I have often pondered about leverage. Not personal leverage kind of stuff. No, I’m talking about mathematical leverage. Let me give you a couple of simple examples of leverage.
Continue reading “The force of leverage”Living in the present
The other day I met an interesting guy while charging my car. He was frustrated about the lack of etiquette by another guy charging before him. I came up to him to chat, as he shared how long of a day he’d had. This man is witty, quick on his feet, and a great listener; I could totally see him being a stand-up comedian. Feeling bad for the guy, let’s call him M, I invited him to a local burger joint. He took me up on it.
So we shared. He had been left by his partner last year after devoting everything to him. Turned out the partner is a narcissist, possibly influenced by his traumatic past (I’ll spare you the depressing details). He could never completely recover from it and became a deeply insecure person. He was jealous of M’s good looks, perhaps even resentful. They got into fights over this.
But M could never leave him. He had set a goal to have a stable family by the age of 40. He got into this relationship as he was approaching his deadline, and tried to fit this relationship into his vision. He was well aware of his partner’s flaws, but his desire to be ‘done’ by 40 clouded his judgement. He didn’t want to leave his partner because he was afraid of failing his vision.
As I listened to M’s story, attentively mind you, a theory started boiling in my head. Perhaps the reason for M’s and his partner’s fallout was because they two of them were living at different points in time. M’s partner was stuck in his past, while M was too busy looking to the future. One failed to appreciate the present, and the other failed to acknowledge and resolve its problems.
It’d been a while since I philosophized about living in the present. This conversation made me appreciate living in the present more. Funny enough, it reminded me of a quote I put on the wall above my desk that I’d been ignoring. The quote is: Tomorrow never comes; it is always today. <Slow nod of enlightenment>.
It is always today.
Recruiting for tech as an MBA in 2023
To say this is a tough year for MBA tech recruiting is an understatement.
Not only are first year MBA students not getting interview invitations, many second years have got their return offers rescinded. Possibly worse, many MBA alumni who graduated last year have been laid off, less than 6 months into their jobs. I personally know people who were impacted by perhaps the worst wave of tech layoffs since the 2000’s. Brutal.
When you think about how the top schools were sending consistently ~30% of their graduates to tech, and extrapolate that 30% or the current students are scrambling to find any internship or full-time offer at all, you can sense the anxiety. This whole chaos does not spare any school – Anderson, Kellogg, Booth, etc. are all going through the same rough patch. If you haven’t heard about the situation at any certain school, assume the worst.
If you’re a current MBA candidate, and you planned your career directions around tech, I feel for you. I hope that inflation gets tamed so interest rates can start going back down soon. Realistically, I wouldn’t count on this. The Fed is trying to fix the mistake they made in the last few years creating the era of easy money. The easy money that fueled the extraordinary growth of the tech sector is getting drained so that the supply of money can eventually return to normal. Just as loose money supply took a while to manifest in hyperinflation, it’s going to take at least a year for inflation to be tamed. Until then, I’m not bullish on tech making a comeback. Even when big tech resumes hiring, the hiring frenzy that happened from 2021 to early 2022 is not going to return. Over-hiring, as it turns out, is bad for business.
So how can you navigate this challenging environment?
First of all, take a deep breath. You came to business school looking for a challenge, a chance to change yourself for the better. While this might not be the kind of challenge you expected, few things in life happen the way you want them to. When you come out ahead, you’ll be so much stronger and so much more prepared for whatever life throws at you.
Second, try, even if it is hard, to distance yourself from a job or a career path. In the grand scheme of things, that internship or that job that you’re not going to get doesn’t really matter. It does not define you. Even if you were so passionate about certain software products or companies, if these products or companies didn’t exist, you would’ve been excited about something else.
Third, take a hard look at your background. What advantages do you have in recruiting for a job in tech? Did you work in tech before? Were you a software engineer? Were you a PM before business school? If so, you may still have a decent shot at tech. Big tech is a lost cause, but there are many, many more other tech companies that are still hiring. They’re absorbing the talents that big tech released. The bad news is of course that these smaller companies don’t usually hire many MBAs, let alone as interns. You’ll need to be resourceful. Do you know anyone who works at these companies, or do you know anyone who knows someone who does? Talk to them. Are there companies in your general area? Give them a call. Send them a LinkedIn message. They may not just hire any MBA, but they may hire you if they like you.
If not though, you may want to re-evaluate your career decision. Sure if you really enjoy a hustle and get lucky, you can score a nice offer. But you’ll really need to stand out – you’re going up against those who have a tech background after all. But a more realistic option is to look elsewhere. Healthcare is still hiring. CPG is still hiring. Management consulting is still going strong. My industry, transportation and logistics, is always looking for good people.
If you’re reading my post, you likely overcame a lot of challenges to make it to business school. You’re tough. Don’t let a job market beat you. I know it won’t.
How we should think about value of assets
We are living in an era of strong assets and weak traditional currencies. In the last 10 years, Microsoft grew in market cap from $200B to 1,900B. Amazon grew from $80B to $1,600B. Bitcoin went from pretty much $0B to $900B. Even S&P 500 grew 3x.
Gold price change? 35%.
US Inflation over the same period? 19%.
Do we feel that stocks and cryptocurrencies are overvalued? Maybe. Microsoft, a Dow Jones Industrial Index staple, had a P/E of less than 10 back in 2011. It’s 40 now. Cryptocurrencies were “worthless” a decade ago. They are collectively worth over a trillion dollars today.
Continue reading “How we should think about value of assets”Why you should live close to your office
The STEM revolution at business schools
If you’ve been following the news, you probably know that Columbia and Stanford are working on creating a STEM track for their full-time MBA programs. If you’re considering Anderson or at Anderson, you probably know that Anderson is working on the same thing; the difference is that Anderson didn’t announce their move. Anderson is good at staying under the radar, for good or for bad.
Continue reading “The STEM revolution at business schools”Do people change?
I just watched Episode 9, Season 1 of Better Call Saul. Yes, I’m a big fan of Breaking Bad. If you are yet to watch Better Call Saul and would rather not be spoiled, stop reading. It’s ok to skip a post or two of mine. If you’re still reading, don’t tell me I didn’t warn ya.
This episode has a big reveal. Jimmy McGill’s big brother Chuck turns out to be the villain behind his continually unsuccessful attempts to be an accomplished lawyer. I will save you all the details of how Chuck stabbed Jimmy in the back. The important thing is, what’s Chuck’s motivation? The motivation is that Chuck does not believe that his brother has changed from a con artist to a legitimate lawyer.
Continue reading “Do people change?”The best credit cards for an MBA student
As an MBA student, I considered myself very broke. Imagine having all the income you’ve made in your life thus far get wiped out. That’s how I felt about my financial situation. I did everything I could to not get deeper in the hole while not missing out on key business school activities.
I also happened to have a bunch of credit cards that gave me travel points and miles to absorb some of the travel costs. These saved me thousands of dollars in the 2 costliest years of my life.
Continue reading “The best credit cards for an MBA student”Why are FICO credit scores important?
This post is dedicated to our international friends, and our US friends who weren’t paying attention to their credit before. In order to get a car or a house in the US, you will most likely take a loan. In an expensive like LA, you’re definitely going to need a loan if you want to buy a house, unless you were one of the early adopters of Bitcoin.
There are two parts to whether you’ll get approved for a loan and to what interest rate will be offered to you: income and credit. You already know how to take care of your income, so let’s talk about credit. More specifically, your credit score.
Step-by-step guide to build credit in one year for international students
5 years ago, I wrote on this topic on another blog of mine (fond memories). It was helpful for my friends back then, and I imagine it’s going to be helpful for our international friends who are building credit from scratch. 5 years has changed a lot of things; many credit cards I recommended back then have changed terms. The target audience has changed too, so I have modified my recommendations. Here’s the updated version:
I have written this guide as a balanced approach to building credit if you are starting out. It is not intended to give you the maximum credit score, since that would require that you know perfectly how to manage credit from the beginning, an unrealistic expectation. If you follow this guide, at the end of the first year you should have a solid credit history that would allow you to get approved for most credit cards and obtain reasonable interest rates on auto loans.
Richard Anderson 