the next 48 hours

after a long time of searching, after IPVG and Microsoft, my action consultancy (internship) started. well it started 3 weeks ago. i have a study with Global Business Power Corp (GBPC) about the power industry in the Philippines regarding the Independent Power Producer Administrator. so i had 3 weeks to study, and now i have 48 hours to finish my paper. :(
while my classmates are poring over our cases for the 2nd year electives. i have to consolidate... err write my report.
i've been absent from this blog for quite a time. the power industry has a lot of complications now especially with the deregulation ongoing. but there's a lot of opportunity in it as well. it makes me rethink if i really want to go to Singapore after b-school...

summer and a MS internship

so eventually I was able to find an internship/action consultancy. after 3 weeks of interviews, here come Microsoft. but still no terms of reference or contract yet. that part is a bit slow. so i'm still wary of what might happen.

so a mac user working for his internship in MS. unfortunately im not allowed to talk about the project outside of MS. there is a sense of secrecy for the project which is in the area of marketing.

i'm organizing the UP Social Dance Club's grand reunion this coming May 30th. It's been a long time since we ballroom dancers have congregated, danced and caught up on our life stories. our former club director, Tom Pena is also coming for a visit from UK.  So it all fits in. about 3 years ago, the club was dissolved in the university of the philippines and a new and similar organization was made, for reasons beyond ideas and egos which should not be discussed anymore. it also is a good time to celebrate a grand reunion since this is the year of UP's centennial.  there have been reunions in the past but it's always been by batches and some pseudo-reunions. hopefully there will be a big turnout on May 30th. many people have been hitched. a few have become mothers, and fathers. People have changed and gained weight or lost it. This will be a fun event. But i'm planning to make it just a casual night out of dancing... an lots of photos. I guess that will make it more dynamic, less fixed cost and no more waiting for latecomers so we can start the program. in the end, what's important is that we KEEP ON DANCING! 

the song of despair

it seems that an MBA is an anomaly. in the search for my action consultancy (internship), companies who should be bringing their cases/problem to consulting companies and paying roughly 100K-200K PHP(sometimes more) are employing MBA undergrads for 100PHP a day or 8 hours. it's demeaning considering my tuition here at AIM. at 100PHP a day, it seems like I am back at UP where i was a library student assistant... but with more brain work to be done.  

is this the case of all businesses right now? or is it only in the philippines? 

i wonder what will be the state of businesses when we graduate this december. most of my batch mates are contemplating to go abroad after the MBA.  this is brain drain all over. ah... why did the gunslinger cry at the watch tower?

the ballad of the forlorn mba

on account of being the last paper to be submitted, everyone is slacking off to catch their breath.  almost half of my batchmates have started their action consultancy or internship while the remaining ones are still looking for companies.  as for me, i'm slacking off for a few hours before i journey to my POTFin analysis of Apple Inc.  i actually found a harvard case as a model since organizationally, there is not much literature online.

its a sad thing that we AIM students are having a hard time getting internships even here in the Philippines.  I don't know if this will be the trend when we graduate. That is if we do graduate.  There are still some issues with the administration about the grades. but there is not much that we could do. so we focus on our action consultancy and then what? some might not be accepted back into the school?  the thing is, even with the problems with the current MBA16 batch, the administration has already decided to accept the next batch for this May. I wish them good luck.

moving forward

after our 3-day-exams...
yes we survived. after the sleepless mornings, we had a long weekend. (we do no sleep at night. we take naps instead) and right now i'm in my slacker mode. i just watch the Avatar book 3 : fire online at veoh.com. the interconnection is much more reliable now at the dorm. the diwali was fun although i came late around 11pm. a lot of people were drunk and dancing. too bad i left my camera. our plant visit did not push through last saturday so we had the weekend all to our caprice. and i slept most of the time. we will be having Prof. Cruz to finish our FM subject. so we are all looking forward to a more austere environment... hmm... we kinda gotten more comfortable with Sir LT since accounting... but it didn't help increase our grades. our economics class is done and we are having Marketing Management and Human Behaviour in Organizations again. Ah.... i wish the quantitative subjects will go away but apparently i would have to love that which i ... dont like... abhor is a very strong word to use. its not that i hate numbers. numbers just are too strict. it leaves no room for art. but if i want to have an mba education, i must embrace numbers. :-(
its almost christmas in the malls. id like to be in a festive mood but im looking out for the next pile of assignments.