One week ago today, I was settling into my plane seat for the start of a 12-hr trip return trip from an international vacation.  I’ve only been in Boston seven days now, but it seems like a lifetime!  Reflecting back over the week, it doesn’t seem like there was all that much to do… after all, classes didn’t start until Wednesday.  Even so, I feel like this has been one of the most exhausting weeks of the year.

Here’s a preview of what’s been on my mind lately.  I’ll probably hit each of these in more detailed posts over the next few weeks.

1. Apartments.  I hit a better slot in the HRES lottery this year (#5 instead of #11) and took the opportunity to “upgrade” to the on-campus apartments.  For the next year, I’ll be living in One Western Ave… not a penthouse suite by any means, but a lot more spacious than my tiny dorm room.  I’m excited about the chance to try something new, but it’s ridiculously expensive and time consuming to move into a new apartment, furnish it, and try to fit all of my old stuff (that was sitting in a storage unit) into this new, small space.
2. Classes. My class schedule for this semester is so-so.  I sat in on “Real Property” (a real estate course) on Thursday and Friday… absolutely fascinating course that I really, really wanted to take.  Unfortunately, the add/drop process didn’t work out for me, and I wasn’t able to make it in… pretty disappointed, particularly since I think I could’ve added it fairly easily if I had put more time into thinking through the schedule during sign-up last semester.  The rest of my classes are all popular standbys… they’ll be interesting enough, but can’t say I’m thrilled about any of them.
3. Comments. I was fortunate enough to receive “First Year Honors” this semester (top 10-15%)… and I’m actually on-track for a potential “Baker Scholar” designation (top 5%).  While I’m excited about it (ego affirming – particularly since I’m one of the few without an Ivy League undergrad), I’m feeling a lot more pressure this semester.  Last year seemed pretty easy – I spent 30min-1hr per case and felt like I could contribute without extensive study.  This year… well, it’s been three days and I haven’t commented yet!  The courses are more specialized, and I’m struggling to keep up… not even close to being in a position where I’m a step ahead to make the “1” comments.
4. People.  In between moving in, reading cases, rearranging my class schedule, and spending time with the girlfriend – I’ve almost completely neglected this critical piece of returning to school.  It’s really a shame… I want to reconnect with everyone beyond the simple 5 minute “how was your summer?” back-and-forth in the halls, but it has dropped off the bottom of my priority list lately.  On top of that, the benefit (?) of switching classes every hour to sit with a new group of people is that it really emphasizes how HUGE this graduate program is.  My weekly interactions have expanded from 89 other people to 445 people (89 x 5 classes)!  There’s some overlap, but it’s still a huge shift.  It helps me appreciate the first year more… the stable section experience makes HBS feel so much more comfortable and manageable.
5. Clubs. I’m co-President of a club this year and have ZERO desire to do anything with it.  Not sure why I agreed to this… the return per hour invested is just so low on the list that I’m going to have to work hard to keep this top-of-mind (and avoid overloading the other President).
6. Jobs. One undercurrent is the whole job situation.  I had a great summer and received a full-time offer, but I’m not 100% sure it’s the direction I want to head with my career.  I have to decide how I’m going to handle this… the recruiting season for ECs is just around the corner, and my offer expires in a couple months.  Is it worth going through the whole networking / application / interviewing hassle again?  Such a time-sink…  I’ve been tossing around the idea of trying something in finance, but is that even realistic?  Or has my summer in consulting locked-me-in to that career path?

… and with that, the first week draws to a close.

The professor is fantastic, too!  I was chatting in the cafeteria during recruiting week with some sectionmates and a random guy walks up and says: “Hi X, Y, and Z… how are you all?”  Then he asked me a question about my previous industry…  I was thinking, “What…!??!?  Do I know you??”  It turns out he was our new TEM professor, fresh from memorizing all of our names (and career history).  I think that shows dedication & experience that visibly carries over into class.  He guides the case discussion in a way that can only be done by thinking incredibly quickly. 

Anyway, it’s fun to study entrepreneurial decisions.  Studies show that almost 1/3rd of HBS grads are running businesses 5 years out of graduation, and by 10 years out — over 50% are self employed.  That’s an amazing number… I definitely hope I’ll be one of them!

Fantastic professors this semester — two former CEOs of Fortune 100 organizations and a bunch of other HBS old-timers.  It’s interesting to think about how much the professor mix affects your educational experience here… I can’t imagine what it would be like to be stuck with green professors for two semester in a row!  Even if the RC-year classes aren’t the most interesting ones to teach from a research perspective, it still seems like it would be a fun experience for even the most tenured faculty.

A few pictures of the sun and snow today:

New Year at HBS 1

New Year at HBS 2

New Year at HBS 3

New Year at HBS 4

1. Life gets busy (in this case, recruiting and holidays).
2. My backlog of time-sensitive “posts to be written” increases.
3. The day-to-day stuff that could be interesting is tossed aside.
4. And the backlog builds to the point where it’s too much work to even try!!

So, I usually delete the blog at this point and start over.   This time, I’m just going to say “Sorry!” (to myself and the few people who read this) and just stick with the two-month gap.  At some point, maybe I’ll go back and fill in the missing posts (backdated, of course), but for now…  on to new things!

Next semester is about to start, and I’m excited about the new HBS courses:

• Strategy
• The Entrepreneurial Manager (1/2 Year)
• Negotiations (1/2 Year)
• Business, Government, and the International Economy (BGIE)
• Finance 2
• Leadership and Corporate Accountability (LCA)

I’m particularly excited about BGIE.  I can’t imagine how the class will work, but it sounds like there will be a lot of healthy debate about politics — fun, fun!  Also curious about the Entrepreneurial Manager & Negotiations… from what I’ve heard, there are a number of simulations / active learning opportunities, which I always tend to enjoy.  Less excited about LCA (essentially, corporate governance) and Finance II (determining optimal capital structure?).

You know, I’ve forgotten how exciting it is to wipe the slate clean and start over with a new semester.  This is something you rarely experience in the business world, but it’s such a great feeling.  New courses, new professors, new material,  (same people), but still a fun way to start the New Year!