Internship Crushed

Today I almost crushed a pedestrian on the way to my 2nd interview for an internship at a start-up company. I screeeeeeched to a halt about 12 inches (what's that in cm?) from stupid's back leg. He didn't even notice he had just walked in front of oncoming traffic until my horn notified him of the fact. Ah well, better me on a moto than a bus driver with one of those crazy accordion double buses which would have never exhibited anything close to my cat like reflexes. Although stupid was lucky, I did have to breath a sign of relief as the idea of wiping dead stupid skin off my beautiful blue moto just doesn't appeal to me.

On to the 2nd interview. This was basically a follow up to a position that was mine for the taking. But this was the negotiation interview. You may know that most start-ups don't have two euros to rub together, well this one is no different. The negotiation went something like this:

Me: Is it possible you can pay me more than I earned when I was 18?
Them: Nope.
Me: Would you like fries with that?

And that's about the gist of the meeting. The company has a good plan and nice management and certainly has the ability to turn a revenue in the near future. On the flip side, its a start-up that pays way below the average internship and doesn't offer any equity. I wish money wasn't an issue but with 19 months between real jobs and a currency that's dropped over 20% since I've been here, the internship is the only opportunity to make anything while doing the MBA and not a good time to work for peanuts. Besides, new opportunities are coming through every day and there are some very interesting internships that don't include slaving away for a soulless Investment Bank or living out of a hotel at one of the Consulting companies.

The search continues....

In the meantime, tomorrow is the 2nd day of mid-terms. I should be studying Operations but instead I've been working on my LinkedIn profile and reading through the Vault Guide to Venture Capital. I also downloaded the digital book reader from Adobe along with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn just to see how the program worked. The software is getting pretty good, I think the digital book is going to be huge in the next few years.

This weekend, I'm off to Amsterdam with Charles and his wife Laura for a 4 day trip. That makes the 5th country visited since coming to IESE. However, now that I'm heading the Adventure and Travel club along with one other student, its time to kick the trips up a notch, in the next 6 weeks, I will head to Morocco, Portugal and possibly Istanbul. Photos will follow.