G’s Parents Have Arrived!

Posted on 3 November 2006 by k
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Thankfully G’s parents had a restful flight and arrived in London this morning; we enjoyed a full day of sightseeing and adventures. First, it was Christmas! A new briefcase for K, a nice picture for our bare walls, and a fun modern candle sculpture for our living room.

Then, we were off to explore our neighborhood. We ventured through Belsize Park and up the hill to Hampstead where we had lunch. Then, downtown to cross the Thames via the Millennium Bridge, up to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery to see Monets and Van Goghs, and a sunset ride on the London Eye. And, finally, back to Belsize for some typical pub fare and English Ale.

Tomorrow, we’re off to the theatre and fireworks in honor of Guy Fawkes. We’ll keep you posted.

See more photos… 

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New Age Interviews

Posted on 3 November 2006 by k

Farewell to the days when you could take an hour off work to interview for a new position, times have changed. Apparently, in the UK the interview process is quite lengthy and grueling. Rather than review your resume and bring you in to chat with a variety of co. employees, many UK firms have moved to a series of group and individual activities–something they call an assessment center. In many cases, individuals vying for senior roles will go through the first series of selection interviews (with a recruiter), go through a case study and then be guaged by a day-long series of assessment center activities before finally being invited back to meet with the decision makers.

What’s an assessment center? This is a series of activities (rather than a place or building) that are meant to collectively display your ability to reason, prioritize, multitask, deliver on time, listen, communicate and perform under pressure (or inability). Here are the types of activities you may expect to see:

  • In-tray exercises
  • Case studies/Pressurized scenarios (a professional version of 20 questions)
  • Group challenge

Imagine interviewing for five positions simultanteously. Impossible! So, when searching for a job in the UK one must be selective. Don’t throw your name into the hat unless you feel that the position is a perfect fit OR you have an abundance of time.

What’s an in-tray exercise. A scenario is outlined. Your boss, often the managing director, is missing in the jungle and all are unsure if he will return. You’ve been asked to assume his duties for the immediate future, if you perform well, you’ll be asked to stay in the position should he not return. A courier delivers a package to you and you have 30 minutes to review a stack (probably 30-50 pages) of materials from his electronic and hard-copy inboxes before you meet with his boss to discuss your next steps. You must identify all action steps, delegate tasks, and determine which tasks should be handled first. You must also determine if there are strategic issues that should be the focus of your conversation with the boss.

Here’s the trick to an in-tray. Go through everything first. Some folks get lost in the details of delegation and task lists before really determining what’s in the stack. For those control freaks out there, remember to delegate the minutia and tasks that you’re less prepared to handle while keeping your time to address the strategic issues. When delegating tasks, note that you must check back to assess employees’ progress on the most pressing tasks.

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A bit of my world…

Posted on 1 November 2006 by k

Thought you might enjoy a taste of my world for the day. Today, I spent 4 hours in a case study workshop and another 4 hours in a “CV Surgery” class (changing my resume to fit UK standards). Apparently, many large corps ask you to work through complex problems with them in order to determine your “cerebral” ability and mental math skills. My first class today gave us frameworks to tackle difficult questions while keeping our “cool”. Here are a couple questions to try your skills:

1. How many letterboxes are there in London(or substitute Washington DC, San Francisco, Raleigh/Durham, New York, etc)?

2. You’re in a room with three light switches. These switches control 3 light bulbs in an adjacent room (which you can’t see into from your room). You can enter the room next door only once to see the bulbs. How can you determine which switch goes to each bulb?

Here’s a hint. For #1, it’s not about getting the right answer…it’s about the process. #2’s about getting the right answer.

If you like these, go to these sites to see additional examples:

http://www.mckinsey.com/aboutus/careers/applyingtomckinsey/interviewing/index.asp

http://www.bcg.com/careers/interview_prep/Practice_Case/practice_cases.html

http://www.bain.com/bainweb/join_bain/case_interviews.asp

And here are a couple links in case you get stuck:

http://www.mckinsey.com/aboutus/careers/applyingtomckinsey/interviewing/casestudytips/index.asp

http://www.bcg.com/careers/interview_prep/interview_tips.html

When interviewing others, I sometimes found determining cognitive and analytical abilities difficult to judge. I’d ask folks to  prepare a writing sample on the spot and asked lots of questions, but I’m now a fan of the case studies. Case studies will tell you if someone can think on their feet…a necessary skill for any good agency-side client contact.

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Everyday’s a Holiday…

Posted on 31 October 2006 by k

…in London.

Picture it. It’s our first week in our flat and we hear the sound of “gun shots”. What have we done? Wait… we live in Belsize Park (the London equivalent of Chapel Hill or North Raleigh), we must be mistaken. They couldn’t possibly be gun shots. But what else?

Only my favorite thing in the world, FIREWORKS! Belsize Park is sandwiched between Regent’s Park to the west and Hampstead Heath to the east — and we’re not too far from the O2 Center (a popular arena/complex) and Wembley (site of another arena/complex). As a result, just about every day in our world ends with fireworks. And a week ago, London’s sizeable Indian population celebrated their equivalent of Christmas… we heard at least 8 set of fireworks over the course of one weekend.

And while we can always hear the fireworks, and sometimes smell the smoke, we can even see the fireworks from our flat sometimes. Belsize is on a hill that overlooks the city. Since our flat is on the 5th floor, we can see parts of the city skyline from our front window and balcony (we could see all of it if it weren’t for one pesky tree).

Guy Fawkes Day is this weekend… it’s the day that Londoners have official fireworks displays (kind-of like 4th of July celebrations in the US). There will be non-stop fireworks all weekend and I CAN’T WAIT!

Advance notice: I’ve decided that because fireworks are my favorite thing and because I was born on Bastille Day (July 14), I want to celebrate my 30th (in 2008) in Paris. Mark your calendars… we’d love to have company. Now, what to do for G’s 30th this February. Any ideas?

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The Cotswolds

Posted on 30 October 2006 by k
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Imagine the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains (a place like my family’s home) with sheep and stone houses with slate roofs instead of cattle and wood farm houses. Welcome to the Cotswolds. We stayed on a farm for the weekend just outside a town called Willersey and ventured out in our rental car by day to take in the sights. Here are a few highlights from our travels:

  • Of all the Cotswolds towns, Lower Slaughter, Broadway, Snowshill, and Chipping Campden were our favorites. These had the most authentic character (and the fewest cars). A couple of these even had streams running through with footbridges for wandering.
  • Sheep. Growing up on a cattle farm, I’ve always had a thing for what we didn’t have… sheep. I think my dad needs a few sheep, but he’s resisting. For now, I just take photos of other people’s sheep. Unfortunately for our purposes, most of the sheep in the Cotswolds are painted to identify their owners. Hence, the red and green rumps.
  • Most accomodations were full a few weeks ago when we were trying to book, we ended up at a bed and breakfast named “Bowers Hill Farm B&B“. While not the most stylish, the mammoth bed was quite comfy compared to our very small bed here, in London. And the home sports a beautiful garden with aerial views.

See photos from our weekend in the Cotswolds.

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Travel Ideas, Anyone?

Posted on 27 October 2006 by k

So many places to visit. So little time. The trick with travel is to plan well so that you spend enough time in each place without spending so much time that you overextend.

G and I will be traveling around Europe a bit this Christmas and would like your advice. We’ll start in Nuremberg for their famous Christmas market, venture to Rothenburg to see theirs and then to Salzburg for a winter wonderland for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Then, we’ll venture on to Prague and Vienna. And we’ll finish in Munich before flying out. We’re very excited to see so many of Europe’s hot spots during a two week block from December 21 through January 5, but want to ensure that we budget our time properly. Have you all been to these cities? The guidebooks say to give each of these destinations 2-3 days. Is that enough? Which deserve more, or less?

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We have a similar break next Spring and we’re just starting to formulate ideas. Our break is in April. London will still be quite cold in April so we’re considering going South. But, where? Any ideas for what may be beautiful at that time of year?

In addition to our big trips, we’re also in search of a few weekend destinations… under consideration are Paris, Bruges, England’s Lake District, Ireland, and anywhere else that EasyJet flies. Are there other destinations that you would recommend to top our list?

Other News: In addition to our “break trips”, I’ll also be traveling to Poland for a week in February and to China for a week or two in June/July (part of the MBA proram). Fortunately, I’ll just “play” and act as a consultant for companies during these trips — no planning necessary :).

Posted in Adventure Travel | 2 Comments

The Apprentice

Posted on 27 October 2006 by k

I am an apprentice.

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Not so long ago, I remember sitting to watch a bit of TV to “rest” from my studies for the GMAT (the graduate school entrance exam, ick!). I always felt slightly guilty — especially when watching reality shows like the Apprentice. But now, I realize that watching this particular show was just practice for what was to come.

Welcome to Integration Week. A week-long series of 2-4 hour projects that each learning group of 6-7 MBA students had to complete and submit for grading. At the end of each “project session”, each group made a short 2-5 minute presentation of their findings and submitted the 1-3 page paper.

Monday, we were consultants tracking a prominent pharmaceutical company’s stock against the market and performing regression analysis in order to determine a predictive model for the stock’s value in the future. And we also had to take lags and run regression in order to determine if there was any cyclical movement in the stock’s value over time. We had 120 minutes to complete a 7 page report (included lots of graphs and such) and to prepare a 5 minute dramatic presentation of our findings.

Tuesday, we were information management consultants. We were guaging the firm’s ability and willingness to communicate with stockholders.

Wednesday, we were roaming accountants for an investment bank investigating whether the company would be a good investment prospect for our clients.

And Thursday, yesterday, we had a couple activities to bring it all together. It was flash back to kindergarten as we made a collage to “represent” the inter-relation of all three of our first block disciplines (quantitative methods, accounting, and information management). We appoint a project manager for each group activity. I’m happy to report that I was the PM for the collage activity — and my team won! YAY!

And yesterday afternoon’s activity involved planning and filming a commercial to encourage individuals in each industry to work together, rather than individually, to achieve better results. My group decided to make a silent film. We applied a sepia tone, sped-up the frames and added a 1920’s Charleston tune. I have to say, it was brilliant. I’ll see if there’s a way to upload the video… I was a star as Miss Metaphor.

Yesterday afternoon, we had an impromptu awards ceremony. 3 awards were given. My group won the award for the morning poster activity (as noted above) and also placed a very close second for the “consistent quality of presentations throughout integration week” award. I’m very fortunate to be a part of a very well-rounded and productive group.

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