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Thursday, September 16, 2004

Dramatic Cambridge Finale 

So I spent the weekend in Cambridge and crashed into a hell of a crazy Friday.

Started off meeting the new Magdalene MBAs: Jason, Martin & Colin. Fine chaps; along with Robert I'm sure they'll make a good impression with the Magdalene lot. I was supposed to spend half an hour chatting; instead I took two hours to run through a list of 40 points which represented the accumulated wisdom of my year here. I wish I had that kind of thing when I started. i hope it gets them off to a good start.

I then just caught the IT guy and spent an hour installing my new web collaboration software that I recently developed, called CollaMBA, on the Judge servers and finished just in time to rush to my long-overdue meeting with the careers advisor. That lasted for two hours and I think we can safely say her foot met my backside a number of times.

I had parlour dinner pretty soon after that. What do you know, I had forgotten my suit, tie, the works, but I managed to borrow one from Nate and rushed off to formal, arriving half way through the starter. Well, we had a fine meal and the port flowed pretty freely afterwards, I can tell you. Martin and Colin turned up afterwards to meet the MCR and I introduced them around; they took to it like ducks to water.

I spent the next couple of nights at a friends and on Sunday we had the semi-finals and finals of the Magdalene croquet tournament. My partner James could't play, so I made arrangements with Donal at Friday dinner. But he couldn't make it in the end so I grabbed Simon and we played Andy and his partner and all was well again.

Well, we got off to a slow start and to be honest never quite recovered, especially against Andy's many hours of practice. However, Simon and I decided to give the crowd a few treats and we went for some dramatic shots, which certainly got the crowd going and got the opposition pretty upset. In the end it wasn't enough, and we lost honourably, it has to be said. The only consolation is that Andy and co. went on to beat the porters in te final, which took some doing, as they put in a lot of practice.

Well, a lovely weekend in Cambridge, among friends, good food, decent weather and lots of laughs. Exactly how much better does it get?


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Pay-back 

I'd love to say that the opportunitites are coming in thick and fast, but I'm afraid that if I do, they'll stop coming in at all.

But things are looking good. A number of short term VC opportunities have popped up on the horizon and I have been approached by an interesting strategy firm in London. I have completed a CV/CL for a very very cool internet company in London and been made aware of others openings in another internet company that may actually be marginally cooler, if coolness equates to general disruptiveness of technology.

Furthermore, one of our MBA project clients finally refunded me for flight costs, and a telecoms company that grossly overcharged me also paid up, so I'm practically awash with cash!


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Type Casting 

As if the Myers-Briggs, Belbin and CareerLeader tests weren't enough, I stumbled across (and took) the Enneagram test on MBAMatch.com.

This one features 9 different personality types:
Type 1 Perfectionist
Type 2 Helper
Type 3 Achiever
Type 4 Creative Thinker
Type 5 Quiet Observer
Type 6 Loyal Sceptic
Type 7 Optimist
Type 8 Boss
Type 9 Mediator

and after doing the test it emerged that I was heavily 1, 3, 4 & mostly 7. Interestingly I scored poorly on 2 & 8 - Helper and Boss. Me, not a boss?!

Judging by the description, Being a perfectionist, I am 'self reliant, highly responsible and hard working'..., as an achiever, I am 'an enthusiastic personable team leader who is self assured'..., as a creative thinker 'I am a warm person with a different view of life, with an empathy especially to people who are suffering'...and finally as an optimist, 'I am a playful, optimistic and enthusiastic person - life is an adventure. I love life to be stimulating and up-beat. I have great vision for things and I am helpful and highly imaginative'...

This is all well and good, but all this feels a little like astrology; having done a few of these now, I would recommend a little pinch of salt, but enjoyable nonetheless.


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Tuesday, September 14, 2004

The Hunt Begins 

With the end of the MBA, I have entered the strange world of the job hunt. This involves lots of web - and soul - searching. For the former I have access to broadband in sunny Chorleywood and for the latter I have Chorleywood Common, particularly inspiring on a blustery, elemental day like today. Two hours tramping around the Common, and I'm a little closer to some answers.

As if to highlight the whole 'Job Thing' even more, I turned on BBC Three when I returned from the Common to find an old friend from UCL presenting the news at 7pm (her name is Sevi, if you want to know). That brings to two, the number of old UCL friends presenting the news; the other is Sheban Rattansi, on Sky.

Funny how we all take such different routes in life, eh. Now I need to decide what my route is going to be...


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