Today was the first day of exam prep, which meant no classes, and a free agenda to do whatever we wanted (related to studying of course). I enjoyed getting to sleep in past 7, shower leisurely, and walk to school slowly instead of at my usual half jog. We have four finals, one each day next week from Monday - Thursday. I'm going to focus most of the next 4 days on Accounting and Finance, because those are the two in which I'm most shaky and in which there are concepts I still don't totally understand. The other two, Operations and Marketing, I think I can prepare for more easily, because I hope I will mostly just need to review the things we did.
The end of the first module means we're 1/4th of the way through the MBA. We've been here for two and half months, but it feels like much longer than that. When I look back and everything we've done already it's a pretty incredible image. The biggest test of all will be to see if the MBA helps us get to the places we want to get to in our careers. An article I read recently discussed whether CEOs with MBAs did better than those without, and the conclusion was that they did, even in the financial sector that has experienced such upheaval and mayhem lately. It said, "Although MBAs from Harvard, IMD or London Business School have more prestige than others, any MBA, whether it is from PIM, Colombo, SJU or the University of Wales Distance Learning certainly separates its owner from the pack." The article also said within companies, MBAs are presumed to be intelligent and to have the ability to move up the corporate ladder, and so companies give them extra opportunities to contribute and grow over the non-MBAs. It is also assumed that MBAs have integrity, social skills and emotional maturity, which are essential requirements for any leadership position.
It was an interesting look at the reasons why an MBA is useful, and I came away from the article thinking that beyond the analytical skills we learn, an MBA is a stamp showing that we're tough, that we we can handle any situation that is thrown at us.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Lessons in Cooperation
It is clear that we are in a phase that is a test in whether we have the ability to handle stressful jobs and situations, and also how we work together and rely on each other, because there's more work assigned than anyone could reasonably do. Recently an IMD MBA graduate spoke to us about the necessity of balancing work time with recovery time, and advocated eating healthy, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and indulging in twice daily Power Naps. He also let us in on a little secret that we hadn't fully realized: the coursework right now is supposed to be too much, because it forces us to divide the work and delegate tasks. No one can do it all, but if I read the case study and write a summary, and you read the book chapters and write a summary, then we can exchange summaries and each do half the work.
The heavy courseload by itself can cause emotional ups and downs, and when you add in the load of managing friendships and relationships it can get downright overwhelming. The 90 of us spend 16 hours a day together, in situations where we are forced to be critical with each other, and that causes more than a few disagreements between parties. With that many shared work hours, there are very few close friendships that will never encounter difficulty. I've had a few disagreements myelf, although not to the extent that some of my peers have. People who have partners probably struggle even a bit more, as they also manage the relationship emotions.
I'm already ready to get back to earning money instead of paying money and have the cushion of a stable income. I also realized that I miss New York City - the energy, the hustle, the taxi horns and sirens, although my only criteria for after the MBA is that I'm not going back to the US (at least for a few years). Switzerland is the quietest place I've ever lived, and it's almost creepy to hear absolutely no noise at nighttime. Some people's neighbors actually get angry if they take a shower after 10pm.
The heavy courseload by itself can cause emotional ups and downs, and when you add in the load of managing friendships and relationships it can get downright overwhelming. The 90 of us spend 16 hours a day together, in situations where we are forced to be critical with each other, and that causes more than a few disagreements between parties. With that many shared work hours, there are very few close friendships that will never encounter difficulty. I've had a few disagreements myelf, although not to the extent that some of my peers have. People who have partners probably struggle even a bit more, as they also manage the relationship emotions.
I'm already ready to get back to earning money instead of paying money and have the cushion of a stable income. I also realized that I miss New York City - the energy, the hustle, the taxi horns and sirens, although my only criteria for after the MBA is that I'm not going back to the US (at least for a few years). Switzerland is the quietest place I've ever lived, and it's almost creepy to hear absolutely no noise at nighttime. Some people's neighbors actually get angry if they take a shower after 10pm.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Sitting in the Skydeck
On the first day of March we received new seats in the auditorium due to the monthly rotation. During January I sat in the middle section in the 2nd row and loved it because it was front and center, I could hear everything that was said, and see everything that was written on the board. During February I sat on the right side 3rd from the end in the 2nd to last row and hated it because the professors rarely called on me (it’s a bit of a blind spot) and because I couldn’t see what was written on the far side of the chalkboard. I consoled myself by saying that my seat couldn’t get any worse, until today when I saw that it in fact did get worse, that I’m in the last seat in the last row on the extreme left side.
The sections in the auditorium each have special names, created many years ago by someone at Harvard. The classroom is arranged in a semi-circle with 3 sections – middle, left and right. The center of the middle section is called the Power Deck, because the students there float at eye level with the professor and so are the main people he/she sees continuously. The first row is called the Worm section because they squirm under the close presence of the professor. The middle of the left section is called the Garden Terrace because they get to observe the rest of the class from the side view like a peanut gallery. The middle of the right section is called the Blind Spot, because most professors are right handed and so have their back to the right side of the room when they write on the chalkboard. The last row, however, is called the Skydeck, because you’re so far away from the bottom of the Pit that you feel like you’re in the nosebleed section at a basketball game. Traditionally it’s a good place for the people who want to hide, and being on the end would make it especially good for that. The problem is that I’m not a person who wants to hide.
The first two weeks of March were the most draining since I got to IMD. My usual two morning coffees were replaced with energy drinks, and one day I set a new personal record for waking up, showering, and getting to class on time in under 20 minutes. I felt the tension and tiredness all around me. People were antsy, had less patience, and were all struggling to stay awake during class. We've gone two months with no break, attending class 5 days a week and every other Saturday. The burnout coeffecient is rising steadily, the correlation between case preparation and caring is approaching zero, and the covariance between finance and anger has increased by 200%, especially because finance class often runs late, as if four hours isn't enough time to adequately cover what we can reasonably absorb in a day.
The sections in the auditorium each have special names, created many years ago by someone at Harvard. The classroom is arranged in a semi-circle with 3 sections – middle, left and right. The center of the middle section is called the Power Deck, because the students there float at eye level with the professor and so are the main people he/she sees continuously. The first row is called the Worm section because they squirm under the close presence of the professor. The middle of the left section is called the Garden Terrace because they get to observe the rest of the class from the side view like a peanut gallery. The middle of the right section is called the Blind Spot, because most professors are right handed and so have their back to the right side of the room when they write on the chalkboard. The last row, however, is called the Skydeck, because you’re so far away from the bottom of the Pit that you feel like you’re in the nosebleed section at a basketball game. Traditionally it’s a good place for the people who want to hide, and being on the end would make it especially good for that. The problem is that I’m not a person who wants to hide.
The first two weeks of March were the most draining since I got to IMD. My usual two morning coffees were replaced with energy drinks, and one day I set a new personal record for waking up, showering, and getting to class on time in under 20 minutes. I felt the tension and tiredness all around me. People were antsy, had less patience, and were all struggling to stay awake during class. We've gone two months with no break, attending class 5 days a week and every other Saturday. The burnout coeffecient is rising steadily, the correlation between case preparation and caring is approaching zero, and the covariance between finance and anger has increased by 200%, especially because finance class often runs late, as if four hours isn't enough time to adequately cover what we can reasonably absorb in a day.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Day Trip to Montreux, Switzerland
The second-to-last Sunday of February Roberto and I got out of Lausanne for a couple of hours and headed to Montreux, a small town about 20 minutes train ride away. It was the warmest day we'd had so far this year, and the sun on my face felt fantastic after 2 long months of cloudy, cold, snowy weather. The snow from January turned into rain, and the air changed from cold and dry to the wonderful damp smell of spring. My Saturday had been taken up mostly with homework and groupwork, from 9:30 am - 10pm with a 3 hour break in the middle to run errands in town. Sunday morning I got up at 8:30am, worked for 4 hours, then headed to the train station. The blue sky, warm sun, temperatures that passed 10 C, and seeing a bit of the outside world lifted my spirits and cleared my head. When I came back that evening I was motivated to head to the gym before launching back into more homework.
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