Aviraj’s Blog on Posterous

You can call me Avi

Tips For MBAs Who Want To Work At Startups

most of you are going about this startup thing completely ass backwards and no early stage startup that I know of is really dying to hire an MBA.  What they want is a ninja, and a hundred grand or so later, your diploma is not universally recognized as a “I haz ninja skillz” card. 
Instead of asking what opportunities there are for you, you should be telling me what opportunities you are going to create for the startups I know. (“Ask not what startups can do for you…”) 
startups assume that MBAs are going to look for too much money, have classroom knowledge that won’t likely transfer to the real world, and want things to be handed to them. You’ve got to counter that by providing immediate upfront value, differentiating yourself, and creating your own opportunities. From what I see, these aren’t necessarily skills most business schools are teaching well. 
via thisisgoingtobebig.com found via @michaelmontano

Very interesting tips here. I agree with most of them. And if I may add, most of these points apply to *anyone* looking to work at startups, not just MBAs.

Ahem. Noted.

Click through here to read this insightful article by Charlie O'Donnell.

I'm in Boulder, Colorado for my MBA :)

So, a lot of you reading this may know it already but, there, I said it.

I've joined the MBA program at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In case that's a mouthful for you, it's commonly called the Boulder MBA. Orientation begins in a couple weeks, but I landed in Colorado 3 weeks back to soak in some of the awesome front-range summer (unlike the one back in Mumbai). And by God, it's been fan-bloody-tastic. Proof is here.

Boulder is a gorgeous little city about 45 minutes north of Denver, Colorado. It's right at the foot of the Rocky Mountains (hence the term 'front-range')  which lends it the most breathtaking views. This city, as with most of Colorado itself, is extremely outdoorsy, with a majority of the population heavily into hiking, biking, skiing and snowboarding. It helps that there are over a dozen ski resorts within a 2 hour drive from here. Honestly, the quality of life here is fantastic. Not just that, Boulder has the most exciting tech and startup scene outside of the Silicon Valley (at least in my opinion). In fact, I had even put up a post some ten days back which explains exactly why this place is perfect for me from a professional standpoint.

Now, I'm an international student here and, even though I've been to this place before, it's still foreign land for me. It's gonna take me some time to get a hang of the American culture (including everything from people, etiquette, accent to the food and even the transportation system). Here's a few things that I think are gonna be an interesting change for me --

1. American English. This one's going to be tricky. For the past three years I've been using a mix of British and American (for clients) English to the point that I can't quite distinguish between the spellings anymore. Practice practice practice.

2. The cold. The consequence of living in a city that's a mile above sea-level. But here's the thing, the winter is something I'm really looking forward to. After the depressing summer and monsoon of Mumbai, extreme cold is something I could definitely use, even if it takes some getting used to. That said, the summer here has been so awesome (well, at least for me) I would hate for the weather to change at all.

3. Coffee. It's served black and without sugar here. Dude, I'm no Jai Vardhan Singh. I need my sugar and cream (which I fortunately do get on the side).

4. Food portions. Anyone who knows me at all can tell you that I eat A LOT. And yet I struggle to finish even the lunch-sized meals here. That's just crazy.

5. Biking. Yes, I do look forward to that. I sure can use the exercise. But I haven't biked in 10 years. And even though I just need to ride from home to the bus and on campus, it's not so fun when it's all on hilly slopes.

6. Toilet Paper. 'nuff said. Ha! Seriously, I'm not gonna elaborate. If you're from India, you'd understand.

Anyway, the other piece of news is that I'm going to be the official first year MBA blogger for Leeds and will also be bringing in the international student perspective. That's something I'm really excited about. Blogging, as you can see, is totally my thing and I'm stoked that I can contribute to the school's marketing and communications efforts. I don't have a link to the blog yet (it should be set up by tomorrow hopefully) but it's going to be on http://www.cuboulderblogs.com. In fact, I've also created a new Posterous blog for this purpose which will Autopost to the official Leeds blog. Check that out at http://mba.aviraj.com.

So, finally this post is done. It's been lying in my drafts for well over 2 months now so it's relieving to get this off my chest.

Uhh, wish me luck? :) Cheers!

MBAs Go Micro

Small companies can offer perks that will be tempting to students, such as allowing students to sit in on board meetings or mentorship from a top executive. In smaller organizations, many MBAs will be able to rise quickly up the ranks. And the ability to have an impact is far greater at small companies than it is at huge conglomerates.
via businessweek.com

Posterous, I'm looking at you :)