Interview Preperation

Ok, so this MBA program at BYU-- is it paying off? YES!

I have an interview today for my dream internship. So I've been asking around for suggestions a lot. I think I interview pretty well, but one thing I need to remember in an interview is to be confident! Sometimes questions are meant to be tricky, don't be feeble as stating what doing.

One friend told me to document all my experiences into categories. These are the categories I think that apply:

• Leadership
• Marketing (as a marketing student -- may even break this down further into areas like product and brand management)
• Problem Solving
• Dealing with Problems
• Dealing with Problematic People

Also, another friend was telling me how you want to do your homework and know what to expect from the position (do your homework to make sure you even want it) and know what is going on with the company. I've assembled the following list of what you should know about the company going into the interview:

• What is the product? (this can be deeper than what you think)
• Who is the customer?
• What has the company done well in the past? (not well?)
• What are problems are in the future? What strategy should be used in the future?
• Why work for this company?
• Who is the competition?
  

There are obviously a large amount of other questions that could come up. Some interview questions, though not effective, still get asked (what is your greatest weakness?). but for that I'm sure you can search for interview questions.

Ok time to focus my studies on these areas.

Decided on Industry

Well, its been a lot of back and forth deciding what I wanted to do when I was done with this MBA, but I think I've done it finally.

My Venture Capital Class this semester has been amazing. I'm learning a lot about growing business fast and trying to see what can be successful with a small amount of tweaking. Entrepreneurship has always been in my blood, but is it a mistake to start a company without first establishing yourself with a large company. That way if your venture fails at least you've got something else on your resume to prove you learned something.

Well, I've decided I'm going to take a chance. I want to grow a business not wander in bureaucracy so I am looking to get involved with a startup that is currently dealing with VC Firms. I want that exposure and hopefully can make the jump one day. I've been hustling and making a lot of phone calls.

In my opinion, the future looks good. I'm working really hard, but I think I am getting some things done.

Ethics thoughts:

all first year's in the BYU MBA Program have to take a course on ethics. The book I'm reading has some thought provoking questions at the end, so I thought I'd just type my answers to those here. I don't think I'll need them in class tomorrow, but maybe and this will help me remember.

1. Before did you think ethics was a fad? why/why not? Now? w/wn? No I didn't, there's been lot's of examples in the past of ethics being an issue. This brought some big ones to light that I hadn't thought of, but they were definitely there. Even Jesus being forced to be crucified was an ethical lapse (he wasn't guilty of anything and many knew it) of many leaders
   
   I still don't think its a fad. Clearly at present there are problems and people's lives ruined in the last few years. I had never thought of good ethics before and I'm glad to see many are practicing that.
   
2. Have you been cynical about business & its leaders? w/wn? How does cynicism affect you as a business student? I've been cynical about many things based on this. I used to feel that way about democrats; I currently feel cynical about Shawn Hannity. I haven't been too worked about about business though. I consider people to be more sloppy than unethical. Unfortunately this book has proven that such slopiness can lead to unethical behavior.
   
   I don't think it does affect me too much. I worry more about liking where I live and not working too many hours.
   
3. What if no consensus for what ethical behavior is? This is difficult, I learned that with other missionaries while I was serving in a very rule-less mission in Tokyo. I don't have a good answer here, I better pay attention tomorrow. This is really difficult because I tend to be conservative with what is ok and its hard when you see others doing things you want to, but feel its unethical for you to.
5. What's something legal but unethical or vice-versa? I've thought long and hard, and I've come up with a few ideas. The only I can think of is that lieing is in many situations legal (thought in many its not as well), but most the time it will be unethical.
6. What's a situation where the 'right' answer just wasn't obvious? I did some consulting on software I used at my main job. Some things I'd program would be needed by both organizations. Splitting time between the 2 wasn't real easy. So should I do the same work twice? Or be paid for 1 instance of work twice? Something else? My main employer was agreeable to doing outside work like this, so the consulting wasn't the dilemma and either answer probably could have been defended. Also it was encouraged to share work with organizations it was a strong community, so the 3rd options was to just do it at my main place of work and then share.
7. Should business ethic be taught? w/wn? I think going over scenarios has as much value as a case study. You experience the decision in the shoes of the person going through it. Making and analyzing decisions in a wide variety of scenarios will allow me to better understand the thought processes and impacts I should be concerned with.
   
   This will help me to practice the 3 steps of: Moral awareness -> Moral Judgement -> Ethical Behavior. Many times I haven't even been aware I've been facing an ethical dilemma.

ideas working

Well, my "Extra 30 Minutes" idea is working. I just finished my Minto Document for Communications MBA 505. Its on that book I wrote all the notes about and kept complaining about. I will upload the paper in a couple of days after finals have passed.

So it worked and I just gave that extra effort and got done with it. Now its 9Am and I have the whole day to do with as I please.

Interesting though, my fear of getting lazy didn't come true. The new fear is giving that extra 10% of effort that can have huge pay-offs.

Finance & Operations Finals are over

Well I've done the operations and finance finals. They went pretty well, I definitely think I've done better on them than I did on the midterm. I have learned a couple of things about taking finals too. I guess "finals" are not going to be a large part of life, but I've got 3 more rounds of them after this week, so I better remember what I've learned.

First, for the finance final, I kept telling myself that I needed to study Beta. I'll bet I could have studied it in about 20 Minutes, but I just couldn't force myself to do it. Well, there was a lot of the test dedicated to Beta and I really regretted it afterwards.

Same thing with the test for operations class that I just got out of. I thought I needed to study some equations slightly more (I actually did ok with this) and a quick review on setting up multiple workstations (it would have taken 10 minutes) but I couldn't make myself do it.

Now I won't lose huge amounts of points, but it could have taken me from 85% to 90% I imagine. Its not that I was lazy, I did do a lot of study. Its that 30 more minutes of work could have given me a shot at acing those tests.

So the principle I learned is: Cover what you know you need to know. Don't fight the last few minutes of work.

Also, I studied like crazy and used the flash card program and it helped me to learn this stuff very detailedly. I need to make sure I do that in the future.

Ok 2 more tests, neither of which require much study and then I've got 1 semester done of my BYU MBA!!!!!!

Finals -- they're here :(

Well, finals have started. I've been studying finance with a Ademar, Steve B., and Victor every night this week. It's been kind of focusing on 1 subject and having a lot of jokes in between. Yesterday, I had to be home to sign for a package, so we all studied at my apartment and made some frozen pizzas while we studied.

All this studying has felt good in that I feel like I'm putting the necessary effort to become capable at this subject.

I also got up at about 7:30 this morning to go meet up with these guys to study operations/logistics. And now I'm back in my office typing up papers on Minto Readings (this is the communications final). I'm not worried about surviving until Thursday, I just hope I don't get lazy, I have that habit.

Well good luck to anyone that may be going though this. I recommend not being too lazy throughout the res of the semester and then the week before finals will probably be a little easier.

Elevator Statements (as taught at BYU MBA's Orientation)

these are the instructions they gave us for elevator statements. Basically the advice is to get across "What is special about you?" - "What's special about me (my comp.)?" - "How do the 2 connect?"

Before this lecture, I thought they we're called elevator statements because it was like you were rising from no relationship to them being interested in you.

So here are the notes (remember after each are examples, don't feel tied to it):

• Who am I? Hello, my name is ___________
• Why am I talking to you? (Referral's Name) suggested that I speak to you.
• What is my objective? I am interested in advancing my career in financial management
• What are my strengths? I have 5 yrs. experience and will complete an MBA in finance in April. I have been effective in problem solving, collaboration, leadership, and increasing profit margins.
• How did I achieve these strengths? I developed these skills in a variety of positions with XYX Corp. prior to my graduate program. In my MBA Program, I focused on corporate finance & financial analysis.
• What are my passions? I enjoy working with a team to improve processes & solved difficult problems.
• How do these apply to your company/industry/location (c/i/l)? I am confident in my abilities to assist an organization improve its financial processes, reduce costs, and achieve its cash flow objectives.
• What do I want from you? I am especially interested (c/i/l ) and would like to learn more about finance operations within you (c/i/l).
• Put it all together, reduce the # of I's used & rehearse it until it sound natural and unscripted.