El Giochoville

Life after LGO

2011-08-05T01:30:00.010-04:00

No matter how rigorous the LGO experience was, it came and went in a blink of an eye. Nonetheless, it was an unforgettable period of my life that I will look back fondly on and never regret.

I still remember submitting my application in December 2008 to the then Leaders for Manufacturing program and setting a number of goals in my essays. Many of my goals involved taking certain courses I was interested in within Sloan and engineering, but my main goal was to become a leader of a global operation. Lo and behold, the program changed its name around the time our acceptance letters were extended and I knew I had made a wise given the program's new focus.

In short, the program enabled me to accomplish every one of my goals in a short period of time. Prior to LGO, I had a cushy position as an Operations Analyst in Google Books, and many of my friends and family questioned my decision to leave my job and invest two years in school. In my mind, the program would broaden my perspective in solving complex operations issues -- something no job could ever provide. Prior to LGO, it was all about looking at the data and making a decision. Now, it's much more about looking at the business, process flows, and then the data, as well as continuous improvement.

I have now returned to Google as a Strategic Operations Project Manager supporting its Product Quality Operations. I guess you could say I am a leader of a global operation (like my classmate Kacey). Rather than being on a team supporting one product like I was previously, I am now on a team that touches at least 6 products, including search, advertising, mobile, maps, checkout, and the newly released Google+. Some may argue that the use of the term operations in this respect is a loose usage as there are no physical products in the list above and thus no supply chain or manufacturing involved. In the final semester of LGO, students are required to take Operations Strategy, which examines the application of operations theory to almost any industry from automobiles to wine. While undergoing job interviews all of my fellow LGO classmates truly stood out from normal MBAs as companies across all industries recognized the importance of having an operations background. The online tech industry is no outsider as Google hired three LGOs this year.

Much of my work so far involves:

Brainstorming new processes to counter fraud and protect billions of users (see Google+ launch and Counterfeiting)
Analyzing the workflows across a number of online products
Examining and determining headcount allocation for job tasks
Knowledge sharing across different product teams
Achieving operational efficiency, scalability and product quality through various mechanisms including machine learning (which my classmate Leo often blogs about).

Many people may be wondering why return to the same company I was at prior to LGO and why this particular team. That will have to wait for another blog entry, but it also is a result of my experiences while at LGO.

Epilogue

2011-06-03T23:52:00.002-04:00

And so the story of El Giochoville comes to a close today (or does it?).

Every LGO '11 was a star

All 47 of us received our two degrees at commencement and are moving on to bigger and better things, but we'll always look back fondly on the close-knit community and home that was MIT LGO.

Looking back on MIT

The original "El Giochos" (Team 8) all got back for one last pic.

Team 8 - "El Giocho"

Commencement wasn't as long as most people thought it would be. Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox, delivered the guest speech this year. We couldn't ask for better weather. I don't think I even broke a sweat in my cap and gown.

Commencement

You aren't seeing double vision. Every LGO gets two degrees for the price of one (that's right!). Robert (on right) just received his 3rd and 4th degree from MIT today (SB '05, MEng '06, SM '11, MBA '11).

Proudly sporting our dual degrees

This year marked the 150th anniversary since MIT was founded in 1861. Aside from the decorations all over campus, there have been a number of celebrations commemorating this occasion.

MIT's 150th year

Finally, it also happens to be the 15th anniversary from when I first stepped foot on MIT campus when I was just 12. Boy, does time fly...

End of Year Events

2011-05-13T17:57:00.000-04:00

The last few weeks have been hoppin' at MIT. First, congrats to Steve Stoddard '12 and his team for winning the $200K Clean Energy Prize which answers the question many prospectives have on whether LGOs have enough time for entrepreneurship activities.

On Wednesday night, the finals were held for the MIT $100K Competition in which students from all over MIT form teams to pitch their ideas and business plans. Many of the participants and finalists this year included LGOs and Sloanies. Congrats to my fall core teammate, Lindsay, and her team Sanergy for winning the grand prize this year. Many successful companies have spun out of this prestigious competition and I wish her team the best of luck in Africa pursuing their goals.

Me holding the $100K check

My fall core team meeting one last time.

Yesterday was the last day of classes and with that came many mixed feelings of joy and sadness. For the second years, we had our last ops strategy class together as LGOs taught by the Don himself.

Ops Strategy

No more class! (yay?)

It's a bit ridiculous how quickly two years can fly by. It felt like yesterday that we were all in the same lecture room learning stats and ops management.

LGO two years ago...

As a final treat for all Sloanies, the last day of class also is the same day as the Sloan Follies, where Sloanies showcase performances, skits and parodies that really touch upon our experiences in the last year. I think the LGOs received a number of stabs as having the quantitative prowess and work ethic of a machine. Touché, Sloanies.

Sloan Follies

Countdown to Graduation

2011-05-08T10:52:00.008-04:00

With graduation in less than a month, I've been trying to enjoy every last bit of school and Boston. First, I will miss the view from my apt. I'll probably never live anywhere again with such a breathtaking view and a 2 minute walk to class.

I'll definitely miss the parties, most notably the LGO parties. In the most recent throwdown, a few LGOs roasted a 90 lb pig. It was an epic party with over 100 guests cramped into a tiny backyard. I challenge any future class to top this and not get shutdown.

Next, I will miss the guest speakers. Most recently we had an amazing speaker, Jack Welch (CEO of GE) come in and give a talk about how to run successful companies. Some memorable quotes from his talk:

"Our job is to make sure everyone understands their role, where they're going, and how they're going to get there."

"I don't think plotting a career works. Getting a job you love and over-delivering every day is the way to the top."

"Don't tell me all about purpose until I get some dough."

"You don't want a job that's all money with no purpose. Otherwise you'd all wind up on Wall Street."

Even the overflow lounge was filled to capacity for Jack's talk.

I'll miss the foodtruck (sort of). Without these trucks waiting outside of class everyday, I probably would have gone hungry. It's also really tough to beat $4.50 vietnamese lunch combos.

Finally, I'll miss the people, especially the LGOs. I'll never find such a close-knit group of individuals that find passion in everything they do. Here's a pic of the LGO volleyball team. Other popular LGO IM teams have included flag football, softball, hockey, ultimate frisbee, and water polo.

With that said, I'm off to my last match of ultimate frisbee for the LGOs!

Sign, Sealed, Delivered!

2011-05-06T17:24:00.005-04:00

Today is a momentous day for the LGO '11s -- it is the deadline to submit our theses. For most LGOs, the thesis is the remaining hurdle to graduation and boy, was it a huge hurdle (for some). Many of us began writing our theses the beginning of the last semester of LGO. With enough dedication and motivation, the document itself is not a huge challenge to write up over a span of 4 months. Then there are approval signatures required from your internship company, engineering and Sloan advisor, as well as the engineering and Sloan department. Scrambling to meet the 5 PM deadline, I managed to run across campus 3 times and get all signatures within two hours!

Here is my approved thesis -- 107 pages of glory!

Interviewfest: Why LGO, Why MIT, Why Now?

2011-01-22T11:08:00.005-05:00

LGO Class of 2013 interviews are approaching next Friday and the following Monday. For the ~~lucky~~ talented individuals who were invited and are trolling the blogs (I was one of them!) for some last minute insight, you've come to the right place. If you're having trouble answering the question in the title...I can't help you, but hopefully you find this entry useful anyway.

Around this time two years ago, I came across a spectacular blog post by Becca Ford '10 (link). She lays out the STAR approach (situation, task, action, result) for responding to most interview questions. Ever since learning how to structure my interview stories and responses in this format, I've been acing interviews left and right. That said, here are some of my personal tips that I have found to be extremely useful for an LGO interview, as well as interviews in general.

STAR approach: It is crucial that your responses and stories are structured and concise. No interviewer wants to hear you go off on a 45-min rant about your ex-boss or to constantly go on tangents about your trip to the Poconos.
Good Behavior...als: Yes. The interviews are behavioral, meaning not technical. Therefore, the person sitting across from you may know nada and could care less about ASICs, AC/DC converters, GUIs, JAVA and the geeky details of any engineering projects you pulled off in your hey-day. So don't bore them! They will be looking at if you can compose yourself professionally and how you influence and lead others...hence LGO.
Story Time: Interviewers want to hear good stories to their questions. When they ask "What's your greatest accomplishment?" You better be scrolling through your head before they even finish the sentence. Then, whip out the STAR approach...and shazam! Don't be like "uh...hold on, that's a tough one...please, give me 30 seconds" and then sit there in awkward silence. Tip: Some of the most challenging questions I find are "addressing a failure" and "biggest weakness" so get those stories down cold.
whoami: The fact you made it to the interview means you have something LGO wants. Be confident in what differentiates you from others and how that will contribute to the next class. When preparing stories, think about how to make them unique and fun! Otherwise, you may not stand out.
No Fly Zone (i.e. Don't Wing It): I understand you all are busy people, probably finishing up a ton of work before heading out to Boston and are like "pssh, i gots this"...well you might, but you probably don't. Find your best friend at work (but in reality a stranger might be better), sit down, print out a sheet of behavioral interview questions, and do a bunch of mock interviews. I have only found myself to be able to learn by doing.
Sherlock Holmes: Really take some time beforehand to think of some good questions and politely ask them to your interviewer at the end (cuz you know it's coming). Don't pwn the entire interview only to come to the end and be like "wait, who are the partner companies?" Research. I was looking through all the LGO webpages, reading the brochure on the plane, and the blogs. Because #1 it shows you care and really want LGO and #2 if you can ask actual thought-provoking questions, you'll stand out.
Suit up!: Yea don't forget that...and a winter coat, gloves, a hat, maybe some earmuffs. The Boston winter is ridic this year with all the snowstorms.
Oh yea, and don't forget to relax =)

Midstream Week!

2010-09-19T23:55:00.004-04:00

Every third week in September, the 2nd year LGOs on on-cycle internships make it back for one week to present their project updates and meet with faculty advisors. The presentations and poster sessions are a great forum for knowledge sharing and getting to know what your fellow classmates are up to in various companies across the world.

But, here are some even better reasons to look forward to Midstream Week:
-Catching up with fellow LGOs and Sloanies on their summers
-Company recruiting events (free dinner!) and happy hours (booze!)
-Meeting 1st years (and being a big bad 2nd year)
-Attending Sloan events (C-functions and clubs)
-LGO two-class camping trip
-All the fun of school MINUS the schoolwork!

Suit up!

JC in the flesh

2010-07-23T01:18:00.013-04:00

During core semester in the fall, all Sloanies are required to take 15.280 Communications for Managers. It's a great course on developing presentation skills, such as creating effective slides and public speaking, which I suck at.

In one class, you'll study the style of John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems. Today, I was fortunate enough to experience his speaking first hand and it is truly more impressive in person. The thing that amazed all of the audience initially was his strong opening. He spoke while roaming around the room and making eye contact with every single person, literally. It was almost creepy, since there were probably over 300 interns in that room, yet he still scanned each row one by one, and eventually hit me. During Comm, you'll learn how to properly do Q&A, and John is no doubt an expert. When responding to any question, he zones in on that one person, and does not hesitate for even a second before responding with boat loads of examples and data off the top of his head. It made me wonder if he had an ear piece. Finally, he ran out of the room (really fast too) while being accompanied by bodyguards...in true multi-billionaire CEO fashion.

In regard to the content of the presentation, the company had some interesting ideas revolving around Organizational Processes (15.311 OP!) also a core course you '12s will have to survive. The company is starting to realize the flaws of having a hierarchical org structure, such as redundancy and constant re-orgs, and are moving towards forming cross functional councils across business units which offer more flexibility and mobility while avoiding a matrix structure. Even more interesting was their aim to incorporate social networking within the corporate processes like performance management. Imagine ranking all your facebook friends on a five-star scale across each of their work-related skills and expertise and then having promotions be based off your ratings.

Time flies during internship

2010-06-30T02:42:00.006-04:00

Already three weeks into internship, and I feel like I haven't accomplished anything. But the weather is great and being back in the Bay Area with old friends is awesome.

Here's a pic I took which manages to get almost all the landmarks in SF into one shot.

Also, if you ever get a chance, I highly recommend taking a trip up to Alaska. It was pretty damn nice.

I was tempted to drink this water...

Spring Sem Wrap-up

2010-06-03T02:30:00.012-04:00

Having three semesters done feels pretty good. Shout out to the LGO '12 class who just started this week. Can't believe one year flew by already.

Since I haven't blogged in a while, here's a brief reflection of my spring semester (we do a lot of reflecting in b-school):

All in all, it was more relaxing than the previous two semesters, but with two engineering courses to knock out, it was still a ton of work.

-Marketing Strategy turned out to be a good course, considering half the class dropped it after the first week. It made it much easier to participate and discuss some interesting cases. Too bad it won't be offered next year.

-Branding was one of the best deals in terms of courses I've taken. Basically we read and discussed cases and took one final. Very laidback.

-Stats Consulting with Arnie was everything I had anticipated it would be and more. Arnie, if you are reading this blog (which he sometimes does), good luck publishing your stats book and let me know when I can purchase it.

-Nextlab turned out to be a ton of work, worth every bit of 12 units. My team, consisting of another LGO and 2 developers from the University of the West Indies, developed an Android app that tracks packages in rural Mexico using GPS and the Barcode Scanner. We must have been approached by at least 5 headhunters, including Google, during our final presentation to the public. The developers will be attempting to spinoff the project this summer.

-User Interface Design was my engineering design course for CS. Being in a course with 100+ MIT undergrads who never show up to class (except for quizzes) and take 80+ units a semester can be pretty daunting. With 10 quizzes and five 12-hr psets to program in Adobe Flex, 40 technical papers to read, and 1 semester-long group project, it's no wonder all my peers thought I was on off-cycle internship this semester. In short, I kicked the undergrads' asses and it felt good.

My CS class. Top image is on quiz day, 100+ people. Bottom image is on a normal day, 19 people (I counted). I know what you're thinking ... why did I show up? Dedication.

And finally, to cap off the year, I participated in the annual Sloan Olympics. That's me in purple running in the 100m dash finals for the Caribbean Ocean. You can extrapolate the outcome of the race =P.

Only@MIT...

2010-04-08T15:13:00.010-04:00

One thing that always fascinated me about MIT were the crazy MIT hacks pulled off by the students. For all those new to the concept, an MIT hack is a stunt or prank that usually some underground MIT society pulls off in the wee hours of the night. In the past, they have included getting large objects (like a police car) mounted on top of the MIT dome. Today, most people on their way to engineering class were greeted with a hack that was upside-down and at least 40 feet above our heads.

From the looks of it, we can see two couches, a lit lamp, a pool table with cue stick and balls, coffee table, plant, hanging photo frame, and a diagram of the MIT dome of course.

Below are some Classic MIT Hacks:

Red Line Car (Solar Powered) on the Dome

1982 Balloon Hack during Harvard Yale Football Game

"Spring" 2010 Classes

2010-02-10T19:58:00.002-05:00

With another big snowstorm underway, it's time for another blog post!

After about two weeks of classes, most people's schedules have stabilized. Here is what I am taking...

15.068 Statistical Consulting

This class is taught by one of my favorite/funniest profs of all time, Arnie Barnett. It's always a pleasure sitting in his class and listening to his statistical horror stories and his past work experiences as a stats consultant in a variety of industries.

15.834 Marketing Strategy

It's not the most exciting class, but the cases are interesting and it's half term only.

15.846 Branding

Will take this second half. The professor was coached by our awesome marketing prof from last term.

6.831 User Interface Design & Implementation

Great CS class on designing usable/learnable UIs. A lot of examples of what bad designers do. At the same time, it's taught with undergrads and there's a bunch of coding projects.

ESD.938 NextLab - Mobile Innovation for Global Challenges

nextlab.mit.edu: This year we're developing Google Android Apps on the Droid to solve a business case regarding the Mexican equivalent of UPS (Estafeta). There are a ton of Sloanies in the class, but I'm actually taking it to get development experience in mobile apps. Looks like it should be a ton of fun and work...

Winter break!

2009-12-19T22:28:00.004-05:00

One thing I love about MIT are the long breaks. We basically celebrate every US holiday possible and our winter break is 6 weeks! With the core term and finals coming to a close just last week, many LGOs went back home for the two weeks before plant trek begins in January.

Core term itself was definitely a challenge. Overall, I felt like I was 3x as busy as I was when I was an engineer in undergrad, mainly because I never had so much reading and team projects as an undergrad. For me, I actually found the Sloan classes more overwhelming than my engineering class, but I learned more than I could imagine at the same time.

It feels weird being on break and having absolutely nothing to do. I still have that hovering feeling that I forgot to hand in something or study for a test. Right now, I'm just trying to wind down and get some R&R before the much anticipated plant trek, which I have eagerly been awaiting since pre-LGO. I'm really excited to see how companies like Boeing, GM, Amazon etc. look like from the inside. But for now I'm stranded in NYC in a snow storm... crappers

Finally a break!

2009-10-20T23:07:00.004-04:00

This week is SIP week, also known as Sloan Innovation Period. It's when students can take seminars in topics they are interested in and there are no Sloan classes!

This is the first year that LGOs were required to participate in SIP [ :)? :(? ]. I was fortunate to get decent SIP classes, one on Managing Low Performers and Culture Change offered exclusively to LGOs and another on Energy and Sustainability which I have no background in. Talking to some of my peers, it seems there are many SIP classes that they just wanted to get over with so it's definitely hit or miss.

SIP week in general is awesome. I am more or less free for the rest of the week and finally get a break from constant hw, classes, and studying. Tonight we had Oktoberfest which very well could be one of the best Sloan sponsored events so far. How can you beat free booze, sausages, potatoes, pretzels, sauerkraut, and live band. Everyone had a blast. I'm very much looking forward to keeping the good times rolling, as well as to LGO Ambassador day next Monday to meet all the prospectives...better bring your game faces.

Friday, President Obama is visiting campus to give a talk on clean energy accompanied by Governor Deval Patrick. I'll probably be staying in to avoid the massive media and crowds on campus, but it's cool anyhow. Finally, on Sunday our LGO Flag Football team has another game. So far, it's been a good experience getting the LGOs out to see what we're made of and losing to undergrads, but it's a ton of fun. We won last week by forfeit so we are (1-1) woot!

The Month of Free Food

2009-09-18T21:58:00.003-04:00

Classes are finally in full swing and many of the LGOs are in the thick of problem sets and team projects. This last week felt like an eternity. On Monday, for example,
-I had a team meeting at 8 AM,
-Marketing from 10:20-12:00,
-I can't recall what I did from 12-1,
-Database and systems course from 1:00 - 2:30,
-Tech Strategy from 2:30 - 4,
-and finally to cap it off, Proseminar, where one of our fellow classmates' brother came in to talk about the video game industry!

By the end of the day, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought to myself, "Man, that was a long week..." On my walk back home, I realized it was only Monday.

The experience I am describing could very well describe a typical day of an LGO. Many of my classmates don't have a single clue where they're supposed to be in the next hour or what's due the next day (definitely more exciting than work life). Pretty much everything has to be taken one day at a time. With all the units LGO people take, it's relatively hard to find spare time in the day. I already feel like I have as much work as I did during the middle of the summer term. At the same time, I sort of enjoy being this busy. Never in my life will I have this many opportunities to pick and choose from. There are corporate events, clubs/committees, social gatherings, and just yesterday, our very first C-function hosted by the Japanese students club. And of course, the main similarity across all these events is free food!

I got egged and hosed at the LGOlympics

2009-08-19T23:58:00.010-04:00

You might be wondering what the heck the title of this post means. Well, following our last leadership class to cap off the summer. We all kicked off the break with a BBQ, followed by the glorious LGOlympics.

The LGOlympics featured a myriad of events in our summer teams, where we competed against other teams in balloon stomping, water balloon tossing, egg balancing, sack racing, and finally pie eating contests. Needless to say, a bunch of us were still a bit loopy from making it through the summer semester alive and on top of that, it was freakin' hot out, so things got pretty out of hand. All the SOs made it out to the event which was great, as we all bonded together for one last time, before everyone left for vacation.

Balloon Stomping

Me getting egged and others watching in pleasure behind me

(egg tossing was not an actual event)

Hosing myself down

Leo scarfing down some pie

The lovely team 8 + SOs - the beautiful Tabby

Following those shenanigans, we all went to another celebration party where our Ops professor came and threw down with us. Definite good times.

Last Day of Summer Term!

2009-08-17T23:30:00.005-04:00

Woohoo! Finally, the last day of summer classes is upon us and I can pretty much sum up the entire summer experience of LGO in one word: foggy. Not only do I barely remember anything I did in the last 10 weeks, but the weather was so gloomy, rainy, humid, and often foggy. Luckily the clouds have been breaking in time for vacation. And, I am very much looking forward to sleeping in and playing some bball or frisbee which I haven't had time for since June =(.

Over the last few weeks, all of us definitely were feeling the effects of a heavy workload. I frequently found myself busy on weekends working on projects, finishing homeworks and readings late at night, ultimately culminating in our team's first all-nighter for our systems optimization project. The result of all this was lots of head bobbing and dozing off in class, as seen by my peers...

Since Friday afternoon, following our sketchy stats exam, we've all pretty much checked out (some lucky folks even opted to fly home). We then were all fortunate enough to visit Raytheon's site in Andover, MA. It was cool to see all the humongous radars that were built at the site, and the people there were very hospitable. But to top it off, they threw us an awesome open bar in which we got to see another side of our hip systems TA.

Today, we had our final speaker of the summer, Mike McNamara, CEO of Flextronics. IMO, he was probably the most engaging speaker we had this summer. He opened our eyes to the reality of operations and supply chain companies of today, which freaked out a lot of students. I was impressed with how much knowledge he possessed about the dynamics of these supply chain companies and how he supported a lot of his points with data off the top of his head. I guess that's what it takes to be a CEO these days... that and moving yourself out of the US to avoid tax laws =P.

Now I am off to finish one last assignment, our Group Leadership paper, in which our team really made an effort to catalog our evolution and development throughout these 10 weeks. Once that's handed in, it'll be time for the end of summer BBQ and LGOlympics... nice.

Procrastination at its best

2009-08-13T22:55:00.002-04:00

One of the goals I set out to accomplish before starting LGO was to write a blog. As our first summer here in Boston draws to a close, I thought it'd be a perfect time to start tonight, instead of studying for my stats exam tomorrow. As you'll probably learn from my future posts, I tend to put things off to the very last second because I'm always up for a good challenge. I'll leave it at that for now because I am off to find other ways to avoid starting to study...