Skip to main content

A Crazy Day in Cincinnati


Felipe and I were really excited for our stay in Cincinnati because we had booked a 4-star hotel through Hotwire in the heart of downtown. I freaked out slightly on the ride there because I was nervous about the age required to check-in. Luckily, those nerves proved unneeded and we were able to get our room with no problem.

That calm, however, didn’t last. Felipe’s work permit had arrived in Princeton the previous day, so there was a debate on how best to get it to the Midwest. Overnight shipping was cheaper, but there was a chance that the permit could get lost and the entire process to get it would need to begin again, an exceptionally disastrous situation. The other option was for Felipe to fly to Princeton from Cincinnati, pick up the permit, and then fly directly to Indianapolis. Obviously, this plan would be much more expensive, not to mention seemingly wasteful of time, but it would definitely secure the permit.

Eventually, the risk of losing the permit outweighed the cost of Felipe spending a full day traveling, so off he went. By the time I woke up the next morning, Felipe had headed off to the airport, ready to spend less than a quarter a day in New Jersey before heading back. (He successfully picked up his work permit and arrived at our Indianapolis AirBnB at 4 in the morning the next day)

I took our two meetings by myself before heading straight to Indianapolis. Something that we realized as we tried to schedule meetings before the summer is that setting the dates in cities is a self-fulfilling prophecy. We spent a single day in Cincinnati despite the numerous Fortune 500 companies there because previous years hadn’t had much success there. However, by only scheduling one day in the city, we gave such a tight window that it was less likely that the people we reached out to would be available.

This scheduling dilemma is significant for the Midwest team because we visit over 10 cities every year. This year, we will be spending about 5 weeks in Chicago due to the breakout trip we are organizing there, so the question was how to best distribute the rest of our time. Previous years were influential on our decision-making, and I think it worked out fine in the end, but I think the Midwest team’s travels should vary a lot every year. I personally think that future years should try to spend more time in some of these cities and try and change the success rate in certain destinations, particularly Cincinnati and Minneapolis.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Rollercoaster in Cleveland

We arrived in Cleveland on Thursday night, but we had no meetings on Friday. The three-day weekend was much needed. Even though Felipe and I accomplished pretty much nothing, those three days were our first break since the week after midterms. Even after finals finished, we were working on setting up meetings for the summer, so time to relax was in limited quantity. I lazed around in our AirBnB catching up on The Good Fight, only leaving my room to eat. Despite the relaxing nature of the weekend, it was also the scariest part of the trip so far. There were no updates on the status of Felipe’s international work permit, so there were significant questions about whether he would be able to work during the summer. If the permit didn’t come soon, then it would be possible that I might need to find a new partner. The uncertainty of the situation was taking its toll on us. Felipe spent the next two days calling people about his status and preparing contingency plans for...
Post a Comment
Read more

Success in St. Louis

St. Louis is the capital city of United States chess. The World Chess Hall of Fame and some of the most prestigious tournaments held on US soil are played in the city. Two of the top collegiate chess programs are headquartered in St. Louis. Yet, over my 14+ years as a chess player, I had never been to St. Louis to visit or play a tournament at the chess club. Fortunately, I thought, my travels through the Midwest finally gave me the opportunity to visit. Yet, by the time I left, I did basically everything chess-related but go see the club. I am currently working on an article for the Chess Life magazine about the world of college chess, so I have been setting up interviews with the coaches of the scholarship programs across the US. Since Webster University and St. Louis University both were located nearby, I scheduled times to meet with the coaches of the two schools. My former chess coach, Sam Shankland, was also in town for a tournament and I got to catch up...
Post a Comment
Read more

Modern Minneapolis

A daily dilemma for Felipe and I was attire. Technically, every meeting that we were attending were with business professionals, so business formal would seem to be the obvious choice. However, the Midwest has varying standards of formality in every company. The executives that we met with had a sliding spectrum of dress, from full suits down to polos and khakis. Thus, while we started out wearing suits and ties in Detroit, we later only went full business formal when meeting with investment banks and some of the top companies. Minneapolis was a perfect illustration of us being overdressed for meetings. We walked into a meeting with a big investment bank in formal attire in 90-degree weather and the CEO came in wearing a polo. The week before 4 th of July in Minneapolis is the ideal time for everyone to head to the lake, so the offices that we visited were all pretty empty. Since we were there only for the three days right before July 4 th , we were only able to ...
Post a Comment
Read more