My (Kinda) Graduation

Break Week
(April 30- June 6)

Well blogosphere, it's my semester break this week and, sadly, the only 'time off' I'll be getting between school and starting work full-time. Fortunately, I have some exciting things to occupy me.

On Monday I head in to work (my boss has graciously allowed me to swap my Friday of work for Monday so I can participate in my graduation ceremony). The big event on my calendar today: a makeshift National Craisins^® Day in response to National Raisin Day. In an effort to take over the 'holiday' we hand out samples to employees with coupons for them to pass on to friends, initiate a "Make the Swap" contest online and even hand out freshly baked Oatmeal Craisins^® White Chocolate Chunk cookies and milk. Yum!

Besides all the fun activity surrounding the event, I also get some great exposure to new systems including our financial management program and the accruals process for budgeting. I make sure to pay extra close attention because pretty soon I will be tasked with managing the foods budget.

I round out my day with some more deep-dives into Nielsen data and what it tells me about dried cranberry consumption in our key accounts across the United States.

That night, after days of anxiously checking Northeastern's Blackboard system, I am pleased to see that Spring Semester grades are up. Amazingly, I somehow manage to get the highest GPA of my MBA career, and during my most stressful semester at that! Phew! This will have to buffer me for my Summer I term...ugh.

Tuesday I head into work again (it's been kind of nice to work three days in row - it almost feels like I'm full time!). It's a long day but a rewarding one. With my mounting responsibilities and trying to learn all the ropes, my day runs more than 10 hours. Included are some calls with prospective vendors who want to do sampling events for  Craisins^®, editing some Facebook and Twitter posts, reviewing the budget, a new foods product meeting and more! Phew!

As a nice break I get to have lunch with my Ocean Spray 'buddy' in the cafeteria. We catch up on our weekend activities and what's happening in the world of cranberry Foods and Beverage.

After a day of powering through tons of projects, I am happy to say my Tuesday ends with five days of break, free from school and work. I remind myself to savor it since it's the only semblance of a vacation I'm getting before the real world hits.

But, true to form, my grandiose ideas of sleeping in and watching TV all day are quickly brought back to reality. I spend the first day of my 'break' on Wednesday running errands to get ready for my parents arrival and graduation. I go to the doctor, get a haircut, get my nails done and pick up my cap and gown (which involved me entering the Cabot Recreation Center for the first time!)

Waiting to hear my number; it's nice to know that some things never change, regardless of what state you're in.

On Thursday I'm up early to head to the Boston Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) to officially surrender my California drivers license and become a Massachusetts state resident. As I sit in the waiting room listening for my number to be called I get a little sad that I'm renouncing my California-ness. While I've lived in other states before, I never officially became a of resident of anywhere except the Golden State. At least I get a new drivers license photo.

After I finish up at the RMV I clean my apartment, stop by CVS for some last minute items and get ready to pick up my Mom and Stepfather from Boston Logan Airport at 2:00 pm.

Mom and Stepfather at Faneuil Hall

After I manage my first drive to the airport in my new ride, my Mom, Stepfather and I somehow manage to make it to the historic Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market area for a late lunch at Union Oyster House. It's supposedly the first restaurant in America (founded in 1826) and my Mom was dying to go after seeing it featured on the Food Network. But, I have to say, while the chowder was good, the rest of our meal was lackluster at best, and the service was pretty poor (even at 3:00 in the afternoon). Oh well, it was fun and we follow it up with a tour around the powerful Holocaust Memorial, Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market before I take them to see my tiny studio home of the past two years, and drop them at their hotel.

I then head to meet my Dad, who flew in a couple of hours earlier. I join him at Lucca Back Bay (not my fave, but it's conveniently located) for drinks at the bar, dinner for him and dessert for me. It was so fun to catch up! I then proceed to show him my new car and my apartment, which has undergone some decorating improvements since he last saw it on moving day September 2010. 

After that I bid my Dad goodnight and hit the hay. I have to be awake to pick Nick up from the airport by 7:00 am tomorrow morning; not to mention it's Graduation day!

Friday is the big day! The day I (kinda) graduate from the Northeastern MBA program. I say 'kinda' because as I know all too well, I still have two classes to complete during Summer I, while working full-time. I am anything but 'done' with the program. Nonetheless, I am a huge fan of formalities, ceremonies and other such fanfare so I'm  going to try my best to pretend away (if only for today).

I start my graduation day very early (like, out of the house at 6:00 am early) so that I can pick Nick up from the airport. I'm so grateful for him to have flown out to Boston just for the weekend to see me walk. After I grab him from Boston Logan (man, having a car makes this process so much easier!) we go home and crash for a couple hours.

At around 10:30am Nick and I head to The Colonnade Hotel, where my Dad is staying, for graduation breakfast at Brasserie Jo with the whole family. I have been wanting to go here for quite some time so I'm happy to have an excuse. Since it's a French restaurant I feel it only fitting to order up some breakfast crepes!

After we wrap up, I head back to the apartment to primp before my graduation ceremony. I have to report to our MBA station outside of Matthews Arena by 2:00 pm.

Hanging out in the graduation tent before entering Matthews Arena

Of course, we really didn't need to get there until probably an hour later but it was still nice to mingle with all the graduates outside of Matthews Arena and say goodbye to many people who are leaving the area for great job opportunities in other states/countries.

The ceremony itself was nice and brief. David Ferriero, the 10th Archivist of the United States, gave our commencement address. The whole process was done before 5:30 pm.

After the ceremony lets out, I participate in some obligatory photos in front of Dodge Hall before heading into the Graduate Business School reception party. It was so fun to introduce my family and boyfriend to everyone who has been so influential during the program and who have helped me so much, career-wise.

It wouldn't be a blog post without some pictures of food!

By 6:30 pm, I bid my Northeastern colleagues adieu and head to my graduation dinner at Sibling Rivalry (my favorite!). I loved being able to share a great restaurant with my family and liked it even more given the fact that it lasted well into the night. 

Saturday I'm up relatively early again. I grab a Dunkin Donuts breakfast with Nick before we meander over to Fenway Park for my first ever Red Sox game! My father was generous enough to buy the whole family tickets to see the Sox play against the Orioles. While the Sox lost, I had an amazing time eating ball park fare,buying an obligatory Red Sox baseball cap and enjoying all of the fans.

Look at that snazzy Sox cap!

After the game, my Mom and Stepdad head over to Harvard University to check it out (though I think Northeastern is FAR more interesting) and I show my Dad my future Fenway apartment.

We then walk back to the Colonnade where I get a lovely graduation gift and see the mini confetti cannons that were intended for my graduation ceremony (that didn't arrive in time). You see, my Dad owns a company that manufactures confetti and confetti cannons for large-scale events like concerts, sporting events, etc. and he was going to shoot them off during my ceremony. Alas, they will have to be reserved for another time.

At around 7:00 pm we head to Newbury Street to meet my Mom and Stepdad at Cafeteria where we spend a good while drinking Sangria and enjoying 'Tray Chic' comfort food.

We then wander over to the Trader Joe's to show my Sepdad (a Trader Joe's employee for the past 40+ years) the smallest store in the country. It was such a blast to see how excited he was to explore the store and chat up all of the employees.

Sunday I get to sleep in. My parents both left early today but said I was off the hook to drive them to the airport. I spend the majority of the day running some errands with Nick, grabbing a movie at the Fenway theater (we saw The Five-Year Engagement) and grab lunch at Temptations Cafe before I'm forced to drive him to the airport. After he leaves I'm left with nothing but homework, homework and more homework for my first week of Summer semester.



*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 entity's staff or affiliates.

The End of Spring Semester

Sixteenth Week of Class
(April 23- 29)

Monday morning I head to campus to *gulp* buy my books for Summer I (I really can't stand to face it yet!), then plug along at my final presentation for Brand & Advertising Management that my team is giving to our client: Henniker Brewing Company. After working independently for the morning, I meet several of my group mates at 2:00 pm to practice, finalize the paper, and edit our PowerPoint presentation. We work right up until the presentation at 7:30 pm. In fact, I have to break away for a minute to grab our guests from the parking structure while the rest of my team keeps editing our slides (talk about cutting it close!).

Fortunately, I think our presentation goes quite well and we are the only team whose company actually attended the presentations. Our client loved our ideas and even gave us some sweet Henniker Brewing branded clocks!

Tuesday I head to Lakeville for the fourth week of work. On my 'To Do' list for today: writing a promotional piece for our Ocean Spray intranet in support of our National Craisins^® Day celebration! It was actually super fun to write (even if it was just a couple of paragraphs) and reminded me of the the good ol' days of reporting for newspapers.

I also get trained on our financial management system as pretty soon I'll be taking over tracking of the foods budget (Yikes!). Fortunately, I get a one-on-one session with our resident expert and I'm starting to feel a little more confident.

The rest of the day is spent knee-deep in Nielsen data pulls and meetings for a new foods product.

After work I head to campus for my final Entrepreneurial Finance class! Tonight, we get our hefty business plans back. After much nervous anticipation, I am thrilled to see an A- scrawled across the back page. I'm actually quite proud of the assignment because I did it completely on my own (well, with the help of some tutors, but still!).

When class lets out at 8:30 pm, a group of students heads across the street to Conor Larkin's for celebratory drinks! Several of the part-time students in our little gathering completed their last class as soon as we stepped out of Entrepreneurial Finance. Many of them have been juggling full-time work, a part-time MBA and family for the past 4+ years! Wow...and I thought I was busy!

Wednesday I get up to run some errands (including some indulgent personal beautification in the form of a manicure) before dragging myself to the library to complete my last deliverable of the semester: a new product development process audit. Let me just say, you know it's been a crazy semester when you and your teammate can't even fit in starting a final paper, 15-pages long, worth 35% of your grade, until three days before it's due. My teammate and I can't even be mad at ourselves because we literally have been running around like mad women since day one. I spend the next 5+ hours locked in Snell Library plugging away at my portion of the paper. I am happy to say that just two days after starting our new product audit, we somehow manage to hit submit on it tonight! I can't believe I'm done! What a semester. Honestly, how did I survive?

Thursday is a glorious day. I sleep in way later than I will admit, run some errands, meet my friend for celebratory and good-bye cupcakes at Crumbs in the Financial District, buy a graduation dress (shouldn't have but I love it!) and work on the blog, all before my last 'class' of the semester. I say 'class' sarcastically because my last New Product Development class is held at Conor Larkins (apparently my new haunt). My friend and I drop by for half an hour and enjoy a plate of nachos with our professor and classmates over beer to wrap up the semester.

Sweet Cheeks BBQ!

After the last class of spring what else is there to do but celebrate with delicious BBQ at Sweet Cheeks! I take my classmate (a Sweet Cheeks virgin) and we indulge in more BBQ pork belly, pulled chicken, broccoli cheddar casserole, baked beans and biscuits than anyone could ask for. What a way to end the semester.

Friday I'm up early to head to work. My day is busy helping to wrap up final touches for Monday's Craisins^® celebration (including finalizing oatmeal Craisins^® chocolate chunk cookies and milk!). I also spend considerable time trying to perfect my large Nielsen data pull to analyze Craisins^® trends. I update the data to incorporate the newest time period available. I also try to analyze trends across more than a dozen different stores that sell our product. It's great practice for me!

I also get my first training at how to code invoices to track against our marketing budgets. I can't believe I'll be in charge of tracking the Craisins^® and sauce budget once I start full time. I, of course, take copious notes and probably ask way too many questions.

With all these numbers, data pulls and more, I don't leave the office until most everyone is already gone.

Extremely necessary...

Saturday morning I get up not for a homework session at the library, but for brunch with a friend (did I mention how happy I am that the semester is over?). Our restaurant of choice is Towne Stove and Spirits. I order up some of the most amazing blackberry scones ever with devonshire cream. Other items for our brunch include the most delectable lemon chiffon pancakes (I'm in love) and some requisite brunch mimosas. Funny how much I enjoyed this restaurant considering I thought it was a sporting goods store for the majority of my MBA program (whoops!).

After brunch my friend and I go window shopping (when was the last time that happened!?). I then follow up a morning of food with coffee with another friend (a former MBA classmate who graduated last year). I haven't seen her in ages so we decide to meet at Trident Booksellers and Cafe. This bookstore actually has a pretty stellar cafe menu, but today iced coffee, coffee cake and catching up are what are on the table for me.

After a couple of hours, I bid my coffee compatriot adieu and meet up with my friend from this morning. Thus commences an evening of On Demand movies, New York Pizza delivery and celebratory vino. Man, I could get used to this whole 'weekends free' thing.

Sunday is down to business - errands wise. I start out by picking up the last of my Summer I textbooks (ugh!), along with some Northeastern University apparel (I'm getting all nostalgic as graduation approaches). I then go grocery shopping, do some laundry and wrap up my evening by cooking a legitimate meal and working on the blog. What a lovely weekend!

*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, subsidiaries or affiliates.

Marathon Monday and How I Became a True Bostonian

Marathon Monday!

Fifteenth Week of Class
(April 16 - 22)

Monday is a holiday exclusive to Massachusetts: Patriot's Day (also known as Marathon Monday). I love this day off not only because, well, it's a day off, but because the city comes alive with the 25,000 marathon runners making their way from Hopkinton to the finish line in front of the Prudential Center. I simply adore watching the power of human motivation as these runners suffer through 26.2 miles of agony. Standing on the sidelines and watching them is enough of a workout for me.

After I get my fill of these super fit athletes I  head home for a small respite before meeting up with several of my classmates for dinner at Basho Japanese Brasserie in Fenway. It was quite good (particularly the steamed pork buns and shishito peppers) and I really enjoy that I have the time on this Boston holiday to go out and socialize with my classmates (I've been a verifiable recluse the past month or so).

The Ocean Spray truck was at work today!

Tuesday marks my third week at work! I spend the day continuing my research on different types of printing methods for some of our Craisins® packaging. Who would have thought that my new job at Ocean Spray Cranberries would make me an expert on the differences between Roto Gravure and HD Flexo printing processes?

Further along my adventures in printing technology I begin looking at the cost differences of the two methods and how each measures up in regards to Craisins^® packaging. I even get to meet some new people in procurement to discuss the options and look over tons of printing samples (fun!). 

After work I head to Entrepreneurial Finance. Fortunately, there are no more assignments due for the rest of the semester, so I just enjoy our class discussion while nibbling on Ocean Spray's new Cherry Juice Infused Craisins® with my classmates.

When I get home, I start the final edit of our Six Flags innovation paper (you might recall that our presentation was last week, but the paper is due tomorrow). The task, which I anticipated might take an hour, ended up taking triple that! Ugh! It's quite late by the time I pass it along to the rest of my group and then hit the hay.

Wednesday I'm up early for my 9:30 am meeting with the Director of Enterprise Solutions and Delivery for Northeastern University. Even though my last Mastering Business Intelligence class was on Saturday my final field report on Northeastern's IT system is due tomorrow. Fortunately, this session with the Director is actually quite fun! I actually get to go inside the Christian Science Center tower, up to the 23rd floor where Northeastern has offices. Not only is the meeting super helpful for my assignment, and the Director very generous with his time, but the view from his office is stunning!

After the session, I head right to campus to finish up my edits on the field assignment while it's all still fresh in my mind. Then, it's off to Reprographics to print and bind the final version of our Six Flags innovation paper (coming in at a whopping 30+ pages!).  After I have the sucker in my possession I head to to my final Innovation and Enterprise Growth class where I watch the last three groups present their innovation portfolios for companies such as The Ritz Carlton Hotel and Research in Motion.

When class lets out it's right to Snell Library to get cranking on my portion  of our Brand & Advertising project for Henniker Brewing Company. I'm meeting my group at 6:30 pm tonight for a powerhouse working session but need to fine tune my sections beforehand.

Once I meet with my team, I'm already tired, but alas, we spend another three hours (until 9:30 pm) finalizing the paper.

Thursday is a day dedicated to my Brand & Advertising final project. I take over a table in the library with one of my teammates from early morning until our New Product Development class at 5:20 pm that night. We are busy all day designing a mock Facebook page, Twitter account, logos, tap handles and more. I definitely make use of my Adobe InDesign talents today! In fact, I only take a couple of breaks from the project to work on my case readings for New Product Development and for a meeting with the Director of Program and Student Services of the Graduate College of Business.

My meeting with the Director was a last-ditch effort to try and petition for a Summer II class to count towards my Marketing concentration. You see, with work starting full time in just a couple of weeks, and two classes left in my MBA program, I was trying to spread out my course load across  both summer terms, so I would only have to take one at a time. Alas, the meeting does not go well and I am left with no other choice than to take a full course load during Summer I (class Monday through Thursday!), while working full time and commuting two hours a day.


I'm not going to lie, when I heard the final decision I was so upset I just tried not to cry in front of the Director. I was so overwhelmed and exhausted from the semester that I just didn't know what to do. I left the office only to run into some staff from admissions and, without even meaning to, just started to tear up in front of them. I just don't know how much more work I can take at this point.

With the stress of a full course load and full-time work weighing on my shoulders (not to mention the financial implications of paying for another class with such short notice and telling my new boss about my change of plans) I have to head right back into the lion's den and work on my Brand & Advertising project for the next several hours and still go to class tonight. I also resign and sign up for my second summer course: Marketing in the Service Sector, and send the professor an e-mail informing him of my situation (I already have to miss the second class for a work event). I guess on the bright side, I will now be graduating at the end of June, instead of August (hey, I gotta grasp onto something positive).

This view during lunch is exactly what I needed to de-stress

Friday is another day at the bog (well, near the bog). On the itinerary for today? I continue to work on my large Nielsen data pull for Craisins® research, attend some exciting new product meetings, and get my very first 1:1 session for work. You see, Ocean Spray has this great on-boarding process for new employees which includes more than a dozen one-on-one meetings with key staff across several different departments. Today I get to meet with the Director of Global Insights. The meeting is super informative and the Director gives me a lovely overview of her department and how my role will interact with Global Insights.

I guess this makes me an official Bostonian

After this long week I am happy to join my friend after work at Flour Bakery in the South End. I even find a parking spot right in front of the cafe! We spend the next hour or so catching up and indulging in sweets (OK, maybe it was just me that ate a massive cupcake).

I offer to drive my friend home in my new ride but as we approach my car and its 'primo' parking spot what do I find? A parking ticket! I have never gotten a ticket in my life and now, the first time I park on the street in Boston, I get that awful orange piece of paper. It's all I can do to laugh at my continued bad luck this week.

After dropping off my friend I rush home to clean up before Nick arrives for the weekend.

Saturday morning Nick and I get up for brunch at The Breakfast Club in Allston. It's quite cute with an 80s theme and my shaved sirloin eggs Benedict with spicy hollandaise is just what I needed. We even snag complimentary coffee mugs in honor of the restaurant's 10th anniversary.

After we get our fill of breakfast goodies, Nick and I head to my new apartment in Fenway for a tour. I arranged to be let in so Nick and I can take some measurements for furniture, etc. Lucky for us, the current tenant had done the same thing and remembered many of the dimensions off the top of his head.

The apartment visit is followed  by an afternoon showing of The Hunger Games and then dinner and drinks at recently-opened Yard House in Fenway. I was pleasantly surprised with the drink selection (more than 130 beers on tap!) and the variety of food at the restaurant. I order up a trio of tacos ranging from Korean BBQ beef to Baja Fish. Yummy!

Duck Confit Hash n' Eggs at Stella

Sunday it's time for another brunch outing; this time to Stella in the South End. I must say, for all its hype, I was a bit underwhelmed with their duck confit hash n' eggs. Nonetheless, I enjoy my last meal with the BF before he heads back to Montreal and I head back to my books.


*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 entity's staff or affiliates.

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.

My First Week at Work, an Easter Spent in the Library and a New Apartment!

Tulips on Campus

Thirteenth Week of Class
(April 2 - 8)

Monday is a big day for presentations: the final part of my group's Market Entry Project is due to be presented to a panel of judges during our Global Management class. Yikes!

But before I start worrying about that, I spend the morning working on as much homework as possible in anticipation of how little time I will have once I start at my new job tomorrow. While up to my eyeballs in assignments, I receive an e-mail with a draft copy of my ad from the photo shoot I did a couple of weeks ago. I think it looks great, but I make sure to distribute it to both my former and future boss for their approval. The add will be featured in GMAT test prep materials for anyone who takes a course from Princeton Review. It's pretty cool, but I'm also a little abashed about the whole thing.

At 12:30 pm my Market Entry team for Global Management meets me in a reserved room in Snell Library to practice our presentation before class at 1:45 pm. We are all a bit nervous as it's our second to last deliverable for the class and we have to look good in front of international business consultants. Fortunately, I think our presentation goes quite well (despite being the first in the class up to bat). It's also such as relief to have that done with and be able to move on to the next major assignment I have to complete.

I spend the rest of my afternoon engrossed in more work until 7:30 pm when I make my way to Brand & Advertising Management. While there are no deliverables in the class today I still feel the pressure mounting for our huge consulting project for Henniker Brewing Company which is due in just a few weeks.

Tuesday is monumental because it is my first day at Ocean Spray Cranberries as an Assistant Marketing Manager! As you can imagine, I am up WAY earlier than necessary to make sure my outfit is perfect, that I have all of the necessary documents in order, that my lunch and dinner are packed (remember, I have to go straight to class after work) and then I head out to my new car to make the 45 minute drive to Lakeville. Eeek!

Now, I don't want to sound cheesy, but as I maneuver my car down the winding, half-mile drive across ponds and around trees to the beautiful Ocean Spray corporate offices I can't help but feel a bit like I'm in a dream.

My first day is fabulous and I just keep pinching myself at how lucky I got with this job. First: I have my own cube that is about the size of my studio, second: it's lined with Craisins^® products of all varieties, third: the atmosphere of the office is so peaceful, etc. etc. (I could go on).

During my first day I get great introductions to my new boss and department, get to sit in on a meeting about Craisins^® packaging (and get to provide some input!), meet my Ocean Spray buddy, mingle with another recently hired Assistant Marketing Manager and, of course, I definitely make use of the Cranberry Cafe for lunch. Love it!

After work I head straight to campus for Entrepreneurial Finance. Fortunately, class is made a little more fun as I come bearing gifts to my classmates in the form of Craisins^® Trail Mix from work.

One Wednesday, while I don't have 'official' Innovation and Enterprise Growth class, my day is still  busy. You see,  in lieu of a formal lecture, each innovation team was allotted 20 minutes to meet with our professor to discuss the status of our impending projects. While initially nervous for our professor's feedback, my team comes out of the session feeling like we are somewhat ahead of the game. But don't worry, that definitely doesn't mean we're resting. In fact, we have an impromptu group meeting in the stairwell to discuss next steps.

Unfortunately, I can't stay long because I have a meeting with a realtor to start the daunting task of looking for a new apartment. Ugh...

While I am normally the type of person who take pleasure in prowling Craigslist for apartments when I don't need them and finds the idea of a weekend at open houses the epitome of fun, apartment searching is very low on my mind right now. Unfortunately, this is not my first Boston real estate rodeo and I am aware that April is already late for finding a September 1st place so  I have to make time for it. Unfortunately, three apartments I called on were already rented (within 1 day of being posted online) and I got a call at 9:30 am this morning saying not to bother meeting an agent for my 10:00 am appointment because the apartment had been rented that morning. Yikes!

Luckily, I did manage to snag a 2:30 pm appointment with a realtor to check out a place in the South End. The one bedroom, while in a great location on Columbus Ave, is far too dark for my taste with only two small windows in the entire apartment so I politely tell the agent that I'll keep looking. 

After the appointment it's back the grindstone working on a deliverable for New Product Development on the Braun Syncro Shaver, reading for my Saturday class on Persuasive Communication with B2B Customers (I have a presentation to give), and reaching out to any and all mothers I know to interview them for my portion of our Six Flags innovation on child care facilities.

I also plug away with more contacts for apartments...and of course, after finding a possibility and trying to set up an appointment for tomorrow to view it, it is rented within a few hours and my viewing is cancelled.

Thursday I am up early to meet with one of my teammates for Brand & Advertising Management work on our consulting project for the brewery. After a while of that, I force myself to move on to my impending deliverable for Mastering Business Intelligence (my third Saturday class).

The field report is due next Tuesday and, unfortunately, I took on the challenge of covering Northeastern University's IT system.  I am definitely regretting that decision now that I see that school is essentially a dozen companies in one. After struggling for a while, I shoot my professor an e-mail asking for some guidance and am made even more nervous when his response suggests I should have contacted the Chief Information Officer of the school. Ugh! Is it possible to fail a pass/no pass class? 

At 4:00 pm I make my way to the Grad Lounge to meet my team mate for Persuasive Communications with B2B Customers (my second Saturday class) so we can review our plan for our presentation this week. She generously agrees to put our slides into a program called Prezi. I had never heard of the program before today, but after seeing what it can do and how snazzy it made our PowerPoint, I think I'm a convert! So cool!

My team mate and I don't have long to marvel at our Prezi slides before I have to head over to unknown territory at Northeastern: The Law Building. You see, today, our New Product Development class is a joint session with a law class on intellectual property. How cool! I particularly enjoy the session because one of my fellow co-ops from GE who worked in the legal department for the summer just so happens to be in this law class! What a small world. We spend the session mainly discussing one of the worst ideas I have ever heard: a sandwich in a can, duly named "Candwich".

Friday morning I'm up again for day two on the job! Today was even better than the first day because the senior level executives from each department are giving a year- end wrap-up presentation on the state of the company. What a perfect way to get an overview of Ocean Spray. They discuss everything from the success of their social media platforms, to fruit utilization, pool year forecasts and new strategic partnerships internationally.

The rest of my day is spent in meetings to discuss the development of new foods products, an upcoming Craisins^® campaign and more.

Saturday morning I'm up early for my second and final session of Persuasive Communication with B2B Customers. My team mate and I rock the presentation thanks to a funny YouTube video and our Prezi format. 

After class I manage to get work done for a couple of hours before meeting a realtor at 2:00 pm to view an apartment in Fenway. While not in my dream South End location, the apartment is huge, has great light and is close to tons of shops and restaurants. It is a really tempting option for the price and I tell the realtor that I'll let her know by tomorrow if I want to put a deposit on it.

After my apartment hunting ends for the day, I head back to campus to do more homework before a 5:00 pm meeting with my Six Flags innovation team.

Look at that snazzy spreadsheet in the background!

Happy Easter Sunday everyone! And how does an MBA student spend this candy-filled holiday? In the library of course, spending hours hunched over Excel sheets for my Entrepreneurial Finance business plan which is due on Tuesday. Oh, and I also have a final exam tomorrow for Global Management, an assignment for Brand & Advertising Management due tomorrow and pretty much every other thing you could pile on me due this week. I also decided to put a deposit down on the Fenway apartment so I also have to deal with all that paperwork and financing. If you can't find me come tomorrow, I probably curled up in some corner of Snell. Uuuuggggh. At least I have Cadbury eggs to get me through the day.

*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 entity's staff or affiliates.

The Week of a Million Group Meetings and a New Car

Pretty flowers on campus

Twelfth Week of Class
(March 26 - April 1)

Monday I'm up early and at the library to start seriously looking at my draft financial statements for Entrepreneurial Finance. You see, our deliverable for this week is to create three years of pro-forma financial statements (Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement) down to each month for the first year and each quarter for the second and third year. Since I have trouble understanding other people's financial statements, let alone creating my own for an imaginary company I created out of scratch, I am understandably nervous.

Fortunately, a kind classmate, who is also the finance tutor, agreed to help me. But until our 12:30 pm meeting I'm on my own. Fortunately, I had pre-completed my write-up for Global Management during the weekend and had already read my six chapters and case for Brand and Advertising Management so I have nothing else to distract me except this.

At 12:30 pm I meet up with the finance tutor and he spends the next hour or so helping me determine things like corporate tax rates, interest charges and sources of financing.

After our meeting, it's off to Global Management where we have a speaker who is an expert in family business. This is perfect for our case today on Dalton Chemicals, a New Hampshire chemicals company run by a family deciding on who to lead an international expansion. We even get to watch snippets from The Godfather.

After class I start reviewing my portion of Global Management Market Entry paper that I have to submit to my group today. I finish up, hit send and begin working on securing insurance for my new car (which I am trying to pick up this week).

In  Brand & Advertising Management we discuss a topic that is near to my heart: Social Media. We apply the readings for the day to a case with United Airlines after they broke a musician's Taylor guitar. You might have heard of the now famous YouTube video that musician put out? You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

Tuesday I am up early again, still cramming on my financial Statements. Unfortunately, it appears as though I underestimated the amount of time it would take to complete the documents and spend the next 11 hours trying desperately to finish before my 7:30 pm class. Again, the only reason I finish at all is because of the kindness of another classmate who is the second finance tutor (I'm lucky I have all these smart kids in my class!). I end up sliding into class five minutes late but with no fewer than 10 pages of financial statements and roughly 10 pages of assumptions, references and exhibits. Phew!

My new baby!

Wednesday I'm up early again, only this time it's for a reason slightly more exciting than homework: picking up my new car! For my new job I will have to commute to areas public transportation won't take me so I had to concede and buy a car. After about five hours of signing paperwork, verifying insurance and other such administrative requirements I drive off in the first car I've ever owed! I'm feeling tres grown-up right now.

When I get back into the city I manage to park it and run into my Innovation & Enterprise Growth class just a few minutes late (what is with my tardiness this week?).

After class lets out I get to hear about what supposedly was a great Career Center networking event that I had to miss to secure my vehicle and I also meet up with my Innovation team working on the Six Flags project to try and come up with what our professor terms innovation 'boulders' rather than the slew of innovation 'rocks and pebbles' we have now.

When I get home that night I'm emotionally drained from the day but plug away on a case for Braun's Syncro shaver, my portion of my team's Market Entry paper and readings for my Saturday class.

Thursday I sleep in to the embarrassing hour of 8:00 am (it's been a while since that happened) before grabbing my Dunkin' coffee and hitting the books. It is another long and arduous day in the library, broken up only by my 5:20 pm class for New Product Development where we discuss the several potential market entry scenarios for Braun. I take profuse notes because next week's deliverable for the class involves each of us putting together a 30-minute PowerPoint presentation on just this topic.

Friday is one of the most arduous days I've had this semester. I get up early, grab a coffee (turbo shot added - trust me, I'll need it) and meet the first of three groups to work on final projects which have, of course, suddenly appeared in the face of four weeks left of class.

First up: my Global Management group. We work from 9:30-2:30pm on our Market Entry project that is due to be e-mailed to the professor by Sunday (presentations are on Monday). As is always the case, while we thought we would just be 'quickly' putting together our PowerPoint presentation during the session with our paper 'all-but-done', that didn't quite happen. That 'all-but-done' paper ended up getting several sections added to it, several more taken out and reduced from 10 pages to the required five. After several hours reworking our paper we finally get to the PowerPoint but are unable to finish it before we all have to separate to meet with our other, different respective groups.

I grab a soda and head upstairs to a reserved room to spend the hours from 2:30 pm -7:30 pm plugging through my Brand & Advertising Management project on Henniker Brewing Company. Fortunately, we make good progress and are able to get some solid media plan costs nailed down and the remainder of the written portion of the essay distributed between the five of us.

I drag myself home after that meeting for my depressing dinner of Lean Cuisine, eaten while hunched over my laptop as I research, write and edit my two portions of my Innovation and Enterprise Growth team project on Six Flags amusement parks. I e-mail my portion out to the rest of my group at the lovely hour of 12:30 am. After winding down, I don't manage to get to bed until 1:30 am...and I have to be in class at 8:00 am tomorrow....

Saturday my alarm goes off at 6:45 am and I stumble around my apartment getting ready for my third Saturday class on 'Mastering Business Intelligence'.

The course ends up being fine, but slightly different than what the description led me to believe. It turned out to mostly focus on information system management, much along the lines of the Information Resource Management course I took during Year 1 of the program. While not what I was expecting, it was fine and I manage to make it through the four hours and even participate.

After class I grab lunch with two of my classmates at Temptations Cafe for an amazing panini. How have I never tried this place and it's just across the street from Dodge Hall?

When I get home I work on finalizing the PowerPoint for my Global Management team and send both the paper and the slides to our professor. The rest of the day is spent working on this blog, compiling costs for my Brand & Advertising Management media plan and reading for class.

Sunday I wake up at a leisurely time but do manage to get to the library for about 6 hours of reading (I had an uncommonly large amount of textbook reading to do this week). When I get home I continue to do some homework and reading before eventually going to sleep at midnight, anticipating the huge week ahead of me.

*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.

Photo Shoots and Car Shopping

Spring outside Dodge Hall

Eleventh Week of Class
(March 19 - 25)

Monday morning I'm up early for a 9:30 am meeting with a professor for the class I might try and petition called "Design Thinking for Market Driven Innovation". The meeting, held over in Ryder Hall, goes well and he even shows me the final projects from last year's class. The process books look very professional and the projects seem highly involved. While the class looks neat, I'm a little concerned about the level of commitment required since I'll be working full-time by them. I decide to contact someone I know who took the course last year and ask their opinion.

After we wrap up I make a beeline to my second home (Snell Library) and plug along on homework, send some e-mails, etc. before my 1:00 pm meeting with my partner for the New Product Development process audit project. We convene in the grad lounge and after much back-and-forth trying to come up with an 'innovative' company we realize that one has been in front of us all along! Northeastern University's College of Business constantly update classes, create new majors and updates requirements and therefore is the perfect company to use for our audit. I immediately set about emailing the Associate Dean of the College to see if she might be able to meet to discuss the school's current innovation process.

My teammate and I break at 1:45pm for our Global Management class where we discuss L'Oreal's acquisition of two Chinese makeup firms to expand into the Asian market.

After class she and I continue our work until our Brand and Advertising class that night where we get a special treat: a guest speaker! Our visitor for the evening is Kelley Kassa, an expert in social media. She provides some great insight (including resources for our consulting project with Henniker Brewing Company).

Tuesday morning I'm up early working on homework before an 11:00 am meeting with a guy renting out a parking spot near my apartment. After seeing the nice paved spot behind a South End brownstone I decide to sign the lease for three months (yes, they have leases for parking spots in Boston). It feels a bit silly to rent a parking spot before I even have a car, but with the competitive market for parking in Boston, you have to make a move when you can.

After signing the contract, I rush to my Zipcar rental and make the drive out to Marlborough to test drive a couple of used cars. The dealership has a couple of good options and is a much less stressful experience than my last go at car shopping last weekend.

I get back  just in time for a couple of errands before my 5:15 pm meeting with Six Flags innovation group. After a couple of hours of group work I break for my Entrepreneurial Finance course. Due that night was my topic paper on 'non-traditional inventories in the service industry'. Among other subjects that night, we discuss our upcoming financial statements which are due next week (Yikes!).

Getting the star treatment - photo courtesy of Megan Pollock/Chris Navin

Wednesday morning I'm up early to rush to the doctor for a  9:15 am appointment before meeting my former boss for the drive out to Waltham. What's in Waltham, you ask? Why, my photo shoot for Northeastern's new ad campaign of course! We make the drive out to Christopher Navin's impressive studio and spend the next couple of hours shooting professional poses that even include costume changes (I feel so fancy!). It was a really cool experience and I look forward to seeing the actual ad in April.

I get back to campus with just enough time to steal some slices of pizza from the grad lounge for our traditional third Wednesday pizza parties before my Innovation and Enterprise Growth class at 1:45 pm.

Noche for Restaurant Week

After class I manage to keep my focus for a couple of hours of homework before I meet up with two friends for my first Restaurant Week session of the year! On tonight's menu: Noche. I am happy to say it did not disappoint! In fact, despite it's a little over-the-top club feel, the latin-inspired food is just the right amount of spicy. I get the lobster and shrimp enchiladas for my appetizer, the Diablo chicken with corn bread stuffing as my entree and an amazing platter of fresh churros with dulce de leche dipping sauce for dessert. All of this deliciousness for $33.12 because of restaurant week. Does it get any better? 

Thursday starts with some major work on my forecasting assignment for New Product Development. We have been tasked with forecasting the potential demand for a new pizza product by TruEarth (a company focused on healthy food alternatives). Since I'm having some trouble figuring out some of the required numbers, I drop by my professor's office hours hoping she can provide some guidance. While I'm grateful for her suggestions, they mean reworking almost all of my formulas. Ugh!

After reworking the assignment for what feels like hours I have to break for a focus group I'm participating in at Dodge Hall. My former boss has asked members of the first-year Graduate Marketing Club to assist in suggestions for re-designing our Full-Time MBA brochure. The session generates lots of interesting insights that will make our new brochure even more helpful to prospective students.

Friday morning I'm up early for a guest lecture during a make up class for Global Management. Our visitor for the session is Stacie Berdan, an expert in international careers. The lecture is super informative and it is very impressive to hear about the 50 countries that Ms. Berdan has lived and worked in during her career (talk about being a jet-setter!).

After the two hour lecture, I meet up with my Market Entry team to work on our project. During the next couple of hours we manage to divide up the remaining portions of our paper and finalize the company we are going to use for entering Hong Kong (hint: it's HauteLook, Inc.)

After that session, it's on to another group meeting, this time for my Brand and Advertising Management project on Henniker Brewing Company.

After that wraps up, I have just enough time to finish and submit my one-page write-up on Ms. Berdan's lecture and clean my apartment before Nick arrives for the weekend.

When the boyfriend gets here we, of course, make a beeline to New York Pizza, followed by drinks at Parish Cafe (I'm really enjoying this routine!).

Saturday morning I'm up early for my first "Persuasive Communication with B2B Customers" class. I'm happy to say that I really like it and am glad to have a fellow student in the class with me. I'm particularly impressed with how well the professor can keep the class's attention for the four-hour period.

On top of my good class, I love that Nick meets me outside Dodge for our brunch date (I could get used to him being here on the weekends!). We head to one of our faves (The Other Side) for our requisite juevos rancheros and Tex Mex tango platters. Yum!

After that we hop in Nick's rental car and drive out to another car dealership for some more car shopping. Nick and I spend several hours at Ira Nissan test driving cars and meeting with sales representatives. While I don't leave with a car that day, I do leave with a signed agreement from the dealer to bring a car from another location for me (and it's the exact one I wanted!). Hooray! It's such a relief to have this handled with just a week to spare before work begins.

After a successful shopping session, Nick and I head back to Boston, watch some movies and relax.

Brunch at Eastern Standard

Sunday Nick and I make our way to Eastern Standard for brunch. Their brisket hash and sweet bread basket are just what I wanted. Unfortunately, Nick soon has to leave to drive back to Montreal and I'm left with a 2:30 pm meeting for my Innovation and Enterprise Growth team.

I spend the remainder of my weekend with the group, working through our heuristics, assigning innovations to each person to write up and working out the correct balance of our portfolio of innovations.


*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 entity's staff or affiliates.