THE LAZY SUSAN!!
Trust me when I say this, the lazy susan is awesome. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazy_Susan) Whoever came up with this idea is either brilliant or extremely lazy. A rotating tray to place on a table sounds pretty dumb right? Well wait until you are seated at a large table and need someone across the way to pass you the salt, then you will see its geniusness. I'm still waiting for an idea like this to materialize in my head, but for now I will continue brag about other people's awesome inventions.
Update: still no response from UCLA.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Catching up
As with my last post, I am in an effort to catch up to the posting requirements for my engr407 class. Matt has 7 total posts, and excluding this one and the previous one, I have 7 also. Not knowing entirely how he is going to grade it, I don't want to leave anything to chance and considering he said we can still post, here I am a half hour after class posting it up.
Quick story:
January 15 I received a phone call from UCLA's Anderson School of Business wanting to interview me for acceptance into their program this fall. After a short conversation, I was left under the impression that I would receive an email or phone call within a week to outline the interview time and details. A week later, I emailed the director of admissions to ask what the situation was. Three and a half months later I recieved two phone calls and two emails, all while in class, asking to interview me. First, I was pissed that they would just call and pretend like they hadn't completely ignored and forgotten about me, but that I realized I had an interesting situation at hand. I am all but packed to go to UVA's Darden School of Business in August, but tuition there is $45,000 a year. OUCH! So I had my interview with UCLA on the phone and presented an ultimatum (sp?) "The only way I will come to UCLA is if I am given a full scholarship." My exact words. Well I was told after the convo to expect a reply within the week. A week and a half later, still no response. Hopefully they are just getting together my scholarship papers, but very doubtful.
Quick story:
January 15 I received a phone call from UCLA's Anderson School of Business wanting to interview me for acceptance into their program this fall. After a short conversation, I was left under the impression that I would receive an email or phone call within a week to outline the interview time and details. A week later, I emailed the director of admissions to ask what the situation was. Three and a half months later I recieved two phone calls and two emails, all while in class, asking to interview me. First, I was pissed that they would just call and pretend like they hadn't completely ignored and forgotten about me, but that I realized I had an interesting situation at hand. I am all but packed to go to UVA's Darden School of Business in August, but tuition there is $45,000 a year. OUCH! So I had my interview with UCLA on the phone and presented an ultimatum (sp?) "The only way I will come to UCLA is if I am given a full scholarship." My exact words. Well I was told after the convo to expect a reply within the week. A week and a half later, still no response. Hopefully they are just getting together my scholarship papers, but very doubtful.
Project Showcase
As I am sure most teams found, articulating an idea to a group of strangers is quite difficult, especially if they do not quite get what your idea is. I came across this a couple times and after several attempts to explain, I finally just had them try to guess how many m&m's are in the jar.
Overall, everything went well. We were handicapped on the first go around of judges because only a few members of our group were there. The second time around, we didn't see them coming and most of us were already engaged with others, which left Austin as the lone gunman. Of anyone in our group, he was probably the best to do it, but still, they took us by surprise and by the time we got over, he was balls deep in the presentation. I can't say that I am happy with our 4th place finish, our entire team put a lot of effort into it, but we did all that we could and I'll have to take what they give us.
Overall, everything went well. We were handicapped on the first go around of judges because only a few members of our group were there. The second time around, we didn't see them coming and most of us were already engaged with others, which left Austin as the lone gunman. Of anyone in our group, he was probably the best to do it, but still, they took us by surprise and by the time we got over, he was balls deep in the presentation. I can't say that I am happy with our 4th place finish, our entire team put a lot of effort into it, but we did all that we could and I'll have to take what they give us.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Interviews
I am currently in Chicago interviewing with a couple companies for a summer internship. By no means am I a veteran interviewer, which if I was would probably just mean I have been turned down that many times, but one thing I have definitely learned quickly is that it is best to prepare. I am only posting on this subject because it is fresh in my mind but here are my five tips to a succesful interview.
1. Do your research. Don't just know the company and position you are interviewing for, KNOW the company and position you are interviewing for. Why are you interested in the company and why do you want this position. How will it effect you long term, short term, what do you expect to learn.
2. Have a story. What makes you so special? Give them something that will make them remember you 30 minutes after you leave the room. The very beginning is probably the best time to tell it so they are engaged with you the rest of the way. Don't make anything up either, it could come back to bite you if you rattle off some tale of being a marathon runner and your target mark is 2 hours and 30 minutes. If that was the case you'd probably be training for the Olympics and not interviewing for a job.
3. Ask questions. After they are done interviewing you and ask if there are any further questions, think of it as your opportunity to interview the company. Most likely they will see it as a sign of your interest and make note of it. Make sure you get all of your questions out. I have an offer for an internship and I forgot to ask if it is paid, usually a large part in the decision making process.
4.Explore the interviewers background. How and why did they end up where they are now, and maybe even their interests outside of the job. Not only will it give you insight to the environment you might be working in but also give a sincere component to the interview. Maybe you can relate with the person and as with tip 2, they will remember you the next day.
5.Be humbly confident. Know your strengths and don't be afraid to admit them. Also, know your weaknesses and don't be afraid to them as well, so long as you can elaborate on what you can and plan on doing to strengthen them.
Well with those 5 tips and 50 cents you can buy yourself a bag of chips. Maybe this post is more of a reminder to myself than anything else. Writing something down usually translates to memory much better than just thinking about it.
1. Do your research. Don't just know the company and position you are interviewing for, KNOW the company and position you are interviewing for. Why are you interested in the company and why do you want this position. How will it effect you long term, short term, what do you expect to learn.
2. Have a story. What makes you so special? Give them something that will make them remember you 30 minutes after you leave the room. The very beginning is probably the best time to tell it so they are engaged with you the rest of the way. Don't make anything up either, it could come back to bite you if you rattle off some tale of being a marathon runner and your target mark is 2 hours and 30 minutes. If that was the case you'd probably be training for the Olympics and not interviewing for a job.
3. Ask questions. After they are done interviewing you and ask if there are any further questions, think of it as your opportunity to interview the company. Most likely they will see it as a sign of your interest and make note of it. Make sure you get all of your questions out. I have an offer for an internship and I forgot to ask if it is paid, usually a large part in the decision making process.
4.Explore the interviewers background. How and why did they end up where they are now, and maybe even their interests outside of the job. Not only will it give you insight to the environment you might be working in but also give a sincere component to the interview. Maybe you can relate with the person and as with tip 2, they will remember you the next day.
5.Be humbly confident. Know your strengths and don't be afraid to admit them. Also, know your weaknesses and don't be afraid to them as well, so long as you can elaborate on what you can and plan on doing to strengthen them.
Well with those 5 tips and 50 cents you can buy yourself a bag of chips. Maybe this post is more of a reminder to myself than anything else. Writing something down usually translates to memory much better than just thinking about it.
Quiz Score
Here are my results from the post on Matt's Blog.
First time: 2207
Second time: 2297
The first time I changed doors 6 times and the second time only 3. I wasn't sure of the pure logistics of the game, but realized I was better off not wasting clicks opening doors and would rather rack up points on the open door. My scores were pretty close in comparison but if I had to do it again I think would just pick a door and roll with it. The third door seemed to have the largest numbers but also the smallest ones too. I think it doesn't matter which door you choose because in the end the numbers will kind of average out, so long as you stick with just one.
First time: 2207
Second time: 2297
The first time I changed doors 6 times and the second time only 3. I wasn't sure of the pure logistics of the game, but realized I was better off not wasting clicks opening doors and would rather rack up points on the open door. My scores were pretty close in comparison but if I had to do it again I think would just pick a door and roll with it. The third door seemed to have the largest numbers but also the smallest ones too. I think it doesn't matter which door you choose because in the end the numbers will kind of average out, so long as you stick with just one.
Interesting Instrument
When Matt first told us our next post topic, Interesting Homemade Instrument, I began searching the web for something awesome. After visiting several, and I mean several websites, I couldn't find anything that really drew my interest. It was then I remembered last spring while visiting LA, I saw one of the most outrageous street performers on the Santa Monica Pier. He managed to put together a one man band using modern instruments and rigging up some of his own. He played original songs and ones you would recognize, most likely from your parents music collection. I sat and watched him play for an hour, not because the music was fantastic but because he was able to play all these unique blends of homemad instruments and blend them with an eccentric style to play real ones at the same time. Here is a link to a youtube video I found of him, which took me forever to find, it turns out he was on the Jimmy Kimmel Live Show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T34DAgLmxoA I hope you are as amazed/impressed/mind boggled by this guy. Please enjoy.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
What is my time worth??
I recently got accepted to Grad school so lately I have been seriously evaluating my financial situation. I have been lucky through college as I have been on an athletic scholarship, but that will soon end. In turn, for the first time I will have to take out a loan, and a large one at that. At first, the thought of being in debt is quite scary, as I will most likely owe over $120,000 after my two year stint in grad school.
Here is what I have calculated as my living expenses: all approximated
weekly- $800
monthly-$3,500
yearly- $41,600
Man beer is expensive!!
I will have to make about $55,000 a year just to sustain my lifestyle. Granted I over estimated on most of my expenses, but still, that is a lot of money. I am going to get my MBA in grad school so hopefully I will land a position making more than that. It would always be nice to save some of my earnings, if not I will have to dramatically change my living style.
Here is what I have calculated as my living expenses: all approximated
weekly- $800
monthly-$3,500
yearly- $41,600
Man beer is expensive!!
I will have to make about $55,000 a year just to sustain my lifestyle. Granted I over estimated on most of my expenses, but still, that is a lot of money. I am going to get my MBA in grad school so hopefully I will land a position making more than that. It would always be nice to save some of my earnings, if not I will have to dramatically change my living style.
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