Hire a Nanny

Naturally, at a women in capital markets seminar you would expect the talk to address balancing career and child rearing, and that it did. Hiring a nanny would be one of the most emphasized pieces of advice that was shared by the panel of women. One even hinted at having two nannies, one for the morning, and the other for the evening. Now, imagine the audience all made up of young women with a mountain of student debt thinking.. how can I afford a nanny? I thought I heard a couple snickers at the mention of the first ‘hire a nanny’ line, the snickering quieted down when it was obvious fairly soon that they were ALL dead serious. One of the speakers told us that if you didn’t hire a nanny you were jeopardizing your career.. well ok, she didn’t use that word.. however she did say that if you don't have a nanny, you are sending a signal to your employer that your job isn’t important enough. Daycare isn't good enough to balance work and career. Well, I don’t have to worry about nannies for a while, and I won’t go into my opinion on the topic.
All in all, it was a very informative session. All the women that attended worked in capital markets, and at one point in time were investment bankers, traders. Interestingly, their backgrounds were so diverse. One woman did her undergrad in german (the language); another was a genetic scientist! However they all did have either a business undergrad, mba and/or designations and were extremely qualified. They had a mingle session after the talk, but I wasn’t in the mood to really chit chat. My mind couldn’t come up with any questions to ask as they had already told us about themselves, and the thought of talking about (read: selling) myself wasn’t appealing. A shame really because the ratio of women professionals to women students was 2:1!! Hopefully, I will feel more up to it the next time. I really do enjoy hearing people talk about their career path. It always re-emphasizes the fact that there is never one path to success, and that it is always a mix of preparation and luck.

I passed Stats!!!

Wahoo!!! I can’t even begin to describe the relief I feel. My hands were shaking as I logged into the portal to check my grades. I have never been this nervous of a grade since I wrote my accounting entrance exams. Two people did fail the course, and I feel so bad for them.

It is in a crisis that you realize who your friends are and just how good the school you attend is. When I told people I was scared of failing, only one person took me seriously. Everyone just told me that they would never fail anyone. I am really glad I never took it for granted that I was going to pass just because I got into MBA school.

Over the last two months, I really wondered if I was going to pass stats, and contacted the prof. I even contacted the Program Services offices (the place mba students go to for everything). I expected them to laugh at me, and was surprised how supportive they were. They even offered to set me up with a one-on-one tutor (which I didn’t take them up on, as I had gone to the tutorials). They even followed up after our conversation. I was very impressed!

This whole episode will go down as one of those stories that didn’t kill me but taught me to believe in myself. As one of my friends said well, this is the only course I have actually had to study for, and I guess that’s true. It’s the only course, where I have actually read the entire textbook. Business to me is second nature, so worrying about mba school had never been an issue. Cocky? Perhaps. This whole experience has been humbling. I have newfound respect and admiration for the people who are learning business for the first time. I understand now how terrifying it can be.

Needless to say I called members of my urban family for an impromptu drink session to celebrate! It’s a couple beers later, and I am on a definite high from passing stats, and slightly buzzed.... I now have to go and prepare for my Eco group meeting tomorrow.

What a week...

I’ve barely held it together this week. School, work and life-in-general all seemed to collide, and it was hard to stay focussed on any one thing. Had the stats exam this week. I couldn’t even take a day off as it was year-end reporting. Well, the exam is over. That’s all I can say about it. Success or Failure is out of my hands at this point...

We’ve now moved onto Macro Economics, and the prof is really good. He’s funny and makes the class interesting. He is definitely the best professor thus far. I have observed that he has a penchant for the word ‘okay’, which he says every 2 seconds in a very funny intonation! However, for all the entertainment that he brings to class, I was starting to get bored in the second class. I really like macro economics, and when he talks about current economic news or anecdotes, I find myself engrossed; however when he starts telling me what the difference between GDP and GNP and how you calculate balance of payments, my eyes start to glaze over...

The Investment Challenge is A LOT of work!! One of our group members quit, but since he wasn’t really contributing I wasn’t too surprised. The only problem is that he was supposed to be the presenter on challenge day, and now I am not sure which one of us will have to do it. We might have to draw straws. We have to finish our investment policy by Monday, and there are still so many things to set up before we start trading. Apparently most of the other groups have started trading, so this week we have to start trading! One of the things that I really like about this challenge is that they set each group up with a mentor. We sent our mentor an email asking him to see if our stocks were aligned to our investment policy, and he replied in an hour. I was impressed! I like the fact that there are so many workshops and seminars and people to ask for help if you need it.

On another note, I was sitting with my investment challenge group when one of the Rotman Asset Mgmt reps came by, and he was rambling for a bit and at first I thought he wanted me to get him to go to some women in capital markets event, where you usually accompany a woman as a guest (there are events like that) and in between his spiel, I was losing patience (I’ve been in a very ‘chop-chop’ mood this week). It turns out he was asking me if I would be interested in attending a women in capital markets seminar. I felt a bit guilty after, especially as I was very interested. This event is geared towards women and only women. And apparently they were finding it hard to get women to go.. Bonus! Now, I know why I am doing the MBA. It’s always been quite the struggle for me to break into the investment side, and I have always felt being a woman has never helped. That and the fact that I am soft spoken and reserved. I am looking forward to it!

Distractions

Studying at school on a Sat is a BAD idea. In fact studying at school on most evenings is a bad idea too. There are too many people, and too many ‘events’ going on. How I wish for the quiet of the past summer! I am so distracted right now, that blogging seems like a more effective use of my time. The door to the study area keeps clicking every 5 seconds as someone is either entering or leaving. A couple of the meeting rooms are filled with study groups, and their conversation are so loud, that you can’t help but listen.. darn it, I might as well be contributing. The printer noisily churns out a document every so often. And to top it all, there is a Super Saturday Finance (cross between informational and networking) event in the foyer and the speakers' voices carry through the quiet study area. I might as well be attending.. Every half an hour I hear a clap, and a change of voice..So although it is very frustrating, the school is always buzzing with activity, and I guess that is a good thing...if only I could get some studying done though.

Juggling...

That’s what I feel like I am doing lately. Everything seems to be happening all at the same time. Had the accounting exam last week, and I think I did well. My mom said the nicest thing on the day of the exam. She forgot which course I had the exam for, and when I told her it was accounting, she said ‘Oh good! Your favourite subject!’ Her words stayed with me though the whole accounting exam, and I think I wrote a good exam. Fingers crossed!

I have the Stats exam next week, and it is definitely not my favourite course. I really don’t feel like studying for it, and I barely opened the stats textbook this past weekend. I was hoping to take a couple days off however it is my busy time at work, and I doubt I can take days off. I will really be celebrating once I pass Stats. It’s the only course that I have been worried about. Mainly because it is the first course where I feel below average...However, after stats, it should be smooth sailing.. yea!

Trading for the investment challenge starts on the 8th, and that is really going to be a handful. Bossing boys is harder than it looks... Working in groups is always difficult. People have different timelines, and priorities, and when things aren’t graded, purpose takes on a whole new meaning.

I have sent out the script to a couple people for criticism. It’s so hard to wait for feedback. I really hope the images in my brain have translated well into words. I still have to organize so many things for the film, and I am so grateful for all the help. I haven’t decided about music yet – Do I have it or not? On a positive note, I just got an email about the film that I was part of last fall - it placed 7th in an Austrian film festival (it was an Austrian production) My role consisted of following the director around, and observing. Haha.. However, it set the stage for everything else.