getaround

Its been a while...

Hello loyal follower (Melissa),

Well since my last post a lot has happened. I went snowboarding, broke my arm, finished a term, found an internship, did the MBA Ski Cup, got my cast removed, went to Meran, inverviewed with AB Inbev, and today I took another exam. It really is amazing how fast time goes by, it seems just like yesterday I was flying over to Milan to begin a new stage in my life, but as I look back, I am amazed by all the events that have transpired since.

Well, I guess I will restart my blog today with my excitement to finish this term. I look forward to starting my internship in Modena. It will be an exciting time. I will be doing it with a green construction company. It really is perfect for me. One of the gravest dangers facing the environment today is our complacient use of building materials. Something like 35% of all waste comes from buildings, and this is a huge drain on our natural resources. The world's forests are dissappearing, mountains are being destroyed by mountain top mining, water and air are being polluted by the production of construction supplies, and this is unacceptable. I am excited to join a small entrepreneurial family company to combat this problem.

On a similar note, I really reccomend the documentary 180 degrees south. This movie will really get you thinking...

Dubai or Bust

So I am literally minutes away from leaving Milan to go to Dubai to compete in the 2011 edition of the Hult Global Business Challenge. It is an amazing contest that invites the best MBA programs from around the world to solve the world's problems. This year the contest is partnering with Bill Clinton and Water.org to bring us the challenge of solving the water problem. There are over a billion people on the earth without access to clean, fresh, and safe drinking water. This must be changed, and it is up to us to do so.

If you would like to help us, e-mail me at jlpeverini@gmail.com, the Competition begins Saturday (Dubai time) and we are allowed to use any and all available outside resources. Read more about the challenge here http://hultglobalcasechallenge.com/challenge2011.html

or read more about the issue here http://www.idrc.ca/cp/ev-31102-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html - although this article relates specifically to Africa, water is a scarce resource in every continent, especially Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Escaping the Trap

Once you become an accountant, apparently, you are trapped. I decided to pursue my MBA to rid myself of the accountant franchise player tag, but potential employers didn't get the message. My CV still has the far reaching stamp of Uncle D (Deloitte) plastered all over it.

In the past month, I have had three interviews, and two of them wanted me for an accounting role. I have made it abundantly clear that I want no part in accounting/finance/ or whatever, but that seems to be the only job I can get. Today, I was offered an Account Analyst internship in India. Now, India seems cool. I like the food, the people are nice, and the Company was pretty well respected, but come on... An Account Analyst job in India? I can't do that. They tried to tell me that it actually has more to do with trend analysis and strategy, but at the end of the day, it was a lame duck internship.

I feel an internship should be sexy. I should be spoiled a bit. Given copious amounts of food and maybe a couple free drinks. I want an amazing training program and maybe a new identity. A gun would be a plus. So please consider this my official declaration of candidacy for the Russian Espionage Internship. I don't mind going under cover for 5 - 10 years (Salt style!) or raising my children to be russian spies. In fact, I probably know a Russian spy (Romo), so I think thats a plus. I do have one requirement, I do not want to spy against the good 'ole USA. Can't spy against the home team, sorry. So how about this. Train me to be a spy, and I'll ship off to China. I can probably find a lot of dirt on them. They're Russia's neighbors, and I'm sure their rise to stardom is pissing Russia off quite a bit...

Well, if you don't see me around after today it means I was either accepted to spy academy or taken care of by the Russian spies at Bocconi....

rambling minds

So, today I finally got my Carta d'Identita, basically my Italian ID. Its good to finally get it. Before I was walking around with no documentation to prove that I am legally allowed to stay in Italy, and although that is not really a huge deal here, it posed some threats, but now that I have the ID, I can really relax.

So this week has been incredibly busy. First, I have three assignments that I am working on, three classes with Nobel Prize winning economist, Michael Spence, an interview with BCG, and some other stuff. First, the classes with Professor Spence were amazing. They opened my mind to a whole new way of thinking about the emerging nations, especially India, Africa, and China. It was odd to hear that India would catch up with China soon and eventually pass them, economically speaking. Africa trying to conquer the digital divide was another fascinating topic (and subject of a paper that I am now working on). I think the professor kind of intimidated most of the students though, because instead of our normally brilliant questions (well... ok, just questions), students raised their hands only to ask for a window to be closed, or to point out a typo. I don't think Prof. Spence went home with the best opinion of us as a whole, however, there were a bunch of us who would go up to him after class and ask some extremely insightful questions.

The BCG interview was ok. With these sort of things you never really know. The interview began in Italian, and unfortunately, I didn't really practice for that, so I had to switch to english a little too early. I felt that I presented myself well, answered the case studies appropriately, and asked good follow up questions, but who knows. I should be finding out shortly whether I advance to round two or not, so I will keep one finger crossed.

Finally, I think my blogs are becoming a little weird. I read a recent blog post from a friend here at Bocconi and I was amazed how much better his was. At first I couldn't figure out why, but then I realized it was because he would write about one topic at a time. I like this idea, so from now on I will only write about one event that happened. Hopefully it will increase the number of blogs I write per week and the quality at the same time.

ciao!

It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.

John Lennon said it best, " Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." And so it seems even after 30 years in the grave, John's words still hold true. When I applied for the MBA I knew that I would end up in industry. I had planned to work in beverages, renewable energy, or automotive, but as it turns out, I probably won't... Well, not this summer at least.

See, the problem is that Companies are a bit reluctant to let me move away from my financial background. I get it. I mean I really do. They are worried that without relevant experience in strategy and business development, I will be a liability and probably not worth the investment. In a way, I agree with them, but I am young, have great experience, and have graduated from two great schools (SCU and soon to be Bocconi), so I feel I deserve the chance. If they granted me an interview, there is no way they could turn me down, but since they won't even let me get that far, I am destined to follow my plan B.

Plan B is actually an awesome plan as well. It involves me to apply to several leading consulting firms and then do my internship there. If I am fortunate enough to get an internship, then one of three things will happen... I will realize that I actually really like management consulting, I can tolerate management consulting, or I loathe management consulting. I am placing my bets on number 1 or 2. I mean, spending a summer at least or a year in management consulting can be an amazing opportunity, especially if I land a gig at an exclusive firm.

So loyal readers (i.e, Melissa), wish me luck in the next couple weeks, and especially tomorrow during my first round interview at BCG!

Ho Ho Ho

Well, it has been a pretty crazy week. Milano shut down and we all went to the mountains for our first SKI Club event. We decided to go to Bormio for three days of snowboarding and goodtimes, and boy was it a good choice! The snow quality was fantastic and the town was very beautiful! I think I had more fun there then I have had in a long time. I even dressed up as Santa for the first day of skiing!

So after all the craziness of the weekend, we tried to take a train home, but the train came 2 hours later than we thought, so we pulled up a seat at the bar and had a couple beers while we waited, which is not a bad thing :)

Then last night was my birthday. I didn't really think I would do too much for turning 25, but then I decided I might as well go for it and prove that I still have it! It turned out to be a really fun night, but I am feeling the pain now.

Well guys there are 4 more exams, 2 group projects, 12 days and a 20 hour flight keeping me from the Bay, so I better get back to it!

Ciao