About This And That
Vas Adusumilli
Issue date: 5/27/04 Section: Perspectives
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I still remember the admit weekend two years ago. Reading my first Chicago Business at that time, I thought I should make it a habit to write articles for Chi Business. Two years passed and I never motivated myself to even write one article. So, once I learned that this was my last chance to write before I graduate, I was motivating myself on a lazy Saturday afternoon.
With a feeling of graduation coming soon and no desire to do any class work, this quarter became a period of excessive drinking, dinners, sleeping, summer planning and basically doing everything else except school work. This also provided a chance to look back at the two years I spent at school. Though hesitant of my choice entering into GSB, today it makes me feel what a great choice I made coming to GSB.
Coming from a pure engineering background, my view of a Finance person is a "Bean Counter" who cares for every nickel and penny. I viewed Sales and Marketing as someone trying to sell a product not knowing what the hell it was and promising things not knowing if they can be delivered. Until I started living with a fellow classmate, Ryan Lynch, who is a CPA I stereotyped an Accountant as a short nerd with glasses and a big ledger book in his hands. Yeah, and I dreaded Excel spreadsheets too. Now you all know my state entering into GSB.
Then came career counseling, resume and interview preparation. What a painful experience that is. I felt a loss of words to explain my previous experience. Believe me, I had several sleepless nights trying to explain my engineering experiences in business lingo. Assuming that I had a decent resume I met career advisors. While trying to explain my resume, I was bombarded with many questions. So, how does that engineering design help the company? How much did the company save from the project? Hmm, I am not a bean counter...I don't know. Finally, it hit me that I am not trying to convince a person from the engineering community to hire me. I am in a totally different world. It's all about $ and % savings. Attending company presentations added pain to the wound. But, I loved the free beer and food at the presentations and usually settled near the bar as a loser while my classmates struggled to talk to that one banker or consultant. Some smart asses talked about derivatives, current state of the economy, etc and made me think if all these people know so much, why the hell were all the analyst reports so wrong about telecom and dotcom during the downfall. Then it hit me, the very basic reason I came to business school.
With a feeling of graduation coming soon and no desire to do any class work, this quarter became a period of excessive drinking, dinners, sleeping, summer planning and basically doing everything else except school work. This also provided a chance to look back at the two years I spent at school. Though hesitant of my choice entering into GSB, today it makes me feel what a great choice I made coming to GSB.
Coming from a pure engineering background, my view of a Finance person is a "Bean Counter" who cares for every nickel and penny. I viewed Sales and Marketing as someone trying to sell a product not knowing what the hell it was and promising things not knowing if they can be delivered. Until I started living with a fellow classmate, Ryan Lynch, who is a CPA I stereotyped an Accountant as a short nerd with glasses and a big ledger book in his hands. Yeah, and I dreaded Excel spreadsheets too. Now you all know my state entering into GSB.
Then came career counseling, resume and interview preparation. What a painful experience that is. I felt a loss of words to explain my previous experience. Believe me, I had several sleepless nights trying to explain my engineering experiences in business lingo. Assuming that I had a decent resume I met career advisors. While trying to explain my resume, I was bombarded with many questions. So, how does that engineering design help the company? How much did the company save from the project? Hmm, I am not a bean counter...I don't know. Finally, it hit me that I am not trying to convince a person from the engineering community to hire me. I am in a totally different world. It's all about $ and % savings. Attending company presentations added pain to the wound. But, I loved the free beer and food at the presentations and usually settled near the bar as a loser while my classmates struggled to talk to that one banker or consultant. Some smart asses talked about derivatives, current state of the economy, etc and made me think if all these people know so much, why the hell were all the analyst reports so wrong about telecom and dotcom during the downfall. Then it hit me, the very basic reason I came to business school.