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JUNE 2002 MBA JOURNAL: HOME STRETCH Saul Keeton: Second Year Winds Down "Frankly, I think we all have become masters of prioritizing our to-do lists and grown deft at completing assignments in about 30% of the time we would have spent on them last year." You see, sometime around the middle of February I decided to change my industry focus. The energy business was just no longer doing it for me. Why? Well, for starters I think I had interviewed with nearly every interesting company in town with minimal luck. And, honestly, I've begun to question my earlier assessment of the business as the choice that would provide me with the best opportunity for growth. Finally and most simply, I have found something else that interested me more: Commercial real-estate. I'm not sure which direction I want to head just yet, but regardless of whether I'm a developer, mortgage banker/trader, or broker, I see lots of benefits to working in RE. To me, the profession seems more entrepreneurial than my options would have been in the energy business. Working in RE would allow me to get out of the office more, thereby permitting me to avoid the dreaded fluorescent light tan. Long term, the money could be much better than the traditional desk job. Finally, it would allow me to have more control over how I spend each day. I know that logic flies in the face of most workaholic MBAs, but I have more plans for my life than simply professional commitments. All of those things are good, but I'm still no closer to making a decision about what I will be doing after graduation. I have been doing a fair amount of research into what real estate jobs are out there, and I have actually already had a couple of good interviews. So I'm very optimistic. I have also learned quite a bit from a Real Estate Investment and Development class that I'm currently taking. So with my "new" job search in progress, I have little time for anything else, including class. My own situation included, I think the Senioritis plague is running rampant through the Jones School. My class had already earned a well-deserved reputation for apathy. Most of us are utterly worthless now, especially those who have secured employment. However, the workload has not let up. As usual, we are getting pummeled by our professors, each of whom acts as if their class is the only one being offered at this time. But just because the workload is heavy doesn't mean that my classmates and I are still losing hours of sleep to our homework requirements. Frankly, I think we all have become masters of prioritizing our to-do lists and grown deft at completing assignments in about 30% of the time we would have spent on them last year. Unfortunately, there is no secret to this newfound efficiency that I can share with you. I think it comes from some mysteriously learned ability (found only in late fourth-semester MBAs) to cut through the clutter to get right to the heart of the problem, as well as an intense desire to get homework out of the way as soon as possible. Personally, I'm feeling more invigorated than I imagine most people are. I've always maintained that my job situation would work itself out in due time, but now that I'm focusing on the real estate industry, I feel even more positive about my prospects. Don't get me wrong, I'm just as concerned as anyone. And at times, I've been pretty vocal about my frustrating experiences with interviewing companies. I just don't think that I've ever hit the panic button. For what it's worth, not many of my friends have panicked either, though I have heard about some people losing it a bit. Thankfully, there is still plenty of time before the end of school to secure my dream job. But that's a double-edged sword. On one hand, there's plenty of time left to panic. On the other, I've still got lots of time to enjoy my bout of Senioritis. I think the golf course is calling.  Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | JUNE Learn about your online education options |
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