The takeaway here: I hope to have some more time to post over the next couple of weeks until exams and the holiday travels drag me away.

The most important bit of news to share is that I finally accepted a full-time job offer this past week!  I’m headed back to the consulting firm I worked for during my summer internship.  Given the amount of time and stress I devoted to the recruiting process this year, it’s ironic that I’m accepting an offer that was on the table back in early August.  In retrospect, it shouldn’t have been a tough decision.  I had a fantastic experience over the summer, built a lot of strong relationships, and (I think) established a solid reputation within the office.  I really hope I haven’t sacrificed all of that goodwill by exploring other options over the last few months.

It’s tricky to know how best to handle this.  HBS’ policies are both a blessing and a curse.  They require firms to keep their offers open until this weekend:

“Second year class of 2010 students may not be required to accept offers before 1/15/10, or 3 weeks after the offer is made, whichever date is later. Full-time offers to previous employees and/or summer interns must be held open until at least 11/16/09. It is permissible to offer incentives to students who accept a full-time position in advance of these dates. The base offer (including base salary, base signing bonus, performance bonuses and job function) must remain open until the decision date.”

I think it may have been even later (Dec or Jan) in years past, but the power balance has shifted solidly to the recruiter’s camp in this dire economic climate.  The policy is great in that it gives us the chance to explore other options… BUT, only within the bounds of firms that recruit on-campus during recruiting week.  The 50-60% of jobs that arrive after the 11/16 deadline are outside this process… and tend to include many of the more interesting possibilities (VC/PE, start-ups, etc…)

I hope I’ve made the right choice here.  When I stop to think about it, it’s kind of amazing that I’ve signed a contract that doesn’t even have a start date until 1 year from today…!  Part of me thinks that’s a bit insane.  I can barely make firm travel commitments a few months in advance.  For the firms that require you to do this (consulting + i-banks), it’s really quite a good deal.  You’re able to remove candidates from the job market during what’s likely the most attractive period of their lives — all without paying a dime.  Now, that’s a *good* contract!

Maybe I’m just feeling a bit fatalistic now that I’ve (basically) locked-in the end result of two years at HBS… and while it’s a great option, it doesn’t involve a risky turnaround, stock options, the c-suite, or private jets.   (So much for everything I’ve learned here…!)

Or maybe it’s just typical melancholy from a rainy, rainy Saturday morning:

Rainy November #1

Rainy November #2

Overcommit and underdeliver.

Classy, right?  I’ve been feeling a bit of that pressure lately myself.  I’ve blogged about it before, but there are so many amazing things to do here that it’s easy to become immediately overwhelmed.  More dangerous is how easy it is to find a leadership position in a club.  Every club has about 20 officer positions.  VP of this, VP of that, C-level position in whatever.  From my experience, about 90% of those positions serve a very critical purpose: resume padding.  The remaining 10% of the people are actually stuck with doing the day-to-day grind of organizing club activities.

So, here’s the disclaimer.  I’m an officer in three different clubs, which puts me far over into the overcommited category.  I’ve yet to succumb to underdeliver, but it’s probably only because I’ve been ignoring a substantial portion of the after-hours social activities and cutting my case-prep time in half.

The other day marked one of the first events I’ve planned and brought to campus: a speaker for a club (which around here, happens quite frequently).  The whole process is really quite interesting.  Lots of planning and contacts and working with various campus groups, and in the end, you still end up with half of the audience walking out during the event (to attend other events, presumably).  HBS students are rude, rude, rude.

Admittedly, though, part of it is my own fault — expectations here are high.  It’s not enough to bring a CEO to campus for a lecture.  You need to bring both a “celebrity” CEO (to draw a crowd) and make sure the discussion is dynamic and two-way (to keep people in the room).  It’s a tough environment, but that might not be a bad thing.  If you have an audience and keep it — you really know you were successful.  People here do not suffer boring speakers kindly.

Today is a very busy day.  Along with the usual load of classes (and a three-case day tomorrow), there are career team meetings, student panels, improv classes, a venture capital club meeting, an outdoors club meeting, and… of course, the Dell CEO.  If there’s one thing to be said for HBS, it’s that it forces you to be a brutal time manager.  You start to evaluate every activity and compare it against the world of amazing possibilities that lie at your finger tips every hour of the day.

As I was standing in the shower after a quick racquetball match today, I think I finally developed a framework for screening activities.  The framework is something like this:

1. Will it help me develop lasting relationships?
2. Will it offer a chance for experiential learning?
3. Will it add value to my resume?
4. Will it allow me to explore new ideas?

In that priority.  Unfortunately, listening to Michael Dell talk really only hits #4… and even that one’s uncertain (depending on how much the Q&A draws out beyond what I could read in a magazine article).  It’s interesting… I wouldn’t have given the same answer two hours ago.  If someone asked why I was going (which no one ever does), all I would’ve been able to say was “Well, he’s Micheal Dell.  He’s fabulously successful.  How can you not go see him talk?”

I guess it would’ve given me a good photo and story to post on this blog.    Anyway, the sun finally came out today… here are some celebratory photos from around campus:

Across Baker Beach in the Sun

Baker Library in the Sun

Out the Window of My Dorm