Crazy Week

Things have been happening at lightning speed that everything in this past week seems to be a blur. I had classes 3 times this week, and on Sat I spent the last day of summer in a hotel basement conference room learning the requirements to be a CMA marker. Oh and yes, and there was a little bit of market mayhem...

I have been addicted to the news for most of the week. The Toronto financial sector has played the spectator part. None of our financial companies seem to have any significant exposure, however, I think it is more of a wait and see approach. This past week has changed my plans, or rather they seem to be delayed. In some cases, it’s made my game plan non-existent. Any of the networking on job leads that I was hoping to do in the next month have been shifted to the back burner. Contacting anyone now would be senseless and would show a lack of sensitivity. I think I am just going to have to adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach too.

Moving on.. Being in class when a crisis is occurring makes the topic even more interesting. Our Options professor decided to spend the first half of our class giving us an overview of the crisis. It was great! He outlined what credit default swaps were, how the crisis unfolded, and why the US government needed to step in. We had our first Marketing course, and the prof is quite good so far. He really makes you think! At the end of our class he asked us to jot down a few points as to what we learned that evening. We learned about branding, and how successful brands focus on the customer experience rather than just a good product. He did say that he was going to be cold calling, and warm calling. Umm. What is Warm calling? A quick google search produced the following result :

Warm call: A softer version of the cold call where the professors gives a particular student advance warning that he will be asked to comment on a case later in the session or the next day.

Uh-oh.. this did not work for me in Strategy. I seem to embody the proverbial deer caught in the headlights when called upon. The whole idea of cold/warm calling is to think on your feet fast right? Well, this is what they are training you for. I really dislike this method. Everyone learns differently, and there is no one path for business success. I firmly believe that MBA training should allow students to be individualistic rather than conformists.

Alright I will get off my hobby horse. We have a globalization quiz on Tuesday. I haven’t the foggiest idea as to what she has taught us, as the class has been quite boring. All I remember from that class is that she told us about how there was an outcry in China when Kung Fu panda came out. Some Chinese people thought the movie should be boycotted as the movie’s main character was also China’s national treasure. I can’t remember why she brought it up... but, I am pretty sure there won’t be a question on that.

Year 2

I’ve been a lazy blogger for the last few months. Things have really been happening so fast, that there doesn’t seem to be enough time to process the changes, let alone put all my thoughts together. So here goes my attempt:

I left off at my disappointment in the Strategy class. Well, since then we complained, and they listened. They apologized to us about our Skype sessions, and as a result, we got a formal verbal apology and makeup Strategy sessions. We then had our Finance final exam, which was so bad, that the entire class booed the professor when he walked into the bar later that night. Having written zillions of finance exams, I can say hands down, it was the worst Finance exams I have ever written in my life. He said he designed it with the intent that no one would finish. Professional Designation exams are designed like that. You have to be quick enough that you know the answer without thinking more than 1 sec. You know this before hand, and you study with that in mind. An introductory Finance exam shouldn’t be designed like that. He said he realized his mistake, and would bell curve it. We then got our grades, and he still managed to fail two people, and have half the class get a B. So, we complained again, and they listened. And the class average is now a B+ . Moral of the story: Be vocal in B school.

Moving along: This semester we are taking Global Perspectives, Customer Value, and Operations Mgmt. We had our Global Perspectives class on Thursday night. I was sort of excited about this class, but our first lecture focussed on Comparative and Absolute Advantage, and we had to watch an hour documentary on Wal-Mart. Yawn. How many times have we learned about comp and absolute advantage, and how many times have we learned about Wal-Mart. There is significant overlap here, and I wish they would realize this when programming courses. In addition, I am taking the Options and Futures elective.

Year 2 feels different. A handful of us 2010 evening students have switched to full time status. The change has definitely put me in a different frame of mind: I’m more focussed and disciplined. The pressure is on. I only have 8 months left to maximize the MBA education and experience, and find myself that dream job, and oh figure out what this dream job is. I plan on keeping my day job in the process. It’s definitely going to be tough, but I found out that another classmate is doing the same. I’ll keep you posted on the progress.