I am a Baruch Bearcat
who
takes management as a requirement
to
get my diploma which is a measurement
to
those who can better my employment
and
give me a job with some higher payment
that
will grow the levels on my bank statement
til
I can afford to move out of my tenement
without getting bailouts from the government.
You are Baruch Bearcats
who
make up a diverse student population
with
a stellar reputation
for
business plan formation
and
who will get hired in your chosen vocations
like
helping Wall Street firms avoid their dealer's license's revocation
for
some careless violation of an SEC regulation.
Professor Kurpis is a Baruch Professor
who
helps you get a degree like business administrator
while
in Math you learn to divide by using 'like' denominators
and
in English you study stories and points of view of their narrators
and
your psychology class teaches about passive-aggressive manipulators
and
your business law professor says you would make a terrific litigator
and
all these great orators go on-and-on until they need a respirator.
But this class, about Management Fundamentals
is
where you learn about the business world essentials
while
you get your undergrad credentials
and
gain lessons that will be influential
in
ensuring your success is monumental
so
when you drive a fancy car it will be yours, not just a rental
and
you can become self-actualized ladies and gentle-
men at Maslow's highest level
Monday, May 11, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Mike's evaluation of Communicating via Blog
I found value in the blog in the connections I made with classmates as far as discussing our thoughts on class topics in person that would never have been made without reading each other's blog entries. Several other possible connections were never made because I did not know which classmate was the blogger since there was no name or photo attached to the blog.
Someimes the blog got me to think about and share my perceptions about what we did in class and sometimes the blog was just another assignment to get done.
I didn't really use the professor's blog to learn about outside reading, although I definitely should have.
I don't think I will continue to post updates to my blog after this class has ended, but who knows... I will check back periodically and see whether there are updates from my classmates and respond to those and maybe put a couple of posts of my own.
Someimes the blog got me to think about and share my perceptions about what we did in class and sometimes the blog was just another assignment to get done.
I didn't really use the professor's blog to learn about outside reading, although I definitely should have.
I don't think I will continue to post updates to my blog after this class has ended, but who knows... I will check back periodically and see whether there are updates from my classmates and respond to those and maybe put a couple of posts of my own.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Mike's Completely Painless Visit to McDonald's
When I was going to McDonald's to place my order for this experiment, I thought back to my own days when I was a teenager working at McDonald's near where I grew up in Staten Island.
The experiences I had at my McDonald's were different from those of most other McDonald's alumni I have spoken to who worked at other locations. Our original owner went bankrupt and the McDonald's parent corporation assumed control of the franchise. It is rare for McDonald’s Corporation to own their restaurants, but in our case they had to do so until a new owner could be found. Top managers were relocated to Staten Island from other cities to run the restaurant and brought with them higher standards and more attention to detail than one would normally see at a McDonald's.
My experience working there has made me very interested over the years in seeing how different McDonald's restaurants are run. At some, like mine, managers run a tight ship. You can always hear, "If you can lean, you can clean!" or "We don't pay you guys to socialize, get back to work!" and my favorite, managers who would shout, “Don’t wait, do!” At others, the staff is slower and less focused and seem to be more interested in chatting than in getting orders out quickly and accurately. So, this was the perspective I went in with when I went to McDonald’s to complete this assignment.
I work in Nutley, NJ and went to the nearest McDonald’s in Belleville, NJ for lunch shortly before noon on Thursday, April 2, 2009. There was an extremely long line owing to a group of students from the local high school and nurses from a local hospital which meant the wait was almost 13 minutes. I noticed that there were only 2 registers open and both were manned by employees in their teens who seemed unsure of themselves and who had to continuously ask for clarification on orders. Just as I finally got to the front of the line, a manager who appeared to be around 40 years old opened another register and asked if she could take my order. I walked up and said, “I would like a small fries, well done with no salt and a regular hamburger with four pickles and can I please have the receipt?” She asked, “Would you like anything to drink?” and I said no. She said, “That will be $2.02. Is this to go?” and as I handed her a twenty and answered yes, she turned over her shoulder and shouted, “Guys! That grill order for the hamburger, give me 4 pickles exactly!”
She waited for a beat and then asked, “Got that?”
“Hamburger, 4 pickles, thank you!” was the reply from the grill area.
At this point, she handed me my change and wheeled around towards the French fries area. There was a basket of fries that had been removed to drain but was not yet put into the fry warmer. She put that basket of fries back into the oil and cleared the French fry bin by putting the fries that were in there into large-size fry boxes and placing them under the heat lamps. She used a damp towel to wipe down the fry bin and then got two paper tray liners and laid them face-down in order to make sure there would be no salt on my fries. She let the fries cook for about another sixty seconds, she took them out of the oil, shook them and dumped them onto the paper she had laid out. She put some of the fries into a small-size paper fry bag, put that into a to-go bag, picked up the burger that had been put onto the counter behind the register with the “grill slip” taped to it and put that into the bag, folded it over and handed it all to me along with the receipt.
The entire transaction took less than three minutes and was completed correctly: the fries were well done with no salt (by the way, fries are awful this way) and the burger had exactly four pickles.The management process I witnessed was very interesting because I got to see it done The Right Way. I do not think that it would have been the same case if I had gone to one of the younger non-management staff at the other registers. The most important thing was that she was clear on what I wanted and made it happen as soon as she got the order in. She was totally clear on the fact that I wanted four pickles and related that fact to the grill staff. She also made sure that they acknowledged that they also understood exactly what I wanted, which showed me that they were well trained in their procedure, requiring positive acknowledgement on any requests in order to minimize misunderstandings. I was amazed at how quickly she got my fries done. She never second-guessed what she needed to do, just methodically and quickly got each step done and got my whole order to me in less than three minutes.
If I was asked to improve efficiency in McDonald’s, I would make sure that their training stressed the fact that in each job the ultimate goal is to get good food to customers quickly. Then I would use the manager I saw at the Belleville, NJ McDonald’s as a model from which we can improve the procedures for other restaurants. I would want to learn how she gets her staff to respond to her in the manner they do and to find out why she handled my special-order fries the way she did. I would then determine whether staff at the registers is capable of duplicating her work and if not, see what we can do to get them trained on the same procedures she followed. Once we get that figured out, we would be able to roll out that the same training to staff at other McDonald’s restaurants so they can do the same things.
The experiences I had at my McDonald's were different from those of most other McDonald's alumni I have spoken to who worked at other locations. Our original owner went bankrupt and the McDonald's parent corporation assumed control of the franchise. It is rare for McDonald’s Corporation to own their restaurants, but in our case they had to do so until a new owner could be found. Top managers were relocated to Staten Island from other cities to run the restaurant and brought with them higher standards and more attention to detail than one would normally see at a McDonald's.
My experience working there has made me very interested over the years in seeing how different McDonald's restaurants are run. At some, like mine, managers run a tight ship. You can always hear, "If you can lean, you can clean!" or "We don't pay you guys to socialize, get back to work!" and my favorite, managers who would shout, “Don’t wait, do!” At others, the staff is slower and less focused and seem to be more interested in chatting than in getting orders out quickly and accurately. So, this was the perspective I went in with when I went to McDonald’s to complete this assignment.
I work in Nutley, NJ and went to the nearest McDonald’s in Belleville, NJ for lunch shortly before noon on Thursday, April 2, 2009. There was an extremely long line owing to a group of students from the local high school and nurses from a local hospital which meant the wait was almost 13 minutes. I noticed that there were only 2 registers open and both were manned by employees in their teens who seemed unsure of themselves and who had to continuously ask for clarification on orders. Just as I finally got to the front of the line, a manager who appeared to be around 40 years old opened another register and asked if she could take my order. I walked up and said, “I would like a small fries, well done with no salt and a regular hamburger with four pickles and can I please have the receipt?” She asked, “Would you like anything to drink?” and I said no. She said, “That will be $2.02. Is this to go?” and as I handed her a twenty and answered yes, she turned over her shoulder and shouted, “Guys! That grill order for the hamburger, give me 4 pickles exactly!”
She waited for a beat and then asked, “Got that?”
“Hamburger, 4 pickles, thank you!” was the reply from the grill area.
At this point, she handed me my change and wheeled around towards the French fries area. There was a basket of fries that had been removed to drain but was not yet put into the fry warmer. She put that basket of fries back into the oil and cleared the French fry bin by putting the fries that were in there into large-size fry boxes and placing them under the heat lamps. She used a damp towel to wipe down the fry bin and then got two paper tray liners and laid them face-down in order to make sure there would be no salt on my fries. She let the fries cook for about another sixty seconds, she took them out of the oil, shook them and dumped them onto the paper she had laid out. She put some of the fries into a small-size paper fry bag, put that into a to-go bag, picked up the burger that had been put onto the counter behind the register with the “grill slip” taped to it and put that into the bag, folded it over and handed it all to me along with the receipt.
The entire transaction took less than three minutes and was completed correctly: the fries were well done with no salt (by the way, fries are awful this way) and the burger had exactly four pickles.The management process I witnessed was very interesting because I got to see it done The Right Way. I do not think that it would have been the same case if I had gone to one of the younger non-management staff at the other registers. The most important thing was that she was clear on what I wanted and made it happen as soon as she got the order in. She was totally clear on the fact that I wanted four pickles and related that fact to the grill staff. She also made sure that they acknowledged that they also understood exactly what I wanted, which showed me that they were well trained in their procedure, requiring positive acknowledgement on any requests in order to minimize misunderstandings. I was amazed at how quickly she got my fries done. She never second-guessed what she needed to do, just methodically and quickly got each step done and got my whole order to me in less than three minutes.
If I was asked to improve efficiency in McDonald’s, I would make sure that their training stressed the fact that in each job the ultimate goal is to get good food to customers quickly. Then I would use the manager I saw at the Belleville, NJ McDonald’s as a model from which we can improve the procedures for other restaurants. I would want to learn how she gets her staff to respond to her in the manner they do and to find out why she handled my special-order fries the way she did. I would then determine whether staff at the registers is capable of duplicating her work and if not, see what we can do to get them trained on the same procedures she followed. Once we get that figured out, we would be able to roll out that the same training to staff at other McDonald’s restaurants so they can do the same things.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Mike's DiSC evaluation
My results indicated that my orientation is towards Influence/Dominance. I think that the test got it right and I don't wish I were another type: my personal opinion is that rather than trying to become another type, one should find what their natural type is and work at maximizing their effectiveness while playing to their natural strengths.
It would probably be pretty instructive to learn what management "type" someone is to better understand where they are coming from. That way you can be better prepared for their actions and their management style and know what to expect when working with them. These are the same reasons why I think that this would also help in personal situations.
If I could choose the people I would be stranded with on our frozen survival scenario, I would likely choose a Dominant/Influence leader who was knowledgeable and would understand what would need to be done to survive. In a scenario like this, it would be important to have someone who could get everyone on the same page quickly and effectively. Steadiness and Conscientiousness would not be as important if our lives were on the line.
It would probably be pretty instructive to learn what management "type" someone is to better understand where they are coming from. That way you can be better prepared for their actions and their management style and know what to expect when working with them. These are the same reasons why I think that this would also help in personal situations.
If I could choose the people I would be stranded with on our frozen survival scenario, I would likely choose a Dominant/Influence leader who was knowledgeable and would understand what would need to be done to survive. In a scenario like this, it would be important to have someone who could get everyone on the same page quickly and effectively. Steadiness and Conscientiousness would not be as important if our lives were on the line.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Mike's "Vision" Statement
Besides attending Baruch full-time, I work full-time and am married with no kids.
I have 3 goals for after my graduation:
I have 3 goals for after my graduation:
- To move up within my own company. I will do this by using the extra time in my day that I now use for school to take on more work responsibilities and job-related training.
- To gain higher-level experience that I can use to get a job at a smaller company than the one at which I currently work. I am interested in leveraging my experiences to create new IT Operations systems and procedures for a growing company.
- I want to start a family with my wife.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
There are many different ways to handle conflict situations like the one we were placed in last Monday. Listed below are 5 ways people handle conflict:
Compete to win
Assertiveness to get one’s own way.
Avoidance
Withdrawal; used when there’s “no chance of winning.”
Compromise
Used with decision making under pressure; all members are equal.
Accommodation
Seeing issue as more important to others than self.
Collaborating
Requires bargaining and negotiation among group.
Multiple group insights required.
Thinking back truthfully, I feel that the way I handled it was Avoidance. It was frustrating when I wanted to let my opinion be known because there were so many other opinions being shouted out by everyone at the same time that I felt like I would be wasting my breath. I felt my own voice would just add more noise and not do anything to further our progress.
When our classmate tried to leave and our professor urged him to stay, he said he wanted to leave because he felt this whole thing was pointless and we weren getting anywhere. In that moment he voiced the exact frustration I was feeling up to that point: there were so many people in the class who were being totally unreasonable with their demands and others who were shouting down classmates who 'dared' to disagree and the whole thing seemed like it was going nowhere. When the professor told him he should stay, a classmate and I suddenly had an "A-ha!" moment and figured out that this was a decision-making exercise and the whole situation was set up to test how we go about handling the conflict.
Thankfully we were led very ably by the two students who got up in front of the class to lead the discussions and we got the job done. There were many students shouting that someone else should go up to the whiteboard to take over and urging each other to go up to the front but luckily the guys who were up there were able to keep the group on the right track and prevent chaos from taking over.
In the future, I would choose to use collaboration to come up with the answer. I would maybe break the room up into smaller groups to come up with suggested solutions and then put them up on the board and eliminate the ones that won't work while working to improve the ones we think will work. I would also choose leaders similar to the ones we had who are strong and fair and work not by telling people what to do but by reminding them of the task and keeping them organized and on the right track.
Compete to win
Assertiveness to get one’s own way.
Avoidance
Withdrawal; used when there’s “no chance of winning.”
Compromise
Used with decision making under pressure; all members are equal.
Accommodation
Seeing issue as more important to others than self.
Collaborating
Requires bargaining and negotiation among group.
Multiple group insights required.
Thinking back truthfully, I feel that the way I handled it was Avoidance. It was frustrating when I wanted to let my opinion be known because there were so many other opinions being shouted out by everyone at the same time that I felt like I would be wasting my breath. I felt my own voice would just add more noise and not do anything to further our progress.
When our classmate tried to leave and our professor urged him to stay, he said he wanted to leave because he felt this whole thing was pointless and we weren getting anywhere. In that moment he voiced the exact frustration I was feeling up to that point: there were so many people in the class who were being totally unreasonable with their demands and others who were shouting down classmates who 'dared' to disagree and the whole thing seemed like it was going nowhere. When the professor told him he should stay, a classmate and I suddenly had an "A-ha!" moment and figured out that this was a decision-making exercise and the whole situation was set up to test how we go about handling the conflict.
Thankfully we were led very ably by the two students who got up in front of the class to lead the discussions and we got the job done. There were many students shouting that someone else should go up to the whiteboard to take over and urging each other to go up to the front but luckily the guys who were up there were able to keep the group on the right track and prevent chaos from taking over.
In the future, I would choose to use collaboration to come up with the answer. I would maybe break the room up into smaller groups to come up with suggested solutions and then put them up on the board and eliminate the ones that won't work while working to improve the ones we think will work. I would also choose leaders similar to the ones we had who are strong and fair and work not by telling people what to do but by reminding them of the task and keeping them organized and on the right track.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
"Shelden the Egg" Gets Dropped
Recently in class we were asked to form teams and design a container that will stop an egg from breaking when it's dropped from about six feet. Our rules were that we could only use 8 straws and about 3 feet of masking tape and had to leave more than 50% of the egg visible.
Our team named our egg "Shelden" and created a container to protect him. Unfortunately, when we dropped our egg he cracked.
Now I want to review my group's methods and “Steps in the Planning Process” to see if I can find what went wrong.
Here are the steps:
Step 1. Define your goals and objectives
Know where you want to go; understand your deadlines. Be specific enough so that you will know you have arrived when you get there and/or how far off you are along the way.
Step 2. Determine your resources and current status vis-รก-vis objectives
Know where you stand in reaching the objectives from the start; identify resources, group strengths that work in your favor and group weaknesses that can hold you back.
Step 3. Develop several alternative strategies
Generate alternative scenarios for what may happen; identify for each scenario things that may help or hinder progress toward your objectives. Evaluate alternatives to assess strengths and weaknesses of each.
Step 4. Make a tactical plan
Choose the action alternative most likely to accomplish your objectives; describe what specifically must be done to implement this course of action; allocate jobs/roles throughout the team.
Step 5. Implement the plan and evaluate results
Take the planned action; measure progress toward objectives as implementation proceeds; take corrective actions and revise plan as needed.
- Which of the “Steps in the Planning Process” listed above did your team actually go through?
Step 1-Yes, our goals and objectives were very clear.
Step 2-Yes, we were clear on our resources and status.
Step 3-Yes, we formulated several strategies, evaluated them and eventually came up with a design that incorporated the best of each and reduced or removed the weaknesses.
Step 4-Yes, we created a tactical plan.
Step 5-Yes, we implemented the plan and evaluated the results. Our egg cracked only slightly, so I think we were all confident that we were on the right track and would be able to make changes that would greatly increase the chance that our egg would emerge from the drop unscathed.
- Which did you bypass? Why?
We did not bypass any of the steps.
- How do your evaluate your team’s ultimate performance given the effectiveness of your planning?
I was happy with our overall performance considering it was our first time working together but I imagine we would have done much better in subsequent exercises.
- How could you have been more effective as a group in the planning of your task?
I believe we could have been even more effective in our planning if we were more efficient in our development of alternative strategies. There was a lot of time wasted by many in our group going over unrealistic designs or designs that violated the rules. Many people were advocating their designs even after most of the group agreed the design would not work.
I'm wondering: Did other groups experience the same thing?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Mets Sleeve Patch
Have you ever in your life seen a worse logo than the one below? The Mets are wearing this patch on their uniform 
sleeves to 'celebrate' the first season at the new Citifield. What kind of celebratory patch is it when it is this when it's so non-festive? I've never seen anything so boring in my life. It's the most weak, bland, vanilla, dull, uninspiring, undistinctive and downright awful thing I have ever seen.
sleeves to 'celebrate' the first season at the new Citifield. What kind of celebratory patch is it when it is this when it's so non-festive? I've never seen anything so boring in my life. It's the most weak, bland, vanilla, dull, uninspiring, undistinctive and downright awful thing I have ever seen.Don't you think there could have been some sort of contest where they could have had people select logos instead of just accepting whatever piece of crap Citibank tells them to put on there? The worst part about this is that the culprit behind this patch (Citigroup) is not even going to exist in a couple months.
By the way, if you don't understand why I think this sleeve patch is so awful, just take a moment to compare it to the sleeve patch the Yankees will be wearing this season.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Training Our Replacements
Several coworkers and I have been busy at work the last few weeks training some of our colleagues who are visiting from our company's offices in India and Singapore.
These engineers are here to learn "all of our systems and procedures" ostensibly to ensure that there are more engineers available on evening and overnight shifts for Ops staff to escalate problems to, but in actuality they are likely here to replace the engineers we have on staff.
There has not been any word from above saying that this is definitely going to happen, but why would there be? If they let us know that we were training our eventual replacements, our inevitable complaints would make managers' lives more difficult...
Sometimes it seems in order to get the best performance from the staff in smaller offices like mine is to treat us like farmed mushrooms: keep us in the dark and feed us sh*t!
These engineers are here to learn "all of our systems and procedures" ostensibly to ensure that there are more engineers available on evening and overnight shifts for Ops staff to escalate problems to, but in actuality they are likely here to replace the engineers we have on staff.
There has not been any word from above saying that this is definitely going to happen, but why would there be? If they let us know that we were training our eventual replacements, our inevitable complaints would make managers' lives more difficult...
Sometimes it seems in order to get the best performance from the staff in smaller offices like mine is to treat us like farmed mushrooms: keep us in the dark and feed us sh*t!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Mission G?
There has been a series of commercials for something called "G" that has recently been on TV, radio and print ads.
The television ads in particular are striking. There are a series of faces that scroll across your screen, some immediately recognizable, others less so, and all simply staring towards you as a Lil Wayne voiceover tells us what "G" is:
The television ads in particular are striking. There are a series of faces that scroll across your screen, some immediately recognizable, others less so, and all simply staring towards you as a Lil Wayne voiceover tells us what "G" is:
- The emblem of a warrior
- The swagger of an athlete
- A champion AND a dynasty
- Gifted
- Golden
- Genuine
- Glorious
- A lower case god
- The greatest of all time.
- The heart hustle and soul of the game
I had no idea what these were commercials for when they first starting airing at the beginning of this year but I Googled it and found out it was a campaign for PepsiCo's Gatorade brand.
I wondered if this was an effective way to start a campaign so I checked Google Trends and found that one of the most searched terms was "what is G? commercial" so other people are obviously doing the same search that I am.
Now they are on to the next phase of their "G" marketing campaign, with commercials called "Mission G" which are based on the Monty Python movie "The Holy Grail."
I wonder, is this 30 year old movie too obscure for their target market? Are the commercials too weird?
Monday, February 9, 2009
Standing Desks
I spent the whole day today working at a standing desk.
In my new office, we have a row of desks that have the ability to be used at regular desk height or at a raised height in order to use them while standing.
I spent the day standing up and it was great. My legs and back are a little tired but I felt more alert.
The final verdict will have to wait... I'll see how sore I feel after a week of this before I decide how much I like it.
In my new office, we have a row of desks that have the ability to be used at regular desk height or at a raised height in order to use them while standing.
I spent the day standing up and it was great. My legs and back are a little tired but I felt more alert.
The final verdict will have to wait... I'll see how sore I feel after a week of this before I decide how much I like it.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Finding time for schoolwork
When I decided to go back to school, I was 30 years old and had not attended college since I was 19. I was working in IT since I was 21 and had worked my way up through several different jobs to the point where I was an Operations Supervisor at a market data company with over 1500 employees.
In addition to skills which were self-taught and things I learned on the job, I took a few certification courses on my own and attended several training sessions at work in addition to many eLearning courses my employer offers which I took online.
There were several times when I felt the desire to go back to school and get my degee but I never got around to it because of one excuse or another. I'm not sure what made me decide to finally just do it and start taking classes but eventually I did and applied to CUNY and decided to start taking classes at BMCC.
The hardest thing to do was to figure out how to get into the habit of studying in my free time rather than just doing whatever I wanted after work. Luckily I was able to get a few very engaging professors and some very smart and hard-working fellow students who helped inspire me to get into those habits early. I finished my time at BMCC in Spring 2008 with a 3.6 GPA.
In the Fall of 2008, I entered Baruch and while my first semester was very challenging, I was able to do reasonably well and finish with a 3.23 GPA.
This semester I am taking four classes: Philosphy 1500, Management 3120, English 4300 and Anthropology 1001. This is not going to be an easy semester because in addition to the 12 credits, I am still working full time. Basically, my week looks like this: I work in New Jersey each day from 6am to 2pm. After work, I am generally home by 3pm and head straight to Baruch. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I can study at school for a couple hours until my first class at 5:50pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I get to my first class at 4:10 and then I have a 2 hour break until my late class. Every night, Monday through Thursday, I finish at about 9pm and get home around 9:30. I usually eat and get to bed as early as I can because I have to wake up by about 5am.
So where does this leave time for my wife, my friends, my family, exercise, movies, TV, etc? It generally doesn't, except for on the weekends. The key is to get ahead of schedule on schoolwork, do the big projects ahead of time and to always keep in mind that school is important and a high GPA is important and that this will all be worth it when I'm done.
In addition to skills which were self-taught and things I learned on the job, I took a few certification courses on my own and attended several training sessions at work in addition to many eLearning courses my employer offers which I took online.
There were several times when I felt the desire to go back to school and get my degee but I never got around to it because of one excuse or another. I'm not sure what made me decide to finally just do it and start taking classes but eventually I did and applied to CUNY and decided to start taking classes at BMCC.
The hardest thing to do was to figure out how to get into the habit of studying in my free time rather than just doing whatever I wanted after work. Luckily I was able to get a few very engaging professors and some very smart and hard-working fellow students who helped inspire me to get into those habits early. I finished my time at BMCC in Spring 2008 with a 3.6 GPA.
In the Fall of 2008, I entered Baruch and while my first semester was very challenging, I was able to do reasonably well and finish with a 3.23 GPA.
This semester I am taking four classes: Philosphy 1500, Management 3120, English 4300 and Anthropology 1001. This is not going to be an easy semester because in addition to the 12 credits, I am still working full time. Basically, my week looks like this: I work in New Jersey each day from 6am to 2pm. After work, I am generally home by 3pm and head straight to Baruch. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I can study at school for a couple hours until my first class at 5:50pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I get to my first class at 4:10 and then I have a 2 hour break until my late class. Every night, Monday through Thursday, I finish at about 9pm and get home around 9:30. I usually eat and get to bed as early as I can because I have to wake up by about 5am.
So where does this leave time for my wife, my friends, my family, exercise, movies, TV, etc? It generally doesn't, except for on the weekends. The key is to get ahead of schedule on schoolwork, do the big projects ahead of time and to always keep in mind that school is important and a high GPA is important and that this will all be worth it when I'm done.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Movin' On Up
My office is at a data center in Nutley, NJ.
Normally my group is located on the 3rd floor but a couple of months ago we relocated to a temporary space on the 1st floor while the 3rd floor was gutted and completely renovated.
The renovation is now complete and we are moving back up to the 3rd floor to begin working in our new digs.
I know that new desks and computers don't fix everything but sometimes it's good to start fresh. Hopefully the new surroundings encourage all staff to re-examine the way we do things around here and break free of bad habits and corner-cutting and start to improve our processes and procedures in a way that will help us improve our overall performance.
The phrases "that's the way we have it set up" or "that's just the way we do things" no longer apply: Let's take this as an opportunity to set things up the right way the first time.
Normally my group is located on the 3rd floor but a couple of months ago we relocated to a temporary space on the 1st floor while the 3rd floor was gutted and completely renovated.
The renovation is now complete and we are moving back up to the 3rd floor to begin working in our new digs.
I know that new desks and computers don't fix everything but sometimes it's good to start fresh. Hopefully the new surroundings encourage all staff to re-examine the way we do things around here and break free of bad habits and corner-cutting and start to improve our processes and procedures in a way that will help us improve our overall performance.
The phrases "that's the way we have it set up" or "that's just the way we do things" no longer apply: Let's take this as an opportunity to set things up the right way the first time.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Garden Party
First Kobe drops 61 to set the scoring record at Madison Square Garden, now LeBron scores 52 in a triple-double (most points in a triple-double in over 30 years.)
It looks like the hiring of Mike D'Antoni may have been even more ingenius than we originally thought. Not only are the Knicks infinitely more entertaining to watch, their opponents are made to feel right at home. This is especially nice for opponents (like LeBron) who will be free agents after next season and who will hopefully have their decision on whether to sign with the Knicks affected by their memories of the great games they're involved in now.
And what about the fact that the Knicks are on the losing end of most of these great games? That's fine, for this season and next.
In fact, the more we lose, the better off we'll be in the 2010 season because we'll have higher quality draft picks on the roster in addition to whichever free agents (Bosh, Wade, LeBron) agree to sign.
So let's root for the Celtics on Friday night: We'll need a point guard and Rajon Rondo (free agent 2010) would fit right in...
It looks like the hiring of Mike D'Antoni may have been even more ingenius than we originally thought. Not only are the Knicks infinitely more entertaining to watch, their opponents are made to feel right at home. This is especially nice for opponents (like LeBron) who will be free agents after next season and who will hopefully have their decision on whether to sign with the Knicks affected by their memories of the great games they're involved in now.
And what about the fact that the Knicks are on the losing end of most of these great games? That's fine, for this season and next.
In fact, the more we lose, the better off we'll be in the 2010 season because we'll have higher quality draft picks on the roster in addition to whichever free agents (Bosh, Wade, LeBron) agree to sign.
So let's root for the Celtics on Friday night: We'll need a point guard and Rajon Rondo (free agent 2010) would fit right in...
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
First Blog Entry
Well, here's my first blog entry. I'll start with the basic facts about me.
My name is Mike and I live in the Lower East Side of Manhattan with my wife Rosie.
I am 33 years old and I've lived in NYC my whole life. I was raised in Staten Island and moved to Manhattan when I was about 18. My wife and I have lived on Orchard Street for the last 5 years. We've been married for almost 2 years and we have no kids.
I got my Associates Degree from BMCC in Spring of 2008 and this is my 2nd semester at Baruch. I am majoring in Operations Management.
I work in IT and am an Operations Controller for a market data company in New Jersey.
I enjoy reading, traveling, movies and spending time with my beautiful wife and our friends and family.
My name is Mike and I live in the Lower East Side of Manhattan with my wife Rosie.
I am 33 years old and I've lived in NYC my whole life. I was raised in Staten Island and moved to Manhattan when I was about 18. My wife and I have lived on Orchard Street for the last 5 years. We've been married for almost 2 years and we have no kids.
I got my Associates Degree from BMCC in Spring of 2008 and this is my 2nd semester at Baruch. I am majoring in Operations Management.
I work in IT and am an Operations Controller for a market data company in New Jersey.
I enjoy reading, traveling, movies and spending time with my beautiful wife and our friends and family.
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