I’ve been slacking on the blog posts, and for that I apologize. I do however, have a decent excuse. His name is Sean and he was born on June 21st.
He and Kerin are both doing great. He has impacted our sleep schedules a little bit (Kerin’s more than mine), but he found time to visit campus and apply for early admission.
He’s four weeks old today. So far, so good.
A significant part of the LGO experience is a six month long internship at one of the partner companies. My internship started two weeks ago at the Allston Landing Facility working for Genzyme. I am working for an LGO alum in the Lean Transformation department at a biotechnology plant.
The facility I’m working in produces two critical drugs for Genzyme that account for a large portion of the company’s revenue. In the past few years the plant has struggled with FDA compliance issues, contamination problems, and missed orders. In addition to those challenges there is a billionaire investor looking to shake up the board of directors and oust the sitting CEO who has been at the helm since 1985.
With that much going on I’m sure it will be an interesting six months. I’ve been spending my first days at Allston meeting people and learning the process. I hope to have a thesis project scoped out by the end of my first month.
One of the biggest concerns that Kerin and I had before deciding to join the LGO program was that we would put our “life” on hold for two years. When thinking about a significantly reduced income (Kerin is working while I’m in school), selling more than half of our furniture, moving 3,000 miles, the uncertainty of where we’d be after graduation and a number of other unknowns it felt like coming to LGO would be hitting a big pause button on all of our plans. After a lot of discussion we decided (and hoped) that it would be worth it and took the plunge.
More than a year has passed since we made that decision and in less than a year we’ll be back in the real world. The interesting thing we have learned is that our life really didn’t pause as much as we thought it would. We made the decision to have our first child while we’re in Boston close to Kerin’s family. Our son is due June 19th just after I start my internship. We still take vacations, go to the movies, hang out with friends, and eat a fancy dinner once in awhile. Life is different, but our vision of eating ramen every night, and commuting from Maine so we could afford housing didn’t come to pass. And I feel secure about our future because of the things I’m learning, the people I’m meeting, and the experiences I’ve had.
If you’re considering LGO and are worried about putting your life on hold I encourage you to reach out to current and past students to get an idea of what the transition is like. “2010 me” would have told “2009 me” not to worry and he would have been right.
There are so many great things about the LGO program, but one that may be hard to get a feel for without being here is the people you meet through the incredible network. When you join LGO you become a member of the roughly 1000 current students and alumni as well as the broader Sloan and MIT communities.
This semester I’m working with a team of 2011 LGO students on a project examining the relationship between General Motors and the United Auto Workers, specifically how negotiation dynamics changed leading up to bankruptcy. The current Vice President of Labor Relations at GM is a graduate of LGO and the former VP graduated from the Sloan Fellows program. Our team was able to reach out to both alumni and talk directly to them and their teams about what it was like to be at the negotiating table during the ‘05, ‘07, and ‘09 talks. They both made time to take our phone calls, answer our emails, and helped us tremendously. We were also fortunate enough to have Ron Bloom visit our class last fall to talk about the GM bankruptcy from the government’s perspective.
It was incredible for our team to have access to the people who were at the epicenter of one of the most significant economic events of our lifetime. An experience made possible by the LGO network.
Most Fitting
Diego
Most Disturbing
Mike D
Dirt Lip
Donovan
Best in Show (with over 85% of the vote!)
Steve H
Thanks for playing everybody. Only 332 days to wait until the beginning of 2011 Mustache March.
If Drew Hill was a professional wrestler and had entrance music you’d be hearing it right now.
That just happened….
