7.22.05 - Shake Shack

There's a litte food stand out in Madison Square Park which is about a block from where I live, call "The Shake Shack". Today some guys and I decided to try it out and see what the excitment is about. Apparently the Shake Shack is opened by some famous chef with numerous restaurants in New York. The Shack is famous for their Shack Sauce, which they put in their Shack Burgers. I think in reality, the coolest thing of all is that they put tables out under the trees in Madison Square Park.

The burgers were quite small (works for me) and they were really good, but the real perk is the al fresco dining. The park is beautiful and on a bright, summer day like today, it was the perfect setting for a laid back lunch of burger and diet coke. There was a line of people waiting at the Shack and even a newsreporter recording a bit on luxury "common" food. As we sat in the green plastic chairs, sparrows landed on the backs of seats, unafraid, as I'm sure they are more used to people feeding them rather than hurting them. *Sigh* the lazy days of summer.

Actually today was the first day even since the internship started that I've been able to take a break. On Thursday, we presented the project that I had been working full time on for two weeks. I've been at the office till 8, 9, the one day that I left early (to go to a dinner), I actually had to go home and finish up the presentation till 12:30AM. So it's not a relaxing internship at all! But I'm glad to truly be contributing something useful to the group and the clients. All in all, being productive is most important.

Internship days

I didn't know where to put my internship experience, should I classify it as MBA or just a part of the rest of my life? In the end, I decided to classify it with the MBA because I felt that the internship is such a crucial part of the MBA experience. The summer is where you test how much you have grown in the past year, the first year of your program. At least that is how I'm looking at it.

So, I started my internship at a marketing consulting agency about 2 weeks ago. I don't want to divulge any details as to the company's name or the names of their clients because so much of their work is proprietary, and I don't want the company or myself to get in trouble.

The experience has been good. I really hit the ground running, was busy since the first week and worked with some really nice people. Although it is the third week and a little bit of tedium is starting to set in. A part of me is feeling like I'm just doing more of what I used to do before I wet to business school, a little differently, but not so challenging. As before, the work is more time intensive than mind intensive. Once again, I find myself questioning whether I would be better suited pursuing a Ph. D. However, I must say that the company is working hard to give me a good experience, and I will work hard to meet and exceed all their expectations. I don't know if I'll take an offer from them, but, well, I'll save that decision for later.

Starting today, I have a project on which I'm managing two junior people. It's only a 2 week project but it's pretty cool to really be a manager. It's also a bit strange being a manager and an intern at the same time. Will see what happens...