Interesting combination… How does this make any sense? Why are two top American MBA programs joining forces?  It makes a lot of sense for intercontinental connections like the ones we see for places like MIT Sloan and Tsinghua University in Beijing, but two American ones? What could they possibly get out of this?  Do the curricula really differ that much between these two programs?  Probably not.  Its obviously a marketing play.   Interesting value proposition - 2 MBA degrees for the price of 1.  It will be interesting how they leverage this relationship.

Merging the strengths of two top business schools, the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA program attracts seasoned professionals who want to earn an MBA and gain access to the resources of two noted universities while sustaining career momentum. In 19 months you receive degrees from each school, with a world of experience that sets you apart.

Internships for MBA Career Changers

Many people attend business school with an eye toward changing careers, and one of the most important aspects of that shift is a summer internship. Internships are an invaluable way to gain experience and references, and to decide if your new career choice is right for you. And, if all goes well, an internship will lead to a job offer.

Taking a Chance
Many students start B-school with a solid grasp on their new career path, and they pursue an internship in that industry. But if you aren’t quite certain of your direction, consider an internship in a field that’s in stark contrast to what you’ve done before. For example, if you’ve worked in manufacturing, you might try consulting.

Taking such a leap will help increase your knowledge and experience base, making you a more appealing candidate for any company. “Spread the spectrum of your experiences. Push yourself,” recommends Shelley Millis, a 1999 Carnegie Mellon MBA, who is now a principal with DiamondCluster International.

Ann Browning, Associate Director of the Career Management Center at Kellogg Graduate School of Management agrees: “Try something different, especially if you’re on the fence [about your new career choice]. You can always spin [the experience] for a different industry if it doesn’t suit you.”

Narrowing Your Options
It’s important to begin narrowing the focus of your internship interests early on. Most internship interviews don’t begin until January of your first year, but the onslaught of slick corporate presentations starts right away.

“You’ve just unpacked and bought books and the presentations start. There are sometimes five companies [presenting] a night. You’d be lost without some direction. You can’t possibly go to all of them,” says Mike Scheu, a 1998 Kellogg graduate who switched careers from finance and accounting to consumer marketing.

“The people who have the most difficulty in the process are those who do multiple interviews over many industries. They get overwhelmed,” says Kellogg’s Browning. “Part of our role is to help them narrow their focus.”

On-campus recruiting is dominated by large, mainstream companies. “If you’re not looking for pure vanilla, you’ll have to do research yourself,” says David Spyra, a consultant who previously worked in marketing at a software start-up. “Sometimes people get caught up in what’s socially desirable and don’t pursue other options,” he says.
Additionally, most companies aren’t looking for as many interns as they are full time employees. “Students shouldn’t just rely on campus presentations to find internship opportunities,” says Browning. “They should also network outside of the on-campus process.”

Getting the Internship
Take advantage of on-campus resources when preparing for interviews. Career management personnel can help you learn the language (jargon) of your new industry and assist you in spinning your previous experiences to match the skills the industry seeks.

Highlight transferable skills both in your resume and during interviews. For example, if you previously worked in the non-profit sector and are looking to try brand management, talk about your leadership and creativity skills.

Maximizing Your Internship Experience
Make sure you start the summer with a good sense of your expected responsibilities. Sit down with your supervisor early on and review your project list in order to assure that it’s meaty enough. If it’s not, take the initiative to suggest weightier projects that will give you more responsibility.

“You only get out of an internship what you put in it. Assert yourself. You won’t necessarily be led by the hand,” says Mike Cloyd, a financial analyst with Corning. Cloyd earned his MBA in 1999, after spending five years in the Navy.

Networking is also key. Spend time speaking to people at different levels of the organization. Be sure to talk to other interns about their experiences.

Getting a job offer is a top internship goal, but even if you decline, it’s important just to have it in your back pocket, as it shows you were a valued employee. “As an interviewer, I’d definitely ask a potential hire, ‘Did you get an offer [from your internship]?,’” says Millis.

Deciding Against a Career
If you realize the career path you chose for an internship isn’t a good fit, be sure to leave with specific examples of what you did and how you impacted the company. Also be prepared to give a thoughtful and detailed explanation of your multiple career shifts.

Corning’s Mike Cloyd received an offer after completing an operations internship at AlliedSignal (before it acquired Honeywell), but decided to go into finance instead. He found that his interviewers at Corning were most interested in his qualitative skills, such as leadership.

Cloyd says, “Corning was interested in my career goals, and they found my explanation of my time at Allied to be valid. Still, there were some questions I had trouble with (because of lack of specific finance experience), but it was doable.”

Source: WetFeet

Since I’ve become a full time working man, I’ve started to realize that the highlights of my days, weekends and holidays all revolve around food. Not just food like grabbing a burger food, but good food - like the type of food where you have to make reservations and eat what they serve you type thing. It’s not just me either, 8/10 people I know (varying from unemployed to consultant to engineer to banker) all love doing the same thing. I guess it’s the way people our age celebrate our semi-financial independence from our parents and new found money appearing in our bank accounts. Or maybe it’s because we want a taste of the high life and feel like we’re in control if only for a few hours. It’s definitely not a great habit to get into at our age unless you’re already pulling in mad cash, but hey, for a lot of us at this stage in our lives, it could be only time when we can spend so freely. If you’re concerned that you’re spending too much on food but don’t want to stop with the fine dining, this Morton’s coupon should help ease your conscience.

I will be posting off and on about my thoughts on the MFE program since that is where I am in my life at this point. I just finished my first week of classes.

There is a strict focus on career. During orientation we had mock interviews in which randomly chosen people were grilled in front of the class. Keep in mind, classes didn’t even start yet! We also had to “fix” our resumes during the orientation. There is a writing professional to guide us on our resumes and cover letters. These go through numerous revisions throughout the program. We meet with him one-on-one every few weeks.

The class — There are 65 students in the class. Half have at least a few years of significant financial experience. The other half are “career-changers” with little or no relevant experience. There is a guy who is a former market-maker, as well as a guy that has his own statistical arbitrage fund. However there are also plenty of fresh graduates from either Bachelors or Masters programs. A good amount of professional-level programmers. Very, very diverse across ranges of age, race, and experience. I have never been part of such a diverse group of people. Women are the minority, I would say less than 20% of the class.

What’s important — A statistical background and programming languages (C++, Matlab, SAS, other statistical software packages). Math is also good, second to stats. My engineering background would be a distant 3rd. From observing the first week, it seems that the people from stats backgrounds are having an easier time.

Classes — 8 week blocks! 2 weeks less than a quarter system, which I though was very quick already. I actually prefer semesters — more time to think. Definitely a barrage of information just from the first week. Classes this first block include:

Empirical Finance — Stats-heavy, simulations in Matlab, currently focused on linear regression and time series processes such as the AR(1) (simulates a process through time while taking into account randomness as well as past history)

Stochastic Calculus — Replicating portfolios, breaking down assets into their basis, risk-neutral measure (a measure where risk is adjusted into the probability), martingales (expected value of X in the future is equal to the current state of X. A fair coin flipped independently and sequentially is a martingale — essentially you “start over” at every iteration)

Theory of Investments — Investments and their origins, theory, history of finance

Here’s a pretty good blog that I’ll have to tap into once I get the MBA prep rolling. MBA Blog.

Being Taiwanese, its always nice to hear some good news about the going ons in the motherland. This is from MoneyAndmarkets

You can’t flip through the business section of any major newspaper in America or watch CNBC for more than ten minutes without China being mentioned.

For better or worse, the global financial news with relation to Asia is heavily skewed toward China.

What the pundits often forget to mention is the fact that Beijing has none other than Taiwan to thank for turning the mainland into a global technology leader and economic powerhouse.

In fact, more than 60% of Chinese technology exports are made by Taiwanese companies. What that means is that most of the technology profits from anything stamped with “Made in China” are probably going to Taiwan.

Today, I want to talk to you about Taiwan and why I believe “the other China” may be the next emerging market star. Let’s start with …

A Brief History of Taiwan

Taiwan, also known as the Republic of China, has been independent since the end of a civil war with China in 1949. A majority of the one million Chang Kai Shek supporters who fled to Taiwan were the Chinese who had the most to lose under communism — the merchants, doctors, business owners, and well-educated professionals.

One million of Chang Kai Shek’s supporters fled to Taiwan after civil war in China.

Those entrepreneurial Chinese brought their work ethic, drive, skills, and business acumen that transformed Taiwan from an underdeveloped agricultural island to an economic powerhouse that is one of the largest producers of high tech goods on earth.

Today, Taiwan is the world’s largest manufacturer of computer chips and is a leading producer of LCD panels, DRAM computer memory, networking equipment, personal computers, and consumer electronics.

Taiwan has its own high tech metropolis, Hsinchu City, which rivals Silicon Valley. The capital city, Taipei, boasts the world’s tallest building, the 101 Building, and is one of my very favorite cities to visit in all of Asia.

On the negative side, there are more than 700 Chinese missiles aimed at the island. Here’s why …

The relationship between China and Taiwan has been described as a broken marriage. Beijing wants to reconcile the two countries under one ruling roof while Taiwan wants to stay separated and independent.

For the last eight years, Taiwan has been ruled by a president who favored outright divorce, which is why the Chinese government has threatened military action against Taiwan should it seek a formal divorce.

As a result, the Chinese legislature passed an anti-secession law in 2007 authorizing military action against Taiwan if it moves toward independence.

But most, if not all, of that tension is about to disappear …

Taiwan just elected a new president, Ma Ying-jeou, and I think he’ll be good for stocks.

Recent Election Should Jump-Start
The Taiwanese Economy

Taiwan just elected a new president, Ma Ying-jeou. He is a pro-business leader who will push for closer ties with mainland China and defuse tensions between the two countries.

For instance, Ma, a Harvard-educated lawyer, has promised to revitalize the island’s economy with closer economic and transportation ties to booming mainland China.

Right now there are no direct flights between Taiwan and mainland China (except on holidays). Even though Shanghai is right across the Straights of Taiwan, businessmen have to fly to Hong Kong first and then catch a connection to Chinese cities!

The election of pro-business Ma may create the biggest peace dividend our world has ever seen and reward savvy investors who jump on board early.

Plus, if politics weren’t enough to build upside market momentum, consider the fact that …

Taiwan Has One of the World’s Most
Undervalued Stock Markets

Taipei’s 101 building is the tallest in the world.

Taiwanese companies trade for an average of 16 times earnings, a bargain compared to 19 times for Hong Kong and 22 times for Chinese stocks listed on foreign markets, such as the U.S.

In fact, the Taiwan stock market is essentially where it was eight years ago while the Chinese market has skyrocketed during that time.

Does investing in Taiwan make sense to you? If so, there are three ways to include it in your portfolio:

1) Taiwan iShares ETF (EWT): This ETF tracks its namesake index, a capitalization-weighted bogey of about 110 holdings that represent nearly 85% of the Taiwanese market. EWT’s 126-stock portfolio is heavy on information technology companies (55%) like Taiwan Semiconductor, Hon Hai Precision Industry, and LCD screenmaker AU Optronics.

2) Taiwan Closed-end Funds: There are two closed-end funds that are Taiwan focused: The Taiwan Fund (TWN) and Taiwan Greater China Fund (TFC).

3) Individual Taiwan stocks listed in the U.S.: Currently, there are eight Taiwanese stocks that trade right here on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. They are …

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASX)

AU Optronics (AUO)

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT)

Himax Technologies (HIMX)

Silicon Motion Technologies (SIMO)

Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL)

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM)

United Microelectronics (UMC)

My Asia Stock Alert subscribers have owned several of these companies in the past with spectacular results.

And while I’m not recommending any right now, that could change very soon, especially given Taiwan’s improved political landscape and its stocks’ bargain basement valuations.

Generally speaking, when you take higher risk (greater standard deviation, or sigma), the expected value of your return is higher. That is, if you live a million lifetimes, you will most likely enjoy a high rate of return. Unfortunately, you get only one life, thus your return can be significantly less than the expected value. This is the same idea as the law of large numbers. When your sample size is small (1 life) it just depends on how risk-averse you are. Essentially, you are gambling.

Thus don’t expect higher returns just because you are taking more risk.

MFE classes have just begun. I am taking a course on Empirical Finance and the professor, Rossen Valkanov, is probably the most intelligent professors I’ve ever had in my academic career. He is a professor at UCSD’s Rady School of Management. If things continue to be interesting, I may finally be able to leave the quarter-life crisis. That’s a big IF.

Great business blogs and websites.