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JULY 2001 MBA JOURNAL: ALUMNI UPDATE Darren Amundson: Life After B-School "I knew that when I joined a consulting firm I would get the chance to use many of the skills I gained during my time at Sloan and I have found my MBA to be an excellent base to build upon in the real world." The graduation ceremony was long because graduates from all courses at MIT attend the ceremony together. Yet, it was a great feeling to be getting my degree from an institution that I have always admired. Sitting in the sun in Killian Court, waiting for the keynote from Sloan alum and Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, shaking the dean's hand as I receive my diploma, these are things I will long remember. Afterwards, the class of 2000 celebrated and then before you know it, it was all over. Some stayed, some left right away, others lingered in Boston for a few months, but eventually we each went off in our own direction. I remained in Cambridge for three weeks following graduation, as my wife Bonnie finished her job and we prepared for our move. On June 20, we packed the moving truck, which is something I said I would never do again, and drove our treasures down to Austin, Texas. It wasn't easy driving across the country with a 26ft. moving van while pulling a trailer with our car on it, but once again we made the entire trip without ever putting the truck in reverse. I learned the hard way that the one drawback of working for a company that allows you to live anywhere, is that the company is not expecting to foot the bill for an expensive move. With a houseload of furniture and a moving allowance of only $5,000 dollars, we did most of the work ourselves in order to stay under budget. We pulled it off without a hitch. I didn't start working until the end of August, so after we settled into our apartment, we spent some time finalizing plans for the new house (construction will end in April 2001). Eager to spend some of our future earnings, we next bought a used convertible and Mustanged back to Minnesota in time to view the Fourth of July fireworks. We split the rest of our summer vacation between our two families. We even managed to squeeze in trips to Mexico and Iceland before the summer's end. I got back to Austin a week before work started and set up my home office. With a broadband connection and telephone at my desk, I only needed to unpack some of my books and materials from Sloan before I was ready to begin work. As I mentioned previously, Diamond, the company I work for, is a virtual firm. Consultants can live anywhere in the U.S. and normally work four days at the client site and one day from home. This is great for me because it allows me to spend just three nights a week away from home. So far, my travel has been very light and I have traveled only 20 out of 147 days. Life at Diamond began with three weeks of training. During my first week, I sat unbelieving as the stock market sank and my options slipped under water. I realized that I had managed to start working right after Diamond's stock peaked. I'm not concerned, though, because over the longer haul the stock has performed very well in comparison to the market. It is also my view (and the firm's view) that we are in a marathon, not a sprint -- our valuation will come back. Recently, we've combined with Cluster Consulting, a pan-European management consulting firm specializing in wireless technology and the firm has been renamed DiamondCluster International. This combination opens new geographic markets, increases our industry breadth and depth, and adds critical broadband wireless technology expertise. It also creates new opportunities for me to work abroad. During my first month at Diamond, I realized that I was extremely happy to see how much attention the firm paid to teambuilding, personality types, time management, and all of the soft skills. In fact, I wrote an e-mail to one of my Sloan professors, who taught organizational behaviors, and told her that the lessons we learned in her class during first semester were "right on". I told her how prepared I felt and that these lessons were being practiced diligently in our firm. At Diamond there is a strong emphasis on teambuilding and diverse skill-sets. It takes time and effort to truly understand how important this is, and I was glad to see that it was a part of the Diamond culture. I already liked the people I was working with at Diamond, but this experience helped me earn even more respect for how well managed the firm is. I knew that when I joined a consulting firm I would get the chance to use many of the skills I gained during my time at Sloan and I have found my MBA to be an excellent base to build upon in the real world. So far, I worked on a technology strategy project for a spin-off from a large organization, a marketing strategy proposal for a fiber-optics company, and some other internal projects. Next week, I am going to start working on an engagement in Washington D.C. This will be the first time I have had to work at a client outside of Austin. The client is addressing a new market and we are going to do some of the initial marketing and strategy work for the new business - something that is right up my alley. Yet another reason I look forward to doing work in D.C., is that several of my classmates are in the D.C. area. I already have plans to get together with some of them. I have found it easy to keep in touch. E-mail, the Web, and cell phones narrow the distance between us. Several of my classmates also moved to Austin last summer. We promised to organize events and outings together but we haven't done as much as I thought we would. So far, we have met once for drinks at the end of the summer, once for an MIT entrepreneurship event, and once for a Christmas party, although not everyone attended. There is also an MIT Alumni club and a Sloan Alumni club in Austin and it has been great to use the Alumni network. It is like having instant friends here in Texas. Bonnie and I have only been here about five months, but we already have many good friends and feel like we have lived here for five years!  | | [an error occurred while processing this directive] Learn about your online education options |
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