In about 6 hours I'll be completely done with my first year of business school. Hallelujah! Praise whomever you feel the need to! Well, I suppose that is only technically true if I actually pass all of my finals? But I will assume that is the case...at least I hope it is.
I have lots to say about my first year of business school but I'll reflect on that a little later while I'm not thinking about margaritas on the roof of the car barn (the not so cozy building that Georgetown currently houses it's MBA program in). Today it's margaritas on the roof and then some party out at a club tonight. I'm not so sure I'll be going out tonight. I'm not a night club kind of girl, plus I have to run at some point today (my marathon is just a little over a month away!!). Tomorrow it will be the last time my cohort (my 70 or so classmates that I've take almost all my classes with this past year)will be together. The social rep has planned a BBQ. I'll stop by for a bit. It should be a nice day. Right now it's beautiful. Makes it difficult to study for my last final.
Speaking of finals, I have come to the conclusion that finals are lame. Thank you thank you, but really there is no need to thank me for such astute insight ;-) This is my problem with finals, first of all we're on the module system so we're taking 5 finals 4 times a year, and just in case you didn't do so well on the quant section of the GMAT, that would be 20, yes TWENTY, finals to take over an 8 month period. And really, that's just lame. Plus, it's not as if we have to take final exams in the "real world" that they claim to be preparing us for, as if we have never been there before, but I digress. I think they should require final projects. That's my two cents. But since no one seems to care about what I think, probably rightfully so, I must get back to pretending to study for my last final exam of Year 1 in business school! Woohoo!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
New Internship...Time Off? To Float or Not to Float?
As I was just trying to organize my calendar for the summer it occurred to me that less than two weeks into my internship I need to ask for a day off! How do I go about doing that? I'm running a marathon out of town and will be traveling the Friday before the marathon. I could probably get away with working a half day that Friday? Do I contact the intern manager now or do I wait until I start? Hmmm??
In other news it seems its getting more and more difficult to focus on school knowing that I have less than two weeks of classes left, then exams, then I get to go back to California! Woohoo! Give me sun and fun! I have a little less than 3 weeks to enjoy of no responsibility before I start the internship. I am sooo looking forward to that! I'm trying to figure out what kind of vacation I can talk the BF into during that time? I was thinking the Grand Canyon, a hiking/camping trip. Or maybe Alaska?! Or road trip north through Oregon and Washington for some cycling, hiking, camping?? So many choices ;-)
Do you see how difficult it is to concentrate on To Float or Not to Float the Chinese Renminbi? Which by the way was supposed to be read for yesterday's lecture...oops! And off to class I go...
In other news it seems its getting more and more difficult to focus on school knowing that I have less than two weeks of classes left, then exams, then I get to go back to California! Woohoo! Give me sun and fun! I have a little less than 3 weeks to enjoy of no responsibility before I start the internship. I am sooo looking forward to that! I'm trying to figure out what kind of vacation I can talk the BF into during that time? I was thinking the Grand Canyon, a hiking/camping trip. Or maybe Alaska?! Or road trip north through Oregon and Washington for some cycling, hiking, camping?? So many choices ;-)
Do you see how difficult it is to concentrate on To Float or Not to Float the Chinese Renminbi? Which by the way was supposed to be read for yesterday's lecture...oops! And off to class I go...
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Long Time No Blog!
I almost forgot that I had a blog until I was reminded by two classmates that asked me if I was mbasalsera! My first year as an MBA student is about 3 weeks from ending. All I can say is Thank God! It's been a tumultuous year. I'm not sure I was cut out for b-school? Or maybe I just wasn't cut out, at this stage in my life, for being so far from the one's I love back home? The work, albeit huge quantities, is not all that difficult. It's not like we're learning rocket science here. Sadly I have enjoyed very few of my classes. Fortunately, the few classes I have enjoyed are all happening right now, so it's making the year end on a positive note. Professors are alright, some fantastic, some horrible, most just average. The administration has a general attitude of superiority to the students. Have they forgotten that, prior to coming to b-school, all of us had already been successful in this "real world" they always refer to condescendingly as if we have no idea what that is. I wonder if I should have waited a year and reapplied to some of the other schools I was interested in? I also wonder if any of those schools would have been much different? (As I re-read this I realize how negative I'm being, please note, I'm tired and grumpy at the moment, I promise to be more positive about my experience in my next blog ;-)
On the flip side, DC is a fantastic city. I really wish I had more time to enjoy it though. I think next year will be a lot better. I'll be taking classes I have an interest in instead of being forced to take core courses. By the way, the core courses are something I actually wanted in a B-school, because I felt like I had no idea about anything after having only been an engineer for so long. However, after having been there done that, I completely regret that decision. I wish I NEVER had to take a marketing class ever. It's not what I like, not what I'm good at, and if I have no interest in it why would I want to be forced to take it? So if you're reading this and deciding between schools or deciding what schools to apply to, definitely consider what classes you are required to take and really think about whether or not you want to go through that! That was bad planning on my part. C'est la vie.
Anyway, as I was saying, next year will be much better. I've obviously learned how to balance my work load a little better. I'll be taking classes of my choosing so the work load will seem less overwhelming and I can try to enjoy life in DC a little more and maybe even get a life outside of school...find some running team or cycling team or maybe even a salsa team to get out with.
As every first year MBA student stressed about an internship....I got lucky. I had my internship lined up back in early October. It seemed absurd to me that I had been in school for less than two months and I was already interviewing and had an offer!! There were definitely a million pluses and a few minuses to having a summer internship lined up so early in the year. The very large tech firm found my resume posted for one of the career fairs I attended. The recruiter called me for an interview. I went through one phone interview and one in person interview at the career fair and had an offer soon after. I took it. It was the right location, the right position in corporate finance and the right $$. I'm not sure it was the right firm but it's a big name and it will look good on my resume. Plus the two people I interviewed with were really fantastic and I contacted two other people in the finance department there just to chat with them about the place and they were wonderful as well, so I took the offer. Of course that was great in terms of me not having to worry about applying and interviewing in the midst of finals, papers, projects etc. However, I sort of wish I had interviewed elsewhere just for the practice. I heard about classmates interviewing in front of panels of management, having 5 interviews, etc and I have no practice with that now. If next year I don't get an offer for full time at my internship or if I don't want to return I won't have the experience of interviewing. Plus when other firms of interest contacted me I had to say I couldn't interview with them because of the commitment I had already made for the summer. But what can you do? Besides I think the benefits of getting a good internship early on definitely outweight the cons by a landslide!
I will try to maintain this blog throughout my internship experience and throughout next year a little better. But no promises! I hope that all those bloggers out there that went through the application process with me are enjoying their first year and have fantastic internships lined up for the summer!
Cheers-
mba-salsera! (I should give myself a new name, I haven't been salsa dancing all year long :-( I hope to make up for that this summer!)
On the flip side, DC is a fantastic city. I really wish I had more time to enjoy it though. I think next year will be a lot better. I'll be taking classes I have an interest in instead of being forced to take core courses. By the way, the core courses are something I actually wanted in a B-school, because I felt like I had no idea about anything after having only been an engineer for so long. However, after having been there done that, I completely regret that decision. I wish I NEVER had to take a marketing class ever. It's not what I like, not what I'm good at, and if I have no interest in it why would I want to be forced to take it? So if you're reading this and deciding between schools or deciding what schools to apply to, definitely consider what classes you are required to take and really think about whether or not you want to go through that! That was bad planning on my part. C'est la vie.
Anyway, as I was saying, next year will be much better. I've obviously learned how to balance my work load a little better. I'll be taking classes of my choosing so the work load will seem less overwhelming and I can try to enjoy life in DC a little more and maybe even get a life outside of school...find some running team or cycling team or maybe even a salsa team to get out with.
As every first year MBA student stressed about an internship....I got lucky. I had my internship lined up back in early October. It seemed absurd to me that I had been in school for less than two months and I was already interviewing and had an offer!! There were definitely a million pluses and a few minuses to having a summer internship lined up so early in the year. The very large tech firm found my resume posted for one of the career fairs I attended. The recruiter called me for an interview. I went through one phone interview and one in person interview at the career fair and had an offer soon after. I took it. It was the right location, the right position in corporate finance and the right $$. I'm not sure it was the right firm but it's a big name and it will look good on my resume. Plus the two people I interviewed with were really fantastic and I contacted two other people in the finance department there just to chat with them about the place and they were wonderful as well, so I took the offer. Of course that was great in terms of me not having to worry about applying and interviewing in the midst of finals, papers, projects etc. However, I sort of wish I had interviewed elsewhere just for the practice. I heard about classmates interviewing in front of panels of management, having 5 interviews, etc and I have no practice with that now. If next year I don't get an offer for full time at my internship or if I don't want to return I won't have the experience of interviewing. Plus when other firms of interest contacted me I had to say I couldn't interview with them because of the commitment I had already made for the summer. But what can you do? Besides I think the benefits of getting a good internship early on definitely outweight the cons by a landslide!
I will try to maintain this blog throughout my internship experience and throughout next year a little better. But no promises! I hope that all those bloggers out there that went through the application process with me are enjoying their first year and have fantastic internships lined up for the summer!
Cheers-
mba-salsera! (I should give myself a new name, I haven't been salsa dancing all year long :-( I hope to make up for that this summer!)
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