Tulane University Freeman School BLOG

Great sleeping/indoor puttering/studying (if I had any classes left..woo hoo!) weather.

-Joel

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So I’m sitting at home yesterday when a classmate calls and tells me Jimmy Buffett’s playing tonight, in the quarter, for 25 bucks AND no one knows about it! I was in faster than you can say Bear Stearns Pink Slip!

Pretty good concert, a fellow Parrot Head wrote:

The show was his best yet at the New Orleans Margaritaville Cafe. The block party rocked. Jimmy played more to the block party than to the inside crowd. There was a short runway from the inside stage to the outside crowd. Jimmy came out and played to the crowd. It did not matter if you paid $200 or $25, for this event everyone had an upclose and personal experience.

Here’s a quick video. Just one more bonus of getting an MBA in the Big Easy!

Jimmy Buffet Plays at Private Party from joel on Vimeo.

More Buffett from joel on Vimeo.

Have a great weekend, Joel Yarmon, joel@tulanemba.org

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Will -

Q: Professors - Do you find that you enjoy most of the professors at Freeman? Do they make themselves available?

A: Enjoying professors is purely relative. I have only had one that I can honestly say I generally disliked. Every single professor answers my emails in a matter of hours. Every single professor is available at the drop of a hat. I have never had any trouble speaking with them. Our class sizes are small so it’s easy to get personalized attention if you want it.

I will point you to our recent Financial Times ranking of #10 for Finance. This is weighted on the quality of professors and their publishing as well as alum recommendation. But, there are shortcomings as they are people too. You just have to ask for what you want, and they’re good about giving it. Keep in mind that they all have idiosyncrasies and quirks. They’re people too. Some of them are great friends and work their tails off, but are challenging to learn from. Other are spectacular teachers, but take millenia to return papers. Some are just fantastic all around… Russ Robbins I am talking about you. (Note: I have already taken Russ’ class and cannot get any benefit from ass-kissing). So it’s tough work being a professor, but I have been pleased in general.

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Tonights TNS is at Finn McCools at 9:00 (3701 Banks Street).

See you all there!

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Will -

Q: Job prospects - How are they? Where are the main metropolitan areas where Freeman graduates tend to go to ? Did you need to do most of the legwork for your internship or did the Career Services Center play an integral role?

A:This is the toughest question I get regularly. Yes, New Orleans is a small town, but we’re unique and well-known for entrepreneurship and community. I got multiple internship offers here locally. You can network like a madman and because we don’t have 700 new students every year and school connections are generally glad to talk to you. I worked in a job throughout the first year as a full-time day student.

I think it mostly has to do with hustle. I didn’t look outside New Orleans, so I can’t testify about how it was. I can connect you with someone who did though. I think it’s obvious that if you’re going outside the city, it’s more difficult to get your foot in the door, but if you have a resume that shows some specialization in something… then you’ll have a leg up. I know several people who have had a lot of luck outside New Orleans. We are particularly strong in the Houston area. We also do New York well, as far as I know. We have “Freeman Days” in both areas, which you are encouraged to attend. Ooooo… Gotcha… there isn’t a real link for it as far as I know, but feel free to call the CMC at 504.865.5410 and ask about it.

As for the career services center, they aren’t going to find you an internship, but they are a resource. It depends on how you use them. I write Donn Barclay (Our advisor) every week with a name of someone I want to find a connection to. He sends out emails and generally gets me in. Again, I am only looking locally, so it might be easier for him, but they are there to help you with specific tasks and they are pretty good at it.

They don’t bring as many organizations on campus as do other schools, but my luck with that has never been good anyways. Those companies are paying for the right to be overly selective and I like a more personal connection. I think it has worked for some folks though and I can put you in touch with them.

Hope this helps. Leave a comment with a question, or email me at will.donaldson@gmail.com

will

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Sweet! Things like this are great for the city, financially and emotionally. It shows the rest of the nation New Orleans is back and we’re serious about putting the past behind and moving forward.

Of course, there are unfortunately still a bunch of folks out there trying to throw us under the bus. Get over yourself, CNN. Instead of espousing doom and gloom, why don’t you focus on something else, like talking about what great reporting you did during the storm. Wait, got that.

Geaux Hornets!

-Joel Yarmon, joel@tulanemba.org

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Hilarious. Where’s the Freeman MCHammer Rap: Energy - You Can’t Touch This!

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Will -

Q: I’ve read that the average exit salary is around $80K gross. Is this accurate? If so, what is the reason for that? It is hard for me to imagine getting paid this amount in the finance industry. This number seems to be significantly less than other schools which I am considering.

A: In this regard, I read the same materials as you do. This general number is correct as the school releases it and I have seen it. As to why it’s that low, probably because we have a lot of people stay in the southeast and the cost of living is generally cheaper. 80K in New Orleans is a great salary, at least in my opinion. I am sure that people shooting for Wall St. do better because the cost of living is so much higher. I remember when I was applying to schools I looked long and hard at Boston University and Georgetown too. I used bestplaces.net/col to determine what the comparable cost of living was. I just put in 80K in New Orleans and it says the equivalent standard of living is 128K. I think that pretty much sums it up. 80K in the south is that same salary in NYC. Remember, it’s an average and we have plenty of people go to New York, we also have people go to non-profits and several BA/MBAs that graduate in 5 years to get their first job.

People stay in New Orleans because it’s a beautiful place to live. Say, for example, you get offered 115K in New York, and 80K in New Orleans, you’re actually making more money by staying down here, and you get to eat crawfish and jambalaya and its warm. I’d stay too.

Hope this helps clear things up! Ask any more questions in the comments.

Will, will.donaldson@gmail.com

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While nobody in New Orleans seems to care the city has one less wireless network, the NY Times notes you can’t say the same thing about our second football team: the New Orleans Voodoo Arena Football Team!

13,000 season tickets sold, $8 at the door, currently ranked first in the Division at 7-2 - who says New Orleans isn’t coming back?!?!? Oh yeah, those Hornets are doing pretty well too.

April 29, 2008
New Orleans Arena League Team Casting Quite a Spell
By MICHAEL BRICK

NEW ORLEANS — At 26, Danny Wimprine lives with his parents, not far from his old high school, in a room full of timeworn football posters and state championship rings. His father has a dog named Boots, and Boots likes chasing squirrels. Sometimes Boots will catch a squirrel and eat it, and other times the squirrel will get away.

Last Wednesday afternoon, there was a righteous chase, but the squirrel reached the chain-link fence ahead of Boots. So Wimprine followed along and laughed and told Boots she was a good girl just for keeping at it, then loped off at a pace suggesting he had all day. Keep reading →

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I have been a little absent this weekend, mainly because it’s crunch time and I need to make a decision today about internships. We are nearing the final date on our real estate project; we have the ops final on monday and I am sure there is plenty to do in all the other classes too. No, I am not slacking off. I’ve definitely learned something about this whole internship/job search thing. And, I wish I had taken the negotiations class, because it would have come in handy. In the end the hard work of a job search might just pay off. I learned that a good hold on marcro-econ helps when planning to look for a job in the current market.

In other news. This past weekend was the first weekend of Jazz Fest. Unfortunately, it rained both saturday and sunday, but all was not lost, the streets were alive with the sound of music and folks gettin’ busy all night. Someone ran into the lightpost outside my place on royal street. I suddenly realized it’s a really tough life as a lightpost in New Orleans.

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