Getting into the Swing of Things

School is officially in full-swing.  Homework is piling up and our big deliverables are looming just around the corner.

This week’s lesson is all about setting a routine.  With school, work and student clubs it can become easy to overlook your physical and mental well-being.  That being said, a learning team member and I set up a weekly schedule involving library study hours, work-outs at the Marino Center and time for our jobs.

I’m becoming a regular morning visitor at the Career Center, taking advantage of their complimentary coffee, tea and hot cocoa (though I really don’t bother with the latter two, who would want less-caffeine anyway?). 

On Wednesday I schedule a meeting with my career advisor so that she can get to know me, my career history and my future goals.  We also go over my resume in more detail. I’m to have an updated version to her in a couple of weeks.  The meeting is about 45 minutes long and I feel great about the specialized attention I receive; I’m not rushed out of the room like I would have been at my large, undergraduate institution.

Thursday is a big day for me. I’m on campus from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.!  I go to class, fit in 3 hours at my work study position, hit the gym, grab a quick bowl of Pho for dinner at Pho & I and head to the graduate lounge in Dodge Hall for my first Marketing Club meeting.  I’m excited and anxious since I’ve applied for two executive positions (Vice President or Secretary) and today I will find out the results of my applications.

I’m shocked to learn that I am elected Vice President!  Now, I feel it important to dole out a bit of advice here.  When applying to these leadership positions I underestimated my qualifications.  I primarily applied to the secretarial position, feeling I wouldn’t (or couldn’t) be as qualified as my peers.  I didn’t hold out much hope for winning either.  What I found out is that out of 30 members, only three people applied to executive board positions!  My friend was elected President and I share the Vice President role with the other applicant.  So, if you want a leadership position in a club, go for it! You’d be surprised at how few people even bother to apply.

After the meeting, the former president pulls the three of us aside and gives us some pointers.  I’m so excited to get going on all of the options available for the club; guest speakers, facility tours, consulting projects and social events are all activities they have taken advantage of in the past.  We’re even allotted a pretty generous budget.  My co-execs and I decide that we will definitely need more hands on board and send out requests for a treasurer and secretary.

Friday is “Dress for Success” in Career Management.  Two employees from The TJX Companies (whose companies include T.J. Maxx and Marshalls) come to class armed with a wardrobe and the dos and don’ts of business attire.

After class I head upstairs to a mandatory Hoover’s Training session.  At first I went begrudgingly, assuming it would be an hour-long discourse on all the minutia that make up online research, but it was quite the opposite.  Northeastern subscribes to several databases centered on searching for our co-op, researching careers and exploring industries.  Some even have details on average salaries and contact information for executives. I’ve already used Hoover’s to look up some of the marketing heads at residencies I’m interested in and hope to contact them as soon as I get a chance.

After some homework, my day closes with a visit to 28 Degrees, a swanky bar in the South End where I sip my muddled grape Caipirinha and take a breather.

Saturday is a day of buckling down. The coming week is rife with reading and I know if I don’t start now, I’ll be unable to finish.  I pack up my backpack and grab a coffee on the way to Snell Library where I find a quite study nook on the top floor to call home for the next 4 hours.

On my way home, I cross Columbus Avenue and am greeted by a full-on Jazz festival.  There’s free music, booths of delicious food and people, people, people.  If I weren’t in study mode I would have grabbed some grub (or at least the fried dough! Yum!). 

Mumbai Chopstix
Photo courtesy of Farah Naaz

Plus, I have a dinner date tonight at Mumbai Chopstix, an Indian fusion restaurant on Newbury Street that just opened in April. Now, I’m not too familiar with Indian food, but luckily one of my classmates is from India so she and her husband graciously make suggestions (and what delicious suggestions they were).

Afterwards I walk off my dinner with some friends and eventually end up at Our House, a local bar near Northeastern.



Stephanie's On Newbury
Photo courtesy of Katherine Baroutgian

It’s Sunday and I’m so excited! A classmate and I have set up a girl’s brunch at Stephanie's On Newbury.  I’m surprised and thrilled at the turnout.  Out of the 16 girls in our section, 11 make it out for omelets, pancakes and my new addiction: frittered French toast!  It’s a lovely way to start the day. 

Again, I finish off my weekend with some powerhouse studying, finally making it to bed around 1:00 am (my new 'regular' bedtime).

Frittered French Toast

* The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Northeastern University, its staff, faculty or affiliates and are solely the opinion of Katrina Graves.

Of part-time jobs, peer mentors, pizza and "The Pru"

It is now week two of my time here on the Northeastern campus, and the first week of real classes.

I, regretfully, spend my last weekend of freedom doing what I know you don't want to hear: finsihing homework.  Again and again I will tell you that an MBA program is not the same as your undergraduate experience.  The work load is substantially heavier and I feel that catching up on the additional work assigned during orientation is imperative. While a classmate has scheduled a Saturday outing to Jillian's to celebrate the end of orienation, I decide to call it an early night (I still have unpacking to do tomorrow!).

Just to give you an idea of what your first-year courses might look like, here's my class schedule for fall:

	MON		TUES		WED		THURS		FRI
8:50
9:00
9:10
9:20	MKTG 6208		ACCT 6208		MKTG 6208		ACCT 6208
9:30	Marketing		Accounting		Marketing		Accounting
9:40	8:50 - 10:30		8:50 - 10:30		8:50-10:30		8:50-10:30
9:50
10:00									BUSN 6200
10:10									Career Mgt.
10:20									9:30-11:30
10:30
10:40
10:50
11:00
11:10
11:20	MECN 6208		HRMG 6208		MGSC 6205
11:30	Economics		Human Resource		Info. Resource
11:40	10:50-12:50		10:50-12:50		10:50-12:50
11:50
12:00
12:10
12:20
12:30
12:40

We are greeted first thing Monday morning with another assesment; this time in writing.  I advise you to take this 25-minute test seriously.  We learn that low-scoring students will be required to take a no-credit writting workshop every Monday afternoon for the entire semester and, trust me, you don't need anything else eating up your time.

After my Monday classes I have an interview (and job offer!) for a part-time work study position on campus.  I'm excited about the opportunity, but a bit hesitant about taking on too much work because the program has been so adamant about limiting commitments the first semester. But it's only 6.5 hours a week so I don't think it will be too much of an issue. I have also learned that there are a few other students juggling part-time work so at least I know I'm not alone.

By Wednesday my learning team has decided to set up recurring study sessions every Monday and Wednesday right after class in Snell Library.  This is, primarly, to work on our accounting assignments for our Tuesday and Thursday class. Plus, we find it nearly impossible to finish all of the assigned work independently, so these sessions have proven particularly necessary (especially for those of us, like myself, who struggle with the mathematical elements of the coursework).

Thursday is my section's early day so some of our natural-born event planners and facebook afficianados set up a group named Section 58 (a combination Section 24 and Section 34) to post events and get-togethers for both sections.  Tonight about 15 classmate head out to Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano bar on High Street.  It's so nice to just relax and talk to each other about topics other than balance sheets and brand equity.  At first I'm a bit hesistant about going out, after all, it is a Thursday night and we have class tomorrow.  But I'm relieved to find that, as 11:30 rolls around, most people begin making thier way home.  Again, I'm reminded of how this is not college. We all want to do well and I imagine that's pretty contingent on being awake in class.


Photo courtesy of Gian Carlo De Leon

On Friday both sections meet for Career Management.  For this first session they return the resumes we submitted as part of our pre-work with thoughtful edits and suggestions. They had also offered an optional library research session earlier that morning.  I'm surprised to see that about 75% of the class shows up.

After getting let out at 11:30 a.m. a classmate and I decide to discover the Prudential Center (or "The Pru", for those not in "the know").  We grab some chowder and peruse shops during this much-needed break.

I leave my classmate around 5:30 p.m. and rush home before meeting my peer mentor at 6:00 p.m.  The peer mentor program is an optional program for first-years.  As part of the program you are matched with a second year student, usually someone in your intended career track.  While the program has no "official" structure, it usally centers around communicating with your second year via phone, e-mail or coffee chats to get the inside scoop from someone who's been there.  I've been in touch with mine since August via e-mail and am now meeting her for the first time!

We grab some appetizers and drinks at a restaurant around the corner from my house and talk for the next 2 hours! She fills me in on her residency (at a beer distributor!) and her International Field Study in South America.  I ask her about her leadership roles in student organizations and discover she has the very position in the Graduate Marketing Club that I'm applying for (I'll let you know the results of that application when I find out).

Now it's Saturday, but, alas, my only rendevous with sunlight occurs during a 2-hour stint at the nearby laundromat.  I grab a coffee from Dunkin' Donuts (for all you West-coasters, they don't know what "drip" coffee means over here) and my case study and plop down in front of a TV playing a Chinese version of American Idol.

Sunday I let myself have some fun. A member of my learning team (and fellow Californian) joins me for some leisurly strolling along Newbury Street and lunch at The Upper Crust where we share a Buffalo Chicken pizza. Yum!

The rest of the weekend is spent face-down in books...

*The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Northeastern University, its faculty, staff or affiliates and are solely the opinion of Katrina Graves