As some of you know, I completed my last quarter at UCLA on Friday last week, and I'm back home for a long vacation. The formal graduation event is in June, and I'm planning to attend since I'll probably still be in the area at the time.

So now that I officially hold a Computer Science degree, what comes next? I've thought about pursuing further studies - either an M.S. or an MBA - sometime in the future, but I feel that I'd like to spend some time out in the industry before I decide which path I want to take. I spent the last two summers working as a software engineering intern, first at Symantec in Santa Monica, and then at Google's Mountain View headquarters. Both those internships were undoubtedly the most enjoyable and rewarding learning experiences I've had during the last four years.

This time, I'll be trying something a little different. Last December, I accepted an offer from Morgan Stanley and will be joining their technology division in the Distributed Systems Development track in August this year. This will be my first opportunity to experience what it's like to work in a software development team at one of the largest investment banking and financial services firms in the world. The headquarters are located at Times Square, right in the heart of New York city, which is all the more exciting to a city-lover like me.

Since I graduated early, I have four months of holidays ahead of me. I was a little too busy last month to make any plans, so during the next few weeks, I'll be figuring out what I'm going to do until I leave California for NYC in July. Fun times ahead! :)