Reevaluating

I’ve been thinking a lot about this blog this week: why I started it, who it’s for, what I should write about. Originally I created it because my friends were sick of hearing me talk about the GMAT and my business aspirations, so I didn’t give them (or anyone I know) the link. But I’ve figured out that 1) not many people are reading this, and 2) there are a lot of things I want to write about besides my life. After all, this is a blog, not a livejournal.

Therefore, I have decided to mix things up a little bit in terms of content and actually let people I know read this. I have a list of things I want to write about, so stayed tuned for new posts!

Summer internship: the good and the bad

I contemplated writing a “day in the life” entry about my internship, but that would be really boring. You don’t want to hear about everything I do all day, trust me. So here’s an overview:

Pros:

• GREAT experience for my resume – both my accomplishments/skills I’ve gained and just the company name itself
• My boss is really nice and always tells me how good of a job I’m doing. I know she’ll write an awesome recommendation for me.
• Two words: pay day
• COFFEE. Gotta love that free Keurig machine.
• Other free stuff I’ve gotten: t-shirt, travel mug, and baseball cap with the company name + logo
• I have my own cubicle, laptop, phone, etc
• I went on a business trip a few weeks ago. It wasn’t a very exciting location, but I got to stay in a HUGE hotel suite for 4 nights and have everything paid for by the company.
• There are lots of other interns, and even though none of them are in my department, we have lunch together every day.
• Speaking of lunch, the cafeteria food is better than the food at school.

Cons:

• The work is BORING. Most important thing I’ve learned: this is NOT what I want to do with my life.
• Sometimes I don’t have enough work to do, especially lately. I read the news a lot.
• I get lonely in my cubicle. I really only talk to one person near me, since I don’t work with most of the people on my floor.
• I’m not having much of a summer. During the week I go to the gym and study for the GMAT after work, and then I go to bed pretty early since I have to get up early. So that just leaves weekends. I do try to make the most of those, though.

And that’s my internship! Overall it’s been a good experience. It’s also gone by really quickly – I only have 3 weeks left. I’m already looking for possible internships for this fall…

An essential business skill

Ten weeks into my internship, I finally mastered the art of ironing pants.

What? It’s really hard to get that crease down the middle of the pant leg!

Start-Up Nation: a must-read for all

I just finished reading Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in business/entrepreneurship OR Israel. It’s about the small country’s entrepreneurial culture, but it’s not just an analysis of Israel’s most successful start-ups, which is what I was expecting. The authors, Dan Senor and Saul Singer, also talk a lot about the IDF, which instills in its soldiers the drive to find innovative solutions to problems and the audacity to challenge their superiors. Israel’s companies, such as its branch of Intel, have sustained themselves through countless wars and threats from surrounding nations. This is an insightful book that’s also a quick, easy read. You should read it, and let me know what you think!

A little Sunday morning GMAT prep

I just took the Kaplan online diagnostic quiz that came with my book. I got 29/38 right…76%, not too bad for my first practice quiz, I think. I got a couple wrong in each section except sentence correction – I’m a grammar beast. 🙂 I made some stupid mistakes, and I really need to sloooow dooooown. I finished in 50 minutes, which averages out to a little over a minute for each question. Also, I’m pretty sure the questions were much easier than real GMAT questions, probably because it’s just a diagnostic quiz. So we’ll see how I do when I actually attempt a CAT (which won’t be for a while, since I want to go through the Kaplan book first).

Ok, that’s enough GMAT for today. Now on to my next challenge of the day…going to the gym!

Step 1: Conquer the GMAT

My GMAT preparation has officially begun! I know, junior year of college seems pretty early to be taking the GMAT, especially since I won’t start b-school until 2014 or 2015, if all goes according to plan. But I figured I might as well take it before I forget all that high school math and while I’m still in a test-taking mindset. So here’s my GMAT study plan:

1) Kaplan Premier 2011 – I started going through the math yesterday. When I get finish that, I’ll do the verbal and start taking the Kaplan CAT tests online. Right now my biggest problem is staying focused while studying. It’s been a few years since I’ve taken a standardized test, so it might take some time to get used to again. I’ll try to study from this book for about an hour every night, maybe more on weekends.

2) Manhattan GMAT – I’ve read so many good things about these books on Beat the GMAT and GMAT Club (the 2 forums I visit frequently). My plan is to figure out the areas I need the most work on and get the MGMAT books for them. Plus, these come with more online CATs.

3) Official Guide – From what I’ve read, it seems like a good idea to wait until the end of my studying to use the OG, since it’s the best source of practice questions.

4) Last but not least, I’ll take the GMAT Prep tests, the 2 tests the GMAC has online. These seems to be the most representative of the real GMAT and the score you’ll get on it.

I still don’t know exactly when I’ll take the test. I’m going abroad in the spring, so I need to take it before I leave in January. If I’m ready, I might take it in November or December. It will depend a lot on my schedule, so we’ll see.

Here goes!!!

And so it begins…

…my journey from intern to CEO. Not at the company I work for now, just to be clear. Right now I’m a summer intern in logistics at a medical devices company, but one day I hope to start my own company. I’m only a junior in college, but I like thinking about my future career and business school and all that fun stuff. The problem is, none of my friends want to hear about it. Thus, I decided to start a blog! Maybe some of you out there will care enough to read it.

Stay tuned!