You and Me and Everyone We Know

I can't believe it's only been three weeks since I first set foot in Dodge Hall.  For the amount of knowledge I've gathered (and composed into executive e-mails, accounting reports, etc.) I might as well have been here for three months.

This week's word of advice is this: you need people.  What do I mean by this?  I mean study buddies, networking, the co-executives of your club and even someone to hit the gym with.  Talk to anyone and everyone. You know that group of 35 people from your section that you pretty much live with? They can act as supplemental reminders to your daily planner.  Trust me, with six classes and all your other responsibilities it is not unheard of to forget about that pesky three-page executive analysis due for Human Resource Management next Wednesday (or is it Thursday?).  Your second year mentor? They can be your link to the whole network of second-years and offer you the inside scoop on the unspoken rules of the road  As for the gym, well, let's just say if I didn't have someone to go with, I'd probably never get past the Au Bon Pain on the ground floor of the Marino Center.

I have also noticed that the people who study independently seem to struggle more with the work load.  Now, I'm not telling you to collaborate on work the teacher has specified as an individual assignment, but most professors encourage, nay, insist on group work and will even allow it for individual work up to a certain point.

Another lesson on teamwork comes from clubs.  After last week’s call for a treasurer and secretary, I'm pleased to say that the Marketing Club has completed our team.  This will make life so much easier with someone to reserve rooms, keep our financials in line (which can get very complicated) and pick up those pizzas for meetings.

Should you find yourself in the position of being a club leader I would suggest staying VERY on top of things.  Throughout the paperwork process we have received  conflicting information on budgets, registration and even a typo by the administration website telling us our deadline for funding was three days before we even joined the club (as you can imagine, that sent us into panic mode).  Also, don't trust that just because you found out about your club position on a Thursday, that the paperwork won't be due the next day.  This happened to a friend of mine.  She was announced as president of a club only to learn that the deadline for registering the club was that day! Talk about hitting the ground running.

On a positive note, I've finalized my resume, which means I will soon be able to post it to e-recruiting, the software program we use for our residency search.  This is making the idea of searching for a corporate residency very real.

Thursday some classmates set up a get-together at Punter's Pub through our Team 58 Facebook page.  This bar is a welcome relief to my graduate student budget after last weekends' foray into the fashionable and pricey world of 28 Degrees and 12 dollar cocktails. Plus, it's right around the corner from school so cab rides are not an issue.  For those not from Boston, keep in mind, that the subway, or "T", stops running after 12:30 every night so be prepared to pay that hefty cab fee if you decide to finish your night at last call.  Here's a link to the MBTA website, if you're not from the area: www.mbta.com/.  Northeastern is on the Green 'E' line.

Because of the proximity to campus and the relatively early start time of 5:00 pm we get quite the crowd at Punter's.  Both sections are well represented and I have a great time mingling with people from the other class I normally don't get to interact with.  Unfortunately, I leave after about an hour and a half to head back to Dodge for the first Entrepreneurship Club meeting. 

I’m proud of myself because, at the meeting, they open up the remaining executive position for anyone interested.  My gung-ho inclination is to raise my hand and ask to be Vice President, Secretary, anything, but I quickly catch myself.  I'm already pretty stretched for time so do I really need another commitment?  I realize the answer is a resounding "no".  So I sit back and enjoy the prospect of just having to 'show up' to these meetings in the future.

On Friday my fellow Marketing Club execs and I meet with our club advisor. He gives us the low-down on the plethora of opportunities available to us. 

We talk about several options for consulting projects, including work for a start-up company conducting focus group research and another for the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.  He tells us about big-name lecturers who have come to campus in the past, including representatives from New Balance, Segway and Dunkin' Brands.  These would be big events, possibly opened up to the entire college of business (undergrad and graduate). How cool is that?  We also broach the topic of setting up an alumni lecture series.  These would be held in a more intimate setting for just Marketing Club members. Former MBA students who are now in marketing positions would come sit with us and answer questions, tell us about the job, etc.  We also have the opportunity to do some facility tours.  Past years have even gone to Hasbro (apparently they have a giant Mr. Potato Head in the parking lot!).  It quickly becomes apparent that we have too many options and not enough time.  We decide to discuss our course of action with the rest of the club at our first meeting next Wednesday (complete with complimentary Upper Crust pizza, I might add).

Friday afternoon I spend "networking".  Career Management this morning was all about reaching out and expanding your network.  I'm nervous, but I do some research on Hoover's and cold call a couple of residency executives to try and set up informational interviews. I know it's a long shot, but you never know.

I also reconnect with former employers and ask them to complete a questionnaire on my performance while at their company.  This information will become part of our Human Resource Management "Living Document", a 40+ page analysis of our managerial strengths and weaknesses.  I'm feel bad asking them to complete the 84 questions (especially after many of them wrote my recommendations for Northeastern!), but I suck it up and send out several requests.

I round out my day with dinner at Woody's Grill & Tap, a restaurant serving up stone-fired pizza. While it was delicious, after Upper Crust, their spicy chicken sausage pizza left something to be desired.

Saturday morning I wake up to the ringing of my alarm at 8:00 am.  I'm meeting a classmate at Snell Library in a couple of hours.  After our five-hour powerhouse study session dedicated mostly to our looming economics textbook pricing paper we get our butts to the gym. 

Fortunately, I get a small bit of socializing tonight.  I'm invited to the former marketing club president's house to mingle with some second years.  I rack their brains for advice, ask how their co-ops are going and about the adventures of their international field study.  It's nice to have some straight-forward answers from students who have been there. 

Sunday arrives and with it another adventure into laudromat land where I spend some time fine-tuning my econ paper to the sounds of spinning dryers.  I feel a bit guilty because I had set a goal to complete all of my work for Monday and Tuesday this weekend, but as Sunday evening rolls around and I find myself still unsatisfied with my paper, I resign myself to a packed week.

On a side note, my boyfriend is coming out to visit from California for Columbus Day weekend so I know I better get as much work completed ahead of time as possible. I'm sure he doesn't want to watch me read my Information Resources case while he's here.  I think we'll do a Sam Adams Brewery Tour in Jamaica Plain (free, for all you budget-conscious beings), maybe grab some dessert at Finale and possibly head over to Cambridge. I'm hoping the leaves start to change soon so he can have a true first-time Boston experience. The City is, after all, the most beautiful during fall.

P.S. - if you want to know how dorky I am, I check the Foliage Network website to monitor the leaf change/fall in the Northeast.  Might be fun to check out if you're not from the area.

* 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

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