Because I'm bored.

1. First grade teacher's name: Mrs. Richards

2. Last person you kissed: Hmm...

3. Last word you said: "I don't know."

4. Last song you sang: "Heaven Forbid" by the Fray.

5. Last person you hugged: My mom.

6. Last thing you laughed at: The fact that Stripperobics girl is coming to my club's guest speaker presentation.

7. What's in your CD player: CD player? What's that? My mp3 player is filled with lovely songs though.

8. What socks are you wearing: White sports socks

9. What's under your bed: Dust bunnies and my magazine box.

10. Current status: Very single.

11. Current taste: DQ Blizzard ice cream cake

12. Current hair style: "Combed-once-out-of-bed" -> my own personal style.

13. Current clothes: "Play Hard" Nike t-shirt and Leaf sweatpants.

14. Current Job: Confused student.

15. Current longing: To figure out what I'm doing with my life.

16. Current desktop picture: Jared Padalecki & Jensen Ackles. Gotta love those Winchester boys. :D

17. Current worry: Tomorrow's Tourism midterm.

18. Current hate: School and studying.

19. Story behind your username: Addy's the short form of my name.

20. Current favorite article of clothing: Hoodies.

21. Favorite physical feature(s) of the opposite sex: Smile.

22. Last CD that you bought: Don't buy CDs. I exclusively download.

23. Favorite place to be: Asleep.

24. Least favorite place: In class.

25. Time you wake up in the morning: 6am on school days, 10am on non-school days.

26. If you could play a new instrument, what would it be: Guitar

27. Current favorite word/saying: Shit.

29. Favorite Movies: Garden State.

30. Favorite Song: Varies by day. Currently "Over My Head" by the Fray holds that distinction.

31. One person from your past you wish you could go back and talk to: My grandfather.

32. Favorite day: Any day without school.

33. Where do you want to go: Paris.

34. What is your career going to be: Ha! That's the million dollar question. If someone can figure it out, please let me know.

35. What kind of car will you have: A Beemer of some sort.

36. A random lyric: "Everyone knows I'm in over my head."

37. Eye Color: Dark brown.

38. Hair Color: Black.

39. Righty or Lefty: Righty.

40. Zodiac Sign: Libra.

41.Innie or Outtie: Innie.

42. Your heritage: 100% Chinese.

43. The shoes you wore today: Nikes.

44. Your hair: Is messy, as usual.

45. Your weakness: My desire to eat more ice cream cake.

46. Your fears: Failure and the unknown.

47. Your most recent secret? My future plans...

48. Your thoughts first waking up: "Ugh." and "I don't want to study."

49. The first feature you notice in the opposite sex: The elements that comprise the face.

50. Your bedtime: Late. The later the better.

51. Your most missed companion: Kath. She's got to stop studying!

52. Your perfect pizza: Hawaiian.

53. Sweet and Chewy or Salty and Crunchy: Both.

54. Single or group dates: Single.

55. Dogs or Cats: Dogs.

56. Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Nestea.

57. Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate

58. Cappuccino or Coffe: A Green Tea Frappachino please :)

59. Smoke: No way.

60. Curse: Yep. Especially when school is in session. It just pours right out there.

61. Sing: In the privacy of my own home...always :)

62. Take a shower everyday: Yes.

63. Have a crush: Yes...celebrities, as usual.

64. Think you've been in love: Nope.

65. Want to go to college: Not unless it's an American one. I'm already in my last year of Undergrad, shouldn't I be looking for a way out?!

66. Do you want more than what you got: Certainty.

67. Want to get married: Yes.

68. Type w/ your fingers on the right keys: Yep. 99% in Keyboarding, thank you very much.

69. Think you're attractive: Not usually.

70. Think you're a health freak: Definitely not. Should be though.

71. Get along with your parents: Sure. I guess you could say that.

72. Play an instrument: Yes, although the piano and I haven't been in touch lately.

IN THE PAST 3 months:

73. Drank: Nope. Don't care for it thanks.

74. Smoke: No.

75. Done a drug: No.

76. Made Out: No. Still single.

77. Go on a date: No. Know anyone?

78. Eaten an entire box of Oreos: Not lately...but I could go for some right about now. Mmm....transfats.

79. Eaten sushi: Yes.

80. Been dumped: No. Can't be dumped if you've never gone out.

81. Made homemade cookies: No.

82. Been in love: No.

83. Gone skinny dipping: No.

84. Dyed your hair: No

85. Stolen anything: No

HAVE YOU EVER..

86. Had too much to drink: No :)

87. Been caught cheating: No.

88. Been called a tease: No.

89. Gotten beaten up: No.

90. Changed who you were to fit in: Probably, to some degree.

91. Cried at something beautiful: Yes.

92. Spent too much money on something you didnt need? I think I'm pretty good with my finances.

93. Cried when someone died: Yes.

RANDOM

94. Pick your future bridesmaids: Absolutely no clue. Haven't I mentioned that I want to elope?

95. Where will you be in 5 years? Happy, hopefully. Finished school. Good paying job that I enjoy. Married. Thinking about children.

96. What are important qualities in a friendship/relationship? Trust. Caring. Love. Kindness. Honesty.

97. Favorite website: The Rivercourt.

98. Ideal vacation: Anywhere away from school.

99. Ever wanted to just drop off the face of the earth? How about now?

100. Quote to live by: My favourite quote.

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. They will tell you no, a thousand times no, until all the no’s become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. And you will tell them yes." - Nike

Rehashing the BCG experience.

The fact that I got my rejection call from the HR lady and that I had to prompt her to provide feedback (which she gave seemingly begrudingly) didn't sit all that well with me at last week so I emailed one of the interviewers to say thanks and see if he was up to giving me some feedback on the process.

He emailed me back on Monday, by which time I had sufficiently recovered from the situation. But he gave me his cell phone number and told me to call and that he'd be happy to discuss this with me so I felt obligated to call. Rehashing the interview experience in my head, I picked out many opportunities where I could have done better or used a better example and leading up to actually calling him, I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear all of this uttered aloud by some else. But I asked and he consented so I called.

See, if I had received my rejection call from him, I would have been perfectly happy. I received areas of improvement but contrasted with my experience with the HR person, I got some positive aspects as well. I need a little boost to the ego. I did well on his case, I got the key insights but I let him lead me too much. I apparently needed to take more charge over where the case was going, and hence, the lack of structure comment. Apparently he wouldn't hesistate to put me in front of a client on my first day because I have enough poise for that and apparently, the behavioural component of the interview went well. I guess that's another reason why I'm not really scared of my next interview because chances are, whoever is willing to give me one, will be asking behavioural and not case questions. [no, I'm not bitter towards consumer packaged goods companies]

He also explained the interview process for me. Every recruiting season, BCG interviews somewhere in the neighbour of a hundred University students across Canada and then ranks us based on how we did on the interview overall, with particular emphasis on the case component. They then call back a handful of applicants for second round interviews (4, 45 minute case interviews). Well I know that they even reject Yale law graduates who have worked on Wall Street so that's fine. Somewhere on that list of Canadian University undergraduates that were deemed potential candidates for BCG, you'll find my name. I'm proud of that. =)

The girl without a plan.

Whenever family or casual acquaintances find out that I'm in my last year of undergrad the conversation invariably turns to "so what do you have planned career wise?". All the heads turn and their eyes become fixated on me.

Right now, all I can say is "we'll see". And so they prod further.
What did you specialize in? Marketing and organizational behaviour
Have you had any job interviews? Yes, one with Boston Consulting but I didn't get called back for a second round.
Do you have any more interviews lined up? No. Not right now.
Are you still looking around and applying? Not at this very moment. School is kinda busy.

I'm sure that right now to a lot of people I'm the girl without a plan. I'm sure that someone of them are chuckling deep down because I'm a girl without a plan. Truth is, I think and hope that I've got something going on.

I do.

I just can't let everyone in on it yet.

Me, being my random self.

Being random. Why not? I know I am and there's no shame to it. I can change a topic as fast as the next person (if not faster).

Mel and I went to Elizabethtown last night. I forgot how much I enjoy hanging out with my friends in person. I don't do it nearly enough. Intellectually stimulating conversations usually occur over the net, I'm sad to say. Although the lively conversations we have about Gilmore Girls and other teen shows in the Sports Management Society office are absolutely fabulous. [See, that was random.] I've always enjoyed the underlying themes of life in movies like Garden State and Elizabethtown. They make you think. I would wager that Garden State was a deeper movie. And while this movie had Orlando Bloom going for it, the annoyance/pest that is Kirsten Dunst didn't do it any favours.

Life lessons I've learned so far through watching these two movies:

• It's better to feel pain, than to feel nothing at all because if you feel something...anything, that means that you're alive.
• Why do you put things off in life thinking that there's going to be a tomorrow. There may not be. Live each to its fullest.
• Spend time with loved ones. Appreciate their quirks and nuances. Those are likely the reasons why you love them.
• Explore the infinite abyss that is life.
  
• Fail. Fail big. And then let your failures shape you and make you stronger. [It's kind of a "grin-and-bear-it" technique]

Pretty deep huh? I'm rather proud of myself.

It also got me to thinking about the soundtrack of life. I think it exists. I love music enough to not be able to live without it. My life, my work, is all conducted with my songs of the moment playing in the background. I wonder if each song selection means something...

Oh yeah, my beloved Leafs have won two games in a row. Other than the pile of projects/assignments that are seemingly expanding on my desk as we speak, I would wager that life is pretty good right now.

PS: Special props go out to Jade. I'm as upbeat and optimistic right now because of you =)

The place I trust

So this is a follow-up to yesterday's horoscope.

There actually is an aspect of my life that I can trust - the fact that I have some of the best friends in the world.

Thanks guys, love ya!

Fogs of uncertainty

My horoscope today:

If there is still a fog of uncertainty hanging over a certain area of your life, focus on the aspect you can trust. Make that your priority and the rest will fall into place.

Thing is, there's actually no aspect of my life that I can "trust" right about now. Everything is still under a foggy haze. I don't know if I'll be entering the workforce or *gasp* continuing with my studies. I never thought that I would ever say this but I don't think I'm ready to assume all the responsibilities of being totally grown up and not classified as a "dependent". I happen to quite enjoy living at hotel Mom & Dad.

BCG: Game over.

Just as I suspected.

One week after the fact, I get an message from my friend Jade alerting me to the fact that BCG is calling. We already know the end result by the fact that we've waiting this long for a callback. If you make it to second round, the notification is received within 24 hours. An hour (and many false alarms) later, I get my call. But I don't get one of the interviewers like Jade. I get the HR lady. Who always seemed rather cold to me to begin with, very unlike the actually consultants.

She tells me that "although you're a strong candidate, unfortunately we cannot bring your application forward to the second round". Nothing earthshattering. But I was told that I would get tips about areas of weakness and strength. There's a few seconds of silence. Hmm...doesn't seem like she's giving up this information voluntarily and I don't know if I'll have another chance like this so I prod her. "Would it be possible for you to provide me with areas where I could improve for the future?"

First off was lack of structure. While I am able to key insights my thought process is a bit more random than they would like. Ok, I knew that one was coming. She continues. Apparently the conclusions that I drew were a bit more narrow than they would have liked. I'm iffy about this. I thought you wanted an answer. I gave one. Ok, moving on. And my quantitative section was mixed. Yeah, that's true. I was much stronger in my math with Jacquie than Rob although the case with Rob went better overall.

But I'm still incredibly confused. Why did I get a call from Julie? Why not Jacquie or Rob? Julie was less apt to say positive things.

Hmm...I need to get to the bottom of this. But I still really want to work for them. But with this new knowledge, I'm going consulting firm hunting.

Boston Consulting Group: Round One

Had my very first interview of the recruiting season on Thursday and it was a doozy. But getting that first interview signalled to me that I didn't need to tinker with my resume or cover letter again, at least not for the time being. Hey, if my application package is good enough for the Boston Consulting Group, it should be good enough for other companies.

I don't know how many of you have had consulting interviews before but it's not your typical behavioural interview session. Yes, behavioural questions do play a part but the kicker is the interactive case that you have to work through. These cases are usually things that you can't Google the answer for and are recent projects that the interviewer has worked on. The interview itself is made up of 2, back-to-back 45 minute sessions.

So how'd I get to this point you ask. Well Boston Consulting isn't an accounting firm, that much is clear from its name, and they recruit at Schulich? Apparently. They just started doing this last year. You don't make the initial contact. They select people from the Graduating Class Resume Book and send out an email to attend an information session. After that, you send in your cover letter, resume and transcript and wait to hear back from them.

I have no clue how I ended up being one of eight interviewees. Going into the interview with absolutely no expectations and with no formal interview help from the Career Centre (useless bastards), I wasn't nervous. Scared of what lay ahead, but not nervous. For me, this interview was more about getting practice and experience. Not to say that I didn't give it my best shot.

So all in all, if they were hiring someone they thought they'd get along with, I'd have a shot. But since the case weighs heavily on their decision and mine wasn't very structured, I'm not expecting anything but a phone call to alert me of my inadequacies.

I was extremely impressed with the people who make up BCG though. They're extremely intelligent, accomplished and friendly. So different from what I'm used to at the TTC.

Now I know how great consulting can be and I think I want it.

Waiting for that phone call, good or bad...

It's been a while.

I know I've been neglecting this blog for the longest time. I blame life. Actually no, I blame Schulich. But this is my horoscope for today. Once things calm down a bit I'll explain why this is as funny as it is. But for now, you'll just have to take my word for it.

Just as a watched pot never boils, a seed won't grow any faster by staring at it. Paying too much attention to a certain process is delaying its growth. You've done all you can do.