Monday, June 27, 2011

Midsummer madness + Tallinn

This past weekend was Juhannus, the annual celebration of the summer solstice and "official" beginning of the summer. In Finland it's a time to relax, drink, eat and just have a good time. I think the way people celebrate the holiday is pretty indicative of the culture here; rather than celebrate in a large public place, most people (or at least those with the option to do so) escape to private summer cottages away from the city with their families and close friends.

My classmate Ed was in town, so he and I went to a small island off the coast of Helsinki called Pihlajasaari. It's one of the more common destinations for the few people who choose to stay in the city. People just hang out and enjoy the sun, which didn't set until about 11 pm. There's also a big bonfire.

scaring away the summer solstice demons

While we were on the island, we saw a boat (more like a small cruise ship) called "Tallink" sail by. Upon further investigation, we discovered that it was a ferry service between Helsinki and Tallinn, Estonia. Since Helsinki was going to be pretty quiet because of the holiday, we decided that we should check out Estonia the next day.

It turned out to be a great decision, since Tallinn is a pretty awesome place (who knew?). We mainly wandered around the old part of town. It's picturesque, with narrow cobblestone streets and pastel-colored buildings, but also has a lot of bars, beer gardens and restaurants. It's unfortunate that we only got to spend a few hours there.

narrow cobblestone street and pastel-colored buildings

LGO '12s Ed and Ethan enjoying a beer at Estonia's first pub

I'm pretty sure I'll be heading back to Tallinn at some point to better enjoy all that it has to offer... I'm thinking probably in August when a couple of my friends from back home are coming to visit.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Land of the midnight sun

I moved to Helsinki, Finland a week ago to start my 6-month internship at Nokia, where I'm working in the Sourcing and Materials Planning group on a project that has to do with supply chain risk management. It's an area that's been relatively under-studied, but has been getting more attention over the past few years. A lot of companies are either starting to devise or re-examine their supply chain risk management strategies in light of recent events such as the earthquake in Japan. The core of the issue is how companies strike the appropriate balance between efficiency and resilience within a supply chain. While I'm still trying to figure out the exact scope of my project, it will have something to do with the initial step of identifying and predicting risks as part of the company's overall risk management strategy. It seems like the project has the potential to have real impact, which is encouraging.

It's been an interesting experience so far, and I can already tell that it should be an awesome learning opportunity, certainly professionally but personally as well. Having spent my entire life in one area of the US, I've admittedly been a little nervous about moving to a foreign country, especially one where I would be forced to interact with people very different than what I'm used to. I figured it was something I needed to do at least once in my life, but wasn't sure about how I'd deal with the newness of it all. So far, I think I've settled in pretty nicely.

There's a lot I could write about at this point, but to keep it short, here is a quick summary of the good and the bad so far.

Good
The people: I heard that Finnish people are very business-like and serious, and not so keen on small talk and socializing with people they don't know well. It may be true to a certain extent, but I have been pleasantly surprised at how friendly and welcoming people have been. At work, people are eager to help and share their ideas. I've met some people outside of work as well who also definitely don't fit that stereotype.

The routine: This may sound weird, but I love the routine that I've settled into. It's my first time working "normal" hours (8-5), and it's awesome coming home and having the entire evening free. I can go to the gym, cook dinner, watch TV (already through 2.5 seasons of The Wire -- awesome show), all while not stressing about work. It's kind of ironic that I'm experiencing this normalcy for the first time in such a foreign place, but it's definitely been a highlight so far.

The city: Helsinki is a small city and seems to have a good balance of nice, quiet areas where I can go relax or unwind, but also lively areas to hang out and meet people. It's convenient as well, with good public transportation. The weather has been relatively nice so far, but I'm pretty sure that'll change before I leave here. And, of course, the days are really long right now, which is weird but pretty cool. Here's a picture of one of the more lively areas in town, which I took a few days ago around 11:15 pm.



Bad
Food: I actually haven't been to any restaurants yet, so maybe this isn't fair, but I am not excited about the food here. I think one of the locals here put it best when he said that it's not as if Finnish food might taste really bad, it probably just won't have any taste at all. Strangely, it also seems like there are kebab places everywhere, though I haven't tried any yet. The bad food could be a positive thing, because it's forcing me to learn to cook and because things aren't cheap. Which brings me to...

Cost of living: Yes, it's really expensive here, which is tough to deal with when you're not getting paid. The cost of living seems to be around 30% higher than I'm used to, and I'm comparing to New York and Boston, which are relatively expensive themselves. For the most part, things are priced in Euros what they would be priced in dollars, and of course the dollar isn't too strong right now.

That's it for now. I'm definitely looking forward to traveling around Europe while I'm here and have a few trips planned already- London next week and then Switzerland and maybe France in July. This weekend is Juhannus, which is the celebration of the summer solstice. My classmate Ed is coming to visit, so it should be a good time.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Encouraging Sign

If you're considering applying to LGO, this is an encouraging sign (from the WSJ):

"Harvard Business School's incoming class will have a substantially smaller percentage of finance professionals than in previous years. Instead, a higher number of students will have manufacturing and technology backgrounds.

According to preliminary figures from Harvard's admissions department, about 25% of the 919 students in the class of 2013 are from finance industries— including private equity, banking and venture capital—compared with 32% last year."

I think some people would say that these types of changes occur every 10-15 years and it'll eventually reverse. I hope it will be different this time around given the magnitude of the financial crisis. In any case, having worked in finance, it was pretty easy to see that there were far too many capable people in that industry who could have been adding more value doing other things. I think the amount of criticism the industry has received is unfortunate (and a lot of it undeserved), because it serves such an important function and definitely needs smart, passionate people. But there's no doubt that this type of change is a good thing, both as a reflection of what students at top business schools want to do and what the schools themselves should be targeting.

I'm in Finland now, by the way... blog post on that coming soon.