Internship Search Is Over!

I just found an internship in Marketing for the Children's Game Group of video game developer THQ. First, for those of you snickering "Trevor and kids games - hahahaha", I ask you what is more fun: selling ATM software to bureaucratic banks or games to children. For those unaware THQ is a major producer of video games for all major platforms. It is a publicly traded company with over $1 Billion in revenues. THQ licenses the rights to Nickelodeon and Pixar properties to create video games for kids. Now that my search is over I will comment on my experiences in this process.

The MBA search can become very perplexing. You never know what an potential intern recruiter is looking for. Honestly, after getting my internship I can still say I don't know. There are students in my class who I am dumbfounded that they got great (sure that is subjective) internships and there are others that are struggling who, if had the power and opportunity, I would hire in a minute.

Throughout my search, I continuously tweaked my resume and cover letter trying to find that magic combination that would get through the initial filters of many HR specialists. I think I faced a "brand recognition" hurdle as I was from Canada and only had worked with small Canadian companies. I am convinced that in their first sweep, HR specialists do not look at accomplishments as much as name recognition of schools or employers. This hurts me as a person who has gone into some companies and made more significant impacts in four months, than some people have made in four years. By being filtered out early, I don't get to take advantage of my interviewing strengths as I am used to selling my abilities after four years of working for myself. It is one of those cases of how I wish the world should work vs. how it really works. So back to reality...

Thus understanding this cold fact of life, one of my major goals in this internship search was to work for a large company with some name recognition to get through those initial filters when I begin my full time job search. I was really lucky to somehow get through the filters and get the attention of a team of people at THQ! I interviewed for a marketing position with the Kids Video Game Team. The interview went well. I was able to avoid the traditional interview and move it to a conversation about the challenges the kids gaming area is facing. The whole experience was really positive where I felt that we were on the same page about many issues.

That same day I was contacted to arrange a second interview in person at the THQ head office in north L.A. A lunch was arranged with me and most of the kids marketing team. While I expected a bit more tough questions, they seemed more interest in talking about what we are doing that weekend. I really liked the team. They were very intelligent, yet very fun. They were people who, if I take advantage of the situation, I can learn a great deal.

The main drawback is that they are located in Agora Hills, north of L.A. This means either I must accept a 2 hour commute each way or subletting a room in the area. Anyone who knows my love of traffic will understand why I prefer the latter option. I figure it is only 3 months, it will allow me to completely focus on practicing my skills during the week, and I can come home on the weekends.

The decision came down to "Am I here to get the perfect internship" or "Am I here to move my career forward after my MBA". In those terms the decision was easy. Especially, if the only downside is location.

My internship shows the amazing opportunities that have arisen from this dramatic change in my life. Everyone who knows me, knows that I love games of any kind. A year ago, I would have never thought that I would or could be working for a video game developer!

Best of all, the search is over. This frees up a minimum of 3 hours per week of work dedicated to finding an internship allowing me to focus more on school work, extra-curricular activities, and maybe even Lindsey.

Wow! Facebook.com is exploding!

Lindsey has become a huge Facebook fan. Last month I went on the site to do some research in internet social networking. I had to do a brief registration to review the site, but I did not finalize the registration. This week I noticed that Facebook has exploded into the mainstream.
I guess, despite not finalizing my registration, anyone could learn that I registered on the site and I received a "friend" notice. After the first one, I went to the site to see how it changed and the number of people that I recognized had grown exponentially. People who I would have never expected to even be regular internet users are avid Facebook users!!?? This is all happened in about a month!
I am up to date with a lot of what is happening on the internet. Most is limited to people who like to be on the edge on the internet revolution. Very few sites get through to the masses like eBay and Amazon.com. Facebook looks to be crossing that barrier. I really congratulate that team. It is tough for a website to be a mass adopted site and they found their way to it.
This may be huge.

More MBA Reading - The Goal

Over the break I was able to only read one of my two books, so the other one will have to sit on the shelf for at least three months because a new quarter has begun and I have a big bunch of reading. This quarter has a few non-textbooks on the reading list. The first of which, The Goal, I was able to plow through pretty quickly.

The Goal is a textbook in the form of a novel designed to teach the operational management theory of constraints. Essentially, it revolves around a manufacturing factory using the newest technology yet hemorrhaging money. At its time (and to a certain extent even today), The Goal really turns our first instincts on how to run a plant on its head and shows how the instincts can hurt us.

The novel is really a pretty easy read although the author, Eliyahu Goldratt, is not much of a novelist. He does do a great job of simplifying the theory through the everyday examples contained in the book. The theory is remarkably simple, but seems so counterintuitive at times. I found it hard to put the book down as I wanted to continue reading to learn the whole theory.

If you have to act in or converse with a production environment, I highly recommend this book. It really clarifies important concepts like throughput, inventory, and bottlenecks so that you can talk the language and help identify the issues with a production process.

Visit from Sara and Matt

My sister and her fiance came down to visit over the past weekend. Lindsey and I were eager to share the Southern California sunshine with them, but as luck would have it they came over one of the cloudiest weekends we ever had. Lindsey and I displayed how acclimatized we were as we talked about how we were freezing in the 15 Celsius weather while Matt was sporting swim trunks.

They arrived Friday evening; starving with their luggage lost. We took them to get Mexican food at Tacos 'n Co, a small hole in the wall place in Irvine that makes some pretty good food.

On Saturday, we drove them out to Laguna Beach where we showed them some of the restaurants that were shown on MTV's Laguna Beach. We brought them to the main beach. I was very surprised to see how busy the beach was in such cloudy weather. People were on the beach in only their bathing suits - just amazing! After Laguna, Matt wanted to find a place that would play the Montreal-Toronto battle-for-the-playoffs game. Yes, you heard correct, Matt wanted us to find a hockey game playing in the OC! And not just any game - a game between two Canadian teams. Talk about high maintenance!

Well, we found it at the Fox Sports Grill at the Irvine Spectrum. We arrived nice and early and asked the bartender to put it on one of the plasma screens. Surprisingly, we were not the only ones looking for this game; a strong contingent from Toronto and Montreal were represented at the bar. They were so loud that they got the game and sound played on the main screen in the bar.

Sunday was used to show Sara and Matt Huntington Beach. I stayed back to do some reading, but Lindsey took them out with a special guest, Tia - one of the poddles Lindsey walks. I guess they got some sun out in Huntington and Sara and Matt really enjoyed the area. Huntington doesn't have the dramatic scenery of Laguna, but it has a very long white sand beach and a younger vibe.

On Monday, Sara and Matt headed off alone into L.A. They seemed to have a pretty good time, but unfortunately they took no pictures. Matt had to leave that night in order to make work Tuesday morning. Sara stayed behind to conduct more business meetings and headed out to San Diego on Wednesday.

It was nice having some northern guests to show them the California lifestyle. As an update, I used the flip flops, but they marked up my feet a little bit again.

Surprise Weekend in San Diego

As I had a full week off, Lindsey really wanted to go away for a weekend. As we happened to have a concert to attend just north of San Diego, we identified San Diego as the target. When we started looking at costs, it became clear that a downtown hotel would not be cheap. In response I began to ween Lindsey off of the idea of going by giving her my trademark "We'll see, but it doesn't look good" look every time she brought up the topic. By mid-week she stopped asking about the trip. What she did not know is that I was regularly checking for a good deal. I found it on Thursday; a four star hotel for $150/night on the edge of the swank Gaslamp District.

The 4-star hotel was the Hotel Solamar; a very posh hotel with a modern design and feel that catered to a younger crowd. It is located in the southern edge of the Gaslamp district with a great view of Petco Park, home of the MLB's San Diego Padres. The rooms were nicely decorated, but the bed, while comfortable, does not compare to pillow top beds used by the Marriot. The highlight of the hotel is their 4th floor pool bar patio. It offers great sun and a fun pool atmosphere, although the drinks were rather expensive. At night it turns into a bar with a DJ spinning into the night.

After booking the hotel I went to work planning the weekend. I wanted to leave most of the time open to what Lindsey would want to do (or "shopping" and "lounging by the pool"), but I booked two fun dinner events that she would enjoy. On the first night, we headed to the Cafe Sevilla for a three course meal and a Flamenco show. The meal was a salad, a pretty good paella (a bit heavy on the salt), and a creme brule for desert. While I admit that the flamenco show was quite entertaining, anyone who knows my deep love of flamenco dancing will understand if I got a bit bored near the end of the show. Most importantly, Lindsey enjoyed the evening.

For the second night I wanted some upbeat fun, so we headed to the Shout House; a dueling piano bar known for its dirty serenades to birthday persons and bachelorettes. The large place was completely packed by 7:30! The performers did a great job at entertaining the crowd and getting the crowd to participate in the show. Even better was their $7 ($5 refills) for 32oz of beer (best deal in the Gaslamp district!). One of the highlight songs had to be Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back".

San Diego's Gaslamp District is quite a nice example of downtown revitalization. I was shocked at the density of the number of restaurants. It felt like there was 1 restaurant for every 2 storefronts. Whatever type of food you could want is found in this district. The area offers some good shopping. Lindsey bought three dresses which I think is a record for her since we arrived in So.Cal.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed north to Solana Beach where the famous Belly Up Tavern is found and the site of TV On the Radio's concert. Solana is a small beach town quickly becoming a suburb of San Diego and is located just off Hwy 5. When we arrived in Solana by 1pm, toured the entire extended area by about 3:30 and realized the concert was at 8pm, it occurred to me that I should have planned an activity. We spent alot of time watching the beach (the surfers were out in full force that day) and trying to stay awake (we can't go all weekend like we used to). A meal at Tony Roma's and a Monster Energy Drink later we headed to the Belly Up.

The belly up reminds me of a large barn. The outside looks small, but the inside opens up to a vast space that holds about 500 people. The stage is rather low, so the site lines for smaller people can be poor except in a few areas. I think the club would be a great dance bar.

For those out of the know, TV On the Radio is one of the more interesting current Indie Rock bands; second only to Canada's The Arcade Fire. The best description of their show is "Sonic". They have an ability to make the sounds from their instruments just soar akin to how U2 does it. I am not comparing them to U2 (they are completely different), just the sonic component of their individual sounds. The lead singer had a fantastic voice and great energy. He moved around and sang like he was singing gospel; lots of hopping, arms swaying with his eyes closed. TVotR is just a great live band. I was not sure how they would replicate some of their sounds on their albums, but they pulled it off. I think many of the songs that I thought were average became memorable when they performed them live. This is a band that is really developing an identity and a great sound. In an album or two they could be taking the mainstream by storm.

Lindsey enjoyed the show as well. She only remembered hearing a few songs of theirs, but was impressed with how they sounded. She also really enjoyed the weekend. It was a complete surprise to her. I think it was nice to have a weekend dedicated to her given most of the year focuses on me.