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| A trio of Irish items |
(March 12-18)
Well friends, while spring break was amazing, it's back to the grindstone and with my recent hire I have much to do to prepare!
In true MBA form, I start my Monday back from spring break running. I'm at Dodge Hall at 8:30 am to help during an admitted students event. I always enjoy helping out at these gatherings, talking to prospective students and giving them an idea of what life at Northeastern is like. I was particularly happy to be seated next to several liberal/fine arts majors like myself! It nice to show them that, even without a business undergraduate degree, you can thrive in an MBA program.
On a personal note, it was so amazing to get such great support from the Northeastern administration when they learned of my recent job offer at Ocean Spray Cranberries. It always impresses me how much this school really seems to care about me and how happy they are for my successes.
After a brief breakfast, I leave the admits to their information session and steal a room in the Career Center to call Ocean Spray and officially accept their offer of employment. I discuss start dates with the Human Resources representative and am very grateful when they agree to give me three weeks to get ready before starting part-time. I will commence full-time employment on May 7th. This means I have a TON to do in three weeks (read: buy my first car, secure car insurance, a parking spot, etc.). Phew! It also means that I better do as many class assignments as possible before my start date, since once work commences I will have less time to work on my projects.
I then make sure to call the other employer that I had interviewed with for a temporary assignment and let them know of my decision. They are very kind and wish me the best in my new career (how cool does it sound to say that? career).
Once I get off the phone I head to, where else, the library to start on that goal of getting work done early. I have an optional case write-up due tonight (we can pick one of three to complete for the remainder of the semester) but since this is the first one due, I opt to finish it right away so I don't have to worry about any more case write-ups for Brand and Advertising Management.
After a couple of hours of work, I head back to Dodge Hall for lunch with the admitted students. I truly enjoy chatting with them and am happy to hear that some of them have already confirmed their enrollment. It's weird to think that I will have graduated before the Class of 2014 even starts.
Once I finish up my sandwich I rush off to Global Management where we discuss the issues German-based Volkswagen faced with trying to implement new supplier information management software in Japan.
After class I head back to my second home (Snell Library) and put the finishing touches on my Brand & Advertising case write-up. I had to determine which of four new ad campaigns Pepsi-Lipton should be used for a multimillion dollar Super Bowl spot. I hit submit around 7:00 pm that night (just in time for class!).
When I get out of class, I head to the library (yes at 9:30 pm) to send off my signed offer letter to Ocean Spray. When I get home close to 11:00 pm that night I spend a little time researching potential car options before passing out, tired but content with my day.
Tuesday morning I head into work at my normal time. My boss expresses how happy she is about my new career path and tells me that I don't have to come into work anymore if I don't want to. I'm very grateful to have the extra 15 hours a week to work on homework, search for a car and generally prepare for my new job. I still stay for the rest of my day and tie up loose ends, finish up some assignments and bid farewell to the marketing department *sniff*.
After work, I head to the library and receive an e-mail from a professor at Northeastern who teaches "Design Thinking for Market Driven Innovation". You see, since I will be working full-time during the summer, while still taking classes at night, I wanted courses that started as late in the evening as possible (so as not to interfere with work). I was given the option by my academic adviser to petition this course to count as a marketing elective since it starts at 7:30 pm. The professor offers to meet up and has sent me the course syllabus to give me an idea of the class content. It sounds like a great class, and one that could draw upon my past experience designing newspapers.
I also get an e-mail from my lovely executive mentor congratulating me on my new job. I am truly overwhelmed with all of the support I've received lately.
At 7:30 pm I head to Entrepreneurial Finance where we get back our business plans that we submitted before Spring Break. I am so happy to see that A- scrolled across the bottom of the last page! Among other things, we also start to discuss our next deliverable for the business plan: the dreaded financial statements. Yikes! We are tasked with creating three years of pro-forma financial statements for our company (including income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements).
Wednesday is a busy day! I spend my morning looking for cars, figuring out financing, and doing homework. I break at 12:00 pm for the second session of the Career Center's job search series. While I already have a job, I still think it's important to take advantage of every opportunity to learn. This session on case interviews is particularly interesting to me since I've encountered those tough questions more than once in interviews. The session is great and the Career Center even hands out free case interview books. Sweet! (super dork alert).
As soon as the session lets out it's right to Innovation and Enterprise Growth where we discuss, among other things, our impending innovation project. While my group has spent considerable time generating innovative ideas for Six Flags amusement parks, we have, thus far, done little in terms of analyzing and refining them. The project is 40% of our grade so we better get going....
After class lets out, I have just enough time to grab some dinner before a group meeting with my Brand and Advertising team to work on our consulting project for start-up brewery, Henniker Brewery Company. After getting several of our tasks in order, we all head to our make-up class. I will say, while I understand the reasoning behind all of our make-up classes, that doesn't make them any less difficult to cram into my busy schedule.
Thursday I wake up and head to the library. I will say, it's odd not to be heading into work this morning but I am happy to have the spare time to work on my Financial Modeling with Excel assignment due this Saturday (I admit, I haven't even looked at it yet). I meet up with a classmate who has also been afflicted with 'Saturdayclassitis' due to an early-start job and we do our best to utilize all of the snazzy formulas we learned from two weeks ago to completed the deliverable.
After that, we move on to preparations for our New Product Development class. Sometime during those hours of work, I get an e-mail from my former boss asking if I'd like to be featured in Northeastern University's new print ad in a GMAT test prep newsletter. She says I will have my photograph professionally taken and a short blurb written about my time at Northeastern. I'm honored and a bit abashed about accepting. I tell her I will first have to get permissions from current and former employers but that I'd be happy to help. Who would have thought that my MBA program would involve so many professional photo sessions (first Boston Business Journal and now this!)?
In New Product Development tonight we discuss the results of the Zaarly survey we designed (and that a student and I edited/created!). The results are interesting and we got enough respondents (roughly 120) so that we could use statistical software to analyze correlations, etc.
There is no rest for the weary as I wake up bright and early Friday morning for a team meeting with my Global Management group to work on our market entry project. We secure a room in Snell and work away from 9:30 am to about 12:30 pm.
After our meeting I do some more individual work and call to inquire about some listings on a parking spot for my yet-to-be-purchased car before heading downtown for my drug test for my new job.
When I get home I have just enough time to clean up my apartment before my boyfriend arrives in town for the weekend. I'm super excited that he will be here for his first ever Boston St. Patrick's Day!
Once he arrives we do our ritual rounds to New York Pizza and Parish Cafe before heading to bed early (remember, I have class at 8:00 am tomorrow morning).
Saturday I begrudgingly get up at 6:45 am and grab my Dunkin' Donuts coffee on the way to my second, and final, 'Financial Modeling and Analysis with Excel' class. I managed to submit my assignment in time and try to take copious notes on all of the great shortcuts the professor provides.
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| Lansdowne Pub - already busy at 2:00 pm! |
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| Our Irish-themed cupcake duo from Sweet |
After stuffing ourselves even more, Nick and decide that a relaxing movie is in order. We hop over to Regal Fenway for an afternoon showing of 21 Jump Street.
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| Amazing BBQ at Sweet Cheeks |
After we've had more than enough BBQd meats to last a lifetime, the three of us head to An Tua Nua in Fenway for some more St. Paddy's Day festivities. We snag a window seat and enjoy some Irish beverages, fun music and each others company.
Sunday morning Nick and I are up early to go visit a couple of car dealerships. Alas, despite stopping by two separate locations, we strike out. I get a bit frustrated and nervous that I will have to deal with slimy car salesmen throughout this whole process. Ugh! I had really hoped to get a car this weekend.
After several hours of frustrated car shopping, Nick heads back to Montreal and I head the library to hit the books. At least I can take comfort in the fact that my second St. Patrick's Day in Boston was even better than the first!
*The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Northeastern University, Ocean Spray Cranberries, either entities' staff or affiliates.
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