Motivational Speaker Brings Tears

Each night, there is a course in the humanities at the summer program that I work at. They range from Shakespeare plays to an all-male a capella group. This week was a particularly powerful one for people of all ages. Ed Gerety, a motivational speaker, came to Bridgewater State to give a talk to the 13 and 14 year-olds that I work with each day. Little did I know that I would be crying by the end of the night.

Most of Ed's talk focused having us think about the people we love in our life and why we don't show that love as much as we should. He had us write a letter to someone as if we had only one hour to live and write everything that we would say to that person. Many of the kids were crying, but so was I. As I was writing a letter to my mom, I thought about how I am permanently moving my life to a new place and will not see her very often. College was different because it was only four years, as if I knew someday I would come back to Boston. But now, I'm not. Washington, D.C. is my new home and though I am excited about it, I am realizing how many people I am going to miss.

Square Footage = Money

When the time came for us to split up who is going to pay how much in rent, we weren't really sure where to start. Obviously the person with their own bathroom pays more but other than that we weren't sure where to tack on extra cash. Then again, I have the sunroom, so obviously I would find a way to split up the rent since it would probably affect me the most.

At first we just considered bedroom size because we were all going to be using the living room and kitchen, so there really wasn't a need to factor that in. We considered the walk-in closet and the bathroom to be "extras" but did not take into account if you were bringing large pieces of furniture for the living room. This is probably because that would be hard to value and hopefully everyone can at least contribute some things to the common rooms.

In the end, we didn't end up working out the prices that way. We used the square footage to divide up the total rent for the apartment, then we had a base rate for the common areas (just total common area square footage as a percentage of the total rent, then divided by three). We even had spreadsheets. I know we sound like the biggest dorks but I guess we just wanted to be fair. You may have your own way of doing it (like arbitrarily assigning rent amounts, which would be so much easier) but this seems to work for us.

The Biggest Bedroom Dilemma

We're living in a two-bedroom apartment with a sunroom, but we have three people. That puts us in a situation where we must decide who gets what rooms. It seems like drawing straws or rock-paper-scissors would be a viable option, but it's not always that simple. First of all, no one really wanted to live in the sunroom, but getting a three bedroom apartment was extremely expensive. I graciously volunteered to live in the sunroom, for considerably less rent of course. However, I don't have a closet, or much space at all for that matter, and I will be sharing a bathroom.

That left the other two girls to figure out who gets what bedroom. The two bedrooms are similar, both with large walk-in closets and attached to a bathroom. Of course, the amount each would pay in rent was also a factor. Plus, one has a boyfriend, the other doesn't. Maybe income matters but all of us have professional jobs and will not have a problem paying rent. So, basically, once they chose rooms, we had to figure out how much everyone was going to pay in rent, but we haven't even seen the place yet!

Preparing for the Big Move

Since most of my days during the week are pretty similar, I'm going to move on to the stress that is moving to a new city. Our lease starts on August 7th but I am not going down to D.C. from Massachusetts until around August 22nd. Between now and then, I have a lot to do. However, working 24 hours per day, 5 days per week makes it pretty difficult to get anything accomplished. Luckily I have two roommates who can also take on the responsibility of getting our apartment ready for move-in.

When choosing roommates it's very important to consider all of the different aspects of living with other people. Are they neat or messy? Do they have a boyfriend that will be around all the time? Are they fun or serious? Are they going to pay rent on time? Although some of these questions don't seem like that big of a deal, they can make or break the living situation.

For us, each apartment member has taken over some sort of responsibility whether it be setting up all of the utilities, bringing furniture for common areas or collecting rent. This way one person isn't stuck with all the work. Each person should take care of something they are good at, finances, organization, etc. Delegating responsibility makes life easier for everyone.

Bad Sunday

Well I woke up Sunday not feeling so hot. Never mind the fact that my car was parked at the T station near my house and we were way on the other side of Boston. The orange line was down and we took a shuttle bus to where we needed to be, obviously stopping for Dunkin' Donuts on the way. By the time I arrived home to my house it was almost 2pm and yes, I have to be at work at 5:30 and had not done any laundry, no shopping for the week, no preparation. Suddenly all of that sleep I expected to get over the weekend was no longer an option.

I struggled to get my clothes into the washer and then headed over to my dad's for dinner. I was dreading the week ahead, with no sleep and dealing with kids all day long. My clothes were still damp and I just threw them into a laundry basket, talk about lazy!

It is now Wednesday and I am going pretty strong. They gave us pizza on Sunday night because we had our mid-program evaluations. I got evaluations at all of my internships and never had any poor reviews, I wonder if they even give those. Mine went well but at a summer camp that I am not going back to work at next year, there is really no room for promotions. And raises, that's a definite no. We get paid pennies as it is.

On To Saturday...

I wake up Saturday morning around 9:30am. I am pretty used to getting up at 7 each morning, so I'm not surprised. I go to Dunkies, per usual and think, oh no, they don't have many Dunkin' Donuts in Washington, D.C. My day is almost ruined. Then I find out that my new car has the wrong license plates on it, another 3 hour round trip there. Great. And to make matters even worse, on the highway on the way to the dealership, a stone hits my car and cracks the windshield of the car I have not had for even 24 hours. I make it back home around 2pm and am ecstatic to hop in bed, watch some tv and hopefully take a little nap.

Of course that didn't work out as planned and I laid in bed for 3 hours without actually falling asleep. Don't you hate when that happens? But then I thought, no worries, since I ended up going out last night, I will stay in tonight and catch up on sleep. It is no sooner that I begin making plans with friends to go into Boston, and that always means trouble. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night, and I also spent over $100 that could have been used on rent!

A Week In the Life

Since many of you reading this are still in college and are wondering what it is possibly like to be entering the real world, I want to give you an idea. Thus, I have decided to make the next seven posts somewhat of a week in the life of Allison Lum. Yes, I know, fascinating. Many of you may have odd jobs here in there in the awkward summer going from college to job, so my summer camp position plays quite a poignant role here. From contact with friends, general interaction with others and a new-found life perspective, I want to give you a real idea of things that go on each day once you realize that you only have a month and a half of freedom left.

Let's pick a random day and start last Friday. I was at the summer camp, in a journalism class all morning. This is where I am every morning usually thinking, "I thought I was done with class?" Wrong. After that the kids get picked up and I sit around with other proctors (counselors) waiting for every last one to leave. Then we can leave, usually followed by at least four hours of sleep once you arrive at home. However, Friday was different for me, I went straight from work to go home and clean out my car that I was trading in that day for a new one. How exciting! It probably would have been more so if I wasn't so tired. But anyways, I drove the 45 minutes with my mom, of course hitting traffic and finally arriving at the dealership to pick up my beautiful new vehicle.

Then, we sat in traffic some more, but at least it was in a nice car. I had promised my mom, who wants to spend as much time as possible with me before I leave, that I would go with her to a baseball game she won tickets too. Let's keep in mind that it is Friday night and one of my only two nights off per week. She guilted me into it saying she would go alone if I didn't want to go. So, obviously, I went. It actually ended up being fun but I was looking forward to just going home and getting some sleep. Then the phone calls started coming. People from high school were doing this, people from work something else, I wanted to join but sleep sounded so good. All I could think of was that I have a limited amount of time left to spend with these people before I move and that made up my mind. Out I went, sleep I did not.

Friends Can Last A Lifetime

Leaving college is truly heartbreaking. It may feel a lot like when you graduated from high school and you thought you were leaving your whole world behind you when you went off to college. When I graduated from college, I left my best friends and my roommates, my study buddies, my shoulders to lean on and my strength. However, this summer, I have re-discovered friendships that I thought had been lost.

By working at the summer camp that changed my life, I have re-united with those people who have helped to shape me into who I am. Though we did not talk as much as we would have liked throughout college, seeing them everyday is a reminder of why I am working for pennies at a program that is so amazing that it is indescribable. It took a week or two to get back on the same page, but now it's like we never left. They have helped to ease my fears about entering the real world, not by comforting me, but by showing me that friendships are forever. A chapter of my life is over, but a new one is beginning and only adding to the story of my life, not replacing any part of it.

As I look through my scrapbook of the summer I met these two amazing friends, I think of how far I have come since being only a freshman in high school. However, even then, I knew who I wanted to be and was able to find that in myself at the program called Project Contemporary Competitiveness (P.C.C.). Being together again makes me realize that although people change, some things will always be the same. These friends have impacted my life in ways that I can only now recall. Seven years went by, yet it seems like I saw them only yesterday. I can only hope that this has taught me to keep in touch with those I love and never forget their importance in my life.

Blogging Has Quite the History

I must admit that I am relatively new to the blogging scene. Until starting my internship with Experience, I had never really thought about having my own blog or reading blogs of any sort online. Come to find out, the blog has existed for ten years, or since I was twelve, but I don't think I knew how to use a computer then. Blogger.com (the site used for this blog) actually started in 1999 among lots of other blogging software that exists out there.

The Wall Street Journal came up with an interesting question and answer article for the blogging anniversary. They asked about the success of blogging, among other tech issues. Check it out. If you want to start your own blog, you can do so very easily. All you need to do is sign up on blogger. That's it. Then, you can write about anything you want (appropriate content of course). I happen to write about consulting because that's what I'm interested in and in charge of for Experience. When in Europe though, I saw a few girls writing a blog so that their friends could be updated on their travels. The sky is the limit!

Don't Always Believe What You See Or Hear

Over the years I've learned that you should only believe something if it comes straight from the horse's mouth. And you're sure that it's the horse, not just an impersonator. Okay, maybe that doesn't make too much sense. This week's Wall Street Journal reported the start of an investigation into online postings by John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods. What a way to ruin your reputation. Though being overly optimistic about the company isn't exactly illegal, it may push the boundaries on the moral side of things.

Though Mackey was the one apparently making these comments online, sometimes you'll hear things that aren't true. You should never act upon rumors in the workplace or complete a task that you think may be against professional conduct even if you are told to do so. That is how Enron and other companies ended up getting in big trouble. Even when managers or partners ask you to do something, it may not always be the right thing. See the entire Whole Foods article here.

Keep Facebook Classy

Believe it or not your employers are watching you. Or potential employers for that matter. They do have Facebook! People that intern or work at companies are the same age or only a few years older than you and were in college once too. They know how the internet works and the pictures and wall posts that are put online. Obviously they are smart and do a little background check before giving you an interview or the job. So, in short, edit pictures, comments, etc. or set your privacy settings extremely high.

I have a friend who once walked into an interview and the first thing the interviewer said was, "nice costume." Puzzled, my friend asked what they were talking about. The interviewer went on to describe the old woman lunch lady costume that my MALE friend wore for Halloween that year, details which were gotten off of Facebook. Can you say awkward?

If you need some help changing the settings on your Facebook profile, I can help (clearly I am a Facebook expert). When you log in, go to the privacy part in the top right corner of the screen. Then click on profile. In this section you can decide who sees tagged photos, status updates, wall posts, etc. You can also set a limited profile that contains only certain things and then when people friend you then you can decide if you only want them to see a limited profile. Do not have your profile available to everyone or even people in your networks, it could end up getting you in trouble!

Sleep Deprivation Makes You Crazy

Working at a 6-week summer camp isn't quite the piece of cake that I thought it would be. Though I get to hang around with kids all day and other employees my age, I have little time to myself. Basically, we work from 7am to at least 11pm every day. So, at the most I get 8 hours of sleep, but usually I don't get to bed until at least midnight. I was pretty used to sleeping until at least 10am when in college, so this is a bit of a change. However, I should get used to it since I will have to be at work at about 8am every day starting in September.

A lack of sleep makes you do crazy things. At my summer camp, we like to call it "crazy talk". Usually when we are about three nights behind on sleep, counselors start not making sense and saying crazy things that no one really understands. You stop talking mid-sentence or just mumble because you are too tired to form words. Though it is accepted and pretty much expected late at night during my summer job, I'm not sure the professional services firm you are working for will be quite as entertained.

If you aren't used to working long days, you should get used to it! During my internships I would go to bed around 10:30pm on weeknights to ensure that I get enough sleep to be at my best at work the next day. I plan on doing the same thing when I start work. It is important that you are not falling asleep at your desk or dragging your feet on work that needs to be done. Firms want productive employees so partying all night before a big meeting or even a regular work day is not the best idea. Being alert and attentive to detail will help you in the long run in getting promoted and leaving the best impression.

For Love or For Money?

My friends older sister got married today. How exciting! Some of my friends my age are even engaged. Perhaps they are about to graduate from college but some of them don't even know yet what they are going to do with their lives. So how do you know if your soon to be spouse is going to be successful? For all you know you could be living in poverty because although he or she just graduated from law school, there has been a change of heart and they now want to be a volunteer worker or something of the sort.

So what's the whole point of that little story? Sometimes life throws you a curve ball. The person you marry may not always be the same person as when you married them. It's actually really scary that I am the age that I need to be thinking about these things, though I am definitely not headed down that path anytime soon.

Never date (or marry!) someone because you think they will make a lot of money or they have money in the family. Money cannot buy happiness even though sometimes we'd like to think it can. Look for the things that really matter most to you in someone that you will spend the rest of your life with.

Life is a Business

If you think about it, business is inherent in almost all organizations in life. Even if you don't notice it and you are not making any money, in any group whether it be a pack of friends or a non-profit organization, each individual has their specific roles.

Take a group of friends, for example. There is one person who makes the plans, another who likes to drive and so on. Your social life would be pretty boring if everyone didn't work together to get things done, like planning a birthday party for a friend or getting the group concert tickets. So, it is in your best interest to know how a business works and use it to your advantage.

I recently read some parts of Freakonomics, a best-seller and a well-known book in the business world. The authors talk a bit about gangs and drug organizations which are the epitome of a business, although highly illegal. Like many corporations, the people in charge make a very high amount of money and everyone else only pennies.

As I get closer to starting work I notice more and more the business-like characteristics of our everyday lives. It really gives you a neat perspective as you prepare to work for an actual business.

Corporate Governance is Important Too

Apparently corporate governance is important. It includes the way that a company is managed as well as its relationships with stakeholders. Investors take this into consideration when determining which companies they want to invest in. Obviously financial performance and future outlook is important too, but no one wants to invest in a company that is managed poorly and making enemies. Logically, companies should consider corporate governance important too. This provides a perfect opportunity for a consulting firm specializing in corporate governance to get some good business.

GovernanceMetrics International Inc. does just this. According to an article on July 2nd in the Wall Street Journal, the firm that began in 2002 rates about 4,000 companies and sells its research to companies who want to improve their corporate governance. Since the consulting company uses more than 400 points of inspection, it is extremely helpful for their clients to see which particular areas of governance are weak for them. When looking at areas of growth for consulting, it is helpful to look at the perceived importance of aspects of business. Providing a service in that area, as GovernanceMetrics has done, could launch profits through the roof.

For all things business check out the Wall Street Journal.

Consulting Leaves Room for Insider Trading

If you read today's Wall Street Journal (or any business news for that matter), there is big news in the hotel industry. Blackstone Group is to acquire Hilton Hotels for $18.5 billion plus debt. Wow. Chances are there were both companies employees working on the deal, but also financial consultants and planners outside of Blackstone and Hilton. Because consultants must look at all aspects of a transaction and whether or not it is the right decisions for the parties involved, they may know information before it is available to the public.

As a business student, you probably know that no one is allowed to act on this inside information (ie. acquire or sell off shares of stock). That would be insider trading and it's illegal. Consultants are tempted in all sorts of situations with information that could make them very wealthy, but it is their job to uphold the moral standards of a business professional. All consulting firms confirm independence by making sure that an employee does not own securities of the clients they work on and that close relatives are not employed by clients. This interaction could create sticky situations for all involved and after all, no one wants to be the next Martha Stewart.