INSEAD Blog by Zanat0s the INSEAD(er) @ Tokyo ! The Biggest among INSEAD MBA blogs. Insead is over, blogging not.

MBA job market situation Post 1. zanat0s and students. who is right?

read original @ http://zanat0s.typepad.com

I just found out that my next ,meeting is one hour away by taxi. so instead of sleeping in the cab(something i desperately need) I will post some random thoughts.

It seems i love to blog, sometimes seriously others not so much. I was at Insead last week for a project and was talking with the director of career services. out of the blue a student interrupts us. He asks me if I am zanat0s. I don't deny it....
Then he thanks me for having post so much information online and for being such a strong advocate.

needles to say that the directors was astonished(in a good way! The previous word was wrong since English is Not my first language). Now to another point regarding the job market.

I met some of the July 08 promotion(the one who replaced us) and I heard they were fearing that the job market was in not in a good shape. The students all seemed to have the same fear, finding a good job.

I am not dancing to their tune but probably i am safe and talk while sitting on a cushion. Let me clarify my position and argue.

It is true that the situation in the states is bad. Yes it is bad. Bear steans was bought for 10 bucks per share. write downs are making headlines. The housing market is in turmoil and for the first time the us consumer is stopping to buy.

But look at other countries. Start with the negatove factors. First there is an exportation oif inlfation, food is becoming a luxury(for the poor), staple items are not enough to go around. IMF says the tensions for food will increase. Oil is over 100 dollars and other commodities have become premium priced. Stabilioty is decreasing globally(look at iram, afghan, Iraq, Egypt, and others. Lets not forget global warming(which according to the Bush administration is hyperbole).

But look closer. Europe is still growing all right if you factor in that the euro(my fave currency and I am proud of it, who cares about the pound anyway) is still strong(i hope it goes on like this). Germany is still the worlds top exporter( i totally respect and admire that nation), Asia is busting with growth(with the usual exception of the isolated grey island ). Singapore property market is just a way to become a quick neorich. China is China and even with this negativity still is transforming. Australia is enjoying the commodities(excuse me I meant uncalled appreciation of prices). Latin America is scorning the Usa.

Generally the world will grow this year at above 3%, hardly a slow down or a recession. so what is happenning?

more to my next post which i analyse the situation at different MBAs in the states and @ insead.

activity based cost rent

another short ppost. i just realized i am payting rent for a place in tokyo where i spent less than half my time.

wouldnt it be great to have activity based rent? it would reduce my expenses a big deal. that would be cool.

zanatos is on the road once again. returning to tokyo next week.

first mobile post

Hi all. get prepared for nmore posts sibnce now i can post on the go. zanat0s is up and running.

so now i know how to kill time during transportation. i m in singapore in the moment and i have to say it is super exciting.

though i have to say now i am happy woith my life in japan thanx to the friends i made there. isabelle, david, kathleen. nahoko and so many others.

saturday

Mount Fuji in spring

i took it easy today. i set up all my elecrtonic stuff(almost) and i was battling the monster called VISTA. i never epxected microsoft ot do so bad. anyway i will go out now and since i am still sick with an allregy i will try not to not behave.

Gadget List! what i want to buy..

I have to make a confession. I am a gadget freak. Yes I admit it. I love gadgets and I like surrounding myself with the best the technology has to offer. Since dreams are nice to have I have compiled a list of gadgets I would like to posses at this time. One should not forget that technology changes quite quickly and this list may be obsolete by the end of the summer.

Essential Gadgets

Phone: Right now the phones on offer are not something extraordinary. A lot of people would go crazy with the iphone but not me. A phone should be a personalized item, an extension of one’s shelf. My pick would have to be at the moment these 3 for different puposes

Design wise: The Prada phone! Sleek, sexy and pre iphone! Unfortunatley form a business standpoint is not the best one. No windows software no 3rd party support. Doesn’t work around the world(remember the countries like Japan and USA where they use strange technology

Multimedia platform: Nokia N96! A multimedia powerhouse. Forget the Japanese, they are a century behind in mobile phones. Nokia has found the path. Nokia N96 is amazing but due to my uses I would go with
HTC TYtN II: the best workphone(even better than blackberry). It has windows Mobile 6.0, outlook sync and stuff. The combination of an added GPS sweetens the deal!

For the future though I will try to acquire ASAP Sony’s Xperia, the dream phone coming alive. SONY and Microsoft creating a truly superior phone

Mp3 player: Unfortunately here I will have to say the ipod touch is unbeatable. Maybe the zune can compete in the future but not now.

Mobile Video player: The ipod touch here loses by default. It doesn’t support a lot of formats and its limited space is a big drawback. COWON A3 is a great competitor to Archos 605 but not enough. ARCHOS has an amazing interface that makes browsing quite easy.

Mobile gaming Device: I am not a Nintendo fan . PSP is a mobile powerhouse and more flexible than Nintendo DS. Ds has games for children. PSP is great for a ton of things and always gets upgraded.

Gaming machine: I would say PS3 but it doesn’t have any games. At the moment I will give the title to PS2! The undefeated champion of console sales. It is still selling after 6 years. 100+ million sales.

Ultra PC: I wish I could have an Alienware home PC! They are ultra customized handmade pcs that are built to perfection. They cost a fortune but their value proposition make them worth it. I would get the Alienware Double SLI with water cooling and the Quad Core extreme overclocked processor. Unfortunately I know this will never happen.

Laptop: one word! Dell XPS M1730. The ultimate portable machine. My dad would always criticize me for my laptops for being bigger than they should be. I do not care. I want big screens with a lot of computing power. There are other laptops out there but the XPS has the best design.
Home Theater gadgets

Big TV: No, not an LCD! A Plasma Kuros by Pioneer. I have been saying that plasma is still the way to go and KUROS proves that. The best image one can possibly imagine. LCDs cannot still master the black color.

Dvd Player: Sony blu ray.
Home theater: difficult one, a never had one.

Memories - Gone, part of me gets "formatted" !

Why I detest New Years Eve – Loss of Memories! Data Recovery in Need
Happy 2008 to all of you. I guess I should be saying how great the beginning of each year is and insisting on the optimistic side of life. I won’t. Personally NYE bring along some unpleasant surprises when it arrives.
This year though my bad luck had no precedent. As a careful kind of guy that I am I have 2 external Hard drives connected to my laptop where I can keep all my non essential data. I want my laptop clean and light so all my setup files, music, movies and photos are stored in these 2 hard disks. Since I moved to Japan though I had to buy 2 new ones since for weight reasons I left the ones I had in Greece.
Back to the 31st of December of 2007. Before I left for the two parties last night I left my computer downloading stuff from the internet. I won’t delve into details of how the parties were. My return to my apartment had a really nasty surprise stored for me. My laptop was full with warning like WINDOWS WRITING DELAY(or something like that) and letting me know that my data on my H had drive was lost. In the beginning I got a bit frustrated but said ok it is nothing I will re-download them, it will just take more time. My brain hadn’t yet registered the fact that the messages were referring to the drive itself and not any specific data. Instead of panicking at 5.30 AM and doing something irrational (like reformatting the hard drive on the spot) I took the prudent action of sleeping in order to clear my head.
Unfortunately when I woke up and thought about the issue at hand again I realized the situation was graver than I had initially calculated. Yes data is not important as long as it can be re-acquired. BUT, there is a big BUT that changes the equation. While Music and video and other related content is freely available on the web my personal life isn’t. My photos and videos are what can define me. My memories are mine and for me to enjoy. How can you enjoy life if you cannot ook back at the path you walked. Photos and videos capture the moment for eternity it is the pathway to the past and a way to connect with others.
Personally I didn’t want to upload my private life on sites like picasa and facebook since it only concerned me. Right now I regret tenfold not having shared my pics with my friends online. I have spent the whole morning of 1st January 2008 searching for solutions to this catastrophe of biblical proportions. If the worst comes to the worst I will send this hard drive to world’s best Data recovery labs. My memories include my family, my friends. My trips! Anything I worked for. There is no price tag to one’s life.
So yes 2008 didn’t welcome me the way I expected. Instead of gaining new experiences and memories I lost the ones I had in 2006 and 2007. That’s a hefty toll don’t you think. I hope to all of you to avoid this dreadful fate. Basically keep a copy/back up of your most important data. The one that cannot be restored if lost. So yes no party no fun for me on the 1st of 2008. UPDATE I have copies of my life memories until the Middle of March + Insead Graduation. What I have lost (other than tons of music and movies) are my trip to spain(*Found on Facebook), my vacations in Greece with my friends( nowhere to be found), my trip to London for the INSEAD reunion my trip to china and last months in Singapore (*nowhere to be found) and unfortunately all of Japan experience: My work, my work parties, my new Japanese friends and the experiences we shared here, the brunches, the meetings. All of it is gone but not yet in my head. Let’s see if Data recovery software works.

What I would LOVE to do!

After a lot of soul searching I realized the following things about me. I love a nice big comfy bed with a refrigerator next to it. Having a nice comfy bed can lead to long hours of studying/reading interesting books or subject. The bed will make the process more enjoyable while the refrigerator will cater to nourishment needs.

Of course no other place or a life can be satisfying without an AIDA! Aida(only those who know me personally will understand what AIDA is) is a must for everybody’s life. I cannot imagine my life long term without an AIDA to facilitate the situations and encourage a better quality of life.

Then we have gadgets. There people who rather have one-gadget machine that includes everything: Camera, Video, PC, PDA, time keeper, email. Something akin to a swiss knife. I on the other hand I rather have a gadget that is great at what it does. I rather have a mobile phone that is great at making phone calls, a camera that takes fantastic pictures, a video player which can dazzle with its crystal clear screen and a game machine on its own. Gadgets is a love of mine but not as much as my biggest love

A Huge LCD TV screen which is used for gaming and viewing movies/Tv shows. I want to design my place in such a way that the viewing experience will be unsurpassed. If I didn’t have to work I could stay indoors non stop and indulge in viewing the dvds and movies I have amassed.

But (un)fortunately that is not the case(yet).

New Horizons: Entry into Japan

So here I am. My first blog entry from my permanent (?) base in Tokyo, Japan, is being written. In less than 11 hours I will enter the office officially.

I had a rough night last night and I didn’t sleep at all. It had to do with the build up of the anxiety I was feeling the last days. Moving is difficult. I came to this trip with 3 pieces of luggage which made packing and commuting an experience in hell. At 6.20 I left the hotel in a really bad mood with rain failing like cats and dogs. When I arrived at the airport the taxi driver asked for 30 YUAN more than it was written on the taximeter. I wasn’t in the mood for arguing so I paid him. Maybe 10 was for going through tolls, who knows?
At the airport I had to make use of all my charm to get onto the plane without paying a lot of excess charges. When I travel with Lufthansa I have not a lot of problems since I enjoy some privileges there. I ended up paying only charges for the 10Kgs(managed to save 40Kgs), which will probably be reimbursed by the company.
At the airplane I had a choice of many movies to watch but I decided to take the chance and rest (I even skipped lunch). ANA definitely deserves it reputation for excellent service. When they saw me waking up, an stewardess came immediately to ask me if I still want my lunch.
Getting to the hotel was tricky. I had to take a limousine bus (a bus which drops guests at specific hotels) then get a taxi to my hotel, which is close to my offices. All the way though people, simple bystanders were helping with my luggage non stop. I am just finishing this entry and will go to grab something to eat in shibuya and then walk around there. I will spend the rest of the night contacting friends in Japan. Lets see how it goes from here!
PS if any1 knows any good language schools or teachers to recommend drop me a line.

Zanat0s Out

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Where Do I Fit
Here is where you stand relative to your friends,
based on votes we gathered from them.
you category votes wins win%
1st a better laugh 3 3 100%

2nd more likely to succeed 3 3 100%

4th better at science 2 2 100%

5th rather kiss 2 2 100%
5th crazier 4 3 75%

9th rather marry 2 1 50%

11th a better smile 4 2 50%

15th more attractive 3 2 66%

16th rather date 2 1 50%

17th more athletic 4 2 50%
17th a better sense of humor 3 2 66%

18th braver 2 1 50%
18th more naturally talented 3 1 33%

20th more generous 2 0 0%

21st more likely to win in a fight 2 1 50%

22nd a better profile picture 3 2 66%

Getting Older(like Rocky). Random thoughts

Oh boy I was going through some resumes for some positions I need to fill in at the company I work for at the moment (temporarily of course until my visa is ready). Most of the applicants were 1 or 2 years younger and their CV were full with extra-curricular activities. I started feeling a bit old just by checking their age a plurality of boys and girls aged 21-23.

Yesterday at the gym I bumped into some jocks, who were really pumped up and one of them referred to me by asking me “Hey Pops have you finished with your sets?” Imagine my surprise to be called Pops by somebody who hadn’t even turned 20.

I have seen most of my cousins who are much younger than me, turning 18. It seems time has start affecting me. I will be considered senior in some years. Life goes fast like hell you never know what to expect and what has gone by the last years.

Humans have a tendency to try and resist the effect of time on them, either through plastic or cosmetic surgery. Youth is something precious and not to be squandered carelessly. In the beginning at INSEAD I felt a little bit uncomfortable me being among the 3 youngest. Now I understand that it was better for me to do my MBA young(although it is not so clear cut).

I hope life will run as smoothly as it has until now. These were some random thoughts regarding me getting older. It is funny how some years ago you could view some persons as "old" and incompatible and now you can join them for golf or tennis and even some other social activities.