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 4th 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 4th,
we were only able to schedule two meetings for our time there.
Despite the lack of success in terms of meetings, I really
enjoyed Minneapolis. There were a lot of big companies headquartered in either
Minneapolis or St. Paul, so the surrounding areas were very nice. One of my
friends from Princeton lived right by our hotel, so I had plenty of
recommendations for places to eat. One of the best memories was eating a donut
stuffed with ice cream at Milkjam Creamery, which was a ton of sugar, but
definitely worth it J
After those four and a half weeks, we were done with the
first leg of our trip! We returned our trusty rental car and then both Felipe
and I headed back home. This was the first time I had been back in California
since February, so it was the longest I had ever been away from home. It was
great to see my family and friends and have a chance to relax for the first
time in a while. I also very much enjoyed eating homecooked Indian food and the
other Bay Area cuisines that I couldn’t get in the Midwest. Best of all, I
could wear shorts and a t-shirt all day!
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