And I’m Back!

I can’t believe how much time has passed since the last time I wrote a post! I have been really lazy, I have to admit it!

In any case, I have been thinking about publishing several posts on my blog for quite a while, but I always found reasons not to: grab some drinks with classmates, hang out with my wife, discover new restaurants, trips, watch our amazing Duke basketball team play at Cameron, academics (yeah, second years study from time to time)… Living the life as a second year!

I have so many things to tell you, so much has happened since my last post published in November! On the one hand, I have already made up my mind about what I’ll be doing after the MBA: I signed with Deloitte!

If you recall my post back to when I had just started at Deloitte, I was quickly staffed in an M&A project. I was flying out to the client on Sunday evenings and coming back to Atlanta on Thursday nights. I was traveling internationally, although it was only around three hours flight. The bad part about it was going through immigration every time I flew, specially to the US. Several times I had to wait for two hours in the airport until I was able to get back into the country. Nonsense.

My summer at Deloitte was great and it showed me why it’s one of the best consulting firms. But one of the main reasons why I chose Deloitte was its people, smart, driven individuals who go the extra mile to help you. The culture there reminded me of the culture at Fuqua in so many ways. I explored other options, but decided to go with Deloitte at the end.

So that’s settled, my wife, my dog, and our soon to be born daughter will relocate to Atlanta in a couple months. Oh, yeah, I didn’t say anything about that either, right? I’m going to be a dad!! I’m still getting used to how that sounds. We decided to follow what MBA really stands for: Making Babies in America! Atlanta is a very affordable city compared to NY or the Bay Area. It therefore made sense to go there for some time and recover from two years of just spending money and not seeing a dollar make its way into our bank account.

Atlanta at sunset

We already have an idea of what neighborhood we will relocate to and we are really excited. Although I am already depressed! Graduation is just around the corner! In exactly two more months I will graduate and return to the real world. The only thing that conforms me about graduating is that soon I’ll be making some good money! Deloitte’s offer is amazing. Their starting salary is great, good signing bonus, and they will pay for my second year tuition. Yep! You read that right. Compared to what I was earning before the MBA, my salary will increase by… Yeah, I think I made a great investment coming to Fuqua :D.

It’s really funny, as I am now talking with several prospective students who have been admitted to business school and wonder whether the investment will be really worth it. I had exactly the same doubts myself two years ago. If only they would have told me how much I would earn after my MBA! It would have saved me from having endless arguments with my wife and family about whether we were doing the right thing.

In the next two months I’ll be more active writing posts. I have received great feedback about my blog from prospective students and MBAs in the class of 2016. I have a lot more info to share and I plan doing so before I leave Durham.

I want to finish this post with a message to all of you who are about to quit their jobs and start an MBA, or those who are thinking about applying to business school. At this point you might have heard that the MBA is one of the best experiences one will have during their lives. It’s true. It really is. And as many alumni told me when I was about to move to Durham in July 2013, I wish I could be in your shoes and start this process all over again. Good luck!! I’m here if you need anything: reachingthethirties@gmail.com.