In the last few weeks, I’ve interviewed with Cisco for their public relations intern summer internship and Forrester’s technology research analyst intern. Both are fab companies, great positions.  As of last week, I had done second round interviews with Cisco and just a phone interview with Forrester. I figured Cisco better suited me as I’ve kind of been looking into communications as a career focus (well like I said in the previous post, something at the intersection of business, technology, and communication). After the second round interview with Forrester on Monday, my outlook changed. Both of these second round interviews didn’t seem so much as interviews, but as great conversation with a lot of brilliant people. Cisco more about PR/communications, Forrester about technology. Now i was at dilemma. I wanted both. A lot.

Rewind 3 years and it’s the exact same predicament. Except with colleges. Between Amherst, a small but very renowned liberal arts college in Massachusetts, and of course, UC Berkeley. Back then, it was a difficult decision because both schools had their merits as well as tradeoffs. Luckily for me, my host when I visited was a douche so that made the decision easy. And I’ve been pretty happy with Berkeley so far.

Looks like history repeated itself this time. I received an offer from Forrester yesterday with a deadline to respond today. This morning I called Cisco and asked about my status. The recruiter said I’d be notified by Monday and asked if I had pending offers. When I said so, she suggested I take the offer. Plain and simple.

Hey, Berkeley worked out great. I’m thrilled to be starting at Forrester, I’m hoping history continues on track. Here’s looking out to an epic summer!

History is much like an endless waltz.

It’s the end of another school year already. I’m a senior now. Wow.

I regret not taking the time to reflect on each year as it went by, but I’m going to start today. This was probably the most eventful year I’ve had-also the year I’ve grown the most as a person. 

During this year:

1. I declared the ISF major. I said my interests was global communications, meaning I wanted to examine how technology affects communication in different parts of the world. I’ll be honest–that was a bunch of BS I threw together after Haas rejected me. But on the bright side, it’s no longer BS because I…

2. Realized what I want to do with my life. Not the entire picture in high resolution, more like a fuzzy Polaroid that’s still being developed. But it’ll be something at the crossroads of business, technology, and communications. Business because it’s interesting and I like to think I’m good at it. Technology’s just in my blood (and it’s cool!). Communication is more or less one of my core values. On that note, I…

3. Realized that the Haas rejection was one of the best things to happen to me at Berkeley. Because I’m not interested in most of the core aspects of business, not the stuff emphasized here. Everyone seems to want to go into banking, finance, accounting, consulting. That’s not what I want. I’d shoot myself if I had to take another accounting class. I’m into the more creative processes, developing relationships. Speaking of which, I…

4. Bungled two potential relationships. I’m the kind of guy that wants to be friends first to kind of see if we’re compatible. Unfortunately, that mindset doesn’t work well with women because as soon as you’re in the friendzone, you might as well try to dig yourself out of a black hole. Or so I’ve learned. Last semester was pure infatuation–for us to work, I wanted to change a part of her, and you can’t do that with people. Change has to be something that comes from within, of a person’s own volition. This semester.. well, she had me with her smile from the first day of class. But after a disastrous first “date”, I think I’d have better odds playing the lottery. Still, she’s an amazing person, and I know she’ll have a beautiful life. And be a sun in somebody else’s sky. I Just wish it’d be mine (LOL props if you can figure out which cheesy song that’s adapted from). But seriously, I don’t think I deserve her right now anyway, which leads me to…

5. Self improvement. I’ve come a long way from the quiet introvert that used to play Gunbound in class freshmen year. I’ve become a lot more outgoing, but I’m still not where I’d like to be. Especially when I’m stressed out–then I revert back completely. I took a PE class and I’m more or less happy with the way I am, physically. It’s given me more confidence. But I need to stop caring so much about what people think of me, to just be able to relax in social situations and not worry about saying the “right” thing, or giving the “best” response. Just gotta roll with the punches, always look out for that

Sweet Silver Lining. It’s always there. There’s always something good that comes out of everything. If I hadn’t been rejected from my top choice colleges, I wouldn’t have gone to Berkeley and met all you awesome people. If I hadn’t been rejected from certain clubs my freshmen year, I wouldn’t have stopped by the IABC conference and met Paul, who has done more for my professional development than anyone else, and I wouldn’t have joined PBL, which well.. speaks for itself. Definitely one of the highlights of my college career. Without PBL, I wouldn’t have got in touch with Jerry, who set me on the path to the ISF major. Point is…

There’s all these little serendipitous events that shape our lives. There’s no point in dwelling on a particular event. Tomorrow’s a new day. Exciting things will happen. Is it fate? Are all these little events planned and designed to shape our lives a certain way? Or is it just sheer luck? Some of us win big at Vegas. Some of just go home. You know what I think? I don’t think it matters. Que sera sera. What happpens, happens. Maybe sometimes you can control it. Maybe sometimes you can’t. You know what you can control? Your attitude. And you know what? I’m just going to enjoy the ride. Will update in a few days with a more concrete post about summer plans.

Bonus point: identify this quote.

‘Half of everything is luck.’

‘And the other half?’

‘Fate.’

Watch this video done by College Humor.

Have you ever thought about what your tweets would sound like if you said them on campus? In the classroom? How awkward would that be? Or would it? Too often we forget that our tweets are out there for the entire world to see. If you’re just passing along a message “Krispy Kreme donut sales on Sproul this week!”, you want that. But if you’re replying to someone, having a conversation, people can see that too. It’s like Facebook’s wall-to-wall feature but I don’t have to be your friend to view it. Have you checked out someone’s conversation online just because it was interesting? I’ll admit to doing that. I get curious sometimes. But I know I’ve never stopped to think about people viewing my conversations. Funny thing, I’m not quite sure if I care either.

Anyway, to the crux of this post, and this is gonna be super cheesy. Setsuna F. Seiei is one of the main characters in Gundam 00. He’s a soldier, and he exterminates targets with ruthless efficiency. But little by little, he begins to change, heeding the words of his late friend, “you must change, to make up for me who never did..” It’s because of this internal locus that motivates him, that he really does change. In the series, this change is literal; he becomes an “Innovator”, shown by the yellow eyes in this picture.

It’s an interesting concept, because before, he more or less blindly carried out his mission; he did what people told him to do, and he was great at it. How many people today are like that? They’re so focused, so immersed in their work, that they forget why they’re doing it in the first place. We all do. Doesn’t matter if you’re the scientist who helped create the first atomic bomb, or the banker who gambled on subprime mortgages. There are always situations where we do things because others tell us to, because we’re good at it.

Is that a bad thing? Not always. But possibly. I believe it’s good from time to time to think about what motivates you. What are your goals? Why are you doing what you’re doing? Sure it’s great to follow the pack sometimes. Safety in numbers right? Just hope you haven’t unwittingly become a lemming. Or if you have, make sure you have a flotation device.

Personally, I always liked to march to the beat of a different drummer. Why be like everyone else? (My band director had a different take on that though..). You discover much more interesting places on your own, when you take risks and go off into uncharted territory. On the other hand, if you break apart from the rest of the school, you run the risk of being eaten by a shark. But I say, what’s life without a few risks?

Listen. Interact. Engage.

I wrote this as I sat at a table on Sproul plaza on the UC Berkeley campus, watching the daily antics of Berkeley kids. On any given day, thousands of students walk through this area. On any given day, many students stand by handing out flyers for their upcoming event. I snapped some pictures of two different club’s tactics. One is the non-profit Theatre for Charity promoting their upcoming show. The other is some pre-medical fraternity. I’m sure you can guess who is who.

One group carries around a sign, is very upbeat, literally trumpeting their event. The other just kind of stands at the side, holding out a hand bill to whoever is nearby, mumbling something about pre-med. Who do you think people will remember?

Here’s the obvious takeaway. When you’re trying to market something, whether its online, over the phone, in person, whatever. Be happy. Be positive. Enjoy what you’re doing. Or at least, pretend to. Pretend that world is looking at you. Put on a show. Captivate. And don’t, don’t forget the smile.

The first meaning is quite literal — I’ve been sick for the last month. Going to wrap things up shortly and head to bed for some much needed rest.

The second is referring to the website F*** My Life. It works by people sending in anonymous complaints about Muprhy’s law in action essentially, when stuff goes really wrong.  It features a digg-like rating system where readers can offer sympathy or pity (“you deserved that one”). Each entry garners about 10,000 votes. Pretty impressive I’d say.I don’t know how long it’s been around, but it’s gained a lot of momentum in the past few weeks. One person shows a few friends, that person passes it along to more friends, and so on and so forth. You know how viral videos, products, work. But I’m curious–has this reached mainstream audiences yet? Or is it largely confined to college students?

I’m also curious to find out how many of the blurbs sent in are fabricated. I doubt there’s any way to find out conclusively, but it’s interesting thought, no?

A major problem I’ve seen with a lot of student groups is motivation–they put on these great events, but they’re worried people don’t come out, so they make it mandatory for all the officers, to show solidarity, promote cohesion, etc. Unfortunately, this usually has the opposite effect. Back to football, in college you play because you love the sport, but when you go pro, you play because you have to, you play for the money. And it’s not the same anymore. By making something mandatory you’re changing the motivation from “I’m going because it’s going to be a great event and I want to go!” to “I’m going because I’m an officer and I have to go..” See the difference?

As a leader, think about it from the point of view of your team. Why am I doing this? Is it because I’m assigned to do it? Paid to do so? Or is it because I want to do it? Because I see the value and importance of what I’m doing. Because I’ve bought into the vision of my leader and I want to help achieve it.

I’ve always wondered where there were so few college students on Twitter. Mostly I see journalists, tech people, marketers, writers, a bunch of really smart people using Twitter to change the world essentially. Made me feel pretty small. It made me think–why am I using Twitter? How is that connected to why college kids don’t use Twitter? Well, Twitter lacks the “ooh ahh shiny” appeal of Facebook with its photo/video uploading, its endless amount of applications.. so perhaps thats why. I’ll admit there’s an addiction curve to Twitter. I have yet to meet someone whose first response to Twitter ISNT “ok so I just write about what I’m doing right now? thats… cool”. And then you try to explain to them all the cool stuff you can do with it–like retweets, hashtags, but they’re not listening, they’re still in the “whaat” stage–Twitter’s something you have to try out for yourself. I think the best reason to use Twitter comes from Scott Stratten in Toronto (@unmarketing): “It’s open-door social networking. I don’t need permission to learn from people.”

I think thats probably why I’m on Twitter so much–for the people, for the breadth of knowledge and ideas I get from them. For the willing audience that I get to bounce my ideas off of. For the connections that you never know when will come in handy. For the laughs. For the love (cheesy as it is–you can develop a very warm/supporting following if you remember to give more than you receive)