Summer Reading for MBAs!

Hey everyone! Hope summer is going well. Summer ...a great time for some of you who are enrolling in a MBA program to catch up on whats going on in the business world and get a head start on other students headed into school (or at the very least, look intelligent when your tanning on the beach). Here is some business (and non-business) material I highly reccomend...

Bloomberg Businessweek - I was skeptical when Bloomberg bought Businessweek, but as it turns out, I absolutely love their new (and improved!) format. Great for catching up on current events if you find CNBC.com a little too overwhelming at times (really CNBC, you guys have WAY too much going on in your front page). A subscription is around $50 bucks a year, and totally worth it.

The Quants - This book is great if you want a background to the  industry of finance  and the PhD math geeks who were behind all the hedge funds behind the financial crisis, but do yourself a favor and borrow it rather than buy it (or buy it used). Not worth the $25, but an interesting read, no doubt.

Art of the Start - Essential for anyone starting anything. Its a no BS, straightforward guide to starting a company (or really anything) without any "fluff". Guy Kawasaki (the author) is one of the guys who was responsible for making Apple's users so evangelical.

GQ Magazine - Every man should have a subscription to this magazine. End of story. Not only has great articles, but teaches you how to dress, which, believe it or not, is important not only in school but in life.


Ballad of the Whiskey Robber - I'm only halfway through this book, but its great if you need something to take your mind of business, and is one of the most genuinely entertaining books ive read in a while. About a Translavnian Hockey Goalie who becomes a Bank Robber.Yeah. Oh, its also based on a true story.

How to Win Friends and Influence People - This book is over 70 years old, but still an amazing book. If your bad at people skills, pick it up and read through it. Twice.

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand is one of the most influential philosophers of the century, if not all time. She basically influenced laissez-faire economic policy in America from the 1950's until today. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book, or at least wikipedia her!

Other Books I Like: Anything Anthony Bourdain, God Hates Us All, Downtown Owl, Any Harvard Business Review Book

Allright, well hopefully I helped some of you find something interesting to read for the summer. Or at least I helped you kill 5 minutes of your day by reading this post...

Until next time...

Summer Internship? No, thank you...

Well Well Well! Long time no see! Sorry for the lack of updates, but ive basically been in 5 cities in the past month and well...more details on all of that later.

So its summer, and most MBA students are slaving away at a summer internship. For those of you who dont know, almost every MBA student kills themseles from Christmas to June looking for an MBA summer internship (which is very hard to get in this economy). Remember my previous posts about me stressing over finding an internship? Its tough out there to say the least, and its very frustrating. Worse still, is when you cant actually FIND an internship, which then raises feelings of rejection, doubt, and just an overall "Bleh" feeling. Hey guys, i know, ive been there.
However, what I am going to tell you right now is completely contradictory to what every MBA program tells you, but im just going to go ahead and say it. Ready?

Summer internships are overrated. 

I know, blasphemous, right? Every MBA school counselor will tell you the exact opposite. "Take whatever you can get! It looks good on your resume!"

Sorry career counselors, but i call bullshit. What good is an MBA internship if its not something your passionate about? I know so many people who got internships because "I need to pay rent!" (fair enough) or, worse, "I have nothing else to do so i might as well get an internship at Bobs Widget Factory". I think this line of thinking is completely flawed. Why would you just take an internship in a company that you weren't interested in working at after you graduate, or in something that you are only doing for the money? I thought the purpose of going to school was to open more doors for yourself, not wedge yourself into a proverbial corner, career wise.

Now don't get me wrong, if you found an internship at a company in a field that you are really excited about going into, then more power to you! Thats awesome! But about 50% of the people i know took jobs just because it was there, which is, quite frankly, sad. Or worse yet, they're doing unpaid internships! (see my previous rants about unpaid internships).

What am I talking about? What am i smoking? "Your being an idiot, a job is a job" you say. Okay, fine, but let me tell you what I, the internship-less bumb, have planned for summer versus what my fellow MBA graduates are doing. So far, I have traveled all over California (from San Diego to San Francisco), through the east coast, am doing research for a professor so that I can possibly graduate with honors, and since I had no real plans for summer, I signed up for a program through my university to study the Greek Debt crisis abroad in Germany for a whole month while getting school credit. let me reiterate that last sentence in case you weren't paying attention.

I get to go to a completely different country (on the cheap, i might add, since its an exchange program) to study finance for the summer.

Yeah, i might be broke (im still using financial aid money from this last semester), but hey, at least im not at some summer internship that's miserable or isn't paying me. Im pretty happy with my summer plans.

And isnt it said that happiness leads to money, not the other way around? Ok, well maybe i just made that up, but i stand by it. Plus, ill have plenty of other summers in my life to spend working, might as well enjoy my graduate school experience while I can :). Until next time...