A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...
The year was 2004 and I was just hired at New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development after a sixteen-month stint at trying to go entrepreneurial. As you can probably guess, it didn’t quite work out, and I was all around feeling pretty down on my luck.
This job I was hired for would never utilize my core competencies, in fact it would be one of the most horrid, frustrating experiences of my life, luckily it was going to last only a few months until I got promoted to underwriting govt. subsidized mortgages, and eventually spearheading the re-introduction of a federal program called 203(k).
I had been throwing the idea of an MBA around for approximately a year now, and never having really given it much thought, bought the GMAT books, and started studying. – And this is where it began to get interesting. Approximately a month into studying I was contacted by none other than the CIA as in the Central Intelligence Agency for a position in Operations. While I’m not going to go into the semantics of the entire application process, I can say that it was in fact very much an eye opening experience, and made me realize a number of things about myself, where I belong in life etc… I was eventually offered contingency employment with them, but, and you may think me silly for doing so, turned the offer down to pursue an MBA. Why?
Here’s the rub. At the time, I was enamored with a female, who told me that the fundamental problem with Poland (my country of birth) is that there aren’t any good Poles left, and the ones that happen to arise, leave. This began to follow me around, and eventually I decided that what I need to do is work for the betterment of the county that is me. I’ve always been patriotic about my heritage, and in fact it somewhat runs in my family, Warsaw Uprising, AK (Armia Krajowa) the whole shebang…
… and what better way to do this then to get an MBA, and where else but Europe. Surely the Atlantic jump would be too difficult if I were to study in the states.
So this is it, an account of me, Jacek, and how I learned to stop worrying and love the MBA.
This job I was hired for would never utilize my core competencies, in fact it would be one of the most horrid, frustrating experiences of my life, luckily it was going to last only a few months until I got promoted to underwriting govt. subsidized mortgages, and eventually spearheading the re-introduction of a federal program called 203(k).
I had been throwing the idea of an MBA around for approximately a year now, and never having really given it much thought, bought the GMAT books, and started studying. – And this is where it began to get interesting. Approximately a month into studying I was contacted by none other than the CIA as in the Central Intelligence Agency for a position in Operations. While I’m not going to go into the semantics of the entire application process, I can say that it was in fact very much an eye opening experience, and made me realize a number of things about myself, where I belong in life etc… I was eventually offered contingency employment with them, but, and you may think me silly for doing so, turned the offer down to pursue an MBA. Why?
Here’s the rub. At the time, I was enamored with a female, who told me that the fundamental problem with Poland (my country of birth) is that there aren’t any good Poles left, and the ones that happen to arise, leave. This began to follow me around, and eventually I decided that what I need to do is work for the betterment of the county that is me. I’ve always been patriotic about my heritage, and in fact it somewhat runs in my family, Warsaw Uprising, AK (Armia Krajowa) the whole shebang…
… and what better way to do this then to get an MBA, and where else but Europe. Surely the Atlantic jump would be too difficult if I were to study in the states.
So this is it, an account of me, Jacek, and how I learned to stop worrying and love the MBA.
posted by ... j at Friday, April 28, 2006
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