It depends

People occasionally email me and ask me for words of wisdom about the MBA. I try and answer these questions as truthfully and completely as I can, elaborating on interview questions, giving advice on recommendations and generally pretending that I know what I'm talking about. It dawned on me today that I've been holding the wrong end of the stick all this time. No need for elaborate answers in the future. See, the most important thing that we learned so far in the MBA is: every question you answer with: IT DEPENDS. Everything depends on something. Variability, probability, exogeneous (sp?) factors, state of the economy, your cost of capital, lost opportunity costs, five forces, five p's, law of demand and supply, what comes out of your decision tree. You name it, and it will depend on it. So that'll be my answer in life from now on: it depends.

Should I apply to b-school or not? It depends.
Should I take that internship with a big consultancy for the money? It depends.
Should I study for Finance or join a sales-seminar? It depends.
Should I go on a blind date with the gorgeous guy in stream X (that is hypothetical by the way, don't want to go start spreading rumours, I am NOT going out with a guy at the MBA)? It depends.
Coffee or tea? It depends.

And the strange thing is: I was just weening myself off the 'it depends'. In a former life I was a consultant, and if I had a penny for every time I said 'it depends', I wouldn't have had to ask HSBC for a loan...

A quick update on the Media Club internship panel, which was held tonight. The participants held internships (or better yet: did projects, media companies get antsy when you mention internships) at companies varying from Yahoo and Expedia to a big newspaper publisher and Cartoonnetwork. Tips for finding an internship in Media:
* read the trade press and know what's going on in the area you're interested in working in
* get involved with the media club and the events they're organising: great way of finding out more and also for networking
* practice some consulting crack-a-cases for the interviews, they will always come in handy
* network, network, network
* industry jobs come late in the season (april/may/june), don't despair if you haven't got anything by the end of the Milkround.

Last, but certainly not least I want to mention the Winter Magic party we've got coming up this Saturday. It promises to be a blast, with great food, horse&carriage rides, a vodka luge and ice bar, and although I've yet to buy a ticket (which I promise I will do straight after posting this, Al) I can't wait to go.

[edit 1: found this really cool website just now: Yukata Loves London, sort of a travel guide extraordinaire of London.]