Modern Day Slavery

Slavery is still happening even in US. I wonder why there's not much coverage on this bizarre event in US news.

A wealthy NY couple is charged with slavery.

Steak : Carlitos Gardel

Alright, alright I'm supposed to be studying for my CFA but I'm always distracted to post on foods...

Next :

Carlitos Gardel
Argentinian Steak Restaurant

7963 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA
90046

Phone: (323) 655-0891

LOVE their steak :

Ojo de Costilla a La Criolla

Tried the garlic fries.. not v impressed. Fresh fries but I was never a fries-freak. Do a half order if you guys want to try it. Tried the famous empanada with spinach filling as well. Pretty good.

I will say that the steak is comparable to Mastro's

Sweet Lady Jane

As promised, another hang-out place in LA that I often go to is Sweet Lady Jane. I always get their Tripple Berry Cake. Service is infamous, place is cramped, but the cake is sooo gooodddd.... My friend loves their Carrot Cake and Tiramisu (only available on Friday and maybe Saturday)

Sweet Lady Jane


8360 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
323-653-7145
M-Sat 8.30am to 11.30pm
Sun 10am to 6pm

*smaller photos are from Sweet Lady Jane's website

Sample Sale in LA

WHY.. Oh WHy.. does this sample sale happen when I won't be in LA anymore...
OH WELL! For girls out there who wanna check this out. Sample sale of lots of designers (past events have DVF, Miguelina, Park Vogel, Geren Ford) and jewelleries ( Uyen-uyen, Mabel Chong). It's more of those upcoming or new designers I believe... They're for the next coming season and around 50-70% off.
I've been to two events and really loved it. The stuff are still pricey despite the sale but worth it.

Billion Dollar Babes
at :

Ivar Studios
1525 Ivar Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90028

on June 8-June 10th, 2007

You have to sign up to attend! And oh, leave your boys at home.

Doing Business in a Men's Jungle

I'm currently reading Monkey Business by John Rolfe and Peter Troob that describes about their lives as Investment Bankers once they were out of the top B-schools. Let's just say it reminded me about my worry of why I do not want to do IB: long hours, making tedious changes to pitch books, lots of booz and men and possibly MCP (male chauvinist pigs), boring works, crazy bosses.

But then again, I can't judge if I have not tried it so let's still put that IB in for my summer internship.

Reading this book, however, has reminded me of what I'd learned from working at my previous company. It was a predominantly men company at the analytical division. We do have a consulting division which I would say is composed of 60%male-40%female ( if not 65-35). Down at the analytical division though, female is a scarce commodity. My team had never hired a female until me and so that is 7 years without any female in team. To think further, in the analytic departments, there are only 3 finance-women. Me as an analyst, 2 others as senior associates. I'm not counting the MDs.. there are a few women MDs. I'm also not counting the few female programmers who work in my floor.

SO WHAT HAVE I LEARNED FROM THIS PREDOMINANTLY MEN WORLD?

1.YOU CANNOT BE HUMBLE! Tell others what you have done
I read an article that says female tends to downplay their works as compared to male. Which I feel is true. Before working here, I felt that people will always notice what you do and so you don't need to say that you've done so.. WRONG! If you're not putting in those extra hours after work, people won't know that you're working hard.. it's all about perception.
So I learnt to not be humble at work. If you know how to do it, TELL THE OTHERS YOU KNOW! Even if you don't, say you know and go find out afterwards ( that's what MEN DO!)
If you don't do this.. you'll be churned by the others ( Lesson well learnt by me )

2. BE SELFISH ( To a certain extent)
When your team members do not do their work, don't cover for them.
If a member is not in the office during a sudden meeting, too bad...
selfish? more like survival

3. PERCEPTION
I notice that people who were rewarded as hard-working in my office are those who SAY that they're busy all the time..
Q:"Hey wanna go for lunch?"
A:"Sorry busy"
Q: "Hey how are you?"
A:"Life is hell. I need to finish this project bla bla bla"
Seriously, act busy!

Okay that's all I can think of right now.. anyone wanna give some tips?
This reminds me of that book :
Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office

Actually, you know what I'm going to get that book right now along with Play like a Man, Win like a Woman book.

Another tips I read from the review of Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do


-Don't always need to be liked
-Don't smile too easily
-Don't apologize too quickly
-Don't clean up after other colleagues (especially men)
-Don't be a perfectionist at the expense of innovative thinking or getting things done

I'm going to second the first 4 tips!

Let's start with a list of websites you SHOULD know

As a friend of mine was asking me about applying to Business School, I came up with a list of websites that an applicant should know :
1. admissions411 on details of applicants to each school
2. accepted.com - great for essays, interviews preparation
3. Clear Admit -submit your CV and you can get FREE initial assesment of your profile
4. Clear Admit's blog
4. Businessweek's Forum
5. Volunteer matching website
6. opencoder for a list of MBA blog
7. Wharton's MBA blog
8. MBA.com
9. The winner of Best of Blogging 2007 - rungee who's going to Wharton


Check out past posts on MBA books and encouragement

A long overdue reject by

NYU finally come today. Oh well.....

Where is my I-20???

Killing me.. I submitted my financial forms to UCLA around end of March and until now I'm I-20-less. First, they say they didn't get my financial statement. Now, they say they didn't have any data on what I did after my graduation from UCLA thus cannot provide me with my I-20 yet (my guess is that I need to show my H-1B working visa bla bla bla )

SIGHHHHHHHHHHH and I'm going back to Indonesia in 1.5 weeks.. come on chop chop.. OKAY well to be fair, the person who is taking care of this is sweet and helpful.

Other than that, my CFA is suffering. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna fail. I have 6 Schweser books and the test is on June 3rd in Jakarta. Right now, I have 2/3 a book to finish. But I have yet to do any of the practice questions.. Lalalalala...... okay haha I'm not exactly in a studious mood because of my pending vacation :P

Osteria Latini

YUM.. look at my lunch today!! Hahaha this not-working-thing is going to hurt both my wallet and my waist line. Anyway, I went to Osteria Latini at Brentwood. The one I had is a spaghetti with seafood ( forget what it's called) and it's really yummy

Lots of customers there seem to be complementing their salads as well.. Btw, in case you've never been to LA.. women here LOVE LOVE to eat salad for lunch for whatever reason.. I'm more of a meat-eater..

Since I'm filling my day with food and studying for CFA, I figure I make a list of restaurants that I've been to as well so other admits/students know where to go in LA.. Definitely recommends this restaurant!

Osteria Latini
11712 San Vicente Blvd.
Brentwood, CA 90049
310.826.9222

Done with Work

I'm done with work.. I quit... well last week actually ( and after extending one extra week stay from my supposedly quit day in April )

I'm both estatic and sad in leaving my job.. it is anyway my first ever job and I did learn much from the position... I'm saddest because I won't be seeing my wonderful co-workers, all who were supportive of my MBA journey and my personal well-being..

Now that I've quit but am still in LA, I'm spending my days by studying for my CFA level 1, basking under the SCORCHING sun along with Paris, making frequent trips to the fridge while studying and packing my stuff..

I actually had a phone interview with a consulting company in Indonesia yesterday and I had a CASE INTERVIEW.. haha which I sucked at because I do not have enough practice.. haha will let you know how that goes..

I had lunch today with my friend who is currently in Anderson and he's been influencing me to go into Investment Banking.. He says that since I have a background in finance anyway, I should pursue IB. He also says that IB likes to have more women and that they kinda lower the standards for women ( Don't kill me.. i'm just a messenger ) hahaha.. it's pretty tempting.. he says that my going to consumer product (Short term essay goal) is crazy because in Indonesia, I will be paid the same as or a little more than the local graduates ( fresh bachelor's monthly salary in Indonesia is $200 ).

So we'll see.. he says pursuing both Consulting and IB is still manageable and not as HARD as others would say.. Told me to pursue at least IB for summer.. tempting... tempting..

Oh well so that's the update for me......

H-1B

I've just been told by my friend who's an Indonesian, had worked in the States previously before her MBA with her H-1B visa that after I graduated, I will certainly get an H-1B visa. THis is because before my MBA, I have already had an H-1B visa and thus I can use that lot again..

I'm not sure about how the process works but to know that I will definitely have an H-1B upon graduation is enlightening.. She found this out from an immigration lawyer who went to her B-school and talked about this..

On the other hand, I had just spoken to my friend who were applying for H-1B this year and she told me she didn't get it.. she said she didn't get the lottery for the H-1B and is returning to school. This is really bad news..

Update
From MBA Hairtwirler's comment :
If you had an H-1B in the past 6 years and have not left the U.S. for more than 365 days since being in H-1B status, you are not cap subject and can change your status to H-1B after you graduate. I'm going to write more on immigration matters in the next week or so...

Why not many women go to B school

As many would complain why the ration of Men to Women in B school is 30-70% instead of the around 50-50 at Law school and medical school, the proposed reasons are :
1. B schools interfere with the age when women want to start to have family. The average working experience of 5 years mean women will enter B school at the age of 27. This maybe an obstacle for some ( definitely for Indonesian women remembering my parents/family nag for me to get married soon.. )
2. Lack of Role Model.. and here's where I want to point you GALS to this special report by Business Week on Women Entrepreneurs and role models of women entrepreneur
3. Gender stereotyping that believe men are better managers than women ( ERR... ?)
4. "Women tend to be more risk-adverse than men. Elissa Ellis, executive director of the Forté Foundation, says women are even more cautious than men about holding onto their jobs and forgoing B-school during a economic downturn, -- partly because women earn less and have less of a financial cushion."
5. "Curriculum. Until recently, the culture at many business schools was a boy's club -- replete with beer busts and golf outings. The classroom curriculum also tended to turn off females, who are usually more interested in using their careers to contribute to the greater good of society, according to Catalyst studies. Students add that the case studies rarely include women subjects or women-friendly businesses, which makes it harder for women to relate."

When God made You

Sad song.. haha at least for me who is currently going through another heart break