getting back to school?

Who wants to study further ? Raise your hands! I see one for sure. Two more including my own are reluctantly jumping, up and down.

Yesterday I visited the Stanford campus. Was there for 10-15 minutes hardly. But just looking at the natural beauty around and the little bistros, cafes and students on bikes, fields, under the trees inspired me! So much that I could not help but think of studying further. Of course not that I aim for Stanford, but getting there would be so much awesome! #WishfulThinking :D
Dear future kids, very unhealthy expectations in terms of where you might get your education from have been set. Please don't blame me later.

Disclaimer: I went right out of office, did not have a camera, so could not take any pictures. Google's got beautiful pictures though! -> 

Dallas Diaries

After the usual woes of the baggage that I tend to accumulate over time and packing and moving, I have finally arrived in Texas. I was sleeping through most of the touch down and hence dont have any specific aerial observations about the city I am in. But from what my sleepy head can remember, the landscape seemed pretty sparsely crowded (with buildings and vehicles) and greener than I could have imagined. 


Oh and the airs of Dallas blew me away. Literally. As soon as I got out of the airport gusts of hot winds greeted me. Except for the people around I had a deja vu feeling for a second of being in my homwtown, where things get hot, hotter and hottest! My shared cab driver made me wait for 20 minutes and then finally we took off. Normally I do my bit of research before visiting any city to at least know about the people and culture. But this time due to lack of time and lack of internet I ended up being a total nomad. I was clueless except for the fact that I had the address of the friend where I was supposed to go. [May be it was the comfort of visiting someone familiar that I was so careless to not do my part.]


And since I was caught in an unfamiliar territory I started my bit of small talk with the driver by talking about the weather. [:P] After making it obvious that this was my first visit to southern USA, he broke the ice pretty fast. Talks soon moved to schooling and education and what I was doing there. After giving my standard replies, I asked him where he was from. Algeria. I made a very stupid attempt of guessing its geographic location and made a huge boo boo. Thankfully I was judged for being an engineer, a person who should know more about technology than geography. He then went on to explain the whole geography of Africa. He had no difficulties telling stuff about India and our neighbours too. He also mentioned Kashmir and then we ended up discussing how political the whole situation has become. Which lead to an interesting revelation on his behalf. Apparently he was a business administration student at a nearby university. And due to the recession he dropped out of school in his last semester, 2.5 years back and started this driving business. That was apparently the reason for his good knowledge of current affairs. Looking back he reflected he should have continued school and finished it sooner instead of trying to earn more money. But for the better part he also got his family here [but it seems his younger brother and sister have also dropped out of school and are part time drivers]. 


We humans are weird. I met a guy who quit school to earn money by doing something he never thought he would do, at a point when I am contemplating my next career move. I could not help but compare myself with him and feel a tad bit secure.
At the same time, I could not help but wonder if they will join school again and be able to go back home ?


So that's the story of the first texan friend I made. He plans to join school and finish his Bachelors soon. And I can just hope 'that soon' is not the next 2 years.


~nightflier

The Engineering Fight

Ladies and gentlemen,
Presenting to you the commencement anthem for us engineers :D


e to the x
dy dx
e to the x
dx
cosine
secant
tangent
sine
3.14159
i
PI
square root of 3
rockem
sockem
iit


We sang it at the end of our commencement ceremony!!!
Too much fun :)


~nightflier

NetWork

Howmuchever I might be in denial, or not wanting to change, I networked today!

I approached people with positive attitude (not just for the freebies!) and we discussed what they did, what I do (not the general whiling away time bit!), what interests me and what interests them (F-1 visa holders definitely not!).

In all, the number of resume(s) I distributed to employers was definitely lesser than last year's (In the end they just don't mail you and update you, so I decided to be the nature and paper lover this time!)

And did I say goodies ? Loads of 'em! (I have a super cool water bottle now, which can be fixed on my bike!)

But network I did! Yay!

~nightflier :)

Car-waar and all

Disclaimer : I wanted to write about this one on the same day, considering my age old memory problem and the fact that 'I suck at cars' !! If some car enthusiasts, find things misplaced, then kindly contact me offline (not on the blog!!).

Someone likes to see to new things, learn them, even if they are beyond her comprehension. So when someone found out that the auto show was at 10 minutes walk from her house, she got very excited. Plus they were offering a special discount to women on a particular day. What happened next is not history then!!

Lets start with some customary checks.

I know driving. tick.

I think I have forgotten it. Big tick.

I can only spot out a maruti 800 or a van, on a busy traffic day. tick.

I cannot tell the difference of one car from other (except for pity details like color). Big tick.

I am studying a whole new subject about cars. tick.

That subject was a reason I made it a point to visit the show. Big tick.

I SUCK AT CARS. Big big big tick.

So what I subjected myself to, was as good as entering a new land with one's consent but without a valid visa and passport. Believe me, I had no clue, my life was going to change forever.

It is funny, when sometimes, the vastness of some things totally take you by awe. Sometimes things you don't understand and in this case beyond one's comprehension, leave you elated, spellbound and surprised. 

First things first, hats off to car designers. Its an amazing kind of creativity. I mean for a novice like me every car seemed impeccably noteworthy. Sometimes having no views about stuff helps. For a change I was not commenting on anything and just letting the cars take over. Anyways, after re-reading everything, I feel like I was illiterate. But what the heck. I really did not know anything particularly interesting about cars. Now at least I feel educated !!

Special mention of Hyundai, Toyota and Chevrolet. Loved the concept cars by Hyundai and Chevrolet. And Toyota's marketing strategies are amazing. Let people call them a closed company who don't let the outside world know what's cooking inside, but they are the most clever car makers - technology, innovation and customer satisfaction wise. Total respect hai boss!!

And guess what, we collected free goodies here too! When the Scion guy gave me the bag and the booklet with a smile I felt so special. Even in the times of recession, its good to see people distributing goodies for free.

Anyways I finally managed to blog about it. 

Passing thought, cars must be one of the best material/man-made bliss.

~nightflier

join the bandwagon

If you are an aspiring MBA/MS candidate, then this post is for you.

Specially if in the country of 'Yes we can - Obama' and more specially if you are Indian, then you have hit the right spot, oops URL.

New term is approaching and application season has started. When the graduate admission office is busy sorting out stuff and deciding on whom to admit to their elite club, here are some tips for starry eyed aspirants.

1. This whole process is very exhaustive. Specially if you don't have any close friends/peers giving you company, cursing the courier people, understanding the essence of going through this ordeal, then there are very bright chances of 'you getting frustrated'. So have loads of patience. Start meditation to avoid catastrophic situations!

2. Start your application process as early as possible. Always remember the invaluable lesson of logic and practicality, 'First come first served'. This improves your chances of getting admitted with a handsome aid (financial of course, you weirdo :P) by your side. 

This does not, at all, mean that the ones who apply around the threshold don't get through. Most of the applicants lie in that region. But as a victim of that attitude I would advice to be smart by starting early.

3. Keep all the paperwork like recos, transcripts, sops and financial docs ready. This adds to the smartness quotient on your part. Remember we are trying to reduce stress, strain and assorted relatives. 

4. Unlike in India, here people do not have entrances except for the GMAT/GRE (I call them the GATE PASS, as they are nothing more than that, but the scores are crucial, no matter). So once you have the initial score ready, start your research immediately. Focus is required for any kind of post graduation. I would seriously stress on being serious about stuff. What you do after coming here, I mean focus or not focus is totally your choice. But for the application part show focus and dedication. The energy and national currency converted in US dollars (which is in comma right now) one invests in this process should not be wasted according to me.

5. Professional help is not so mandatory for the recos and sops, if you are focused enough on what you want to do. But if you are not sure, then I would suggest that you join one of them. It will help you get a point of view on what you want/should do, at least.

6. Once you start applying, enjoy your time. Because, once you come here, life would be totally different. Your peer group, life style will change drastically. So get ready for the change by having a blast. This is based on my optimistic observation that, if you apply to 7 schools, you get through minimum 2, with 80% chances of actually landing here! :)

There are many personal experiences, I would like to share. Maybe sometime later. Do take care of steps 1-3. 

Life's is much better if you come here with a clear and focused mindset. 

All the best!

nightflier :)

Career fair

I attended my first career fair, in the land of opportunities.
So the first question anyone pops up is, how was it ??
ermmm...actually, I'm new here..don't actually know how these 'fairs' are supposed to be..so whatever answer i give, people are bent on telling me that how only consultants come to universities, how only good universities get all the good companies, if at all, and blah, blah, blah.. so it leaves a novice like me clueless !!!! (mercy !!!!)

Anyways, still for those who want to know, i think it was a 'fair' job fair, cos i applied to 8 firms for internships (1 out of these was for a PhD don't-gimme-those-sneers-please program!!). And the most amazing thing was i had the choice of applying to firms!! There was no screening process whatsoever.

The structure of the whole extravaganza was like this. All the companies had set up their booths. The institute had a registration process, so as to avoid intruders from other univs. Here we were given a guide sort of booklet, a map of the stalls and some goodies. The registration people also provided ties (the ones if tightened around 'the neck' can cause a lil bit of problem :D) and other stuff, to complete the formal look. I thought that was pretty cool and thoughtful of them. If you did not have time to zero down on your companies of interest, then using that guide one could screen them and save a lot of time and energy. So once you have shortlisted the firms, on the basis of eligibility criteria, like resident status, educational background, education level, time period (full time/part time/inters/co ops) etc., you are ready to roll !!

Next steps were, approaching the booth with cool head and few questions ready. Normally they had enough representives who would receive your queries individually. So people like me could shoot any kind of stupid things from 'oh, can i pick that lip balm?' to 'so you are into power systems, eh?'.
Alrite, jokes apart, it is a really good opportunity to think about your choices and accordingly ask them any damn things. Many times it creates a good impression that 'hmm, so this girl knows what she's doing, so she's smart enough, lets hire her'. I mean this is how a normal employer would think, so try to do some research before you go to such fairs or use your brains. And scene here is a bit different. Firms are looking for engineers from various fields in the real sense. Not just software firms, mind you.
So we had a whole bunch of (ok, 8-9) of core electrical engg firms, same for other concentrations, financial firms, software companies, HR depts, govt agencies. So students from every strata had a chance here.

It surely was a different experience, as the dress code was strictly followed, only your resume would speak for you instead of an aptitude test, and the goodies they distributed.

I went with 10 resume in my file, and came back with a bag full of goodies (highlighters, sticky pads, piggy banks, lip balms, key chains, pencils, pens, diaries, etc. etc. whoosh !!) and the satisfactory smile of dropping 8 resume at meaningful firms. Only 2 have asked me to apply online again, btw.