there’s a full list with post grad salary & # offers but the more interesting bit IMO isat the first url.

not only does it give you start salary & # offers per student, bonus (BONUS!!!!???) and recruiter rating but also a nice overview of how much the degree cost & how long it takes (ie how long your life will be hell & how much salary you’re giving up).

i know some of you thought i was insane coming over here for my mba but in looking at those numbers i think i did just fine for a number of reasons – the only missing item (which i knew before) is the lack of alumni networking.

and now i’m going to sleep.

the personal mba is an idea (promoted by seth godin) is a website that recommends business books to read and then provides an online community in which to discuss them. interesting concept.

i didnt check out the community but i did scan the books & noticed there’s a few i’ve been wanting to read but none are books we read during my mba. our reading was lots of textbooks and lots of articles so not all that surprising. the list covers some marketing, finance, starting a company, etc but the biggest hole i noticed was the lack of org behaviour books. i didn’t see anything about teams, or change or faciliation. the closest they get is negotiation.

thursday here. moving slow this morning since i stayed up late to participate in a webcast out of nyc (which ended up having poor audio and wasn’t quite what i was thinking it would be so i left).

SHIT.

the article points to the visa situation (ie the extra paperwork) and that’s why they wouldn’t be hired but also mentions communication skills and cultural differences. there’s also a mention of the student may want to go back to their home country so they wouldn’t be around long term (who hires for long term?!?!).

this is disturbing for a couple reasons. first and selfishly, i wonder if this is the sort of crap i’m going to run up against. i can’t tell yet if there’s a ‘hire australian’ mindset here. i think the interview i had the other week was partially b/c i’m american and it was assumed i’d be grateful to be given a visa (i already have one) and would be hard working.

more disturbing is the ‘another nail in the coffin’ of america. recruiters saying companies just aren’t interested in diversity? international viewpoints? insight the students would have to different countries? i don’t know the details of filing a H-1B visa but I know what is involved in work visas in the UK & AU and neither are very horrible nor very expensive so an excuse involving a visa is bullshit in my opinion.

it’s just sad. very very sad.

i’ve def been sleeping more and am up to date on days of our lives (the seem to have taken passions off the air!). i’ve spent about 2 wks just putting pix online that have been sitting here for ages (and i’m not finished). i’ve started redesigning the brautigan site (old design there still) & i’ve done the design for my thesis site. i’m using wordpress for these and another to-do on my list is to move all my movable type blogs over to wordpress.

i’ve also started looking for a gig. b/c of my immigration status i can’t work full-time but i’ve started looking at what’s out there and revising the resume. i have filed paperwork at immigration so hopefully that won’t take too long.

i’ve started going to pilates again which is great. not sure if it’s the exercise or the lack of stress but i’m starting to feel human again. starting to feel like listening to music & talking with people. just haven’t felt like my normal self for a while now (more on that in another post).

also been watching the news for katrina stuff. i don’t have cable so i’m not getting it constantly. the general media feel here is portraying the situation as fucked (which it is). the emphasis has been on the slowness of help, bush being a dickhead & the possible racial or class issue. i’ve also seen some of the jim lehrer newshour. my attempts to record the today show (which is on at 4am here) have failed b/c i’ve screwed up the recorder.

the tv stations here run lots of american clips but do have their own reporters in the states. the different slant they give is generally about the missing australians & how the usa govt did not allow aussie officials in to help find aussies. at first there was a list of missing. then interviews with people whose girlfriend or mom & dad or cousin got ahold of a phone & rang from the convention centre or dome or something. yesterday there were interviews with some who had made it to dallas. it seems there’s only 1 aussie who isn’t accounted for yet (at least he’s getting the media attn but i’ve also heard there’s 6 yet). check out the age if you’re interested in the news from here.

oh… and i’m watching ipod prices on ebay.

random stuff…

nyc vs sf

buy your own strap for public transport

i am soooooooo getting shitfaced friday nite.

but now i’ll fixing up my results discussion chapter.

taking some time off tomorrow, going to the zydeco thing & have a party to attend tomorrow nite.

the gov’t announced their budget last week. weird stuff i’d like to comment on but … i am in THESIS HELL.

last wk i got 3 bad pieces of news concerning the thesis. this is why you won’t hear from me. i will be working my ass off for the next month. if you IM me & i don’t reply… or if cut you off… apologises now.

but one quick thing i have to tell you about… the umbria jazzfest is here this wk. i found out there’s a few free concerts & rockin dopsie & the zydeco twisters are one of the free shows. of course by the time i call, all the freebies are gone but they are also playing at the hyatt. if you look at the page i just linked to you’ll prob notice a few things that are plain weird.

first off… they’re playing at a hotel. in the cafe. why bring someone across the world & have them play in a cafe?

second… they’re playing at 1pm. there are no evening shows at all. ok.. maybe some of the twisters are getting on in age …..

third… there’s a buffet! zydeco & buffet? hmm. and no, it won’t be poboys and jambalaya. i called to enquire re: the veggie options. they claim there will be salads & couscous. um, yeah, ok. so i confirm that it’s really 1pm. yup. and then i ask if there’s a dance floor. now i’ve REALLY confused the poor girl. no, there’s no dance floor. she wants to know why and i tell her about zydeco. she had no clue. she said the whole idea behind this was for people to come for lunch and have the jazz to listen to as you eat.

shit, i might have to pay $32 just to watch people try to eat during this.

the meeting with the new thesis guy went well. the person who handled them has recently left (or been pushed) & i needed to have a chat anyway. i’ve been having great difficulty in finding a firm to work with. i can understand it… had someone i didnt know approached me i probably would have pushed them off also. time is running out so i needed to come up with a new approach. fyi, this ‘work w a company’ thing is a uni requirement.

so i tell the guy im having problems, we chat for about 2 minutes, i tell him a new idea & he sez that’s fine. WOW. that’s great.

now, instead of studying 1 team, i’m going to do interviews concerning the virtual team experience. AND they do not have to be from the same company!!! i can mix companies, industries, countries, etc. I’ll have to do about 30 or so but I think this will be a lot easier than my previous plan.

so….. if you’ve ever worked in a virtual team, volunteer now or i’ll probably hunt you down. IM, phone, email, or even f2f will work. (and sorry, i have no funding for this so i wont be making calls to the rest of the world).

in other news…. i got some excellent koko black chocolate & a spa gift certif for valentines day. i baked an angel food cake & didnt kill anyone! the last episode of the office was on tonite (where he begs for his job). and im kinda tired.

just a quick ‘cultural’ comment though… valentines day isnt celebrated as much here as at home. the florists have valentines decorations as do the chocolatiers and some others but not a ton. today while i was waiting for my thesis guy i was talking to another teacher. he was telling me about this conference he’s been organising @ uni. tonite was the opening (and free) speeches. he asked if i was going. um, no. duh. it’s valentines day. and he looked puzzled for about 2 seconds & then said ‘oh yeah. right. never thought of that when i was planning it’.

here in melbourne, if you don’t have cable, there are 6 tv channels. one of them is a community station that airs lots of news programs in a lot of different languages. for argument’s (and entertainment) sake, there’s really only 5 channels. last nite 3 of the 5 aired a live concert to raise money for tsunami victims. i don’t find a lot of the australian acts all that interesting so we decided we needed to get out of the house.

today’s news is how the concert raised A$20 million. i find this amazing. there are only 20 million people in this country.

we decided on seeing team america but when we got to the theatre, it was sold out. ok, fine, 2 to the incredibles please. that theatre is filling up fast. i can put you in the 4th row. um…. so no movie.

there’s a borders right there so i picked up the xmas issue of new york time out. reading that at work today helped my ‘this tiny pissy country sucks’ mood. the weather should be better this week so that might help (yes… slightly above freezing in nyc right now).

for those of you at home, it’s wed nite ie thanksgiving eve. here it’s thursday but no one cares about thanskgiving. i’ve met 3 americans here that apparently do a huge dinner but i’ve only met them once & am not invited. i was thinking of doing something this saturday but havent gotten organised enough. i’ll have to do something though cause i have friends who can’t fathom the idea of sweet potatoes w marshmellow.

one crappy thing about being out of the country is not seeing the parade. BUT i’ve just found streaming video!!! earthcam
is streaming now…. (from 46th st … not uptown where they are blowing up the floats).

earthcam sez the parade is at 11a (is that right??) so that’s 4pm thursday if ur in london & 3am friday in melbourne. i have the live cam running now & all i can hear is the buzz of noise & a car honking its horn every few seconds. oh… now there’s a siren going off…. ahhh… the sounds of home….

oh… btw…. it’s a beautiful sunny warm thanksgiving day over here…