2011 – Random Wok

The MBA Bet: >11,866.62

August 3, 2011August 3, 2011 by Mark Wong

Yesterday the market closed at 11,866.62, after our lawmakers decided to put a gun to head of the American economy during the debt ceiling crisis. The market has been down sharply the past few days and just slipped under the 12,000 mark. In a lot of ways, I feel like our economy – I experienced … Read more

The Future of Random Wok

July 25, 2011 by Mark Wong

You only need to look at my July post count to tell how active my blog has been lately. I had several posts that foreshadowed my waning interest in blogging, and the difficulty of blogging as an MBA student. But somewhere in my mind I still thought I would overcome it. I was wrong. My … Read more

Review: Navigating the MBA Admissions Process Online Course

July 12, 2011 by Mark Wong

Created by Beat the GMAT and Clear Admit, “Navigating the MBA Admissions Process” is an online video course built on the Udemy online learning platform. The course covers all aspects of the admissions process using a series of lectures from admissions experts, supplemented by PowerPoint slides. The benefit of having an admissions “course” is that … Read more

The Dark Side of Consulting Careers

December 7, 2012June 13, 2011 by Mark Wong

Every top MBA program places a significant number of graduates in the consulting function. The high salaries, variety of projects, and fast-paced work environment all encourage MBAs to propel themselves onto this career path. And while these benefits would be enticing to any professional, every career path has its dark side. During my three years as a management consultant, these were the aspects I liked the least and have made it very unlikely for me to return.

(Please note that my comments apply primarily to the larger management and strategy consulting firms, made up of the Big Three (McKinsey, Bain, BCG), the current Big Four (PWC, E&Y, KPMG, Deloitte), and the various spinoffs from the original Big Five (Accenture, IBM, Bearing Point, Cap Gemini). A lot of smaller boutiques have actually built their consulting firms around directly addressing the points below)

Work Life Balance

In nearly all recruiting presentations by consulting firms, there will be a lengthy section about work life balance. Some of the ones I saw showcased an extremely busy partner, who had an overwhelming work schedule, but managed to spend time with his family and had a great relationship with his kids. Strange how most other career tracks don’t make such a hard sell…

Work Senioritis

June 1, 2011 by Mark Wong

I haven’t set my end date yet, but based on my travel and moving plans, I’m approximately two months out from departing my job. The weirdest thing about planning your departure is that you have to deviate from every principle you learned about developing your career. I’m no longer pushing for harder projects and more responsibility. Doing so would only make my departure more inconvenient for my colleagues. I also didn’t ask for a raise this year, even though some new hires with similar experience have come in higher than me. In some ways it’s a relief; this may be one of the few times I can legitimately ignore some of the tougher principles of Corporate America.

UCLA MBA Admits Never Received Links to Get SIR or SLR

May 24, 2011 by Mark Wong

Sorry about the title, but I tried to make it as close to what I had put into Google when I was in this situation. This is kind of a trivial post, but I’ve gotten enough emails about the subject that I thought I might as well write one to resolve future inquiries.

As a lot of UCLA MBA admits including myself have experienced, the process of submitting your SIR (Statement of Intent to Register) and SLR (Statement of Legal Residency) has been somewhat unclear. While everything you need to complete the process is technically there, the communication between the MBA Admissions and Graduate Division offices hasn’t been totally in sync.

The first place where everyone should start is the MBA admit Master Checklist. Here you’ll see that it clearly states that you’ll receive links to submit the SIR and SLR along with your formal offer letter.

How to Save $5,000 on Your MBA Tuition

May 29, 2011May 23, 2011 by Mark Wong

Just go to school in California as a resident. 😉

I don’t think they’ve finalized the actual residential discount, but I’ve heard that it will be at least $5,000. The process of proving your residency in California is a bit cumbersome. The registration office sent me a list of required documents, based off of the information I had submitted before:

Driver’s license
Vehicle registration
Year old rental lease
2010 Tax Return
2009 Tax Return
2010 W2’s
2009 W2’s
Latest Pay Stub
Confirmation letter from payroll manager
Bank Statement with CA address
Read more

Waitlisted Again for Wharton

May 23, 2011May 12, 2011 by Mark Wong

So I guess I’m going to Anderson.

As D-Day part two approached, I refused to make a big deal about this decision. I didn’t stay up at night thinking about it. I wasn’t checking my email every five minutes like I did last time. I didn’t create any “positive imagery” and in fact had a lot of “negative imagery” in my head, to potentially help blunt a negative outcome. And while the build-up to the decision was completely different this time around, my result was exactly the same.

The wording of the decision was slightly different: the letter said I’m a great, talented candidate… yada yada yada… and that the class of 2013 was already full. The school said they would distribute another “final” decision on or before July 18^th (which basically means on July 18^th). Problem is, I plan to give notice at work about a month before that.

Second Place for Clear Admit’s Best of Blogging

May 10, 2011May 9, 2011 by Mark Wong

I recently got an email informing me that I had won second place in Clear Admit’s Best of Blogging awards. I was pretty shocked to receive this news given that:

I didn’t know I had even been nominated
I’ve been phoning it in on my blog for the past few weeks 😛

Thank you to all my loyal readers and supporters who looked past my slothiness and took the time to vote for me. I promise you that more and better content will come soon. This week marks the final week of the admissions cycle for me. My final waitlist decision will come forth this Thursday. And while I can sit here and blog about all the stress and ambiguity up to decision day, more than anything I just want this to be over. No more decision trees about which side of the country I’ll be living on. No more hesitation when saying which school I’ll be attending. I need to move forward with my life, my career, and yes, my blog as well.