someone give me a job’). Since I’ve not yet been to any presentations, I can’t report back on the exact goings on (see Al’s blog for more, he does wear a suit on occasion), but I’ve heard that some of the presentations were ace, and others lacked pizzazz. Bad, bad companies.

Next week, there will be an Industry Panel on campus (for those of us interested in what LBS calls ‘Industry’ which means any job except a job in banking or consulting)(and which I think sounds like I’ll be working as a production worker on some conveyor belt) (bad, bad Career Services, can someone please come up with a new name?), which should be interesting and about which I’ll report back. As the attentive reader might have guessed, I don’t want to land a job in either banking (that would be bad for the bank AND for me) or consulting (been there, done that, got the t-shirt), so I’ll be headed for that Industry category. So does that mean that I’m no part of Milkround at all? Well, no, there are a number of ‘Industry’ companies coming onto campus, but they start as of next week. I’ll be heading to the BP, Shell and Google presentations, and yes, will wear a suit for that.

[edit 1: bad, bad Suzy for not being creative enough to come up with another ‘bad, bad XXX’ at the end of the last paragraph.]

[edit 2: good news: another new LBS 2008 blogger on the block: welcome Wheels! Dude, you 2008s have got quite the blogging community going already!!]

Feeling a bit under the weather. I guess sticking 325 people in the same room in the dead of winter with all these bacteria flying around is sort of asking for trouble. One of my housemates caught a cold, and has passed it on to me (or maybe I caught is somewhere else, who knows). So I’m trying to lay low, which is a bit hard with two assignments needing doing (Managing Organisational Behaviour’s audit of a company and another Finance groupcase, this time on M&A, and I’m the projectmanager for that one). And even the weather has been looking a bit like it’s under the weather lately. And I guess the nice thing about feeling under the weather, is that it’s just nice to complain and moan a bit (that’s why the English weather makes for such good smalltalk material). I guess I’ll just have to whip out my tried and trusty medication-against-cold-and-moan-for-when-you’re-feeling-under-the-weather: ice cream! In particular Haagen-Dazs, my favourite.

Our first week back in this term zipped by. It’s strange how quickly you get back into a routine. One exception was Sundowners (our weekly drink-schmooze-catch-up extravaganza), normally on Thursday between 6 and 8 pm, it was now moved to Friday 6 – 9 pm. That way the execs that are in residence only every other week on Fri and Sat can come and hang out as well. And I’m happy to report I did just that, I hung out for a bit with Farhan and some of his exec buddies (they had me fooled for a while, just cause they’re execs, doesn’t mean they’re all grown up), which was fun.

The Milkround is by now well and truly underway, and the first panicky messages are starting to appear on Portal (when is the deadline for company ABC? Why can’t I find the application for company XYZ?), and I’ve already seen some Milkround-fatigue. One presentation earlier this week was attended by over 150 students, for a company (that shall remain nameless) that only offers 2 internship-spots. I caught a little bit of that bug and have gone out and bought a suit (haven’t owned a full suit in over 2.5 years). Pinstripe and all. Not that I’m changing my mind on doing Milkround (although I will go to some presentations later on in the season: BP, Shell and Google), but I figure that at some point I’ll start interviewing too, hence the need for a suit.

Or, how a Finance lecture on M&A can be fun!

Yesterday saw our first lecture of the second term (very optimistically called ‘Spring Term’… we’re in the dead of winter!) which was the continuation of our Finance I course that started last term. And I loved it. It was an interesting subject (M&A) and I like professor Cocco’s teaching style, dry with the occasional touch of sarcastic humour. Main take-aways: in M&A you really only need to remember three words, synergies and pre-emptive move.

This morning we had our first lecture on Operations and Technology Management (OTM) which I really liked too. This semester is shaping up to be a good one.

The suit-parade has started on campus with the first of the Milkround recruiting sessions today: Citigroup is coming this lunchtime and Deutsche Bank tonight. I’m having a field day, cause I *love* guys in suits (it’s like art, they’re nice to look at)(does that sound sexist in any way shape or form)(h*ll, what do I care about sexist, it’s a compliment and there’s a lot of people dressed up that I thought for sure weren’t interested in banking. I reckon there’s a couple reasons why people attend these sessions:
* they are genuinely interested in these companies
* they are not sure what they want to do so they want to gather information (although I’m not sure that you’ll find what it is you want to do by going to these presentations)
* they want a free lunch (that is technically speaking not a free lunch, we learnt in Finance that there is no thing like a free lunch, I reckonn we’re paying 40K pounds for those lunches!)

For those of my colleagues that are going to these presentations, and even more importantly to the receptions afterwards, a few words from my own experience being on the other side (ie the party that is being wooed, not the party wooeing (spelling?)):
You’re talking to a person, not a company
This person woke up this morning, had breakfast, put on a suit and went out. Maybe they’re having a bad day. Maybe they had a fight with their spouse. Take it from me, it’s much nicer talking to a person who thinks you’re a person, as opposed to a person that thinks you’re a company. This person might want a drink, or to talk about something not directly related to their job. Keep that in mind and you’ll make a much better impression than elbowing your way in only to ask the same old question that everyone asks and which answer you can look up in the company brochure. End of rant.

PS The title of the post is a quote from Prof Cocco.

It’s like Christmas break never happened. It’s Monday morning 11.20 and I’m already up to my ears in Finance again. And to be honest, although my first instinct is to moan and whine again (since that what I’m supposed to do, right? You moan and b**ch about going to lectures, that’s what students do), but then I stopped my own thoughts in their tracks and realised that I actually like getting my brain into gear again Lectures, assignments, readings: bring it on!! What can I say, I’m a geek.

Today also sees the start of the hunting season: the Milkround opens for business. The Milkround is a uniquely English term describing the companies coming onto campus for recruiting and everyone’s getting antsy. I’ve heard from last year’s first years that it becomes quite hectic and people will at some point go nuts. Since I won’t be doing a lot of Milkround recruiting I will try and keep a cool head.

Earlier in the week I visited the Wallace Collection, a charming museum a few minutes walk behind Selfridges. It reminded me of a large junk-attic, in the best possible way. It shows you how if you have a large (and splendidly magnificent I must admit) house, too much money, too much time and an interest in art, what can happen. I loved the layout of the house, the opulence of the furnishings (think rich reds and blues, boudoir-style), and of course I was particularly interested in the Rubens paintings in the collection. My favourite painting in the collection was not a Rubens painting, but this painting by Philippe de Champaigne.

Yesterday I went to ‘The Three Emperors‘ exhibition at the Royal Academy, which showcases fabulous artwork, robes, statues and calligraphy from the period of the Qing period. I was lucky enough to go with a friend who’s from Hong Kong, who could tell me a lot of the background and translate the Chinese characters and that added so much to the experience.

A short article in today’s Guardian shows one of the reasons why art is so important: it lowers stress levels! See ‘Stressed workers enjoy art for heart’s sake‘.