Coffee, Spreadsheets, Eat, Sleep

The first couple of weeks!


After two weeks of my internship and getting my hands sort of dirty what would my next advice be for international students.

Follow you heart, your passion when applying for internships and not the herd mentality. Business school students are notorious for focusing their efforts where the "crowds" go. Many come with dreams of doing something different perhaps entrepreneurial but they get sucked into the vortex of recruiting  for Consulting or Investment banking firms. The truth be told, many miss the boat....landing nowhere...in a  tough economy where beggars cannot be choosers, one needs to network like a rockstar for most positions  - international students do not understand the importance of networking and hence need to develop a special appreciation for what they are getting into. Of course, some might genuinely want to get into consulting - my advice is to pull up your bootstraps and focus on developing a networking rulebook - early bird gets worm.

More about that in my next post.

For now more about my internship location – CA

The weather in San Francisco is absolutely great. Mild between 15 C and 25 C – Cloudless skies and some great tourist sites near by. I just returned from a visit to Monterrey Bay, Carmel Valley and the world famous Pebbles Beach Golf Course on the 17 mile drive.  Planned next week are trips to Sonoma Valley, Nappa Valley for wine and olive tasting tours.  The week after, I will be travelling to Mt Sahasta. Also in the pipe lines are trips to Las Vegas. So during the week I will working but in the weekend I will be visiting a new tourist attraction.

I advise all prospective interns to explore their new territories and have fun. After all, all work and no play makes Jack a dumb boy.

As mentioned earlier, my next Blog will talk about managing the networking process effectively during the internship.