Scribbles

Been utterly swamped the last few weeks, work being a major culprit, especially the last two days.  Yeah, excuses for lack of updates get tiresome.  But I had to blog about this one.  What really irked me this morning is when I tried to access one of my favorite web comics, Sam and Fuzzy, and ran into this:

Come on!  What the hell is going on here?  Sure, the author, in his good humor, may concede that his work is a bit extreme, especially the Fuzzy character, but “Cinema and Television?”  Who categorized this?  I'm pissed that my company's stupid web proxy uses this retarded 3rd party filter company to censor web content.  It's not like I'm in China.  I seriously wonder how many people in my entire company read this comic, perhaps two (even though it should be more)?  *&@#!!!!

I came across this nifty article “How to be Creative,” that captures many interesting points and theories that are applicable beyond the realm of creativity and art, to considering one's personal and career goals.  Most of the ideas resonate strongly with my personal beliefs, such as worthwhile things in life demand hard work, don't be a sheep, don't kill your inner child, attempting to achieve your dreams, taking care of yourself so you can run the extra mile, and much more.  The author, Hugh Macleod, humorously articulates his thoughts in the context of his own creative work, cartoons on the back of business cards (which also happen to be scattered throughout the article.)  One of his quotes, “So now we have millions upon millions of human tapeworms thriving in the Western World, making love to their Powerpoint presentations, feasting on the creativity of others” bowled over me and left me cringing as I reflected on that statement in the context of my job and my not so veiled disgust of the evil medium made ubiquitous by Micro$oft.  I am now officially adding the “tapeworm test” to my list of where-am-I-in-my-life litmus tests, one that I am loathsomely failing on my current project. 

As I began reading the article, I couldn't stop until finishing, even in flagrant display with colleagues walking around wondering what the hell was on my computer screen – it really was that engaging and inspirational.  Please check it out and think of your own goals and actions.  I dare you to feel like you wasted your time.  When you're done, tell me if you feel like a tapeworm, a sheep, or the person who dared to climb your childhood Everest.  Huge credit to Guy Kawasaki for the reference.

Oftentimes I imagine that I were the client and how I would interact with consultants.  Eventually my thinking turned to devising devious ways to extract more value (ie blood, sweat, tears) out of them.  After all, we pay so much for their services.  How can we guarantee the most bang for our company buck?  I brainstormed a bit and came up with a few ideas:

• Stock the team room with unlimited supplies of water, soda, caffeine, and snacks.  Common practice in the software industry, this keeps the consultants in the room working, instead of venturing to the vending machine.  The sugar and caffeine props them up for extended hours and gives them an extra oomph.  I’m curious if anyone every measured the productivity gains compared to the expenses.  In general, whatever expenses made will seem minuscule compared to the fees, so any marginal gain of work from this will generate huge returns.
• Continuing on the line of munchies, occasionally drop real food and treats.  Sandwiches, smoothies, whatever feels and tastes good.  Not only do you negate their chance to go out for dinner, wasting lots of time, it also makes the consultant feel special.  And in many cases, still having the college student mentality (despite making decent dough), they experience the free food syndrome – feeling like getting away with something, and otherwise ordinary food tasting much better.
• Secure a nice room with windows and all the necessary equipment.  If they don’t feel trapped in a dungeon, they will be more happy to work late.  Make sure there are plenty of power plugs and network connections for their laptops. Don’t make them move from room to room carrying all their things. The idea here is to minimize downtime and create a working environment that maximizes efficiency and desire to stay around.  Again, the costs are minimal but the returns are huge.
• Make them spend more time thinking, researching, interviewing, training – anything other than making slides.  When the big meeting happens, they will burn the midnight oil, yell at or beg their graphics pool, do whatever it takes to make pretty presentations anyways.  You must realize that there exist no bounds for improving the presentation.  Thus, minimize the time they spend covering their asses by looking good on PowerPoint, and direct their time towards producing more tangible results.
• Develop your own people by sticking them on the team.  Have that young, ambitious, competent employee who’s been wanting the opportunity prove him/herself?  Put that person on the team working around the clock with the consultants.  This not only ensures that when the consultants fly out of town that you’ll be able to continue or replicate the work, but also gives your person a decent chance to grow and learn. Despite being intrusive, expensive, and needy, the consultants are a hardworking, semi-intelligent bunch.  Surround your person with these folks for a few months, and they will elevate your employee’s game.
• Provide a small stereo in the team room.  You’d be amazed by the time distortion effects of music.  Even with today’s digital music on laptops and iPods, consultants usually don’t feel comfortable wearing headphones because it may appear unprofessional, or simply stymies the flow of conversation.  Again, make them comfortable in the work environment.

Now if only my clients would consult me on how to better milk us.

Day 3 in Atlanta and so far I like it!  True that when the basis of comparison is Orlando, almost anything seems great.  But at the gut level I simply feel happy surrounded by a critical mass of people, not tourists.  Sure, driving on the congested freeways here reminds me a little bit of California.  One interesting side note – the first connotation of Georgia firing among my neural synapses is some obscure historical reference, the Trail of Tears.  Guess I was an impressionable history student back in high school.  What iI wasn’t so good at was Geography.  So allow me to share another factoid about this Southern (pronounced ‘suh-then’) state – it’s just north of Florida, not too far from my last project site.

Speaking of driving, due to some inexplicable pre-holiday hotel congestion, we’re staying about 10 miles away from the office.  Everyday we commute from north of Atlanta to the city which hosts the client office.  The first day, my Russian colleague spooks me with his erratic, nonchalant driving style.  Throw in a couple of horrible parking incidents, where the car is parked more or less diagonal and crossing at least one line, I had to intervene and take away the keys.  And he had the gall to question my parking skills this morning, only to discover, upon stepping out, how perfectly I maneuvered in one smooth swoop the American beast of a car into spot-on center alignment.  Getting off my high horse and back to the point I originally wanted to make, I’ve noticed that people here drive in a mellow fashion, unhurried compared to Californians, and infinitely more forgiving compared to the strict German autobahn rules of conduct.  This is noticeable in the people I’ve interacted with outside of their metal horses; they seem more friendly and relaxed.  I even experienced one very outgoing and motherly (but young) waitress who made it her mission to keep us all comfortable and attended to.  This style I can get used to, yup.

Not forgetting that we’re consultants, so outside of the office and restaurants, the last unmentioned part of our world is the hotel.  Because everything in the area is booked up, I had no choice (really, I swear) but to stay at the W.  A chain within my favorite chain of hotels, the W targets the young chic crowd.  Their bars and lounges in NYC and SF are known to be pickup joints for trendy fashionistas.  Walking into the hotel lobby, you find yourself in a huge lounge with tons of comfortable sofas and a bar filled with more clubbing folk than business travelers.  Loungy chill-out music flows throughout all the public areas.  I even walked out of the elevator wondering where I could the catchy mix that was playing.  As for the rooms, the interior decor remains congruent with the sleek hipster appeal, right down to the facial washes and body butter.  My suite has a proper living room and two LCD TV’s.  (Don’t worry, we get really good corporate rates)  Even though I haven’t had the energy (or proper attire) to hang out by the bar and mingle, just being in such a different atmosphere from the usual business hotels puts me in a super decent mood, certainly one to completely forget about business.  The only squeal you’ll hear from me is having to pay $10 for a bottle of uber-pretentious artesian water from Norway.  Naturally, it goes with the territory.

Still battling jet lag and needing a break.  Going to blog a bit about my current assignment.  My firm defines projects as 1+X's, meaning 1 project leader plus X consultants, X usually ranging from 1 to whatever.  In the case of the US office, it's usually 1 or 2.  And of course there is the partner in charge who occasionally parachutes in to schmooze with the higher ups and to crack the whip.  This is normally the partner who sold the project to the client in the first place.

This is my second 1 + 2.  The organization of work looks like a two-level pyramid, with the PL at the apex and the consultants forming the base.  Each individual at the bottom rung takes charge of a module and runs with it.  It's the PL's responsibility to interact with the client, behave as the buffer between consultants and partner, and ensure that work gets finished.  Pretty straight forward stuff.

As for my current module, I work on something very closely related to my last project, except with much wider scope.  It encompasses all of what three of us did on the last project.  Obviously that's not feasible for one person, even if I don't sleep.  Fortunately the client organization has previous exposure to this methodology, and existing tools in place for executing it.  Nonetheless, it is definitely more challenging than my previous engagement from a workload perspective.  While I am really not that thrilled about working on something so similar, this will ensure that I learn this for good.  The question is how valuable I find this methodology.  I definitely refuse to get pigeon-holed as a resident expert in this area for future assignment considerations.

The other annoying aspect of the project: it's an extension of a benchmarking project, meaning what needs to be accomplished in the second phase has already been defined and mapped out.  It's a consultancy trick.  Sell a project, show some promise, and then entice the client to re-up for the implementation project.  Sure it's great for the firm, but for me, it limits the creative boundaries of my problem solving.  We always say that consultants are paid to think.  Yes I still have to use my brain 75% of the time, but I find myself exercising that muscle much closer on the ground level than at the 10,000 miles above I'd like to be.  So, less critical, strategic thinking, and more client team interaction, them being the folks doing the implementation and not C-level execs.

More on Atlanta and Georgia later.

Got back from Germany on Sunday and immediately kicked off a brand new project here in Atlanta.  Since I'm swarmed at the moment, updates will have to come later.  Will have to share about our week-long training session and what's going on here in Georgia.

In consultanese, that phrase describes those of us stuck in the office and not actively assigned on any project.  I wish I were literally on a beach, perhaps one in Bali, or Phuket.  But I'm not complaining either, since I find myself typing this entry from our quiet lofty office here in NOHO.  And the weather in NY today is at an odd high of 68 degrees.

So you must wonder what I do all day to stay busy, or do I simply clock in and out at respectable hours?  Just to run off the list of things I've been working on the last 3 days, I would say helping a partner on a project proposal, wrapping up the documentation from the last project and sending it off to the client, and filling out annual review forms.  Sounds rather snoozy, and it kind of is.  I come in around 9 and leave around 7, which is way more time than necessary.  It's weird to just leave at 3pm when the normal staff and various partners are still in the office.  So while it's not intense work, it does leave me feeling a bit restless.  In the meanwhile, I'm catching up on some administrative stuff that I've been meaning to get to, such as making appointments, looking into annual charity donations, checking up online message boards – stuff one would normally do in the office.

I still haven't been staffed on a project yet, although early indications suggest something interesting looms.  I won't set myself up for disappointment by announcing it here.  Tomorrow will be a busy day of interviews, and then at night I'll be off to Europe for a week of training, with the obligatory pit stops to catch up with some INSEADers whom I dearly miss.

Countless guidebooks, websites, blog entries, workshops, pdf’s, and what not are floating out there on the subject of interviews, and yet I feel compelled to share my infinite consulting interview wisdom with the Wild Wild Web.  I’ll keep this short and sweet, skipping over the basics normally covered.

- Be confident and energetic.  If you’re not at ease talking about yourself and defending your ideas, how would you fare in front of clients?  Tons of candidates fail the “being presentable to clients” test.  Don’t be one of them.

- Get your story straight.  Draw a convincing picture that ties your past experiences, CV, and future aspirations together in a believable story on why you really want to join the madness of consulting.  If interviewers catch a whiff of you not being sure consulting is for you, then chances are even if you do get in, you’ll hate it, quickly leave, and nobody coming out for the better.

- Ask for feedback and advice.  After passing the first round, talk to the interviewers about your strengths and weaknesses.  Work on them and nail the second round.  Interviewers are more than happy to see people they passed in the first round come out prepared; it makes everyone look good.  Just don’t bother them too much, 15 minutes or so seems realistic.  Anything more and you become an annoyance.

From what I’ve seen, if our candidates had followed these three simply rules, they would’ve greatly increased chances of receiving an offer (assuming they were intelligent enough to pass the case).  So what about the cases?  First of all, I don’t think you can fake intelligence, no matter how well prepared you are.  But even for the bright people out there, a couple of things would help tremendously.

- Develop a good sense for business.  One could argue that this is part of intelligence, but I think the MBA program is there to help prepare for this.  Too many people are too focused on job search or partying that they forget to actually learn anything.  If you don’t feel like you have a good common sense for doing business, or you haven’t seen enough patterns in the real world, don’t go into the case inventing new things on the spot.  It just makes you look naive and clueless.

- Learn and practice the case study structure.  This is so readily available in any MBA program.  If you’re not a genius, don’t come in and wing it.  Even if your excuse is to just use XYZ consultancy as practice, you’re much better off being prepared on your own.  An extra offer or two never hurts.  There’s nothing interviewers hate more than feeling like you’re wasting their time.  You’ll feel the same when/if it happens to you.

That’s it, five simple steps to overcome the most common pitfalls I’ve seen so far.  Just remember, the firms don’t enjoy rejecting people.  They would love it if they could give everyone an offer, but for the most part they can’t because people don’t pass some very basic hurdles, not because of a limited number of spots.

My first day in the office outside of a Friday and heading towards my desk…

Where’s the requisite tumbleweed?

And it’s been this way the whole day!  Actually, it’s not desolate at all in the front, practically a full house.  But back in my neck of the woods, nadie, nada, zilch.  Even the offices are empty.  This being the short week leading to Thanksgiving, most people have taken the time off.  Looks like I’ll have to migrate my lonely self to the front pretty soon, this is rather depressing.

So now that the project is over, I’m doing some final wrap-up work, aka documentation.  I still don’t know what that means yet, other than organizing a bunch of files, uploading them to the network back in the Motherland, and categorizing them.  Super exciting stuff.  My good project leader happily quipped, “they told me one of the perks of getting promoted to PL… is that consultants do the documentation.”  Sounds like plenty of motivation for me.

I’ve been keeping semi-busy in my relaxed way these few days.  Did a ton of winter wardrobe shopping over the weekend, replenished some of my music supply, reading some magazines and good books.  On the fiction side, I’m reading  The Business of Memory, after having an engaging conversation with someone about memory competitions.  There are a few exercises and tips on how to remember a long string of numbers.  Yeah, super geeky stuff, but hey, you never know when you need to recall the last 100 winning lottery numbers right?  Actually, one of the more interesting things to come out of the book so far, is a practice on concentration.  The book suggested a 2-minute laser-beam focus on a mandala, something my cave-dwelling self has never been exposed to.  I found some of the pictures a little too violent and disturbing, and I certainly didn’t want to use those as the centerpiece of my focus every morning.  If you know something about mandalas that suggest strength in a peaceful manner, send em my way.

On the music side, downloaded a few new mixes from a couple of my favorite vocal trance djs.  Also tried a music sampler from Zunior, checking out the indie scene in Canada.  No, I’m not losing my mind.  I’m actually not that bored, but being off the project, all this time miraculously appeared and I’m happily filling it.  Besides, I only have one more day to enjoy the quiet calm of our cozy NYC loft before craziness resumes.

In the spirit of premature declarations of victory, I will borrow the phrase from our fearless leader to commemorate the conclusion of my first project as a consultant.  To further my argument, I also conducted my first set of interviews today, contributing to the big recruiting machine.  Yes, despite being here for only 3 full months, I actually do feel comfortable in my role.

Allow me to share with you my dislikes and likes of this past quarter.  The top three things I hate about my job involve expense reports, the staffing process, and US airport security.  Two of the three are rather self-explanatory.  I'll take a stab at describing the third, how we get staffed, a process nobody seems to understand.  As of now, I still don't know the who, what, when, where, how of my next project.  The only thing the higher-ups can tell me is that I've been staffed.  The reason they cannot tell me is because it can change any minute, and most of the time it does.  So instead of having me feeling like a pinball, I just have to endure utter uncertainty until the very last moment.  From the surface, it seems like an optimization problem.  There exist a set of projects and a pool of consultants and project leaders that are available.  The question is how to arrange them to maximize utilization, as well as aligning interests and expertise.  Seems straight-forward enough for a group of relatively intelligent partners to figure out, no?  Turns out, many clients are indecisive about agreeing to projects, start-dates, and resources.  There's also politics involved in this secretive partners only staffing meeting.  The end result is a complete lack of transparency, and the feeling of being just a pawn on the big chess board of consulting checkers.  Today I asked one of the partners which project I'm on, and the answer was, “I can tell you which project you're not on.”  Ugh.  I hate it.  Let me know what to do with my life already.

Enough carping.  What did I like and learn from this stint?  Some methodology, client-development, and storyboarding.  Skipping the first one, which isn't horribly exciting and would take 5000 words, I'll focus on the two latter skills.  Client-development is really the soft-skills side of things in the nebulous world of organizational behavior and psychology.  It's about encouraging, coaching, coaxing clients to become more effective in the context of the project.  While I didn't do too much of it, I can see quite clearly in them the areas that if improved upon, would make a big difference.  How to actually accomplish that is a different story.  Storyboarding is the fancy name I came up with for the only thing I like about PowerPoint slides.  It's the skill of building and telling a coherent and cohesive story within the limits of the dreaded Micro$oft software tool.  I can see it being compelling to me, because it's a form of story telling.  I try to see it in the light of improving my writing skills, albeit in a different medium.  Work in progress.

Takeaways – I'm feeling confident.  I received some good feedback from my very skilled project leader who happens to look out for me.  The bright side of all this is that all those long hours of work translated to just as much personal development as client contribution, if not more.  For all you potential INSEAD applicants, without a doubt, my MBA prepared me well for consulting. 

So to pat myself on the back for the past 3 months of hard work, I'm planning a stopover in London for a big birthday party on my way to Munich for training.  Knowing these two birthday stars, this is going to be one hell of a bash.  And if things work out ok, I'll make a pit stop in Frankfurt on the way back to visit some other INSEADers (assuming their staffing issues comes through ok),

Another one of those big meetings took place last Thursday, hence the lack of news on my side.  We worked late all week and amounted to little in gaining momentum for the last three weeks left on this project.  Then on Friday, I attended training session at our company headquarters.  It was my first time there; we consultants have our own cozy office near Bleecker.  Compared to our laid-back loft near the village, the corporate office was gray-suit serious.  But being on the 56th floor and having an unobstructed view of the city gives it instant posh credibility, like any corporate office should.

That big batch of green… Central Park.

So at this day-long interview training session, I rehashed some basic etiquettes of interviewing, nothing particularly groundbreaking.  Our poor HR intern had to endure a few mock case interviews, and I felt horrible grilling my friend.  I'm certain the MBA candidates would be better prepped.  Nonetheless, it's amazing how quickly one goes from one side of the interview table to the other.  Our office has been swamped with interview work and our older generation consultants are overworked.  That's why our HR head decided to threw us newbies into the fray as well.  I certainly don't mind for now.  I'm also banking on it translating to a few trips to INSEAD for me too.

The weekend was great, the first full weekend spent in NY since over two weeks.  But those two weeks felt like ages.  I'm finding myself growing to enjoy sunny but coldish (50 degrees, 12ish Celsius) weather.  And while I didn't get to spend any time in Central Park, the guys and I went for a taste of the nightlife on Saturday.  I'm looking forward to the next two weekends in the city.

Da pahk from a closer view

I'm writing on the flight from Frankfurt to New York City right now, feeling utterly defeated.  What originally was a brilliantly planned trip back, starting at 4am this morning, became a nightmare.  I scheduled my return to New York on Singapore's Frankfurt to JFK flight at 8:30am, meaning I had to take the regional Lufthansa flight from Munich at 6am.  Sure, I was sacrificing sleep, but I figured I would be tired enough to sleep in luxurious SingAir biz class, leaving me fully refreshed by my 10:30am arrival, just early enough to run some errands and relax a little on my precious Sunday.  

But plans are always meant to be broken.  My flight got canceled due to mechanical problems.  Without reliving all the painful details, let's just say my colleagues and I scrambled around the airport all day, running from counter to counter, including clearing customs three times, just to get on this Lufthansa flight so I can be back to unpack, pack, sleep, wake up at 5am and fly to Orlando.  I hate it.

Some random thoughts in no coherent form:
- Lufthansa is like the German version of United.  During the whole ordeal (our original flights were booked through them), they failed to make sure we'd get home ok, and all of their ticket agents lack the imagination of ticket agents in the US in terms of re-routing people back.  For instance, a first class customer who asked to be put on a Newark flight was asked, “Are you sure you're willing to go to Newark instead of JFK?”  Cluelessness abound.
- Lufthansa business class – at least where I'm sitting in the bulkhead section, reminds me very much of United biz class, nothing special, preset entertainment programming.  The airport lounges (both at Munich and Frankfurt) were equal to United in every sense of the way.
- There is no wireless Internet on this plane as my colleagues promised.
- Munich is an amazingly rich city.  Beyond the countless Mercedes, BMWs, I saw Ferraris, Porches, everything.  My colleague commented on its rich car culture here and all accounts seem to confirm that.
- In Munich, I was lucky enough to stay at two separate luxury hotels at corporate rates: Le Meridien, which was modern and chic; The Kempenski on Maximillian Strasse which was a classic, with world class friendliness (an extra place given it's in Germany).
- The 2.5 days spent in Italy was way too short and I didn't get to enjoy much of their fine dining, although I did have a fantastic gelato in hazelnut and pistachio flavors.
- The autobahn in Germany has a system that controls the speed limit.  When it detects little traffic, all limits are lifted.  We hit 210 km/h going to the airport,
- My work itinerary didn't allow me to visit any friends from INSEAD.  At least I met one of my classmates who joined the Beijing office.

I realize I sound like a spoiled brat, after all I went to Europe.  But right now, physically I feel like crap.  Exactly one week ago on Sunday, I flew to Orlando.  Then to JFK on Tuesday night to connect to Munich in cattle class.  Arriving in Germany, I went straight to work, and then flew back and forth between there and Italy.  Woke up at 4am on Sunday morning only to take another 24 hours before getting home.  Weekend gone.  Energy gone.  Work week coming.

Leaving for a short business trip to Munich in a couple hours, so the blogging will be light for the next few days.  You can still reach me via the usual channels if you need to get a hold of me.

So many people in the office are simply overwhelmed with the recruiting season.  In a few weeks, full day interviews begin, and will take place once a week, every week, for two months.  And on the student front, the December promotion folks at INSEAD are in full recruiting swing for the final two periods.

My project leader finished the first round interviews at INSEAD just a few hours ago in Fontainebleau.  I put a few good words for my December promotion friends and my PL was pretty happy talking with them.  I just want to say great job everyone and enjoy the weekend.  (I wonder what national week party is happening tonight?)  Hopefully you'll hear some good news soon.

For those of you stressing out, don't.  My advice is that interviews go both ways.  You absolutely must figure out if your potential employer is a good fit for you, both in the nature of the work and if you can see yourself liking the people.  In the consulting industry where teams spend enormous amounts of time working together, not getting along just makes life miserable.  So take your time, figure out to the best of your ability what you want, and just be yourself (albeit prepared).

Today marks the end of the 4th week of my new career.  Some things have met my expectations, others have not.  And for some of those that did turn up the way I expected, I misjudged how I thought I would have reacted to them. 

The bad.  My background makes me very demanding about IT.  My personality makes me very intolerant of lack of productivity tools.  So finally today, 4 weeks into my job, I finally get my Blackberry and security badge (for VPN access).  What does all the jargon mean?  It means outside of the office, I have no access to any of the things I need for work, such as email.  Yes, it could be a blessing in disguise, this process shouldn't have taken this long.  The good news is that both my coach and my project leader (who is in charge of first day process) have assured me that the process has improved and will continue to do so.  This is the one area that caught me off guard.  One of the things I failed to successfully negotiate for in my contract was to exert more control over my IT.  I relented to the stringent corporate standards here (no Skype, encryption for sensitive emails, etc) that could only be enforced by predefined hardware.  I thought I would be ok, but in all honestly, I have been resisting taking a liking to my laptop.  And the old model Blackberries we got don't inspire any energy in me to figure it out.  I told the IT guy (who I am convinced hates me) that I'm willing to splurge on my own to upgrade to the latest device, but he convinced me to hold off as he's talking to the higher-ups about an equipment upgrade.

The pitfalls.  The clients we interact with make such a big difference.  Obviously I'm still on my first project and I've talked about this particular client before.  According to my colleagues, there exist client teams out there that are built from extremely talented and motivated leaders who are willing to listen and get their hands dirty.  And then on the other spectrum, there are clients that are completely hands-off, unmotivated, untalented, and just don't care (which is rare).  All in all, the quality of the clients will determine the quality of the work, as well as your motivation to contribute.  This I did anticipate before starting here and has been in line with expectations.  Regarding our current situation, our interaction with the client has increased a lot and I expect this progression to continue.

The good.  The learning of this project for me so far has been the methodology employed to keep the defined initiatives on track, and how to measure progress and distance to the goal.  The other side is the human factor of working with numerous groups, each with its own agenda, and motivating/whipping them into delivering.  This isn't exactly what I envisioned learning – financial models, market entry strategy, global sourcing.  Then again, it's still my first project and I am learning something of value.

The push.  Received my second paycheck, which is on par with my past paycheck.  The only difference my skyhigh rent negating it.  Ah, the price to pay to live in style,   Ok, sometimes it's tilted out of balance against me when having to travel to the client site on Sunday nights instead of Monday mornings – one more night of rent lost into oblivion.

On the reminiscing side of things, I came across two little things on the web that reminded me what I love so much about Silicon Valley.  Both of them involve the leaders in academia and industry.  The first was a little blurb about these people's passion to constantly innovate and research.  The second was a video interview of Judy Estrin, who talks about her career path from Computer Science academia to industry leader.  The passion for achieving great things with technology really resonated with me.  These people care about excellence and delivering value through research and creativity.  Hopefully, my next few projects will involve more exciting industries with a push for quality innovation.

Is there a little sense of panic, as in what the hell did I get myself into?  Definitely yes.  Does the fact that I walked away from Cisco's skyrocketing stock options to zero stock options sting a bit?  Yup.  But I do still feel optimistic about my choice?  Living in New York is like a dream, and will take me years (at this rate) to get to know.  Going forward, I'm staying upbeat in my approach to work with the intent of being productive in both work and growing myself with a clear direction.  Otherwise years will have passed and I will have unknowingly accepted the prescribed path without considering my fit for it.  Because we expend so much time and energy at work that when we're free, the last thing we want to think about is work, falling into the trap of just following the defined career ladder is just too easy.