Archive for the 'Commentary' Category

Commentary: Netflix on Freedom & Responsibility Culture

Netflix takes its corporate culture seriously. Probably the first and only time I would recommend or read a presentation deck of 128 slides. It features FASCINATING insights about its business strategy and culture of work.

I’ve worked for a number of different companies — big, small, new — each has its own set of characteristics. Netflix, thus far, has an extremely unique point of view. The level of transparency is severely refreshing.

Quick kudos to one of my favorite blogs: TechCrunch.

What do you think? How does Netflix compare to companies you’ve worked for or worked with?

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Commentary: The Curse of the Class of 2009

WSJ’s: The Curse of the Class of 2009

Economic research shows that the consequences of graduating in a downturn are long-lasting. They include lower earnings, a slower climb up the occupational ladder and a widening gap between the least- and most-successful grads.

In short, luck matters. The damage can linger up to 15 years, says Lisa Kahn, a Yale School of Management economist. She used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a government data base, to track wages of white men who graduated before, during and after the deep 1980s recession.

Ouch. As Class of 2010, this news stings as well. I imagine that this year’s on campus recruiting class will go ape-shit to land the dwindling number of sexy consulting and finance jobs and internships.

That being said, I’m worried about how this would affect the academic decisions of those in the younger years of college. Does this mean fewer Classics concentrators and more Economics concentrators? Does this mean that the pre-business clubs and organizations will see an influx of weary-eyed freshmen already plotting their post-graduation job courses?

I hope that freshmen will remain freshmen, but that might be too much to hope for. Any thoughts?

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Commentary: Starting Fresh With an Unpaid Internship

WSJ’s: Starting Fresh With an Unpaid Internship

Internships—temporary positions that pay little or no salary—are typically designed for college students or recent graduates exploring potential career paths. But with unemployment at 9.5%, some older laid-off workers are taking on these stints to stay busy, gain new skills and expand their networks. In the meantime, they continue to job hunt and, in some cases, collect unemployment benefits.

Hello recession! What a scary job AND internship hunting season we will have this year. Imagine, competing against seasoned professionals in the internship hunt, or the entry-level job hunt. Makes me shudder, truly.

Granted, Harvard grads will be weathering out the storm better than most. But, this recruiting season, things will get ugly. Really, don’t pester your class of 2010 friends this entire fall with study group requests. We’ll be applying ourselves to grad school or the bottomless job hole.

For anyone not going through the imminent catastrophe of graduation, what are your thoughts? Feelin’ lucky for being in school for some more years?

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Commentary: Brain Gain: The underground world of “neuroenhancing” drugs

The New Yorker’s Brain Gain: The underground world of “neuroenhancing” drugs

A young man I’ll call Alex recently graduated from Harvard. As a history major, Alex wrote about a dozen papers a semester. He also ran a student organization, for which he often worked more than forty hours a week; when he wasn’t on the job, he had classes. Weeknights were devoted to all the schoolwork that he couldn’t finish during the day, and weekend nights were spent drinking with friends and going to dance parties. “Trite as it sounds,” he told me, it seemed important to “maybe appreciate my own youth.” Since, in essence, this life was impossible, Alex began taking Adderall to make it possible.

Seriously? As an “efficiency-obsessed” Harvard student, I absolutely understand the appeal of such mental steroids. Imagine, all the wonderful/crazy/exciting/amazing things I could do if my brain could focus a little bit better, for longer periods of time, if I didn’t need sleep, if I never wearied from writing that damn response paper.

However, if you need a drug to help you keep on top of things, I feel like that’s a sign that something is amiss in your life, that you haven’t examined your priorities, that you really don’t know what you want out of life.

It’s incredibly easy as a Harvard student to just want EVERYTHING. But, that’s just a sign of not actually wanting anything.

Your thoughts?

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Commentary: SAT Changes Policy, Opening Rift With Colleges

NY Times article: SAT Changes Policy, Opening Rift With Colleges

“In some respect,” Mr. Fitzsimmons said, “Score Choice will help defuse some of the pressure and give students a sense that not everything is riding on the tests, which really is the case.”

While I see this as a sly business tactic, allowing students to choose which scores to send will probably reduce stress all around, especially since the SATs are now a what… 4-5 hour long test with a 15 minute snack break? However, perhaps, more inequality and inefficiency?

Having only one more set of Standardized Testing to go through and repressing my memories of the SAT, I would deem my reaction as slightly positive, but mostly neutral.

Overall: Upgrade! Colleges supposedly consider just the top scores anyway.

Your thoughts? Yay? Nay?