Guess I'm not attractive enough

So the assessment center I attended for Bank X told us that we'd hear back from them by Wednesday the 24th. 5 out of the 7 ESADE students got "thanks but no thanks" emails Wednesday night. Myself and one other classmate had to wait another two agonizing days to find out that we didn't make it through either. 

Kinda irked by being put in this 2nd wave of rejections. Maybe it was my fault but I had a bit of hope in getting an offer after surviving the first wave. This was because they told us that the latest they'd get back to us was Wednesday. If they were gonna reject me, why not do it on Wednesday with the rest of my classmates? I already know the answer to this because the 2nd wave classmate and I were probably right on the cusp and they had to deliberate some more before we got definitive "no's". Whatever. Their loss. 

On the bright side, I love my friends from ESADE and from back home who have been so supportive. I'm truly blessed by being surrounded by so many awesome people. 

For some cheering up videos. 

Talk amongst yourselves....

Are Attractive People More Employable?

By CATHERINE RAMPELL

Melinda Sue Gordon/Paramount Pictures

Are good-looking people more likely to get jobs? That depends whether you’re talking about men or women, according to a new working paper. From the abstract:

Job applicants in Europe and in Israel increasingly imbed a headshot of themselves in the top corner of their CVs. We sent 5,312 CVs in pairs to 2,656 advertised job openings. In each pair, one CV was without a picture while the second, otherwise almost identical CV contained a picture of either an attractive male/female or a plain-looking male/female.Employer callbacks to attractive men are significantly higher than to men with no picture and to plain-looking men, nearly doubling the latter group. Strikingly, attractive women do not enjoy the same beauty premium. In fact, women with no picture have a significantly higher rate of callbacks than attractive or plain-looking women. We explore a number of explanations and provide evidence that female jealousy of attractive women in the workplace is a primary reason for the punishment of attractive women.

Previous research, however, has found that good-looking female workers receive higher raises than their plain or ugly counterparts.

I see London I see France I can see your

So somehow I got chosen to attend an assessment center for a major European bank's rotational program. Don't ask me how, but I managed to sweet talk my way through 1st round interviews and thus ended up heading to London for a full day of interviews, presentations and networking.

The super awesome thing about interviewing on-site is that they pay for all your accommodations and travel. I got to stay at the Hilton Docklands across the Thames from Canary Wharf. The above picture was taken from my hotel room, which has a view of Canary Wharf. This will probably be the very last time I stay at a hotel with any sort of decent view. I am poor and cheap so this automatically rules out ever staying at nice hotels. My justification is that the hotel room is just for sleeping anyways so why spend money on it. This is also similar to how I justified parking at a parking lot one block away from a restaurant to save 25 cents. Ask the SO about that. She loves telling that story.  

My morning started at 730. Got on a ferry to cross the Thames to said bank. The assessment day was freaking tough. The good thing was that 6 of my classmates were attending the AC as well. My schedule was as follows:

9:00-10:00 Technical Interview - 60 minutes with a business representative

"Interview designed to test your understanding and interest in financial services and more specifically Bank X."

10:00-11:00 Commercial Interview - 60 minutes with a business representative
"This interview is designed to test your commercial understanding and business acumen."

11:00-11:30 HR Interview - 25 minutes (15 minute presentation and 10 minute Q&A) with HR panel

"For this interview, you will be required to produce a 15 minute presentation."

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-2:30 Case study and Group Assessment - 90 minutes assessed by two business representatives
"This is a group activity where you will have one hour to review a case and prepare a presentation followed by 20 minutes to deliver recommendations."

3:00-4:00 Bank X presentation from senior business leader

4:00-5:00 Question and Answer session with past MBA Programme participants

5:00-7:30 Networking Session

So after a full day of this we were tired and decided to grab dinner and let loose for a bit. If there's one thing B-School students do well is eat and drink.

The next day was my flight back so it was off to Heathrow.

Breakfast at Heathrow. Finally back to "normal" portions.

The fine print says "All our bagels are freshly made here today". I don't get the correlation though. So all that I expect from healthy food is that it's made fresh daily? Following that logic, if I eat a 12 doughnuts and those doughnuts are made fresh, I'm actually eating healthy. Crazy Brits. 

On the flight back I was reading the British Airways: Business Magazine and found this comic in there. Thought it was quite relevant especially for the ESADE 1st years. 

Fast forward to today. My parents are visiting and I'm acting as the tour guide. Because I've decided that my parents are more important than schoolwork and I'm inherently adverse to schoolwork, I'm joining them to Madrid and will be there till Saturday. Adios Barcelona. Yo voy a disfrutar mi viaje a Madrid.   

The Club Can't Handle Me!!!

My roommate thinks he just made this song even more awesome.

I think he's forever ruined this song for me. All I know is that the club can't handle him right now.

I love Pooh.

We're #4. We're #4!!!!

Our program management is going nutso about the 2010 BusinessWeek B-school rankings. Our school was ranked 4th amongst all international MBA program (excludes US schools). 

Take it for what it is. 

http://www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/bs_2010_INTL_FTMBA_TAB_1111.html

I still consider the Financial Times B-school rankings to be more accurate. Don't get me wrong, I love ESADE and will always think that this school has given me everything I ever wanted and more, but I just don't see us beating LBS in any ranking. 

It's kinda like how I view USC and UCLA. UCLA is definitely the superior school because we all know what USC students and UCLA students have in common. We all got into USC. 

This is why I never gain weight in Spain

So for 1.95 Euros or about 2.80 USD I get a whopping 3 chicken wings or 2 crispy strips. They'll even throw in one sauce too.

At Costco for $1.50 I can get a 1/4 pound hot dog and a drink with unlimited refills. I could also go to Burger King and get a Whopper for $1.99.

America wins again...until everyone dies from complications related to obesity (42% of Americans will be obese by 2050). 

Observations of Spain

Random things bother me. Why do smoking sections exist? What's the point of allowing possession of weed when it's illegal to buy. Why do you park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?

Random.

The other day I was riding the subway and noticed this oddity about the Barcelona subway trains. Tell me if you notice the same thing I did.

You notice something missing? Still don't quite see it? Let us compare the above photo to photos of other countries' trains.

Germany

Japan

New York

Give up. The Barcelona subway train is missing a horizontal bar that people can hold on to. The horizontal bar  distributes people so that people can stand in front of the seats and still have something to hold on to. 

That red line represents what should be there. So what happens when that bar is not there?

People crowd around the areas where there's a vertical pole. These poles are found right next to the doors. By transitive property this means that all the people crowd around the doors. WHY? Every other country has figured out that maybe it would be best to distribute the people throughout the train so that the area by the door is not crowded. 

The Spanish have decided that no, this is actually a horrible idea and that the best way to have people ride the train is to concentrate them in the areas by the doors because that is the only area where they can hold onto something. Oh and by the way if you think it wasn't the Spanish that decided this. It was. The manufacturer of the Barcelona metro trains is CAF of Spain. Yes, very smart Spaniards. Very smart. 

Fun with Pun

Seen on a classmate's Gchat away message.

"A good pun is its own reword"