tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31509280683561729862024-02-20T01:24:00.982-08:00Nine to DoneBecoming a SuccessIrinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-14706815101409628212009-05-23T21:34:00.000-07:002009-05-26T00:17:40.779-07:00We (Blog and I) Have Moved!I am happy to announce that I have graduated to having a blog on my own domain name. Pleasantly surprised that <a href="http://ninetodone.com/">NinetoDone.com</a> was not taken! You will find this blog at its new and shiny address by <a href="http://ninetodone.com/">clicking here</a>.Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-75262893766853185532009-05-19T07:00:00.000-07:002009-05-19T08:55:33.040-07:00Waging Wars Against Your Habits<b><i>This is a guest post by Katya Zorina from <a href="http://socialpetridish.wordpress.com/">Social Petri Dish</a></b>. She wrote this as a response to my post on <a href="http://ninetodone.blogspot.com/2009/05/trick-yourself-into-developing-your.html">adapting desired habits</a>, in which she was mentioned.</i>
<p>I have many ideals, most of which consist of admired habits that I picked up on the road called life. I observe, I like, I try to adapt. The latter only sounds easy to your mom, who always gives you hell for drinking milk out of the carton. What she forgets it that habits have their own control mechanism, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habit_(psychology)">it’s not your rational, conscious self</a>.
<p>A habit can be your best friend or your worst enemy. So how do you train your brain to unconsciously do what you want it to do? Clearly, the trick is to transition your desired behavior from being the product of willful effort into a knee jerk reaction. But how do you do it?
<p>Unfortunately, I don’t have a simple answer to this question. I’ve been waging multiple wars with myself for years. I won some, I lost some; but I’m not giving up, because I’ve developed a habit of thinking that anything worth having will never come easily.
<p><b>Here are some of my recent victories:</b>
<ul>
<li><p><b>Beating the alarm</b>
<br>I realized the true value of this habit when I started my job. Coming to the office early allows me to catch up on the news and remind people of <a href="http://twitter.com/katerishka85">my existence through Twitter</a>. And what would life be without Twitter?</li>
<li><p><b>Hitting the gym consistently</b>
<br>I used to be a couch potato and I hated myself for it.
I am not like that anymore. The key is to have your workout in your calendar...with a reminder. It still sucks having to carry a gym bag around, but it’s so worth it.</li></ul>
<b>And some failures:</b>
<ul>
<li><p><b>Balancing cookies and salads</b>
<br>I like my cookies. But I also love looking and feeling great. However, I am still trying to figure out a way to trick myself into thinking that celery tastes AWESOME. </li>
<li><p><b>Updating my daily planner...daily</b>
<br>I noticed that I get a lot more done when I have my to-do list on paper. But that means that I will have to do more if I write it down. Battle in progress. </li>
<li><p><b>Remembering that the Floor of My Room is NOT My Closet</b>
<br>Hmm. But it’s so much easier to find stuff when it’s laid out in front of you!</li>
<li><b>Battling caffeine addiction</b>
<br>Who isn’t?</li>
</ul>
<p>Even though my list of bad habits is long (this is just the tip of the iceberg), I am still a strong believer in the power of my conscious self. If I can win once, I can certainly win again. It just takes effort and the realization that it will not come overnight. Going to bed thinking that you will start exercising everyday starting tomorrow never works out. Take it easy on yourself – start with jog.Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-85075617864898084492009-05-13T07:00:00.000-07:002009-05-13T10:55:59.538-07:00Don't Tell Me That Was "Only $8.33 per Hour"This post is kind of long, so here is the main point for the most impatient of you: <span style="font-weight: bold;">considering just the dollar hourly return of an activity is not enough</span>. Read on to learn how to properly assess the value of an activity.
<p>
<p><b>The Last Straw</b>
<p>I am going to a concert of a Russian artist this weekend. I am going with a friend and the tickets cost $25 each. А few days ago, I logged into the concert hall's website to purchase tickets for the two of us, happily filled in all the fields and proceeded to checkout. The total was $63.50 with a total of $13.50 in service fees!
<br />
<p>Um, what?! Are you serious?! I am not being stingy here or anything, but I was completely outraged by this website's (who shall remain nameless as I do not wish to give it the honor of advertisement) fees. So as an indignant consumer and avid advocate of financial responsibility, I made the trip to the concert hall and bought the tickets in person. Hours spent = 1.5. Dollars saved = $12.50 ($1.50 was spent on bus ride).
<br />
<p>As I got home, I happily tweeted the news of my accomplishment out into the world. My new Twitter buddy <a href="http://twitter.com/PaulTran92" linkindex="185">@PaulTran92</a> quickly calculated that this project earned me $8.33 per hour. Not so great, is it?
<br />
<p>Paul's tweet was exactly the impetus I needed to write this long-overdue post. Listen up, people, <span style="font-weight: bold;">you have to learn about yourself to learn how much your time is worth.</span>
<br />
<p><b>How People Tend to Think About the Value of Their Time</b>
<p>I encounter people making this mistake all the time. When my dad deals with annoying things like health insurance reimbursements, fixing something around the house, etc. he always says "I have already spent too much of my time on this. My time is worth a lot of money. I could have just paid someone $200 to fix this and made more money in those two hours I just wasted."
<br />
<p>This is flawed reasoning. Really, you can only use this reasoning if you are <span style="font-weight: bold;">actually </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">getting paid by the hour</span> and you have a project that is just waiting for you to spend your time on that could generate you positive earnings. Then, yes, the trade-off is between the money you generate through cost saving and the money you could be generating by working on the project. Otherwise, you are comparing apples with oranges!
<br />
<p><b> How People Should Think About the Value of Their Time</b>
<p>Let us face it - <span style="font-weight: bold;">most of us do not get paid by the hour</span> (neither does my dad). We are salaried employees. Therefore, we simply would not make more money during the time that we spend on time-consuming cost saving projects. So stop thinking of it in that way. That is not reality!
<p>The good news is that you can think of it in the correct way by slightly adjusting the perception of the value of your time. But for this, you have to invest some time in <span style="font-weight: bold;">getting to know yourself</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">learning what you value</span>.
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Let us review with a real example:</span>
<br />
<p>During my 1.5 hours spent saving $12.50, I spent:
<br />
<ul>
<li>15 minutes of it walking around San Francisco. This allowed me to breathe some fresh air and enjoy my "outside time" of the day.</li>
<li>An hour on the bus, where I read up on a <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22655" linkindex="186">great explanation of the economic crisis by Robert Solow.</a></li>
<li>The remaining 15 minutes I spent waiting for a bus. I called my mom, had a quick conversation and assured her that I was alive and well.</li>
</ul>
All these things I would have done if I had gone home directly (and it is questionable whether I would have been that productive at home due to all the distractions such as Twitter, Facebook and my <a href="http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/11-inch-Select-A-Firmness-Memory-Foam-Queen-size-Mattress/3158654/product.html" linkindex="187">comfortable bed</a>), so really the hourly <span style="font-weight: bold;">payoff of this activity was higher than $8.33</span> per hour since I <span style="font-weight: bold;">did not waste</span> any of it by chasing the $12.50 cost saving. This is because I know that educating myself on the economy and family talking time are valuable to me.<br/>
<p>Now, I am not going to put monetary value on those things because I am a practical person and assigning dollars to intangibles has no place in my personal financial infrastructure. But what I will point out is that t<span style="font-weight: bold;">his is the real trade-off you should be considering; the trade-off between what you "earn" by engaging in cost saving and what would ACTUALLY be doing if you were not engaging in it. </span>It is NOT the $8.33 per hour vs. the $30- or $50- or $80 per hour that you have mentally calculated you earn from your yearly salary and anticipated year-end 2009 bonus.
<p>In my case, I got lucky since it was not a trade-off at all because I was able to save $12.50 and do all the things I would have been doing during that time anyway.
<p><b>Conclusions?</b>
<ol>
<li>Learn about <span style="font-weight: bold;">what is truly valuable</span> for you to spend your time on.</li>
<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Be real about the value of trade-off activities on your time</span>. If you are not actually earning an hourly rate, do not make one up based on your salary and then compare that to the hourly rate you "get" by engaging in an activity that results in actual positive earnings (savings = earnings). Those are apples and oranges.</li>
<li>Only then, <span style="font-weight: bold;">weigh the trade-offs and make the right choice between activities</span>. One that you will not regret because you were real about the value of each to you.</li>
</ol>
<div>
<p>P.S. Please note that during that trip I made $8.33 per hour in after-tax earnings. In fact, it really was $10.42 per hour assuming a conservative 20% income tax rate.</div>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-31597980367779130922009-05-04T07:00:00.000-07:002009-05-12T22:09:18.260-07:00Trick Yourself into Developing Your Desired Habits<b>The Inspiration</b>
<p>A few days ago I wrote about a some of my <a href="http://ninetodone.blogspot.com/2009/04/dont-be-lazy-go-do-it-right-now.html" linkindex="39">tips and tricks to overcome my laziness in life</a>. Well, I just came back from a workout, during which I thought of fifteen new ideas for a follow-up post. I forgot thirteen of them of my way back, so here are the remaining two before my brain stops working completely:
<br />
<ol>
<li>The more I observe the people around me and monitor my own behavior, the more I realize that <b>humans are creatures of habit</b>. It is truly amazing how powerful habit is. Humans can <a href="http://mit.edu/people/shanefre/HedonicAdaptation.pdf?subject=Please%20mail%20a%20hard%20copy%20of" linkindex="40">adapt to pretty much anything</a>, so the question for young people is really what they want to adapt to and what they want to make a habit <a href="http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/ending-prepositions.aspx" linkindex="41">of</a>.</li>
<br />
<li>You are who you spend your time around. That is, <b>you will adopt the spending, eating, drinking, working, etc. habits of the people around you, especially if you are good friends with them</b>. Therefore, you should surround yourself with people <a href="http://jonbischke.com/2009/04/24/the-5-things-id-tell-my-21-year-old-entrepreneurial-self/" linkindex="42">whose habits you like and admire</a> because they will almost certainly pass on their habits to you.</li>
<br />
<li>This is a not a third point, but a synthesis and conclusion: if there are people in your life whose habits you do not like and do not want to adapt, you should either <b>limit the time you spend with them or explicitly voice your concerns so that they can curb those habits or behaviors when they are around you</b>. For example, you can say something like this: "I am really trying to save money right now and you are buying $200 leather purses (for guys: cameras), so will you please not parade them around me because that will either make me really jealous and hate you or spend my hard-earned money on something I do not value? Thanks! I love you, girl! Cute shoes!"<br />
</li>
</ol>
<br />
<b>The Habit I Adapted</b>
<p>In addition to general laziness, I am also very lazy with working out. Seriously, I hate working out. Exerting any kind of physical pressure with my body is usually very hard for me, so getting ready to go to the gym is a nightmare.
<p>However, I have been adapting to the gym habits of a very <a href="http://socialpetridish.wordpress.com/" linkindex="43">good friend of mine</a>, who is also a co-worker. She is gym-crazy and recently told me that she was not always like this. In high school, she felt the same horror towards working out as I do now. However, she persevered with it and made a habit out of working out. And by "made a habit", I mean it <b>became one of her habits that is now hard to shake</b> (how you frame it is important).
<p>So by watching her go to the gym every day after work for two months, I <b>could not help myself but start going to gym</b>. And when I do not want to go (every time), I still do because it is becoming a regular habit. With each after-work gym trip, my brain learns the act of going to the gym and reinforces it as a habit (I just made this neurological process up, but that is how I feel it happen). <b>The more I go, the more likely I am to continue going.</b> Every trip counts.
<br />
<br />
<p><b>My Habit That Was Adapted</b>
<p>Curiously enough, I also made her stop spending so much money on clothes, <a href="http://ninetodone.blogspot.com/2009/03/everyone-run-and-open-roth-ira-right.html" linkindex="44">open a Roth IRA</a> and cut back on morning Starbucks. God, I love strong <a href="http://wilcoxen.maxwell.insightworks.com/pages/225.html" linkindex="45">Pareto efficient exchanges</a>.Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-11836455542559201762009-04-27T07:00:00.000-07:002009-04-29T22:07:41.796-07:00Don't Be Lazy; Go Do It Right NowI am a lazy person. Seriously. I am pretty lazy.</p>
The problem is that I am also a high achiever. I am very driven and have become even more driven in the last few years of college. The way I see it, the value of self-awareness is to:<br />
<ol>
<li>Figure out my goals – what I value in life, both professionally and personally. </li>
<li>Become aware of my character flaws that stand in the way of reaching my goals. </li>
<li>Come up with tricks and fixes to counteract those character flaws.</li>
</ol>
I got away with laziness all throughout high school and college. In high school, my only extracurricular activity was being a news co-editor of the high school newspaper during senior year (what Stanford saw in me in 2004, I have no idea). In college, I spent the first few years in laziness and fear of committing my time. Only by the end of junior and beginning of senior years did I realize that I should have done anything and everything that interested me.<br />
<br />
So I went lightning speed and in my last quarter at Stanford, I took a full graduate unit load, TA-ed a microeconomics course and wrote an <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/14616642/Irina-Issakova-2008-House-Wealth-Effects-in-Russia-Thesis">undergraduate thesis</a>. Good times.<br />
<br />
In January 2009, I suddenly found myself on my first job, sitting in an office for 8 hours a day and performing magic tricks with Excel. I went from being busy with 100% control of my time to being busy with only 30% control of my time. How do you get any of your personal goals or life errands accomplished when you are working nine to done? Here was an opportunity to let my laziness take over.<br />
<br />
But I did not let it. And I do not let it every day. I have been putting in operational life rules by which I live so that my laziness does not take over. So what are they?<br />
<br />
1.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Lunch breaks are not only for eating lunch, but running errands. </span>Whether it is a quick trip to the shoe cobbler, Walgreens, Safeway or a quick call to the bank, doctor's, etc, I make it a rule to run at least one errand or take care of at least one thing during the weekday lunch hour. It does not matter how small it is. It is all about baby steps. Chipping away at my to-do list one errand per lunch makes a huge difference at the end of the week.<br />
<br />
2. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Why put something off for tomorrow if you can finish it in the next 15 minutes?</span> This one I borrowed from my advisor who quoted <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/1/a4a/2b">my former office mate</a>. If you can write up a quick note, quickly call the bank to take care of an issue, open a Roth IRA, etc. in the next 15 minutes, just do it. Seriously, stop reading and go do it right now (and then come back to finish the post). This rule works well for both work and personal projects.<br />
<br />
3. <span style="font-weight: bold;">If you are not feeling efficient and feel like you are wasting time, immediately take care of two tasks on your to-do list.</span> Just like inspiration breeds more inspiration, productivity breeds more productivity. The more you accomplish and cross off your to-do list, the more inspiration you will feel to keep going. The 10th task will feel like a breeze and you will not be able to stop yourself from crossing off more and more tasks. Each task will become easier and easier.<br />
<br />
4. <span style="font-weight: bold;">When you get home at night, clean the room and the kitchen before your brain figures out what you're doing.</span> I usually fly into the apartment, throw my jacket and purse on my bed, run into the kitchen and start furiously doing the dishes. Before I know it, the dishes are done. I'm still pumped up, so I clean up my room, put all my clothes in the closet and take out the trash. The routine takes 20 minutes, but by the time I realize how much cleaning sucks, everything is done! Simple as that.<br />
<br />
5. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Accomplish at least one thing a day that is just for your own personal development.</span> I call these "personal projects." A personal project can be the smallest thing, such as writing an email that you have been putting off (like the one I wrote to <a href="http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/">Ramit Sethi</a> last week...it was so funny, but he still blew me off...whatever). It can be a blog post. It can be sewing up a torn piece of clothing (yes, I do sew up my opaque tights...those suckers tear after like one wear and it would be too annoying to throw them away).<br />
The importance of this one project per day is to feel that you are not only your work and that you are taking proactive steps to grow personally outside of it. The most important investment you will make is investing in yourself.<br />
<br />
The common thread in all the rules? <span style="font-weight: bold;">Be spontaneous, do before you have time to think of <a href="http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/barriers-are-your-enemy/">all the obstacles</a> and just keep going.</span><br />
<br />
By following these rules for the past three months, I have managed to set up a dynamic spreadsheet tracking all my spending, write some blog posts, connect in person with a few awesome bloggers like <a href="http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/">Penelope Trunk</a> and <a href="http://www.lifeaftercollege.org/blog/">Jenny Blake</a> and become a personal finance mini-expert.<br />
<br />
Many more projects are in store, but I have forgotten what it is like to be lazy. Because when I get home at night, I cannot wait to work on my personal project of the day.Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-76832673849231646522009-04-07T07:00:00.001-07:002009-04-25T18:47:38.567-07:00How I Failed at NetworkingLast Thursday, I decided to go to <a href="http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/about/">Ramit Sethi</a>'s book launch of <a href="http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/">I Will Teach You to Be Rich</a> for three reasons:<br />
<ol><li> The topic of personal finance is currently one of my biggest interests.<br />
</li>
<li>It was a great opportunity to practice networking.<br />
</li>
<li>I had a very productive week at work, which made me feel confident, which made me want to conquer the world.<br />
</li>
</ol>And what better place to start the conquering than a personal finance party?<br />
<p>Well, I failed. Completely.<br />
<p>In my journey of career self-discovery in the last few months, I have voraciously devoured <a href="http://www.brazencareerist.com/">any career-oriented blogs I could come across</a>. Additionally, as I have been trying to get my finances in order, I attentively read blogs such as <a href="http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/">Get Rich Slowly</a>, <a href="http://www.nodebtplan.net/">No Debt Plan</a> and I Will Teach You to Be Rich.<br />
<p>I really enjoy Ramit's writing and his raw sense of humor (I had a great couple of days of reading when I discovered <a href="http://www.bittershirts.com/thingsihate/">Things I Hate</a>. I even went as far as buying <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Will-Teach-You-Be-Rich/dp/0761147489/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239091083&sr=8-1">Ramit's book</a>, after many of my Twitter followees twot its praises.<br />
<p>Another thought on my mind for a few weeks now has been my desire and readiness to expand my network. I moved to the city and started working in January and only in the last few weeks started feeling my life settling down in a comforting routine. Now all I needed is more people around me who share my passions.<br />
<p>Naturally, when Facebook reminded me of Ramit's book launch in a Union Square bar in San Francisco, I printed out a few of business cards and off I went.<br />
<p>At 7 p.m. sharp, I excitedly pranced into the bar.<br />
<p>Happy Hour was still winding down, so there were a few people there who did not have anything to do with the book launch. I ordered a glass of wine and waited. I was all alone and knew no one there, so I started doing what every Gen Y-er does in a similar situation. I sat down on a bench in the hallway between the bar and the entrance, flipped through a magazine, texted my friend (who was spinning at the gym) about how awkward this is and pretended I was waiting to meet up with someone.<br />
<p>At 7:20, I had made no progress. I saw Ramit walking around, but he looked busy talking to people. Besides, I had absolutely no opening line and anything I could think of sounded too awkward in my head. So I sent for reinforcements.<br />
<p>At 7:45, I met my friend at a bus stop and we decided to return to the battlefield. The bar got fairly busy, so we ordered wine and pretended to be catching up with each other (side note: she works in the same company and on the same floor as I do). We still did not know anyone at the bar, while everyone seemed to know each other. I just could not think of a way to strike up a conversation, nor could I bring myself to do it cold turkey.<br />
<p>At 8 p.m. I gave up and we left.<br />
<p>Total failure. I was not proud of myself. Lessons?<br />
<ol><li><p>If you are going to a professionally-minded event where you anticipate meeting people, shoot a quick email to someone who you might see there in advance to <b>tell them that you want to chat</b>. That way, when you approach them, it is definitely less awkward (i.e. not "Hi Ramit, remember that time I tweeted you and you tweeted back?").<br />
</li>
<li><p>It is always helpful to bring a friend to such an event. The advantages are numerous. One: it is for some reason <b> easier to strike up a conversation with someone if there is two of you</b> than if there is one. I think it just seems to be less intense. Two (selfish): it <b>does not look as bad when the two of you are monopolizing someone's time</b> as when there is one. You can always fight people off more easily together than by yourself. Three: if you find yourself in between conversations, <b>you can talk to your friend and then you will not look like such a loser</b>.<br />
</li>
<li><p>And finally, <b>be gutsy</b>. Networking is hard, but it is fun to learn. And the best networking experience is when you are genuinely interested in what people tell you. So go do it as much as you can. I know I will be trying.<br />
</li></p></ol><p>P.S. Ramit, if you are reading this - your book better teach me how to be rich...Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-8617590828285867322009-03-31T07:00:00.000-07:002009-04-25T19:04:38.789-07:00Demand Good Customer Service When You Get Ignored<p>A few weeks back I wrote about how <a href="http://ninetodone.blogspot.com/2009/03/always-tell-companies-whether-they-are.html">it is each consumer's responsibility to give constructive feedback to companies</a>. It is also each customer's responsibility to demand good customer service from those companies. As an example, I give you a story in which I clawed my way to good customer service.</p><p>My purse, along with my wallet, were stolen in August 2008. Both my Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual credit cards were used fraudulently. After I canceled both and filed a claim with both banks, I waited. Wells Fargo (my darling) reimbursed me the money within two weeks. I waited on Washington Mutual...</p><p>Then I faxed in an affidavit, a copy of my police report and other supporting documents to Washington Mutual and waited...</p><p>Nothing. I faxed it in again. Waited. Nothing. I faxed in again. Waited. Nothing.</p><p>In December, I decided to call their customer service. They told me they did not receive my documents, so I faxed them in again. Nothing. The fax machine was not broken, by the way. And so then I started calling them bi-weekly. Great fun. After a few such frequent calls, when they would tell me different things each time (i.e. they do not have my affidavit, they do not have my police report) or just blatantly disconnecting me from the call, I had had enough.</p><p>So one evening I was at work at 8 p.m. and I was already pissed off about being there late. And I had spent half an hour waiting for a customer service representative (with annoying not-even-advertisement music playing in the background...I mean, if you are going to make your customers wait, why would you not give them the quiet to work on something else?!!) only to hear that they do not have my document and that I should call back when I send it in. I was fuming, so I finally mustered the courage and desperation to launch an <a href="http://consumerist.com/259713/how-to-launch-an-executive-email-carpet-bomb">executive email carpet bomb</a> (EECB).</p><p>The basic idea of an EECB is to send an email with a plea for help to all the top executives of the company. By this time, Washington Mutual had become Chase. So I went to my favorite consumer blog <a href="http://consumerist.com/">The Consumerist</a>, looked up <a href="http://consumerist.com/5010379/contact-information-for-chase-ceos">Chase's executives email addresses</a> and typed out the angry email. And then I went to <a href="http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-idea?action=getcompany&CIK=0000869090&owner=exclude&count=40">Chase's SEC filings</a> and found the names of all VP's and non-executive Directors and typed their email addresses into my Gmail address line.</p><p>Now, I am not completely unreasonable and I understand that Chase executives are important. So I took the time to address my letter to each individually (thank God for cut and paste). I wrote an angry email in which I told each man that I had had a very bad customer service experience with his bank, that Wells Fargo is awesome and that I would like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Dimon">Jamie Dimon</a> and gang to "please read over carefully and see to it so that [my issue] gets resolved." I typed out the subject line of "PLEASE HELP" in all Caps, attached a PDF of all supporting documents and went home satisfied.</p><p>The next day, three women called me back from Chase Executive Customer Service, gave me their direct extensions and promised to personally follow up on this matter. They were all very nice. Two weeks later, my money was refunded. I am pretty sure that my email never got to any of the executives, but I did get what I want. But even though my money was refunded thanks to the work of very nice women, the bank wasted a lot of my time, so I will be canceling my credit card.</p><p>Lessons?</p><ol><li>When companies do not listen to you, which they will most likely not in our <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bad%20economy&defid=3802007">bad economy</a>, you have to creatively take matter into your own hands.</li>
<li>No one (really – no one) will take care of you. You have to take care of yourself.</li>
<li>You have to act. I sat around doing nothing for half a year because I was too lazy or afraid to act and demand good customer service from a company. Once I acted, I got it.</li>
<li>Vote on companies with your money. I will be canceling my WaMu/Chase card and transferring those purchases to my Wells Fargo card.</li>
<li><a href="http://consumerist.com/5191223/eecb-against-ez-lube-gets-50-returned-to-hoodwinked-customer">EECB's are just awesome</a>.<br />
</li>
</ol><p>Next up – LabCorp. CEO <a href="http://www.theolympian.com/business/wire/story/797554.html">David King got paid $8.2 million in 2008</a> (well, a lot of it is in out-of-the money options...but still), so surely they can afford to refund me the money that they grossly overcharged me. But that is a story for another time.</p>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-4224655471966096162009-03-20T07:00:00.000-07:002009-04-25T19:36:47.353-07:00Everyone Run and Open a Roth IRA Right Now<p>Being a huge nerd, I have been reading many personal finance blogs lately. I cruised through college with my parents paying for my credit cards, so being on my own financially is both terrifyingly confusing and extremely exciting. It also does not hurt that my job is all about making crazy dynamic Excel spreadsheets of money moving around, so I feel very empowered to take charge of my finances. I can understand and track where everything is going.</p><p>My favorite personal finance blogs are <a href="http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/">Get Rich Slowly</a>, <a href="http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/">I Will Teach You to Be Rich</a>, <a href="http://toughmoneylove.com/">Tough Money Love</a> (this one is superbly feisty) and, most recently, <a href="http://toughmoneylove.com/">No Debt Plan</a>.</p><p>In fact, learning about personal finance is one of my new obsessions, which is kind of ironic, given how my iPhone was just stolen 2 days ago and now I have to pay $541.42 to replace it at the early upgrade price. But that is a whole different (and tear-inducing...in myself) story where I hate on AT&T and Apple and low life thiefs. Back to personal finance.</p><p>I started following No Debt Plan a few weeks ago and today stumbled upon a post on <a href="http://www.nodebtplan.net/2008/04/22/one-easy-step-to-retiring-with-1000000/">how to retire easily on $1,000,000</a>. Now, given my inability to trust calculations unless I do them myself and my mastery of Excel spreadsheets, I decided to test Kevin's conclusions, as well as play around with some sensitivity analyses by altering assumptions about the annual return, compounding, etc.</p><p>Kevin basically says that if you start contributing $5,000 annually to a Roth IRA account at 24, STICK WITH IT, retire at 66 and assume a "conservative" annual return of 7%, you will have amassed $1.2 million of untaxable (!) income by the time you retire.</p><p>Astounding, but true. I seriously have to open a Roth IRA account:</p><a title="View Omg I Need to Open a Roth IRA on Scribd" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 12px auto 6px; FONT: 14px Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; -x-system-font: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal" href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/13450837/Omg-I-Need-to-Open-a-Roth-IRA">Omg I Need to Open a Roth IRA</a><object id="doc_355889409306543" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=" height="500" width="100%" align="middle" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" name="doc_355889409306543" dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" media="http://search.yahoo.com/searchmonkey/media/" rel="media:spreadsheet" resource="http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=13450837&access_key=key-1zljjda4ywa3yy6oqgqr&page=1&version=1&viewMode="><param name="_cx" value="17965"><param name="_cy" value="13229"><param name="FlashVars" value=""><param name="Movie" value="http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=13450837&access_key=key-1zljjda4ywa3yy6oqgqr&page=1&version=1&viewMode="><param name="Src" value="http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=13450837&access_key=key-1zljjda4ywa3yy6oqgqr&page=1&version=1&viewMode="><param name="WMode" value="Opaque"><param name="Play" value="-1"><param name="Loop" value="-1"><param name="Quality" value="High"><param name="SAlign" value="LT"><param name="Menu" value="-1"><param name="Base" value=""><param name="AllowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="Scale" value="NoScale"><param name="DeviceFont" value="0"><param name="EmbedMovie" value="0"><param name="BGColor" value="FFFFFF"><param name="SWRemote" value=""><param name="MovieData" value=""><param name="SeamlessTabbing" value="1"><param name="Profile" value="0"><param name="ProfileAddress" value=""><param name="ProfilePort" value="0"><param name="AllowNetworking" value="all"><param name="AllowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=13450837&access_key=key-1zljjda4ywa3yy6oqgqr&page=1&version=1&viewMode=" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" play="true" loop="true" scale="showall" wmode="opaque" devicefont="false" bgcolor="#ffffff" name="doc_355889409306543_object" menu="true" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" salign="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" align="middle" height="500" width="100%"></embed> Omg I Need to Open a Roth IRA irina.issakova6516 </object><div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 6px auto 3px; FONT: 12px Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; -x-system-font: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><a style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://www.scribd.com/upload">Publish at Scribd</a> or <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://www.scribd.com/browse">explore</a> others: <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://www.scribd.com/browse/Spreadsheets/">Spreadsheets</a> <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://www.scribd.com/tag/roth%20ira">roth ira</a> <a style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://www.scribd.com/tag/Retirement%20Planning">Retirement Planning</a> </div><div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 6px auto 3px; FONT: 12px Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; -x-system-font: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"></div><p>Get this. If I start at 23 and retired at 64 and stick to this plan, I would contribute a total of $205,000 and earn a total of $1,018,036 (!!!) in interest. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GFcMyibiGw">OMG!</a> You never believe it until you make your own dynamic spreadsheet.</p><p>I am now keeping this spreadsheet as a shameful reminder of the fact that I currently do not have a Roth IRA. But all of you out there. Run. Open one tomorrow. I know I will be (well, at least by the end of 2009).</p></p>Next step: figure out asset allocation based on my retirement profile. I'm guessing somewhat aggressive during these crazy stock market times.</p>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-49117557056669537432009-03-11T07:00:00.000-07:002009-04-25T19:09:19.774-07:00Always Tell Companies Whether They Are Good or They Suck<p>Two weeks ago, my office mate was telling me that he was going to call his gym and cancel his membership. He was going to switch over to a competitor who offered a better deal and had newer equipment. "I think I'll just tell them that I am moving to another state."</p><p>Wait a second! What?! I suddenly started paying close attention to what he was saying. I asked him why on earth he would lie about the real reason, especially since he was not going to be charged any fee for the cancellation (no matter the reason). He said he did not want to be confrontational and he knew that they were going to offer him better rates and convince him to stay and he just did not want to deal with all the mess.</p><p>Hold on! I tried to convince him that he absolutely had to do the opposite in the following way:</p><ol><li>Tell a customer service representative ("rep") that he would like to cancel his current membership because he is switching to a competitor who: (a) is offering him a better deal on his monthly payment and (b) has better equipment and a more pleasant general ambiance.</li>
<li>When the rep would come up with all sorts of ways to retain him, just be stern and show her that he was going to cancel no matter what.</li>
</ol><p>In fact, even if the rep would not have asked for the reason, he should have still offered it. Because telling the real reason would have been a great service to the gym company. The business would have learned exactly why it is losing at least one customer and could have taken the appropriate steps to improve and become more competitive.<p><p>It is your right as a consumer to decide that you want to stop your consumption of a certain product. But it should also be your duty to spend a little bit of time giving feedback on how that product can be improved. By telling a company the real reason its product sucks or rules, the consumer is actually increasing competition and watching out for herself.</p><p>Urgh, of course my office mate bailed on that and came up with some b.s. excuse. Whatever.</p><p>One of my favorite blogs is <a href="http://consumerist.com/">The Consumerist</a>, whose mission is to make consumers more aware of the companies that they are supporting with their consumption choices and empower consumers to fight back when those companies screw them over. In the last few months, it has made me both very aware of my rights as a consumer to demand good customer service from everyone to whom I give my money and give all sorts of feedback to both good and bad companies.</p><p>Here are a few quick examples:</p><ol><li>Wells Fargo: I greatly respect and am very grateful to this bank. When my purse was stolen in August 2008, the thief charged a total of $1,000 to my credit and debit cards. Wells Fargo reimbursed me within two weeks. They also removed an overdraft fee I had last month within 30 seconds by seeing that I do not have a history of overdrafts and it was just an accident. And they are just really nice and knowledgeable on the phone.</li>
<li>WaMu/Chase: absolutely horrible customer service. I HATE this bank with a passion. I have spent probably a total of 20 hours on the phone with them trying to resolve a claim for fraudulent unauthorized transactions made on my credit card in August 2008 (!!!). They keep transferring me from one department to the next, mysteriously "not getting" my faxes with my affidavit and police report and generally just being horrible to me. Once I get my money back, I am closing my credit card with this bank. And I am also telling everyone I know to never ever deal with this bank.<br />
</li>
<li>Overstock: I recently shipped back two items to the website, but my account was not being credited for them. This morning, I chatted online with a rep called Wes. The chat took about 10-15 minutes and Wes's average response time was 5 seconds. Turns out, Overstock did receive the packages, but for some reason the returns were not processed. So he sent a note to the department to speed up the processing and two hours later, I got an email alerting me of the completion of returns. Needless to say, when a feedback form popped up at the end of our chat, I left nothing short of a raving review.</li>
<li>ING Direct: Do I love them or what? They give me great rates on savings, do not bother me with needless emails, answer my solicited questions by email within 24 hours, have <a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3077/2838061204_e411043daf.jpg?v=0">awesome billboard ads</a> and promote financial responsibility through <a href="http://www.wethesavers.com/">The Declaration of Financial Independence</a>. Needless to say, when I received a SurveyMonkey survey from them this evening, I spent 10 minutes giving honest and detailed feedback. They are serving me well, so I want them to succeed.</li>
</ol><p>So that is that, my friends. Help the companies that are serving you well. And do not be afraid to tell those that are not that they you are not happy with their service and are therefore switching to their competitor. It is for their own good and for yours, too.</p>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-12179208058858069452009-03-09T02:35:00.000-07:002009-03-09T09:38:16.765-07:00Daughter Trump Rocks My World<span style="font-family:georgia;">The social media junkie that I am, I came across the following video of an excerpt interview with Ivanka Trump in my Google Reader last week:<br /></span><div></div><div><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><object id="cnbcplayer" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=" height="380" width="400" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"><param name="_cx" value="10583"><param name="_cy" value="10054"><param name="FlashVars" value=""><param name="Movie" value="http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/1047308850/code/cnbcplayershare"><param name="Src" value="http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/1047308850/code/cnbcplayershare"><param name="WMode" value="Transparent"><param name="Play" value="-1"><param name="Loop" value="-1"><param name="Quality" value="High"><param name="SAlign" value="LT"><param name="Menu" value="-1"><param name="Base" value=""><param name="AllowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="Scale" value="NoScale"><param name="DeviceFont" value="0"><param name="EmbedMovie" value="0"><param name="BGColor" value="000000"><param name="SWRemote" value=""><param name="MovieData" value=""><param name="SeamlessTabbing" value="1"><param name="Profile" value="0"><param name="ProfileAddress" value=""><param name="ProfilePort" value="0"><param name="AllowNetworking" value="all"><param name="AllowFullScreen" value="true"><p><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" bgcolor="#000000" height="380" name="cnbcplayer" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="best" salign="lt" scale="noscale" src="http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/1047308850/code/cnbcplayershare" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" wmode="transparent"></embed> </object><br /></span><div></div><div><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">I have subconsciously admired Ivanka Trump ever since I learned of her existence a several years ago during an episode of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apprentice_(US_TV_Series)">The Apprentice</a></span>. Ever since then, I have looked her up on Wikipedia to follow her extraordinary professional growth and admire her from afar. Why is she so awesome, then?</span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span></div><div><ol><li><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Beauty</span>. There is no reason to deny that the first thing you will notice about her is her undeniable beauty. It is hard to take your eyes off her gorgeous face. During the 3 minutes that she speaks in this bit of the interview, I spent 2 minutes staring at her fact and another 5 minutes rewinding and listening to what she had to say. Absolutely gorgeous can't-take-my-eyes-off full lips, deep eyes, clear skin, perfect </span><a href="http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/070530/kat/father_l.jpg"><span style="font-family:georgia;">young Katherine Heigl blond hair</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;">. Yum.</span></li><li><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Smart.</span> Wait, what?! I am confused. What she is saying is making sense. And she does not sound that dumb. Wait, she does not sound dumb at all. Because she is probably smarter than you. The woman went to a great college, people. She has a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (yes, </span><a href="http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/spec-business"><span style="font-family:georgia;">that is number 1 in the nation</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;">).</span></li><li><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Daring and feisty.</span> This girl knows she is smart. The first giveaway is her confident and deeper-than-an-average-blond's voice. The second is that she is not afraid to interrupt those guys! She is showing that she has something to say and she is not afraid to say it live on CNBC.</span></li><li><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Speaks her mind. Controls the situation. </span>Ha! Oh those interviewers. I do not even know who they are, but man did they try to steer the conversation in one direction and it did not work out. Because Ivanka switched it around saying that it is ridiculous that CEOs of companies who are getting bailout money should not take advantage of the corporate jet. And so the two guys had to reluctantly agree (2:05), lose their train of thought (2:40), ask an unintelligible question (3:20), have her answer with aplomb (3:30) and then start yelling something that has nothing to do with anything (4:40 and what on earth are you talking about???).</span></li><li><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Her first name - Ivanka.</span> Just because it is way cool. And because "Ivan" is a male name in Russian and can in no way be interpreted into a female name. So her name sounds very funnily male to me, which makes it an irresistible name for a female (see also: Mischa). I might not really know what I am talking about in this bullet point, but I can definitely feel it with my gut. What a great name!</span></li></ol><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;">Ivanka is currently the Vice President of Real Estate Development and Acquisitions at the Trump Organization at age 27. She has also been known to model as a teenager and yet is not a </span><a href="http://thesuperficial.com/2009/03/paris_hilton_doug_reinhardt_kn.php"><span style="font-family:georgia;">stupid party monster</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;"> . She is engaged to </span><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/20070419nyo.jpg"><span style="font-family:georgia;">Jared Kushner</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;">, the 28-year-old owner of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">T</span><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">he New York Observer. <span style="FONT-STYLE: normal">T</span></span>hey are such a hot and admirable power couple that I cannot even be jealous.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;">Finally, I leave you with a quote of Ivanka: "<span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px">I’ve never had a sense of entitlement. I saw how hard my father worked for his money and it was always made very clear to me that things wouldn’t just be given to me."</span><br /></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;">The woman is </span><a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=baller"><span style="font-family:georgia;">baller</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;">.</span></div></div></div>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-31411637559124879172009-02-03T20:34:00.000-08:002009-02-03T21:36:52.823-08:00I thought I was so awesome. Turns out - not so much.Quick background for this post. I started my current job in August and worked for 6 weeks. Then I took a leave of absence for 3 1/2 months to finish up a masters degree at Stanford (yeah, it sounds better and more important when I explain it). And I just recently graduated and came back to work in beginning of January. Stop background.<div><br /></div><div>During those 6 weeks in the summer, I was staffed on 2 very time-sensitive cases. I was fully utilized, did not have a free minute at work and would go home at reasonable, but sad times like 8 - 10 p.m. It was great. Every day, I felt like I was pushed to the extent of my abilities and was extremely productive. I felt like I was contibuting my all to the team.</div><div><br /></div><div>When I came back, the manager I worked most closely with over the summer gave me a very positive review. She said that:</div><div><ol><li>I was very organized and meticulous. She trusted me to make an exhibit or do some data research.</li><li>I was dependable. If she gave me something to work on, she would be confident that I would get it done.</li><li>I took a lot of ownership and responsibility early on and delivered on both. She said that I did my work with the quality and level that she would expect from an experienced or second-year analyst, but not necessarily a first-year analyst like myself.</li></ol><div>Needless to say, I felt like I was the shit coming out of that review. And I wanted to be even better and exceed my managers' expectations.</div><div><br /></div><div>But recently, I have been slacking and I hate myself for it. I am currently not too busy and therefore am realizing that I am not so good at managing my time and avoiding distractions.</div><div><br /></div><div>My main distractions are:</div><div><ol><li>Google Reader</li><li>Twitter</li><li>GChat</li><li>A really good friend who works in the same company with me that I chat it up with on GChat</li><li>My office mates' buddies (who work in the company) and visit him regularly throughout the day</li><li>Craiglist apartment and "free" stuff listings</li></ol><div>And until recently, I thought I was doing a good enough job to let the distractions ride. I would leave them in the background and return to them whenever I had a free minute. The problem is that I am currently not working on anything urgent and therefore can stretch out my free minutes for hours. And turns out my self-control is not that great. So I am spending time each day wasting precious work minutes.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lame.</div><div><br /></div><div>My advisor at work is awesome. He came up with a system for me to become a "star" analyst. It loosely consists of:</div><div><ol><li>Reading about what makes a <a href="http://www.dallasbar.org/tlpp/documents/Article%20-%20The%20Secrets%20of%20Superstar%20Associates.pdf">"superstar associate" at a law firm</a>. Then applying the lessons to my own work.</li><li>Writing down my tasks for the day at the beginning of the day. This allows me to see what I have on my plate for the day, get myself in order early on and stay on track. It also (apparently eventually) will allow me to manage my time instead of having others manage it.</li><li>Slowly training myself to come in at 8 a.m. in order to have half of my work day be done by lunch.</li><li>Learning to take a quick 15-20 minutes to do a task to cross it off my list and not leave it until tomorrow.</li></ol><div>All sound simple and intuitive, but require self-discipline. So that is my current goal. To go back to my organized self from this summer and become even better.</div><div><br /></div><div>So here are the things I will do tomorrow:</div><div><ol><li>I will turn off GChat. And I mean log off, not become invisible. Because it is not so much that people are messaging but that I am constantly checking back to see if anyone exciting logged on.</li><li>I will check Gmail when I come in and then turn it off. And then I will not check it until after lunch.</li><li>I will check Twitter only once before lunch. That is all I can committ to at this time.</li><li>Whenever I have a free 5-10 minutes, I will refer back to my detailed daily to-do list and see if there is anything I can quickly get out of the way.</li></ol><div>Will report back soon.</div></div></div></div></div>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-71978265203493105122009-01-28T23:28:00.000-08:002009-01-29T00:27:44.699-08:00An hour with a role modelSo tonight I met Penelope Trunk.<div><br /></div><div>In my world, she is a celebrity. I told her this in these exact words within the first 5 minutes of meeting her. After rehearsing a few times on my way to the hotel. And she told me to stop being her fan and start being her equal.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was introduced to Penelope's blog a year ago by <a href="http://gumballcapital.org/site/about/gumball-corps">Jason <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Shen</span></a>, a guy that lived in my dorm at Stanford. At that time, I was taking a class on the sociology of gender, slowly turning into a man-hating feminist and getting into fights with anyone who would dare attempt to justify women earning lower wages than men. Jason and I often found ourselves arguing over women in the workplace. He finally pointed me to Penelope's post about <a href="http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2008/02/13/the-part-of-postpartum-depression-that-no-one-talks-about/">postpartum depression</a> as support during one of our discussions. And I was hooked.</div><div><br /></div><div>Over the next year, I read Penelope's blog religiously because it had great advice for women, was brutally honest and talked about career issues that not many others dared to touch upon (um...like sex at work). As Penelope wrote on, Jason and I would discuss it all at the lunch table as if discussing the personal life of one of our good friends (at least other people at the table thought that).</div><div><br /></div><div>Throughout my senior year in college, I had a crisis that spanned both my personal and professional futures. What I did not have was the emotional capacity to deal with it. Whenever my brain encountered the topic, it would run down the completely wrong pathway of extremely negative thoughts. At the lowest moment, after a night of tears, I did not know to whom I could turn. So I sent Penelope an email asking for advice. Her reply consisted of five sentences. All five told me to go to therapy.</div><div><br /></div><div>So I did. And it might have been the best non-obvious decision of my life. I was receptive to change and so it worked wonders on me. My therapist gave me the tools to deal with the emotions and uncertainties I was facing. I was finally on the right path to self-discovery.</div><div><br /></div><div>Without knowing it, Penelope has greatly affected my life in a very positive way. So when she Twittered me back that she would be able to meet with me, I was too excited. I read through the most recent entries of her blog and pulled my favorite quotations. Then I made a list of the things I liked about her blog. Then I made a list of questions I would like to ask her. And then, the brainwashed consultant that I am, I put everything together in a Word document and printed two copies. One for each of us.</div><div><br /></div><div>The truth is that I was nervous and scared. I did not want to <a href="http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/01/08/5-time-management-tricks-i-learned-from-years-of-hating-tim-ferriss/">waste her time</a> and I had no idea what she would be like or what we could talk about. I thought she would be the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">ballbuster</span> that she sounds like on her blog. So I came prepared. But she turned out to be extremely cool and laid-back. And within 10 minutes, we were talking about guys, relationships, work, sex and emotions. And it was comfortable, relaxing and fun.</div><div><br /></div><div>And she gave me advice on my blog. And really listened to what I had to say. And encouraged me. It felt freaking awesome to have someone you have admired for a year actually be interested in you. I am so much better for it now.</div><div><br /></div><div>So thank you, Penelope, for your influence and advice. Here is where I stop being your groupie. From now on, I will consider us equals. But I cannot deny my gratitude.</div>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-88175778883921295622009-01-01T01:24:00.000-08:002009-05-11T11:45:48.418-07:00AboutMy name is Irina Issakova. I am a recent college graduate working in a consulting firm in San Francisco. I graduated from Stanford University in December 2008 with a B.A. in Economics and an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering. I am an avid fan of macroeconomics, an appreciator of fashion, a proponent of personal finance and an aspiring good person.</p><p>Upon graduation, I realized that college has not taught me too many real world things. So I started this blog as an exploration of who I am, my capabilities, fears, accomplishments and other goings on in the life of a young professional Gen Yer. Over the last few months, this blog has taken the direction of learning about what makes someone an effective individual and just in general using one's brain. I like it this way.</p>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-50572859762363877722008-12-15T23:47:00.000-08:002008-12-16T00:28:23.630-08:00Goodbye, College. Thank You for Teaching Me.I am finally graduating from Stanford (or so I hope...Stanford just does not seem to want to let me go...or my money, to be more precise). Well, at least I am done taking classes. Therefore 'tis now time to reflect.<div><br /></div><div>To be honest, I do not remember well who I was 4 1/3 years ago. That is how my brain works. It overwrites my perception of who I am with my current self every month or so. I think it might be a defense mechanism from having been yanked out of my comfort zone (school, country, language) three times before the age of 13. But it is extremely important for me now to take a little break and synthesize the last four years of my life. So what is it that I have learned?</div><div><br /></div><div><ol><li>The most important thing that Stanford has taught me is to believe in my own abilities - the ability to succeed at what I undertake, the ability to follow through and the ability to grasp things I do not at first understand. As long as I remember myself, I was always a perfectionist, but never the best. During my first two grades in Russia, I was a straight B student. The official nick name for straight B students in Russia is "horoshist" ("one who is good") and for straight A students - "otlichnik" ("one who is excellent"). And I was always a "horoshist." This feeling followed me all the way to high school.<br /><br />I went to high school where it was cool to be smart and about 20-30 graduating seniors would get accepted into Stanford each year (and I am not even talking about other top-tier colleges). I ended up taking the middle lane math and science classes (because the school system basically screwed me over by scaring me into not taking the hardest ones when I came to the United States in 8th grade...I now know I should generally ignore the advice of administrators in learning institutions). Throughout high school, I felt I was smart, but not smart enough. I was good, but not excellent. Needless to say, I never thought I would get into Stanford, mainly because I was being compared to outstanding students in my graduating class. Getting the letter of acceptance was one of the happiest days in my life.<br /><br />So I came into Stanford a little hesitant. However, over the next four years, my confidence started to build up. I realized that I was actually fairly smart and able, even compared with my Stanford peers. I also realized that I do not need to be the smartest one and the most perfect one. The biggest lesson I learned was that I just needed to <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">deliver high-quality results. They do not need to be perfect, but they need to be on time and well thought out</span>.<br /><br /></li><li>The next big life lesson is <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">to not be concerned about time constraints and not fear getting involved in different projects</span>. Of course, you should not go overboard. But you should still throw yourself into things that you think might be interesting. You are not obligated to like them, but you are (almost) obligated to give them a try. When I was in high school, I was very protective of my time and always thought that getting involved in a time-consuming extracurricular activity would take up too much of my precious time and make my grades suffer. So I spent four years studying (and, let's be honest here, watching TV). I even spent the first two years of college studying for classes and partying on the weekends, not leaving much room for anything else. By senior year, though, I realized that I could be a successful student and get involved with activities outside of class (I also have to thank my overachieving friends for showing me the light). So I started getting involved with and signing up for everything that sounded remotely interesting (and lucrative). My GPA suffered only slightly, but I got a much richer experience out of it. So rich that, this past quarter, I took a full graduate load, TA-ed a core economics class and wrote my undergraduate honors thesis. I had no social life, but I had a hell of an academic experience.<br /><br /></li><li>I also learned to <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">ignore the little voices in my head that tell me I am not good enough or not smart enough to understand something</span>. Because I am. The potential is there and I can undertake anything I want and be successful (with the others' help, of course).<br /><br /></li><li>Finally, I learned that most 20-, 21- and 22-year old guys have th<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">e emotional maturity of 13 year-olds</span>. It is too bad, because some of them are pretty charming. And frats on Friday and Saturday nights scare me a little.</li></ol><div><br /></div><div>I learned much more than this, of course, and will revisit this topic as things come back to me.</div></div>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-88343652026994436292008-11-13T23:59:00.000-08:002009-03-25T23:44:05.975-07:00The Importance of Not Being RudeBeing Russian, but raised and educated in Western cultures for most of my life, I have been subjected to very nice people during most of my self-conscious life. Or at least people who do not snap at you for no reason whatsoever. The skill of trusting that the random person you are about to talk to, whether it is a receptionist, a cashier, or anyone else, is not going to yell at you for distracting them (and making them do their job) gives you peace of mind. Except when you are in Russia, which I forget every time I spend a couple of years in the United States and am reminded of the minute I set foot in the motherland.<br /><br /><div></div><div>The idea of customer service is only now catching on in Russia and, even then, is limited to big cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg. I have no idea why, but Russian people do not have the same concept of being nice to people they do not know as the people in Western cultures. In fact, many Russians who immigrate to the United States at a adult-conscious age (teen years and older) find this niceness quality "fake" and annoying. They do not believe that you should be particularly nice to people that you do not know and should reserve your niceness, love and affection for the people for whom you genuinely feel it.</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div>And maybe those Russians are right...when it comes to personal relationships in your personal life. But at work, it pays to be nice. I have already talked about this in my previous post on <a href="http://ninetodone.blogspot.com/2008/09/dealing-with-long-work-hours.html">which non-financial incentives motivate me at work</a> . One of them is nice colleagues who do not put me down to make themselves feel better.</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div>On the flip side, I remember back to a year ago, when I interviewed with a top management consulting firm for the Moscow office. I flew out to New York extremely excited, little and naive as I was, to meet with consultants from Moscow and imagine what it would be like to work there (a childhood dream that I still hope to someday realized). I met with a Russian manager from the Moscow office and he quickly put me in my place.<br /><br />Throughout the whole interview, he was courteous, but made me understand that I am nothing. His tone of voice very clearly indicated the following line of thinking: "Who do you think you are, little girl and what are you even doing here?" Now, this consulting firm is famous for creating stressful situations for interviewees and seeing how they perform under pressure. However, this was beyond that. This was his Russian side exercising his manhood over me. In the end, I did not get an offer, but it made me think long and hard about whether I actually want to subject myself to this kind of work environment.</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div>And this kind of work environment is why my parents think I am completely unprepared to work in Russia (whatever). I was educated in France and the United States and do not know how to deal with people being disrespectful to me for no reason, just because they hold a position of power over me (or think they do). Or maybe this will make me grow a thick skin that will be helfpul later in my career. I honestly do not know, but what I know is that even <a href="http://www.trumpuniversity.com/blog/post/2008/10/rudeness-at-work.cfm">Donald Trump believes that rudeness at work has negative effects on the company</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div>Rudeness decreases spirit, enthusiasm and therefore productivity. So, Russians and everyone else, please stop being rude to your colleagues so that we can all just get some work done.</div>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-20699870129726934122008-10-31T01:51:00.000-07:002008-10-31T01:52:22.957-07:00The Dreaded Case Study (What I Wish I Had Known 2 Years Ago)"The mind is wondrous. It starts working from the second you're born and doesn't stop until you get a case question." - Marc P. Cosentino<br /><br />In this post, I would like to cover the topic of preparing for a consulting interview (so dear to my heart). It is that time of the year and seeing a lot of my peers go through it has conjured up horror stories from last year. So let us dive in.<br /><br />First of all, recruitment is horrible. It is one of the most emotionally exhausting things you will do in your life. Or at least up to this point in your life. For most (read: me), it is a painful experience. When I went through it last year, no matter how confident I was in my abilities and worth as a potential employee, I still ended up feeling worthless and empty after countless interviews with banks and consulting companies.<br /><br />In the end, I accepted a job with an economic consulting firm, but was definitely not spared from rejections from several potential employers. It was an extremely stressful quarter, I felt insecure and emerged from it slightly emotionally destroyed (I was then cured in Paris..but that is another story). Conclusion? You are not worthless, nor are you not smart or not intelligent or not hard working or lacking in any other good qualities just because you do not get a job with a top consulting firm. You are probably good enough to work there, but the supply of those jobs is very limited. Another conclusion? You were probably not properly prepared for the interview and, most likely, have trouble with case studies.<br /><br />Which brings me to my next point. If you want to get a job in a top consulting firm, you better be prepared. Because you will be competing with hundreds of your peers, who will be extremely well prepared. You can count on it. So start now, right after you finish reading this post. What do you do? Anything that will develop your business acumen. Most of the feedback I got after my case study interviews was that my business intuition was not exactly quite up there (whatever).<br /><br />So start getting yours up there. Reading <span style="font-style: italic;">Case in Point </span>is only the first step. Try to read up on business management. Take a few courses on strategy (bonus points if the class consists of reading cases and talking about them). Form a group with 3-4 people where you can meet weekly and talk about business-related issues. In your discussions, try to be as detailed as possible in your analysis of a business - focus on costs, revenue streams, product mix, industry, market, customers, strategy, etc. If your campus has a consulting club or organization, join it. The key is to do these things for a year before you start recruiting to slowly, but surely cultivate the consultant in you (not the week before interviews, like most people do).<br /><br />Remember that getting a first-round interview with a consulting company is pretty easy, given you have a fairly high GPA and a background that is loosely related to consulting. It is getting the second-round interview and the offer that is the real trick.<br /><br />Finally, what you should practice is speaking and thinking under pressure. Yeah, right, how do you practice that, you might ask... Well, I would again get a friend to ask your math questions, case study questions (our of <span style="font-style: italic;">Case in Point</span>, for example) or brainteasers (try SharpBrains.com as a starting point) under pressure. That means that you friend will not be all smiles and nods and happiness, but will stare you down somberly while you attempt to use your brain. And not give any clues. At all. And also be mean. The objective is to train your brain to function regardless of the stress that is channeled at you. This will come in very handy during case study interviews.<br /><br />And here is where I hope you will let me digress. Because I believe that higher education in the U.S. has screwed us over a bit in the verbal performance under pressure department. I think back to my Soviet-educated parents' accounts of the way people were tested in schools and universities. Basically, their final exams consisted of drawing a specific question about the semester's material out of the proverbial hat, taking a half hour to prepare the answer, coming up to the board in front of 3-4 teachers (or professors) and reciting their answer. It was then followed by questions from the teaching staff, which the student had to answer, thereby defending their knowledge of the material and their final grade. As scary as that sounds, it definitely taught my parents how to perform under interrogation (by teacher/professor, not KGB).<br /><br />Now, all my exams in (U.S.) high school and college have consisted of <span style="font-weight: bold;">writing</span> (group presentations do not count). Which is great at the time, until you realize that it has nothing to do with the real world. In the real world, you will be forced to be prepared for a meeting, where you will present your results. Verbal performance under pressure, people. Thinking under the pressure of people staring at you, waiting for the right answer. My parents got that training and I "lucked out." And then it came back to bite me during consulting interviews.<br /><br />Digression over. Conclusion: practice thinking and speaking under pressure.<br /><br />Final conclusion: good luck. You are probably smart enough to work there. Even if you do not make it, do not take it personally. But if you do, congratulations!Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-53757217973924666432008-10-02T20:33:00.001-07:002008-10-02T22:43:40.390-07:00Overcoming Internet AddictionHi, my name is Irina and I am an Internet addict.<br /><br />No longer can I deny that this is a problem. It first started about two years ago when I was looking for a way to consume information on the Internet. Back then, I was still (surprisingly) starving for information. Over the last two years, I have worked out a system that has consumed all my free time and has eaten into my sleep. It is no longer sustainable.<br /><br />It started with answering emails as promptly as I can. Then I let Google dictate the rest of my life. I started making use of Google Reader and subscribing to any blog that caught my attention. This included economics blogs, life-in-Paris blogs and fashion blogs. I then moved on to attempting to read every article from the Gmail "Web Clip" sidebar (the one on top of your most recent messages)that caught my attention. I picked those articles based on how much the headline would spark my interest. Finally, I read all articles and blog posts for full content and understanding, which left me with no time to listen to my own thoughts.<br /><br />I cannot do this any longer. This is a problem. There has to be a better system than consuming ALL the information that is coming at you, even if you have signed up for it. Now that I am back at school for my last quarter, I am busier than I have ever been in college. I still need to keep up with current events and my interests, but I have to do it in the most productive way. I need to come up with explicit rules.<br /><br />So I searched for "dealing with information overload" on Google. And, of course, I got a lot of hits. I was looking for actual tips that I could implement, not simply discussions that technology is transforming the way our brain functions (there are a lot of these). Here are the few useful implementable tips, adapted from the different sources I surveyed:<br /><ol><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Commit to checking email only 2-3 times a day. </span>Well, it is more like 10 for me right now and that is down from what it used to be. However, I now try to keep my Gmail window closed unless I am actually working directly with Gmail. I used to have this window open "just in case," but it really only resulted in me going back to it every minute or so when I wanted a break from what I was working on. Well, it is better to just look at the ceiling. It is pretty liberating to have that "Gmail - Inbox..." tab closed.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Turn off GChat. </span>I use GChat inside the browser and I used to always have it open. This leads to a great productivity loss, since I expend my mental energy on checking who is online and having meaningless exchanges with many of those people. Now, I only sign into GChat if I have the intention of speaking to someone specifically. Otherwise, off!</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Update RSS feed regularly. </span>My Google Reader displays only unread posts. If there are posts that have been unread for longer than a week, chances are they are not that important. No reason to spend time on them. Hit "Mark all as read."</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Read off the Internet, on paper. </span>I know that seems like a crazy idea and you are asking yourself why you would ever want to do it, considering how sweet the Internet is. Well, it helps your brain to calm down. You cannot switch from one book to another as easily as you can switch from tab to tab. It teaches your brain how to focus <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google">in case it forgot</a>. I also find that my heart rate slows down when I read a book. Good all around.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Do not try to constantly keep up on all news. </span>The world will not stop if you fall behind. And do not be afraid to fall behind. The first two weeks after Lehman went bankrupt, I read 20 news stories about it a day. When the bailout plan came out, I read 20 news stories about it a day. Then I burned out. I could not do it anymore. So now I limit my intake of finance-related news to about 1 article a day. And miraculously, Congress is still negotiating on the bailout. I think. Or not. I do not know, because I have not read about it in a couple of days.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Read a novel that has nothing to do with classes or work before going to sleep to prevent your brain from functioning at the same pace as during work. </span>This is especially helpful for those of us who work right up until going to sleep. My current novel of choice is Emile Zola's "Thérèse Raquin." In French. Which is great, because I end up focusing on understanding the novel and trying to immerse myself in turn-of-the-20th-century Paris and the raw animalistic emotions of the main characters, which takes my mind completely off work and the Internet. Then I can fall asleep faster.</li></ol>These are my first attempts at optimizing my information intake and productivity subject to the constraints of my time and energy. I think the most important realization was that I need to deal with this explicitly, make specific rules and stick to them. Or...let's be real...almost stick.<br /><br />Most useful sources:<br /><ol><li><a href="http://thinksimplenow.com/productivity/how-to-reduce-information-overload/">How to Reduce Information Overload</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/dealing-with-information-overload.html">Dealing with Information Overload</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/dealing-with-information-overload.html"></a><a href="http://www.rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2007/08/eight_steps_to.html">Eight tips to thriving on information overload</a><br /></li></ol><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/dealing-with-information-overload.html"><br /></a>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-7854948090611996072008-09-23T14:21:00.000-07:002008-09-25T19:59:34.892-07:00Should I Avoid Sounding Pedantic?One of the questions I fear the most in the workplace is the seemingly innocuous "How are you?" I never know how to answer this question without sounding either pedantic or stupid.<div><br /></div><div>When I first started learning English at 7 1/2 years old, the first grammatical rule that got drilled into me was the distinction between "good" and "well." By the time I moved to the United States, I cringed at hearing anyone say "I'm good" or answer the dreaded question with "good." However, during the cruel years of middle school and high school, I did everything I could to fit in. Which meant inserting at least two "likes" into every sentence and adopting "I'm good" into my lexicon. This continued to work for me throughout college and I stopped experiencing knots in my stomach every time I heard a grammatically incorrect use of "good."</div><div><br /></div><div>However, this problem is now recurring in the workplace. A typical scenario goes something like this:</div><div><ol><li>A coworker asks "How are you?"<br /></li><li>Mini anxiety attack. Think, Irina, think.<br /></li><li>Option 1: respond with "I'm good." How painful. That is so grammatically incorrect. I cannot do this. What if the coworker thinks that I believe this to be the grammatically correct way to respond? Then he will judge me for getting such a basic rule wrong.<br /></li><li>Option 2: respond with "I'm well." That sounds way too pedantic. What if the coworker thinks that I consider myself than everyone else in my quest to use correct grammar at all times? Especially since he himsef probably have used "I'm good" many times before.</li><li>Option 3: respond with "I'm doing well." That sounds a little bit less pedantic than option 2, but it is slightly long-winded. What if the coworker has to run? What if I have to run? Will he think I am dragging out this insignificant exchange? What if I stop over analyzing everything? I really should answer now. This 2-second pause is becoming really awkward.</li><li>Final answer: "I'm good. How are you? Does it look like you will be having a busy day?" Oh good, I said a few things after the "good" to distract him and divert his attention to his own thoughts. This way, he will not have time to evaluate I answer.</li></ol><div>Maybe I am over analyzing, but I go through this thought process (in lightning form, obviously) whenever I am asked that question. What do people think? Does it matter at all? Should I just suck it up and answer with "well"?<br /><br />UPDATE:<br /><br />As readers on Brazen Careerist <a href="http://www.brazencareerist.com/node/19315/">have pointed out to me</a>, <a href="http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/good-versus-well.aspx">supported by Grammar Girl</a>, saying "I'm good" is a perfectly grammatically correct response. In this instance, "am" serves as a linking verb and it is grammatically correct to use adjectives after linking verbs. Therefore, "good" is an adjective modifying the noun "I." The reason I was confused before is that I was perceiving "good" to be the adverb modifying the verb "am." But it is not. It is an adjective. I hope this makes sense.<br /><br />Also note that, <a href="http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/good-versus-well.aspx">per Grammar Girl</a>, it is actually not entirely correct to respond with "I'm well" when asked how you are doing. "I'm well" refers to the state of your health, not to the state of your happiness. So you can use "I'm well" to mean that you are now feeling better (than you were before...presumably you were sick), but not to mean that you are in a good mood, etc.<br /></div></div>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-36901851148459719212008-09-17T16:14:00.001-07:002008-09-17T16:14:51.692-07:00The Importance of Being PreciseIn the last month of constant communication with managers, associates and fellow analysts, I have come to realize that it is definitely worth it to make the effort to be as precise as humanly possible during daily communication. Especially in a field that is so focused on collaboration and team work, one of the things that makes it truly enjoyable to work with someone is that person's effort to spend little time on explanations and directions. It is impossible to escape them completely, but it is nice to cut them down to the bare minimum.<br /><br />A good portion of my work consists of creating complicated spreadsheet models with 20 tabs that all link to each other in some way. This means that, when I pass off my work to someone else, it becomes a maze of VLookup(), Match() and Index() formulas that can generate an anxiety attack in even the most experienced analysts. In order to prevent unnecessary trips to the doctor, it is imperative to be able to explain the reasoning behind your spreadsheet models, behind their "architecture" and your reasoning in general. This is where preciseness comes in.<br /><br />Before I send that email or make that phone call, I usually take about five minutes to go over what I did in my head and remember the big picture. When I gather my thoughts, "column L" becomes "monthly interest payment" and "I multiply columns B and C to get the index" become "I multiply the daily stock price returns of the companies in the index by their corresponding daily market caps and sum them to get the value-weighted industry index." This is a simple example, but if I apply this effort in reasoning and explanations to all my work, I simplify life for many people. It is much easier to understand the latter sentences in each pair and it saves the other person a lot of time by laying out all information to them upfront. And as an analyst, it is my job to simplify my managers' lives.<br /><br />It definitely takes a greater expenditure of brainpower to do this (...than to not even make this effort...), but it is good practice to develop this skill early on. I cannot imagine a situation when precise language will not come in handy (e.g. even if you need to conceal something, it will be easier to do if you can clearly formulate your thoughts). And even at this level, your managers will notice, your brain will develop more connections among its neurons and people will like to work with you. I know I am always excited when I get a call from such people.<br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-4651121-2");<br />pageTracker._trackPageview();<br /></script>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-33910778196318146072008-09-09T01:02:00.000-07:002008-09-09T01:33:04.372-07:00Every Girl Has Thought About Marrying Rich at Some PointWhen I was in Moscow several months ago, I met up with a male friend of mine for a cup of coffee. In this case, the word "friend" is a bit of a stretch. He messaged me on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Facebook</span> a year and a half ago, flew halfway across the United States to meet me and propositioned a long-distance relationship. I was immediately freaked out by his direct actions and slowly let him down after spending a whole day showing him around San Francisco. However, when his <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Facebook</span> status informed me earlier this summer that he got a job in Moscow working in a private equity fund organized by a very powerful Russian bank, I was impressed and intrigued. Which is why we met up for that cup of coffee.<br /><br />The friend, whom I shall refer to as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Dmitry</span>, turned out to be quite an impressive guy. We talked about a lot of things: getting a job in Moscow when you have work experience in America (fairly easy), convincing your interviewer to hire you even though he can hire three Russian guys for the same cost who will work just as hard (really hard), cultural differences between America and Russia (too many) and things that are culturally unique to Russia's capital (e.g. if you take the metro, you are considered a lower-class person). It was a great experience for me - I learned a lot from him that would be helpful when I try to get a job in Moscow within the next several years. I also now really liked him (of course, Murphy's law...) and could not believe I was stupid enough to reject him back when he was interested. Timing is everything. We did not work out, but that is a story for another post.<br /><br />One of the things that he said that really stuck with me was when we talked about what each of us wants out of this life. He said that, for a woman, a career as a high-powered executive and a good family life is much harder than for a man (don't I know...thank you, <a href="http://sociology.stanford.edu/people/cridgeway/index.html">Cecilia <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Ridgeway</span></a>). I agreed, but said that I need to make something of myself in this life and am willing to work hard at it. This, by the way, is being tested right now. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Dmitry</span> replied that a woman has a much higher chance of meeting and marrying a rich man when working for a non-profit or some kind of charity because men with real wealth often deal with organizations that are of philanthropic nature. This was in contrast to really hard working females in law, banking, consulting, and other upper middle class professions, who meet men at work and marry them. They then have combined incomes of approximately half a million dollars, which is really great, but not as high as others "out there."<br /><br />To be completely honest, the statement haunts me to this day. A small part of me wants to just marry a rich guy, live the high society lifestyle and enjoy a financially-worry-free life. And then the majority of me hates the trophy-wife small part of me for even suggesting that to myself. Because it is not honorable and in the end I do want to make something of myself. So I'll just keep on working for now...and maybe watch out for some of those non-profit volunteering opportunities.<br /><br />Disclaimer: I am by no means a gold digger. I think at some point every girl has felt like this...deep deep deep down inside. Even if she is not willing to admit it.<br /><br />Also, this guy came off like a snob in this post, but he really is not. He is a great guy. I just best remember the most scandalous things that he said during our conversation.<br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");<br />document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-4651121-2");<br />pageTracker._trackPageview();<br /></script>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-28809644487929966922008-09-01T12:56:00.001-07:002008-09-02T02:53:02.394-07:00Dealing with Long Work HoursEver since I actually started my job two weeks ago, I have been working kind of late. I say kind of, because I get off around 8 p.m., sometimes 9 p.m. and have gotten off at midnight a couple of nights. I have also worked at least one day during the weekend. Since we have a final product that needs to roll out to a client in two weeks, I am expected to work late and on weekends the next two weeks. I also worked two days out of the Labor Day Weekend.<br /><br />Now, this kind of shift in schedule from doing everything and anything I wanted in college and doing one thing for 12 hours a day is pretty daunting. By no means is it easy for me. I like my personal time and I need about four hours of it a day. Which is proving pretty hard with these kinds of work hours.<br /><br />Last week I talked to my mentor, who has been in my life for four years now. He has always helped me out with any types of questions I have, both personal and professional. He said something very interesting to me. He told me that my parents never really lay any strict rules on me about work. I always got summers off and if I did work, it would only be a part-time job of under 10 hours a week. During most of my summers since I turned 16, I went to Russia and Ukraine to party 24/7. This is the first time that I am operating under such structured time constraints. And the most important thing he told me is that everyone goes through it, that this transition from college to your first job is completely natural and that it will get better (at least in my mind).<br /><br />So why do the long work hours bother me? It is mostly because I consider this time in my life a time of not only professional, but also personal growth. I want to learn how to live by myself, how to cook for myself, how to be a young adult. I want to have a personal life and be able to spend time with my friends during the week. I want to fall in love. But my current work hours do not allow for more than going for a jog and perusing through the entries in my Google Reader.<br /><br />So how do I deal with working long hours consistently? Here are a few things I think about:<br /><br />1. This is a time of <span style="font-weight:bold;">transition </span>and I am just learning how to live with such structured constraints on my life. Even if the work hours remain the same, I will get used to them.<br /><br />2. This is a time in my career where I need to <span style="font-weight:bold;">prove myself</span> and is the best time to do it. I am young and not tied down by any family responsibilities. My time belongs only to me, so I am free to spend it all on work if that is what it takes. No other time in my life will it be this easy to work long hours. So I should take advantage of this opportunity, prove myself to my employer (and my managers), solidify a good professional reputation and then go from there. If worse comes to worst, I can opt for a less time-consuming job. The challenge of adapting to such work is a great experience.<br /><br />3. Although it is an external motivation, I focus on my team. Working on <span style="font-weight:bold;">a good team is crucial</span>. I was fortunate enough to be assigned on a team where I knew the people from my last summer and whom I really like. When I am stuck in the office with them at midnight creating some exhibit, I am excited to be there. I take comfort in the fact that they are also working hard and that they really need me to help them out. They could do it without me, but why would I want to leave them when I can help and cut down the work for them? A sense of camaraderie develops and makes it actually fun to stay in the office and work on something fairly late!<br /><br />4. These long work hours make me think hard about the <span style="font-weight:bold;">activities I really value</span> in my life and keep them. Everything else I need to cut out. I care about my friends and I will carve out time to keep up with them. On the other hand, shopping (which used to consume a lot of my time) has to be cut out. If I am to be successful, I am to be busy. And if I am to be busy, I cannot afford to participate in activities that I do not care about.<br /><br />5. And of course, a <span style="font-weight:bold;">sincere thank you from your managers</span> is an extremely powerful example. But more on that later.<br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");<br />document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-4651121-2");<br />pageTracker._trackPageview();<br /></script>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-3303700033473391732008-08-29T12:58:00.000-07:002008-08-29T14:57:23.787-07:00Credit Card Fraud Is EasyThree weeks ago, I had a very unfortunate incident happen to me. I was at a seedy bar in the SOMA and made the stupid mistake of putting down my purse and jacket on a shelf next to the dance floor (I blame the Stanford bubble). I thought I would be watching the purse. Needless to say, when I returned to it from dancing, everything was gone.<br /><br />This is when things got interesting. The same night at 4 a.m., my parents received a call from my cell phone. The guy on the other line told them that he works at the bar where I was, that he found my purse and that I could come pick it up the next day. Elated, I did not cancel any of my credit cards or my cell phone and ran over to the bar the next evening only to discover that he had lied to my parents and my purse was long gone. I immediately canceled my credit cards, filed a police report and waited. Over the next couple of days, I looked at online my credit card transactions with horror as more and more charges appeared on them. In total, the guy charges more than $1,000 to my credit card and checking accounts. It was horrible to watch that and not be able to do anything about it.<br /><br />In retrospect, this probably was a cheap lesson to learn. I am now extremely aware of how easy it is to fall prey to identity theft and advise everyone to be extremely careful about their financial identity. You can never be too careful.<br /><br />What really got me today, though, is buying lunch using my debit card. I have stopped signing the back of my credit cards. That line is now blank and the idea is that it is not authorized unless signed or unless the merchant verifies that it actually belongs to me by checking it against an ID. This guy, however, looked at the back of my card, got a little confused, swiped it nonetheless and gave it back to me.<br /><br />I could not just leave it like that. So I smiled, batted my eyelashes and told him that "You know, it's not signed in the back." He got ever more confused and then dropped a bomb on me: "Oh...what does that mean?" Seriously?! Are not merchants supposed to train their staff how to handle electronic charges?! It just blew me away. So I summarized my story to him in one sentence and told him that he should really check people's signatures on the back of the card and even check IDs. he said he definitely would in a tone that clearly indicated that I should not hold up the line. I am sure he forgot about me the next minute, but I could not have just stood there. Maybe this was a small, but still step, toward greater credit card safety.<br /><br />I hear that if you put "SEE ID" on the line instead of your signature, it might also work. This way, the card is not valid unless the merchant sees my ID and checks that the card actually belongs to the person who is using it. There are mixed opinions about the validity of this method - see <a href="http://lifehacker.com/software/credit-cards/dont-sign-your-credit-cards-201344.php">for</a> and <a href="http://www.scambusters.org/Scambusters80.html">against</a>. But I do not care. Whatever might give me greater protection gets my vote.<br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");<br />document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-4651121-2");<br />pageTracker._trackPageview();<br /></script>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150928068356172986.post-35817078202093560352008-08-29T02:05:00.000-07:002008-08-29T14:57:44.783-07:00Happy at WorkToday was a great day at work. I am amazed at how much I am still learning about myself just by the virtue of being in a professional setting and having a real job. During junior year of college, I thought that I have discovered pretty much all of myself, but was completely wrong. Over the past half year, I discovered myself at exponential rates, which is very exciting.<br /><br />But back to work. I started at the beginning of August at the consulting company in which I interned last summer. The first two weeks were training and real case work only began last Monday. Since I was not a complete newbie, I was staffed on two very time-sensitive cases - 50% of my time was supposed to go to each of them. Since then, it has been a constant struggle to juggle both cases. One of them took over almost 100% of my time, while the managers and associates of the other one were wondering where I went. I spent two hours in meetings everyday, 50% of which I did not really need to attend because they were brainstorming sessions for the managers on the case. The work was piling up, I was getting called on to do little assignments by two different teams and I started to get very stressed out and frustrated.<br /><br />And finally, the last couple of days everything clicked. I caught up on my part of the analysis, really dug into it and started to understand it. I felt comfortable enough to take ownership of that part of the work (however small it was in the grand spectrum of things...and it really was), understood it, could change it in any way that managers desired and felt that it was <span style="font-weight:bold;">my </span>work product.<br /><br />Today was a great day because I was constantly busy from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., but I felt like I was on point at all times and all the tasks <span style="font-weight:bold;">fit </span>their time frame. I love these types of days.<br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");<br />document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-4651121-2");<br />pageTracker._trackPageview();<br /></script>Irinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281357550561392805noreply@blogger.com0