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.

The Last 2 weeks...

We had our Strategy Final last week. Given the fact that you can’t really study for Strategy, and it was open book, I was fairly laid back about it. Our professor ‘checked out’ on us a couple weeks ago as well, and as a result, none of us really felt the impetus to work hard. We delivered our presentation to our peers, and she was with us over skype. She did the same thing for the final. I really was disappointed in the Strategy class. Strategy is supposed to be fun! She taught us concepts, but I feel that I don’t have a framework for strategy. Her course was just a hodge-podge of concepts lumped together (VRIO framework, Porter’s 5 forces). For our final exam, she made us do a stakeholder analysis on swimsuit design rules....I still don't think I get 'strategic groups'. Oh well, luckily I am not going into consulting.

Anywho, we have one more weekend of school, one Finance assignment and one Finance final left. It’s been really hard to focus on school this semester. I think it is a combination of summer and lack of motivation. I can’t wait for August 7th, because that’s Freedom Day.

Things not to do on a long weekend...

I can think of lots of things to do on a long holiday weekend.. writing an 8 page paper on Integrative Thinking is not one of them. I've been trying to write this Reflection paper for most of today, and it's been a painful process. I haven't been able to focus, and I am not even close to being done. I am blaming it on the long weekend. I have no motivation to study.

This lack of motivation brings up two salient points: (I wish I could count use of Integrative Thinking vocabulary towards my paper!)

Am I in a virtuous cycle? I am trying to finish up early, and have started overloading on courses. Do I lack motivation because I am overloading or am I overloading the courses because I see my motivation levels rapidly declining in the future months?

Second Salient point: I noticed the newbies.. the 3YR11 students. Their faces are so fresh and eager... They seem to embody me last summer.. all full of excitement and possibility. There are times that I wish for last summer back, and there are times that I am so exhausted that I can't wait for all of it to be over. I still feel excitement but it is more about the opportunities post MBA, rather than getting into grad school.

I want to freeze frame some of these moments, replay some of them, and fast forward the bad ones(Stats class!). Because for all my complaining, it is all happening too fast...

Back to the paper...so what's my motivation? Going out for the rest of the weekend..

Tottering along....

Finished the bidding for courses this evening, and it was a daunting task. I put in my bids, and then tried to go back a screen to check what section it was, or read the description one last time, only to find out that all my selections disappeared. Aaah! This happened three times. You think I would have learned the first time around. I tried to be all strategic about bidding – I really did try. But in the end the whole figuring out what was the average bid points, and how many people balloted threw me all off and after those times that my screen selections blanked out.. I just started to randomly allocate points....fingers crossed that it worked!

The days seem to be flying by. We had our Finance midterm last week. I finished the FIT practicum and I have one more paper to write for that course that’s due at the end of this week. Our strategy midterm is due this week, and we had to analyze Coors’ strategy... back in 1985!! It’s very hard to look at the data and “pretend” that Coors is a premium beer....and that they aren't called Molson Coors now. This is the problem with doing cases from 20 years ago.. We have current information (esp on beer!) but are forced to stay in a time vortex... why can’t we examine cases that are current? The FIT practicum was better in that respect where we had to analyze Yahoo!‘s current strategy.

More and more work to follow.....Strategy presentation, and group writeup, strategy Final, Finance assignment, and Finance Final.. nearly there. Just six more weeks.

I have started to realize the value of a two or three year program instead of a one year program. Way back when I was contemplating MBA school, I was leaning towards a one year program. I had thought that the faster I get it over with, the better. However, my thinking has changed.. A year just passes by so quickly, and there is no time to take in what you are learning and solidify concepts, and just think about your career. In a two year program, you are given the opportunity in the first year to sit back and watch a bit if you like, before you dive into a field, or an opportunity. You get to analyze what you are learning instead of just ploughing through the material. You get to take more electives, and build your knowledge. I think this is the biggest advantage. It might take a bit longer, but isn’t it better to have no regrets or less of them anyway?

Looking over your shoulder

We had to analyze Yahoo! Canada strategy in our FIT practicum. It’s been quite fascinating reading all of the articles, and understanding the whole new media landscape. Our task is to define a strategy for Yahoo! Canada in the Web 2.0 environment.

I stumbled upon an interesting piece of journalism in one of the articles “Then, on Aug. 19, 2004, Google went public. According to some former Yahoos, that was a turning point for the company's culture as well. Yahoo became a company obsessed with Google rather than one looking to make the next leap on the Net. "Yahoo became super-paranoid," says one former search manager. "We switched from charting our own course to looking over our shoulder."

That last line struck a chord with me on a personal level. It’s so easy to constantly compare and look over your shoulder. It’s so easy to just take one little peak isn’t it? It appeals to our insecurities. We feel the need to look back and see who’s catching up to us, who will overtake us. We also have the tendency to look around and assess the competition constantly.

We also look over our shoulder at the past and assess what we did wrong and examine our mistakes and all the paths we did not take, and examine the ones we have taken.

My biggest takeaway is to stop looking over my shoulder, and focus on the road ahead. The past is behind me, and the competition? Well, they will always be there, but are they relevant to my goals?

Second Year

I seem to have lost the interest to blog lately, although there has been a lot going on. Perhaps that’s part of the reason: I can’t seem to write logically amid all of the thoughts swirling in my brain. So here goes my attempt to produce a decent post..

We started Year 2 last week, after a whole 2.5 weeks off from the last semester! We are taking Strategy and Finance this term. I am also enrolled in an extra course called Foundations of Integrative Thinking Practicum, as I am trying to finish school a bit early. As a result, June is going to be a tough month, as I will be juggling three courses.

So, we have finally have our first woman professor assigned to us and she is teaching us strategy. She is good, however she speaks sooo fast, I get tired trying to keep up with her! She has decided to cold call us in class, a method I detest. Yikes! However she is doing this solely because our student reps complained about the ‘lack of transparency’ in participation marks. However, her strategy is novel, and despite all attempts to just be a seat warmer I am somewhat pleased with her approach. In order to get 10% of your marks, you have to sign up for cold calling for 2 classes. She will even help you if you are scared to talk - very thoughtful of her. Can you imagine getting emails and visits from 60 students? Alright, perhaps only half of the class would take her up on the offer to be coached. I don’t feel the need to be coached however I did email her as to what types of questions I should be prepared for.

The Finance prof is younger than all of us. Given that the average age of our class is 32, I have done my rough estimate based on his bio, that he is about 28!!!! There were a lot of complaints made to the administration about his lack of teaching experience. The basis of the complaints were given Rotman’s reputation for one of the best Finance faculty, and given the fees we are paying we should be taught by a more experienced prof. They told us to give him a chance. Apparently, they asked him to come and teach us, not the other way around. He’s quite smart, and has a bit of anecdotal finance trivia, which is a good way to get people to pay attention in class, especially if you aren’t into finance.

The university is much quieter without the full timers. Aaah the study rooms will be empty and will be nice and quiet...So I should be more productive right?

Part Time vs Full Time

Here are my thoughts...

I really like the part time program. The age group and work experience of your classmates will be a lot higher. There are a few 'older' fulltimers, but the average age tends to be much lower.

In terms of missing out, there are a lot of career info events and workshops that are during the day and that is hard for part timers to go to, given we work a full time job. That being said, if you plan accordingly, there are sufficient evening events to go to as well, or you can take a half day off work etc.

Jobs: If you are switching careers you might need to do an internship. You can always do an internship at the very end of your MBA or in between years 2 and 3. However, if you are looking to get into Finance, there are sooo many competitions and workshops that you can get a lot of experience in that respect. Rotman is really the best school for Finance in Canada (in my humble opinion). I am not sure if that is your intended career path. Jobs are open to every graduating student, and I was told by the career centre that the highest paying job last year went to a part-timer.

Profs: I personally think the quality of the profs are really amazing and are very knowledgeable - even in the evening. For the most part, they teach both the full time and the part time. Some of our profs teach us and the executive mba.

Extra curricular events: I along with my fellow part-timers have been involved in numerous challenges that take place in school. I would say at least 1/3 - 1/2 of our class has been involved in at least one challenge this year. As you know from my blog, I entered the Investment challenge and the Loreal challenge.

One additional note: You can enter the part time program, and switch into the full time program in second year and vice versa. However, this is not a guarantee and is approved on a case by case basis.