I 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.

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.

When I came back, the manager I worked most closely with over the summer gave me a very positive review. She said that:

1. I was very organized and meticulous. She trusted me to make an exhibit or do some data research.
2. I was dependable. If she gave me something to work on, she would be confident that I would get it done.
3. 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.

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.

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.

My main distractions are:

1. Google Reader
2. Twitter
3. GChat
4. A really good friend who works in the same company with me that I chat it up with on GChat
5. My office mates' buddies (who work in the company) and visit him regularly throughout the day
6. Craiglist apartment and "free" stuff listings

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.

Lame.

My advisor at work is awesome. He came up with a system for me to become a "star" analyst. It loosely consists of:

1. Reading about what makes a "superstar associate" at a law firm. Then applying the lessons to my own work.
2. 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.
3. Slowly training myself to come in at 8 a.m. in order to have half of my work day be done by lunch.
4. Learning to take a quick 15-20 minutes to do a task to cross it off my list and not leave it until tomorrow.

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.

So here are the things I will do tomorrow:

1. 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.
2. I will check Gmail when I come in and then turn it off. And then I will not check it until after lunch.
3. I will check Twitter only once before lunch. That is all I can committ to at this time.
4. 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.

Will report back soon.

An hour with a role model

So tonight I met Penelope Trunk.

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.

I was introduced to Penelope's blog a year ago by Jason Shen, 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 postpartum depression as support during one of our discussions. And I was hooked.

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).

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.

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.

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.

The truth is that I was nervous and scared. I did not want to waste her time and I had no idea what she would be like or what we could talk about. I thought she would be the ballbuster 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.

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.

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.

About

My 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.

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.

Goodbye, 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.

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?

1. 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.
   
   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.
   
   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 deliver high-quality results. They do not need to be perfect, but they need to be on time and well thought out.
   
   
2. The next big life lesson is to not be concerned about time constraints and not fear getting involved in different projects. 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.
   
   
3. I also learned to ignore the little voices in my head that tell me I am not good enough or not smart enough to understand something. Because I am. The potential is there and I can undertake anything I want and be successful (with the others' help, of course).
   
   
4. Finally, I learned that most 20-, 21- and 22-year old guys have the emotional maturity of 13 year-olds. It is too bad, because some of them are pretty charming. And frats on Friday and Saturday nights scare me a little.

I learned much more than this, of course, and will revisit this topic as things come back to me.

The Importance of Not Being Rude

Being 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.

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.

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 which non-financial incentives motivate me at work . One of them is nice colleagues who do not put me down to make themselves feel better.

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.

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.

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 Donald Trump believes that rudeness at work has negative effects on the company.

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.

The 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

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.

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.

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.

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).

So start getting yours up there. Reading Case in Point 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).

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.

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 Case in Point, 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.

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).

Now, all my exams in (U.S.) high school and college have consisted of writing (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.

Digression over. Conclusion: practice thinking and speaking under pressure.

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!

Overcoming Internet Addiction

Hi, my name is Irina and I am an Internet addict.

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.

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.

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.

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:

1. Commit to checking email only 2-3 times a day. 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.
2. Turn off GChat. 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!
3. Update RSS feed regularly. 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."
4. Read off the Internet, on paper. 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 in case it forgot. I also find that my heart rate slows down when I read a book. Good all around.
5. Do not try to constantly keep up on all news. 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.
6. 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. 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.

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.

Most useful sources:

1. How to Reduce Information Overload
2. Dealing with Information Overload
3. Eight tips to thriving on information overload