Paul Cassleman, MBA '09

Finals Finality

The Core is done. Rejoice.

Since my last post, life has taken on a slower pace (not slow, but slower). Sure, there were 3 finals to study for, but they were spread out over a 10 days. All of the finals where comprehensive, but with a heavy weighting of more recent material. All were fair and none caused me to lose too much sleep. In fact, me and a classmate felt compelled to head for Vermont when the snow fell last Thursday night. It was one of those moments when your brain is split:

Nerd Brain: "Accounting and DMD are just 3 days away! Why would you do anything other than cram your brain with r-squares, APIC, shadow prices and capital lease discounts? You need to study!"

Fun Brain: "Will you remember r-squares, APIC, shadow prices and capital lease discounts 5 years from now? Not likely. Will you remember a glorious day of snowboarding in the fresh powder? Hell yes."

In the end the fun side of my brain won the battle but my nerd-conscious won the war. I went snowboarding Friday and then spent the weekend studying. A fine balance in retrospect.

Now it's back to Detroit and Minneapolis for some well deserved family time, followed by the MIT Independent Activities Period. What is IAP? During January the entire Institute forgets about the normal routine and designs their own education. Many people travel, some take a short class, some work, some relax. Mine will include the following:

• A week of cycling in Texas to get back in shape
  
• Internship interview prep
• Weekday cross-country skiing in New England
• Catching up on some long-overdue recreational reading

Quite an education.

In the Thick of It

    Thanksgiving was just last week, but it seems like ages ago. The reason? I have ventured deep into the bellows of "The Core". That's right, the legendary monster of the Sloan MBA has swallowed up my entire class and we are now fighting to get back to the light!

    In actuality, it's not that bad. There isn't anything impossible that needs to get done, just loads of work that needs to be broken down into smaller assignments and plowed through with a concoction of caffeine, time in the library and lots of group meetings. Also, it really isn't the schoolwork itself that is all consuming. It is a combination of school, recruiting events, extra-curricular projects and social activities.

    Still, it's funny to reflect back on the warnings the 2nd years gave us during orientation. At the time I scoffed at all of their predictions for the coming semester. Now I've found myself taking mental notes as they come true, one after the other. For instance...

• Prediction #1: "You will probably get a nasty case of SARS or the avian flu."
• Reality: I got sick last week and was able to recover over Thanksgiving break, but I still haven't shaken this cough. Not an incurable disease, but I did go through a bit of Advil.

• Prediction #2: "Grocery shopping and cooking will become a luxury you can't afford".
• Reality: Wednesday nights menu? A bun-less hot-dog and a can of soup. Ouch.

• Prediction #3: "You will never see your significant other (S0)".
• Reality: Not true for me, but my SO has started scheduling appointments on my outlook calendar for things such as grocery shopping. This is a bit extreme, even for me, a guy who has developed his own system for color coding outlook meetings to indicate priority and function.

    Luckily, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer. By this time next week I will have completed two major projects (one for class, one as a part of the Operations Lab that I volunteered to join). Also, most of my resumes and cover letters will have been submitted in hopes of winning me some interviews this coming spring. So all in all, the intensity has ramped up, but it will soon be over.

    Oh yeah, I forgot about finals. Studying for that will start next weekend. But after all I've worked through so far, studying will be a piece of cake.

Midterm Highlights

A quick highlight reel of my life during this first quarter of school...

Last week I got to experience the joy of MIT Sloan midterms- 4 and a half years after I thought I was done with academic testing and little blue books. I found myself drinking lots of coffee to fuel marathon reviews of discount rates, confidence intervals and the indirect statement of cash flows. Some were easy and some were hard, but they made the week-end refreshments at the Muddy Charles (an on-campus Pub run by grad students) taste a little bit sweeter.

Speaking of weekends...

A few days of cool temperatures two weeks ago created an urge to flee the concrete jungle of Sloan for the gold, red and green forests of Vermont. My SO (Sloan code for 'signifacant other') and I left our worries behind and backpacked our way through some great scenery in the Green Mountains near Weston, VT. It was great to get  some fresh air and take my mind off of the stresses of school. Rather then drinking from the 'fire-hose of knowledge' we drank from a small lake with our filtration system. Delicious.

The end of the beginning.

It's a string of events that any prospective MBAer can relate to. First, you saddle up and start studying for the GMAT, which you've been putting off for months on end (great fun). Then you find yourself pouring over schools each night, and maybe even once or twice while you're at work.  Even then, you still have to decide what your career goals are so you can put together some top-tier essays (A side note on this- once you actually get here, at least half of people throw that 15 year plan out the window and figure out something new, so don't spend too many hours deciding which font is right for the logo of your new startup).

Sloan attracted me from the outset. As a guy who has worked in merchandising the last four years, I decided that a quant-focused program like Sloan would help to balance out my skill set. Also, I was beginning to really enjoy the process development aspect of my job at Target. Sloan has the top ranked operations program in the country; a good thing for a guy wanting to get into the field.

At the time, I couldn't help but reflect on a Fedex commercial from a few years back. In it, a suit-clad rookie businessman is asked if he can help send some packages. He explains that he doesn't "do shipping" because he has an MBA, to which she says "well, I better show you how it works then." It's a good exaggeration of the perception that MBAs are all fluff and no substance. Distancing myself from this stereotype was important. To that point, I couldn't help but be impressed by the culture at Sloan and the greater MIT community. Everyone seems to be focused on "doing" things, not just talking about them. The MIT slogan really says in all: "Mens Et Manus" which means "Mind and Hand". If you ever come and visit the school you'll see what I mean...the place is buzzing with great ideas and people acting on them.

Luckily, Sloan Admissions liked my story and I found myself committed to the program. All this had happened by last March, leaving a long 5 months between my decision and my arrival. And it was long. For the last 6 months I had been possessed by studying, researching, applying, interviewing and deciding. Now I just had to wait for August to arrive. It couldn't come soon enough.

Fast forward to August 3rd. It was 4:30am when I started up the diesel engine in the moving van and rumbled away from my place in Minneapolis. I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally this thing was getting started, just 1500 miles of interstate in the way.