We're moving...again...

So, I've started the process of moving my past posts over to my new domain. Come on over and check it out.

http://www.dalechang.com

New Adventure

As school comes to a close, and work is about to start, I'm starting a new website. It's currently hosted at http://www.thechangs.info. Watch for updates!

So much to learn, so little time...

A few weeks ago, I shared some thoughts on starting my internship. I wanted to follow-up with a few thoughts, now that I have some experience under my belt and a little wisdom (emphasis on little) to share.

A few observations:

1. They don't expect you to know everything. However, they do expect you to learn it very quickly. I would argue that you learn more in consulting, in a shorter period of time, than in any other industry. For example, I learned enough SQL and VBA in the matter of 48 hours to do some heavy duty analytics.

2. Who you work with does matter. When you are spending several hours a day and several days a week with the same people, you need some level of assurance that you will at least enjoy working with your team. The name of the firm doesn't matter if you hate your family on the road. (In my opinion anyways.)

3. Flexibility is key. It is often the case that your work stream will change. Sometimes several changes during the course of a project. Isn't that what we all signed up for?

As for my experience. I love my team. We really are a family on the road. We eat together, stay at the same hotel, share stories. I've very quickly made a handful of close friends just by working and traveling with them for the past 6 weeks. The work is very challenging, but again, the people that I work with make it that much easier to bear.

That being said, I am very excited to be returning to school in a couple weeks. This particular internship has really touched, and expanded upon, nearly every single concept that I learned in my first year of school.

Separation Anxiety?

So, I'm having some anxiety about dropping Sadie off at Pet Camp tomorrow. I know that she'll be fine, but this will be the first time that we have complete strangers watching over her. We've been fortunate in the fact that we have always had someone who she knew to watch over her, but this weekend is a bit different. We are all going to be out of town, and nobody can watch Sadie. She'll be sharing a run with her two summer roommates, Sierra and Foster. They're old pros at this, so hopefully they'll tell her not to worry and that Pet Camp is a fun place to be!

Time for Work

It has been a long time since I last wrote. Since mid-April, I took my finals, moved back to San Francisco, spent massive amounts of time in Napa Valley and prepared for my first day of my internship.

I am very excited as I start tomorrow. I have this feeling almost like I did when I started school, except this time it is a lot more intense but with a lot fewer questions left unanswered.

Do you remember how you felt like when you started undergraduate? You had a ton of questions like what was going to be your major, if this school was the right choice, will you like your classmates, what will you do after you graduate, etc?

Well, entering business school, many of my questions had been answered, but the ones that were still outstanding were very important. Did I make the right decision to leave work for two years in order to change careers? Will I like the people at my school? Will I get as much out of it as I hope to?

Tomorrow, I have a new set of questions, but even more important. The questions remaining for me are:

Will I like the people that I work with? Early polls indicate that, yes, I will. I had very good interactions with representatives of the firm. As long as the people I met were a proxy for the larger group, then I will be fine.

The second question I have revolves around whether or not I will like the work that I am doing. This includes whether or not travel will be ok for my fiancee and me. I have traveled extensively for work in the past, but will it be ok this time around with a significant other. Also, will I like the client work that I am doing? I assume that it will be challenging, but I want to do something that I am passionate about. The next 10 weeks will answer this question for me.

I promise to write more. I won't be able to write about the client work I am doing, but I will be sure to let everyone know how my internship experience is going.

The Great Texas Land Grab

I can't believe it is already time to register for Fall classes. Last time, there was definitely a sense of panic in the air. This time around, it seems as though everyone is a bit more relaxed. Having gone through registration and waitlisting one time, people aren't as frantic to get caught up in the frenzy that is registration. That being said, I think a severe case of summer fever has really set in as well. The weather is getting nice and people are more inclined to "forget" they have class and instead enjoy the outdoors.

I'm aiming to get into some pretty cool classes, so I'm expecting some disappointment. However, I'm sure that it will all work out in the end.

Welcome Prospectives

It seems odd to me that it was just a year ago that I was in Austin for Preview Weekend, checking out the program, the people and the environs that I would end up calling home for the next couple of years. Looking back, I'm glad I made the choice I did as I have had the most amazing time at McCombs.

This weekend, McCombs opened its doors and welcomed admitted students to come visit with us and understand what it is that makes McCombs unique, and in my mind, one of the best business schools in the nation. I had the opportunity to meet with many of the students that have already decided that they will be calling Austin home as well as those that were in the same situation as I was and deciding between schools.

Most of my interaction with the prospective students was in a social setting, which in reality, is the way that I would prefer to meet them. I believe that what separates the top twenty business schools in the nation is not the academics (No surprise as we all learn from the same books and cases) but the people that you meet along the way. McCombs attracts and retains quite a unique individual in that I think of the typical student at McCombs as industrious, friendly and open minded. More generally, they are the people that you would want on your team.

Now, it's back to homework and studying. I can't believe finals are coming up in a couple weeks.