Crappy economy + screwed up immigration= Recipe for wake up call

Yesterday I happened to meet one of my good friends who got her Employment Authorization Document about four years ago. At that point in time I thought she was the luckiest on earth. Turns out all that glitters is not gold. In fact its rotten carcass of a wild goose called immigration. Four years later with a house, two kids and a husband who claimed AC21 to change job from his sinking company to a start up they are still waiting for their green card. She lost her job three years ago and is still looking for a new job in finance. The feeling of being in a queue that does not move, according to her, is similar to that of waiting to deliver an eight pound baby that just refuses to come out. Anxiety, depression, uncertainty has made her and her hubby second think their decision of staying in this country. On her recent visit to India she got a fabulous offer from a fortune 500 company. But she is divided between waiting in queue and availing citizenship and going back to her thriving motherland. She asked me what to do. Honestly I do not know. After writing 'n' number of letters to advocates of immigration I for sure know that if the Green Card does not come then going back home is the best option for me. I have gotten my MBA, my husband is following suit. We have the knowledge and the resources to start our own firm in India. Thanks to US all that I learnt I will successfully apply in my country and help it develop even more. Although I am totally not on board with the idea that immigrants steal jobs I am not keen on living the American dream either. I love both countries equally. From America I learnt to respect all cultures, received best of education, lived the American dream. I learnt to dissolve among all types of people like sugar and tasted 100% sweet. But how long could I write letters and ask the President to fix the immigration issue. The whole point of the American constitution is to encourage people who come to this country in pursuit of happiness. Defeating the purpose of constitution does not suit Mr. Obama or his followers. Making people wait forever is not what makes America great. It is not how a graceful country like America is known to behave. Hoping that things will be sorted someday in this screwed up economy and godforsaken anti- immigration economy I hope and only hope that things will be just fine. Hope is what Mr.President instilled in us and now for immigrants like me the situation is worse than hopeless. As for me its a wake up call and I know what I have to do when time comes.

Finally a Graduate..

One year and nine months. That is what took me to reach the end of the MBA tunnel. 61 courses to cover and 9 units waived I began my journey a bit scared, a bit confident and mostly arrogant. Throughout my journey I encountered some really good professors and some not so good. The professors I liked best were the ones who taught me to love something I would have never ever chosen to learn. They made me  develop interest in something I thought was never meant for me. For instance Prof.David Caldwell's management class made me rethink management as something that needed more than politics to survive. Setting goals, negotiation, confrontation, these are terms we hear and read about all the time but do we ever use it in the right way? I never thought of it the way Prof.Caldwell made me think. For example, I used to set big goals for myself. Not that it is wrong to set big goals but most of the time I never achieved them. His course talks about setting small but achievable goals which according to me is very necessary to make things work. He taught me how important being humble was and that MBA was all about networking. In fact networks sometime can make or break careers. Contacts could help a person in any situation in life. Why it was important to go out of the way for people and so many other simple things in a totally different manner. The best part is that I could put all those ideas to work when in class and afford to make mistakes and learn. Could I have done that in the real world? No matter how much one would argue the answer is NO.
Then there was Prof.Desmond Lo who gave marketing a whole new meaning. He made it fun when he connected quantitative with the qualitative stuff in a no brainer way. Prof.Andrew my another favorite professor taught us that managers sometime go overboard when expanding internationally and forget common sense. There are 100's of theories in marketing that can teach one what to do in a situation but not forgetting common sense can make a big difference. Prof.Linda Kamas's Macroeconomic class actually made me consider getting a Phd in Economics. Of course later I realized I was happy being MBA and not Phd so I moved on. But nevertheless I now make more sense of any raise or appreciation that one gets or a property goes through. I realize what real and nominal means and how inflation factors into everything. A big deal for me. Finally Prof.Fern. He taught me how to think everything form a value and cost perspective for a company. How to know what resources and capabilities are the epicenter of every strategic decision a firm makes. I am glad and thankful that I got a chance to learn from one of the best professors I ever could. The learning has been tremendous and the retention strong.
Of course there were the worst of the lot who were of the opinion,"You do not get my course then drop it." And some like Prof.Sarin who wanted to teach but were torn between should I teach or should I let students learn.I wish he gave more than what he did. He is superb when it comes to teaching business valuation. I liked Prof.Das too but I wish Prof.Ostrov learnt to teach mathematical finance more from a business perspective. The worst of worst was Prof.Shin who taught only to derive and never explained business application of game theory. He is highly unapprocahble and comes across as a snob. He thinks he knows everything and the ones who do not are good for nothing. Bad bad attitude. I wish he listened to feedbacks.
All in all I my learnometer is higher than it could ever be and am very excited to get a job and apply the concepts.
Goodluck to me!