Goals for the New Year

This time last year, I was celebrating the fact that I had finished my last week of employment, ready to pack up and head to Pittsburgh for this new chapter in my life. This time, I have just passed the halfway mark for my internship and thinking ahead on what I hope to accomplish in my last year at Tepper. Strange to put it in that perspective!

It may be too early to write this as a blog post, but I feel it's important (also since I don't have much other content :))

I didn't have many goals coming into Tepper other than the usual: Win case competitions, get a ridiculously high GPA, be involved in too much stuff. Well, two goals got accomplished. This year, I think my goals are going to be a fair bit more realistic.

- Learn Prezi and use it for every presentation that I need to make in the coming school year. Powerpoint is good; but Prezi could also have its uses.

- Get in early and apply for graduate funding to go to GDC next year. As a graduate student, we have access to conference funds provided we apply for them via the in-school process. There are other restrictions, like letters of recommendation and proof that the conference is related to the student's topic of study - but I think I can prove that, given my internship experience. Going to GDC would also help me with my networking efforts; ideally, I wouldn't be networking for a job but more for industry contact.

- take a hardcore analytics class. I've been generally shying away from analytics courses because of a fear that I would be too behind (due to my courseload I choose to take upon myself) and because I feel there are more interesting classes I should take. Ideally, Market Research would be available. My Mini 1 & 2 options have already been decided; so this would mean mini 3 or 4 would have to include a course like this.

- Drink less soda at the free food events. Soda has probably been the one main contributing factor to my tummy bulge I developed over the school year. The other goal tied to this is exercise more! It's amazing how many excuses pop up - and this is a sentiment in which I am not alone in.

- Keep my blog postings to once a week. Not too difficult here, since I managed it during the worst of the workloads.

There may be other goals that come along - like, get a job, pay it forward, etc - but these are the main ones that I'm holding onto.