N.A.G.

2146 5-31-10

Mostly relaxed today, did the usual Monday routine with laundry and all that, but spent a great deal of time exercising my brain with a puzzle game.  But there are a few noteworthy activities/events that happened today.  Before I get into that though I just wanted to say that my thumb is a little sensitive but seems to be fine just a nice white mark has formed, not sure whether it'll actually develop into a blister or not… stupid steam.  Did you know steam is one of the most dangerous things in a kitchen?

First and foremost I got the lunch lady to put garlic on my lunch, which basically made my day.

Then I went out in search of a hotel for my father and holy crap the prices high.  The lowest I found was 318RMB ($46) a night with the highest being 700RMB ($102).  There's one more I have to check out which is supposedly around 200RMB but man I'm seriously considering just buying a sleeping bag and roughing it on the floor.  Good news, receptionist speak English, though one needs serious help writing the number 5 (I thought it was a 1).

Talked with Dad and Dixie today, they seem to be doing well.  They even took David and Minnette to Sultan's Café (one of my favorite places in Dallas) which made me chuckle.

The next thing has been bumming me out actually.  Niko gave the presentation to the client today but he edited it this weekend.  And by edited I mean he basically completely transformed it.  The fact that he changed it isn't the problem, but the fact that it is so completely different leads me to think that we had some serious miscommunications as to what he was wanting.  Doing something wrong or making mistakes is something I've dealt with before and it's simply part of being an intern.  This is something different though, this is not being able to understand what the client is wanting and that deeply troubles me.  Figuring out what the client wants is one of the most important skills of consulting and I need to redouble my efforts in developing this.  We'll be discussing this tomorrow so hopefully we can have a "come to jesus" meeting.  I don't know why but I feel like I'm having a hard time being successful here.

Last but not least I've officially started my post-graduation job search which I'm calling the "Need A Gig" campaign or NAG for short.  First step of NAG is to begin making a list of possible employers.  Basically I'm looking for anything and everything to do with Business Strategy and/or Investments which is a freaking giant umbrella.  The basic industries I'm looking at are Consulting, Interactive Electronic Entertainment (Video Games), Financial Investments, and Electronics.  But I'm certainly open to any and all suggestions.  At this point I'm looking at some of the better known companies out there, mainly due to the fact that my college is relatively unknown I need a big name employer to put me on the map, and of course there are many other reasons as well including training and such.

Here's the current list that I've been playing with, certainly not all of them, I have a much larger list at home.  Any suggestions feel free to let me know.

Boston Consulting Group

Bain and Co

McKinsey

Deloitte

Blizzard Entertainment THQ

Forrester

Frost & Sullivan

Citigroup

Booz Allen Hamilton

Robot Entertainment

Robert W. Baird & Co.

Logitech

Intel

Dreamworks