Healthcare industry, here I come!

Coming back to school, I always knew I wanted to do something different in my career - I wanted to find my "calling." But it's always scary to think about change, especially considering the 6 years I've already "sunk" into working at P&G, the world's largest consumer products company, as a senior engineer. I'm sure many people feel this way throughout their career, but I just never thought, at the age of 30, it would be me. 

How could I have not found my career passion yet, after a whole three decades??

After a long self-reflection, I realized...I want to go into a career where I can truly improve people's lives, and I think that industry is healthcare. 

But what could I offer to the industry, after designing shampoo and razors for 6 years? I spent my first few months at LGO talking about I've talked to many classmates about this - and the response I got was overwhelmingly positive. They found strengths in me I never realized, that I already have a B.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering, and should be able to pick up what I need to know very easily. That I already have leadership experience, having managed 2 direct reports as a senior engineer. That I really understand people, because I have done so much consumer research. Most importantly, they made me realize that my 6 years of work in a different industry were not wasted; in fact, they were actually an asset. Besides, what better place to try out a new industry, a new career direction, than in business school?

With my newfound confidence, I hit the ground running. In the past several months, I've tackled supply chain and warehouse issues at Amgen, one of the world's largest biotechnology companies, led a "Big Data and Personalized Medicine" panel for MIT's annual BioInnovations conference, worked as a project manager at Pfizer leading Synthetic Biology projects, and now I'm partnering with Boston Scientific to help them troubleshoot issues with their new product, a heart mapping system for heart arrhythmias.

I never thought, at the age of 30, that I would be entering a completely new field, but I'm very excited about it. 

And the nice cherry on the top? I got my first A+ in an engineering class, in my Drug Development class. Grades don't really matter that much, but it's always a nice confidence boost, so I'll take it!

In my last semester of LGO, you can find me designing a new medical device with my team for our Medical Device Design class. After LGO, you'll find me working at Amgen in their Woburn, MA facility, where I'll be working on production of viruses to treat cancer!

EnerNOC plant tour

Last week, we took a trip to an energy company right here in Boston - it's called EnerNOC.  We had a personal intro to EnerNOC by MIT Sloan alumni Craig, now director of the "NOC" (explained below).

We learned about "Demand Response," a term used to describe managing extreme spikes in energy usage (such as heat waves in the summer, or an especially cold winter day).  The alternative to not managing high demand days is...a blackout.  Which would be NO fun.

EnerNOC specializes in demand response, but also provides other services for it customers, including data analytics and other services.  What I found really cool was EnerNOC's "NOC," a glass-enclosed office with many computers and associates hard at work scheduling energy usage of their customers.  Displayed on screens in the background was the energy demand sorted by sector.  Each sector has different needs when it comes to demand response - for example, the "light industrial" sector is typically open to demand response - they will shut down their manufacturing operations when needed.  On the other hand, a hotel or a school is less likely to be amenable to demand response, because they typically don't have the flexibility to shut down at will.

EnerNOC senior management of various functions - product management, program operations, and lead generation and marketing operations - held a special Q&A panel just for us.  It was great to hear their perspectives on the company's mission and goals, past and anticipated challenges, and plans for the future.

Of course, no plant tour is complete without team photos with the EnerNOC managers who took time out of their day to talk to us!

A candid shot!  Informal Q&A after the panel session.

LGO's enjoying EnerNOC's swanky Seaport office over-looking the water.

(Hmmm...we could get used to this!)

Finally, a collection of photos from our subway ride and our group walk to the company.  

What a beautiful way to spend a Boston summer afternoon!

 

 

The Public Transit Waltz - aka how to get around without a car

Why you should do the waltz

While a car can really get you places - to the grocery store, shopping, cape cod, etc. it also costs a lot (parking runs you a $150+/mo. and don't forget insurance and gas costs!) and driving in this area is a really big pain because of the aggressive drivers and confusing streets (recall: On The Amazing Race, held in Boston few seasons ago - pretty much every single team got lost here...)

So today, I'm going to give you an insiders look at how, with a little bit of planning, you too can do the "public transit waltz."  This information should be helpful for all Boston newcomers, and has some extra info on perks for MIT students ;)

Convinced?  Ok, here's what you do...

First, open this public transit tracker website on your smartphone, and click on "add to homepage" and save as an icon on your phone:

www.nextbus.com

This bus tracker gets your location, and shows which buses are coming when.  It's pretty awesome - I've used it for the MIT Tech Shuttle (see below). and it's fairly accurate.

Then, if you're not an MIT student, get one of these (for MIT students, hold for the next tip...):

It's a plastic CharlieCard for the MBTA, Boston's public transit system. It gives you a 50 cent discount on both bus and subway, which can add up really fast considering you will be taking one or the other wherever you go.  The MBTA website says it's available at most stations 7a-7p, but it's really not available anywhere except the downtown crossing stop, 8:30-5:30p M-F (don't bother going to the other stations - I learned this the hard way...)





If you're an MIT student, sign up for the T-pass discount program, and choose the Linkpass option.  You'll get half off 70 bucks.  Not bad!
https://commuting.mit.edu/

Waltzing with the MIT shuttles

For MIT students: check out the shuttles!  (I have looked up all of these and downloaded all PDFs into my smartphone - I recommend you do the same ;) )

Tech Shuttle: Runs Monday through Friday, from 6:15 AM to 7:10 PM.  Stops right at MIT Sloan Business school.
http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/shuttles/tech_shuttle.html

Others worth noting:
Saferide, which runs at night: http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/shuttles/safe_ride.html
Boston Daytime Shuttle, which takes you into Boston: http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/shuttles/daytime_boston.html

And few **new** ones (they didn't have these when I was an undegrad!)
Airport shuttle: http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/shuttles/airport.html
Grocery shuttle, looks like this only runs during the academic year, but looking forward to this in the fall, as it goes to Trader Joes, Star Market, and even Costco!: http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/shuttles/grocery.html

Last but not least, I've heard good things about this one although I've never taken it,
EZride, which takes you to the Cambridge Galleria Mall, among other destinations.  It's free with your MIT ID. http://www.charlesrivertma.org/program_ezride.htm

Have other tips?  Share in the comments below!

Happy waltzin'!

Frankfurt to Amsterdam

What is it like to be an admitted student, waiting for school to start?

Well, first you find classmates are all enormously helpful and committed to finding you a place to live.  One classmate took pictures of all the apartments he checked out and sent me a link to all his photos. Another wrote an entire packet of available apartments in the area and handed them to us at MIT Open House.  I found a posting on the LGO Facebook group for a summer sublet by a fellow Sloan classmate - and we arranged everything through Skype and email.  Gotta love modern technology!

The second thing you find is everyone is traveling somewhere.  People are looking to meet up in exciting cities in Asia, Europe, Africa...you name it.

LGO starts earlier than the rest of Sloan - first day of class for us is June 3rd.  I took that as a sign that it just means I had to leave earlier!  So I took off for Frankfurt at 7:30am the Saturday after my last day of work, and here are some pics!

I started off my trip in Frankfurt, with my good friend Weanna Chow from my P&G days.  We checked out the main square with the traditional German buildings - so beautiful!

We went to Wagner and had their traditional German fare, including Apfelwein (apple wine), and the monstrosity shown on right, called knuckle of pork, which was surprisingly very delicious.

Notice these weird trees - apparently they were popularized by Van Gogh's paintings and now they are everywhere here.

Of course, no trip is complete without a house party with Kinect Sports action!  Check out my hurdles!

We then took the train to Cologne and had beer at Fruh, which was a really light, crisp, refreshing beer, almost as light as water.

Back on the train to Dusseldorf, home to the "longest bar"and Fruh's rival, Zum Schlussel.  Another delicious beer.

If you ever go to Dusseldorf, don't miss this beautiful view here, esp breathtaking at sunset!

Next stop: the Netherlands!  Went to Utrecht and then to Delft.  Delft is known for their beautiful blue porcelain.

Catching some zzz's on the train to Amsterdam...and doing the must-do touristy thing - pictures with the giant "I amsterdam" sign.

Now I feel sufficiently refreshed and energized.  B school, here I come!

I'm in!

The first time I learned about the LGO program was through my Chemical Engineering advisor at MIT, Barry Johnston.  We had just had a career discussion - one of many, might I add!  I remember saying, wouldn't be great if we could build a strong collaboration between MIT and industry?  There is, he replied.  It's called LFM (the old name for LGO).

Many years have passed since that conversation. I graduated from MIT, and entered the working world as an engineer at P&G. But my conversation with my advisor never left me.  I knew I wanted to go back to school, and I wanted to combine my engineering skills with an MBA.  After many discussions with mentors and advisors, I decided I was ready to apply.

The application process was a great deal of work.  After I sent mine in, I put it all out of my mind - the months of studying for the GMAT, searching for that perfect recommender, the many hours spent poring over those essays...

Before I knew it, March was here - when we would be receiving our admission notifications.

I received a personal phone call from the program director, Don Rosenfield, congratulating me for being accepted into the MIT Sloan Leaders for Global Operations program.  A Fedex package arrived with all the program materials, official Sloan business cards with my name on them, an invitation to Open House.  A welcome letter notifying me that upon graduation, I would be receiving 2 degrees, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and a Sloan MBA.  And that I had received a 65,000 grant towards tuition.

It was a lot of work, but it was all worth it, just for this moment.  I can't wait to see where this next step in my career will take me.