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JUNE 2002 MBA JOURNAL: HOME STRETCH Nate Kraft: Second Year Winds Down "The job market this year has been atrocious. Not only has the economy been down since September 11, but the 'tech crater' left by the NASDAQ's implosion is still a source of concern for the Bay Area." I finally had surgery last week (just in sight of the football field where it happened down at Stanford), so now I'm in catch-up mode with regards to everything from school to finishing this article. In just four short weeks I expect to be crutching my way across the stage for commencement. At least, as I'll get to later, my luck in the job market turned brighter at the same time my prospects for walking normally anytime in the next six months disappeared. THE LAST DANCE. This semester I decided to dip my toe in the Ph.D. end of the Berkeley pool by putting together an independent study with Berkeley marketing professor Dan Ariely. I wanted to learn more about the field of behavioral economics, but with a marketing spin, and there were no courses at Haas that fit the bill (it's a relatively new field and, thus far, has been dominated by finance academics). It shows promise as a way to turn the 'art' of marketing into something more intellectually sound. If I ever end get up the gumption to do a Ph.D., I think this is the field I'd focus on. As part of my coursework, I've been attending a co-Economics and Psychology Ph.D. seminar which is an effort by the two programs to merge the knowledge that each has developed in regards to decision-making behavior. It has been a humbling experience. After two years of B-school, it's good to be reminded in-depth of the different levels of knowledge between a class full of second-year Haas students and one filled with Ph.D.s, Ph.D. candidates, and a Nobel prize winner (George Akerlof, who won in 2001, is a regular attendee). I still have yet to ask one question or make a single comment in class, simply because I'm so intimidated by the company. But it's been a good learning experience overall and it's been great to get a glimpse of the human side of the John Nash's of the world. My other courses - Global Strategy with Paul Tiffany, Internet Strategy with Florian Zettelmeyer, and High Tech Marketing with Rashi Glazer - have combined to make this semester my most enjoyable academic experience thus far at Haas. Paul Tiffany's Global Strategy course is a dizzying descent into politics, geography, and world history. In one five-minute stretch of class, I've heard him wander from discussing Mary Kay Cosmetics to reviewing the philosophy of Blaise Pascal, move on to comparing two competing viewpoints within sociobiology, jump to a quick analysis of the roots of civilization, and finally return to Mary Kay unscathed; I almost started applauding. Internet Strategy and High Tech Marketing are great complements to one another. Rashi Glazer's High Tech Marketing class is focused on reinforcing the building blocks of marketing - even as they are applied against technology products - but he also takes the time to cover the fundamental differences in marketing strategy that are required for advanced products. At first I thought Internet Strategy was going to be marketing-focused, but it's more a great review of the strategic concepts we studied during the first year at Haas. Like Prof. Glazer, Florian focuses on the fundamental concepts that are universally applicable to any medium before diving into the difference issues that the Internet can produce. I'm also still plugging away as a teaching assistant (a position called Graduate Student Instructor at Haas) for a couple of MBA marketing courses. The professor I work for, Peter Wilton, has taught me a lot about the world of strategy and marketing over the past year, and for that I'm grateful. It's been a bit more fun this semester, because I don't have to figure out my role as I go along. Actually, all of school this year has been like that, for the most part: life has been a lot easier this year now that I really understand what it takes to have fun and still find success in B-school. THE WORKING LIFE. The job market this year has been atrocious. Not only has the economy been down since September 11, but the "tech crater" left by the NASDAQ's implosion is still a source of concern for the Bay Area. Overall I would estimate that about two-thirds of my classmates have secured post-grad positions (as compared to 90%+ in a normal year). I know other schools - particularly Columbia with its NYC location and reliance on banking - have been hit similarly hard, but the sting is still there, nonetheless. Coming into B-school I think we all saw those three magic letters (M-B-A) as a golden ticket. In a lot of ways that's still true: our lives are much richer for having been at Haas these past two years. But it's also been a reminder that economic cycles and luck are a huge part of life in American business, and that where you went to B-school can't change those facts. My own career search has finally ended. After dozens of interviews that spanned everything from I-banking to healthcare product marketing to management consulting, my Dream Job arrived. This summer I'm going to work as a part of a consulting team at Sony Electronic's HQ in New Jersey. We'll be reporting directly to Scott Edwards, Sony's SVP of Marketing, and our assignment is to design a long-term strategy for advanced product development. It's a strategic shoot-out: my team (all of us recent or current Masters or PhD. candidates under the age of thirty, from fields that include anthropology, physics, and business) will be competing against external consultants and internal teams to develop our strategic vision. Later this year, the teams will present to Sony's President and COO who will then combine the best concepts and take them to Sony Senior Management in Tokyo and the U.S. It's not a permanent gig, but it is an amazing opportunity to work with the highest levels of management at one of my favorite companies in the world, and it has the potential to open some amazing opportunities. Also, since I have an open offer to work as a consultant for a Haas marketing professor's firm in Berkeley in the fall, it will be a good way for me to dip my toes on the New Jersey shore before I consider diving into life at Sony full-time; it's going to be very hard to leave California permanently. Graduation week is just about here, so I expect to be writing my final BusinessWeek Online installment very soon. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the last few weeks, work on becoming ambulatory again, and milk being on crutches for all it's worth. I'll see you again in a few weeks! -Nater  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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