My Beta Gamma Sigma Induction and Last Saturday Class Ever!

Getting inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma's Honor Society

Fourteenth Week of Class
(April 9 - 16)

I spend Monday morning cramming for my Global Management final, finishing up my business plan for Entrepreneurial Finance and working on my assignment regarding Wikibrands for Brand & Advertising Management. I have so much to do in so little time that I actually set a timer for myself for each of these tasks, allotting no more than an hour for one, two hours for another, etc. Is this what my life has come to?

Fortunately, my Brand & Advertising Management paper was actually pretty painless to complete since I picked my very own Ocean Spray Cranberries to analyze. It was fun to spend time browsing my company's Facebook page, Twitter feed and more.

The Global Management final was pretty much a disaster from what  I can tell. I sat down feeling pretty good about it but as soon as I started scanning the short answer questions I knew I was in trouble. For some reason I couldn't remember which countries were part of APEC, had no idea what prospect theory was and pretty much just felt like I winged it on half the questions. At least it wasn't only me caught off guard. As I entered the grad lounge after the test and saw the concerned faces on all of my classmates I knew I could at least hope that the curve would help me.

But I don't have much time for dilly-dallying. I head right back to the library to continue my work on my business plan and the financials I promised my Six Flags innovation team.

I also download my tickets for graduation on May 4th! Can you believe it? Unfortunately, I'm only allowed three tickets and now have to try to squeeze an extra out of a classmate for Nick to attend the ceremony.

At around 6:30 pm I grab some dinner and then head to Brand & Advertising Management. It was actually a pretty fun session as all of my classmates discussed the different Wikibrands they covered, from Nike to Ann Taylor and more.

Alas, when I get home it's back to more homework (this time for my deliverable in Mastering Business Intelligence due tomorrow) and a late bed time.

Tuesday I'm up early to start my second week at Ocean Spray Cranberries. On the schedule for the day is filling out forms to run a coupon promotion, continuing to plug along on some Nielsen data pulls (I'm still trying to learn all the nuances of the program), and starting to work on an employee event scheduled for April 30th. I'm happy that I get to have some tasks to complete autonomously as I head down to the cafeteria to meet with the cafe manager to discuss offering oatmeal Craisins® white chocolate cookies and milk for the festivities. In between all of this I manage to sneak away for lunch with my Ocean Spray buddy. We catch up on my experience at the company thus far and find out more about each other. I love that Ocean Spray has arranged this buddy program; it really makes me feel more comfortable in the organization.

After work I rush back to campus for my Entrepreneurial Finance class. Fortunately, after last week's massive business plan deliverable, we don't have anything else due for the rest of semester! I also fulfill my new duty for my classmates and bring chocolate covered Craisins® for our evening snack.

Wednesday is a busy/fun/stressful day! I'm at it early with a morning meeting with my Six Flags innovation team to practice our presentation which we will deliver in just a few hours! Yikes! After all semester preparing, I can't believe the day is already here.

After a bit of practice and fine-tuning of our slides, most of my group heads over to the Frost Lounge in Ell Hall. The occasion? Our final Career Center lecture series. Today the room is packed because the session covers salary negotiations! We even have a special guest speaker who is a hiring manager for a recruiting company. She provides us with a very relevant set of slides outlining how to wrangle the difficult and awkward task of asking for a higher salary. Even though I already have a job, it is very helpful and I'm glad to offer up some of the insights I gained from my experience with my recent hire.

As soon as the lecture lets out, I bolt to Dodge Hall for our Six Flags presentation. We are the first team up. Oddly enough, this is the first group presentation of my entire MBA program that I have NOT presented in. With such large groups for the project, our professor allowed us to select just a few presenters. I'll just thank my teammates that were up there because it's so much easier to survive a presentation from the comfort of my seat! Overall, I feel that our group was one of the best, but only time will tell. Also, while it was stressful to get everything in order to present the first day, it also gives us the opportunity to edit our paper to incorporate feedback from the professor before the final is due next week.

After class I have just under an hour before I have to be in the Curry Student Center Ballroom for the spring honors ceremony. You might recall that I was here last year to receive the Stephen Riley Memorial Scholarship. This year, I'm here to be inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma's honor society. The event honors both undergraduate and graduate students and is super fun with complimentary h'ordeuvres and drinks. It is also fun to catch up with professors from previous semesters.

After the ceremony, a friend and I grab a slice of New York Pizza and spend the rest of the evening chatting about her impending move to Florida for a new job!

Thursday is dedicated in large part to my Brand & Advertising Management final project on Henniker Brewing Company that is due in just a couple of weeks. I meet up with one of my teammates for a working session in Snell Library. We spend most of the day creating mock-ups of Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, Groupon specials and more.

I also shoot off the first draft of my Mastering Business Intelligence Field Report on Northeastern out to Northeastern's Director of Enterprise Solutions and Delivery. The Director and I are able to set up a time for next Wednesday to meet and review it (just a day before the final is due!).

Student Entrepreneurs at the Husky Startup Challenge Demo Day

In New Product Development that night we revisit an old case from earlier in the year, this time addressing sustainability. We are also in for a little treat: Our professor allows us to leave class early if we promise to head over to the Curry Student Center for Northeastern's 2012 Husky Startup Challenge Demo Day. Hosted by the Entrepreneurs Club, the event boasts more than a dozen student groups all vying for funding for their business idea. There was free food, fun business concepts and I even got to cast my vote for my favorite company! Fun!

Friday is another day at Ocean Spray headquarters! I start my morning with another great presentation by our key executives including the Chief Operating Officer! We hear all about fruit consumption and sales projections, updates for the North American market and more. I also get 'officially' introduced to the company.

The rest of my day is taken up with meetings for our big Craisins® marketing promotion, another session of our ongoing meeting for new foods products and some secondary research that I get to conduct on different printing methods for our Craisins® packaging.

Saturday morning starts off with my last one-credit class of the semester (hallelujah!). The entire class had a deliverable due earlier this week on the Information Technology systems of an organization of their choosing. As I just started at Ocean Spray and didn't want to bother them, I opted to cover Northeastern University. I quickly determined that this was  horrible idea since Northeastern is essentially several companies in one. Anyway, we all received our feedback and discussed the issues we came across in class, along with other insights we gathered. We also discuss a case on a Boston-based sports apparel company, KL Enterprise.

When class lets out my two friends in the class and I trudge, exhausted, across the street to my new favorite sandwich shop, Temptations Cafe, for an hour of venting before the two of them have to head back to campus for another four hours of a Financial Statement analysis class (I do NOT envy them). It was nice to chat with them, particularly since both of these friends will be moving away from Boston shortly to start their new jobs.

Once they leave me I commence the first relaxing weekend I've had in far too long. Let's just say the remainder of my Saturday is spent watching copious amounts of Netflix (and I don't feel guilty about it at all).

Sunday I decide I should at least attempt to get some errands done since most of them (grocery shopping, laundry, etc.) have become collateral damage to my insane schedule the past few weeks. So I head to the laundromat, hit up the grocery store (by driving to it in my NEW car!), visit Target, etc. etc. I then close my evening by putting some final edits to my Innovation and Enterprise Growth paper and sending it off to my teammates for compilation into the paper.

*The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Northeastern University, Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc., either entity's staff or affiliates.