I Got Accepted into Business School! Now What?

Note to Married Couples

2010-04-04T23:13:00.000-07:00

Today has been a very productive day. I seem to have fit everything into my schedule: workout, strategy and consumer behavior paper, a nice lunch, and... even an earthquake. As the evening drew near and I was wondering what my next entry was going to be on, I realized that I have talked about pretty much everything except for the challenges that married/committed couples could face while in the program.

When I started this blog I was the only one in the program, while my husband took on the role of the supportive partner. In the meantime, I am getting ready to graduate, while my husband is getting ready to finish his first year in the MBA program. It started as “hmm, what you’re studying is really interesting” and ended with “I think I’m going to apply for this program.” And so he did!

We are lucky because both my husband and I love to get involved in a lot of projects. Ever since we have known each other, we have always worked on projects outside of school or work. So we are used to being very busy. However, I understand that this is not the case for everyone. And while my husband and I talked about our expectations and how we were going to handle the challenging workload of the program, I realized the other day that for various reasons not everyone does so.

Currently there are about 20 married students in the program. This is the official statistic; however, it does not account for students in a committed relationship who still have to face similar challenges to those of a married couple. The main challenge is obviously time, or lack thereof. And then it is about managing expectations. In a recent conversation with a married student, I realized that there is no orientation on how to balance school and your relationship. So I will use this medium to share with you what worked for my husband and I:

* Look at the program curriculum together and discuss time commitment
* Visit the school with your spouse
* Prior to applying for the program, talk to a married student to find out what the experience is like
* Set time aside just for you and your spouse. This is easier said than done, but if there are no kids involved yet, it is even more doable. As unnatural as it might seem to sit down with both calendars and figure out a time, it has to happen. Put it on the calendar as your “non-negotiable” time. In our case, I took Saturday off and no matter how busy my schedule was, we always knew that Saturday was our time. It helps the relationship as well as recharges the batteries for a new week of school.
* Bring your spouse to the social events. It helps your spouse make friends and relate to the MBA life.
* Once in the program, connect with other married students and build a support group.

Good luck! Getting a master’s degree while married or in a committed relationship is challenging enough but not impossible. And it can be fun!

The Beginning of the End

2010-03-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

I hesitated to write this entry. The purpose of this blog was to record my journey through business school and now I have only three weeks left of school. Which means I only have three entries left for this blog. As I write my final papers for my classes, I am also handing off my other responsibilities at school. Tonight I have been recruiting students to replace me and five of my colleagues on a marketing panel that I have been involved with for the past year. I have also started writing thank you/good-bye letters to various people and organizations that have supported Challenge for Charity over this past year and also used this opportunity to introduce the new leadership.

As Ashley, my Challenge for Charity co-chair, and I are passing the torch to the new co-presidents, we are definitely starting to feel sad. We are handing off our "baby", the result of our vision. This past year has been a very challenging – in a good way – and busy year. It has allowed both of us to grow a lot and learn how to juggle school, extra-curricular responsibilities, work, friendships, and our sanity. We struggled with our own day-to-day workload, while doing our best to keep our team motivated and continue to grow Challenge for Charity. I have worked two days a week, taken three classes, and managed the Run the Waves Race. I do feel now like I have been running a marathon, but the truth is that if given the opportunity, I would do it all over again!

It is fair to warn you though. These last three entries are going to be less cheerful. It is the end of a journey and as exciting as the next step is going to be, I will have to say good-bye to a lot of people that have become my friends and family for almost two years. We spent a lot of time together, partied, played games, had late-night study sessions in the library, got sick of writing papers or case analyses, went to each other’s weddings, birthdays, and engagement parties. When we graduate in three weeks, most of us will move to wherever our jobs or family responsibilities will take us. And although we will vow to keep in touch often, sometimes life will get in the way. So here is to the last three weeks of my program!

Second-Yearitis

2010-03-14T23:31:00.000-07:00

It is real and you can feel it all around campus. As much as we do not want to admit it, we have it. Second-yearitis is hitting everyone hard. We come to classes and leave four hours later as quickly as we came. Rarely are there any second-year students in the library anymore. We take twice as long on school assignments just because we cannot focus. Or we take twice as less, because we rush to do other things that are required for our re-entry into the real world.

There is also one other thing that almost no one talks about openly. Graduation is in five weeks and the economy is not as good as we thought it would be. Last year, we pitied the graduating class for their bad timing and believed 150% that when we graduate, the economy would be just about at the right level. I bet the first-year students are thinking the exact same thing now. With graduation approaching, my classmates and I struggle with the decision to take "a" job versus pursuing "the" job. We all came to school to acquire the skill and knowledge that would allow us to do what we love. And now the reality is that some of the jobs that we love and prepared for are not available. So what do you do?

It is a tough decision. On the one hand, we want to be responsible and on the other, we know that compromising now – although the easy way out – will have long-term, negative consequences and it distracts us from pursuing what we love. I have made my decision. It took me some time, but I did it. I have looked at my expenses, evaluated my options, had a long talk with myself and decided that...I will follow my passion!

Run the Waves 5K/10K Charity Event

2010-02-21T21:58:00.000-08:00

March 6th is going to be a very special day. It is our 6th Annual Run the Waves 5K/10K benefiting the Special Olympics and the Children's Lifesaving Foundation. This is an amazing event that Challenge for Charity organizes every year for our two organizations. It is a lot of work and even though we did it before, it takes a lot of planning and attention to detail. Every year there is something new that we either try to do or just have to do. And just like with any other big event, we sometimes get tired and frustrated, but at the end of the day it is all worth it because the kids love and need this event!

I remember that last year I was so impressed by some of the kids' stories. Although they were born in Los Angeles and they lived here their entire lives, they had never seen the beach! The look on their faces when they came to the Race and then got to walk and play on the beach was just unbelievable. I have never seen so much joy in my life! And that is when the hours and hours of planning pay off.

So if you happen to be in Malibu on March 6th, stop by Zuma Beach. Come by to say hi, volunteer, run, walk or donate. Take a look at our website to find out more about the two organizations we support and to register for the race: www.pepperdinec4c.org/run

See you on March 6th!

The Ugly Side of Marketing

2010-02-07T22:50:00.000-08:00

Some people think that marketing is dirty, that it is just about sales, or just advertising manipulating you into believing that your life is not good enough as it is and you need this extra product that will change it forever. Well, not all marketing is the same, of course. As long as it is authentic and relevant (thanks to my marketing professor who basically beat this into us!) and I would add honest, then I accept it. But, as with almost everything in life, marketing also has an ugly side to it. And this is exactly the side that I am trying to stay away from.

Today I will tell you about an instance where marketing is not honest. At least in my opinion. I am pretty sure most of you receive Facebook invites from friends to join some company page offering free products. I receive lots of those and ignore all. But today I noticed an ad on my Facebook page that claimed to offer a free pair of boots (I won’t mention names) if you were a certain age and female. It intrigued me because I do not have my age posted on Facebook and my profile mentions nothing about shoes (although I do love them!). Plus I am a very skeptical person and never believe that anything is free. So the marketer in me decided to embark on an investigation to find out what hid behind this message.

I found out that the company did offer the free pair of boots! BUT… and as you know, there is always a but! But, a quick look at the fine print and the participation requirements said that you had to agree to receive sales calls and must participate in a number of sponsor offers. These offers would require you to sign up for memberships or trials or open or extend a credit card.

Some would probably say that these practices are perfectly fine as long as these companies list the requirements and people agree to it. And I would say the same thing. At first! Because if you think about it, almost no one reads the fine print, unfortunately. Who clicks on that link that says “Terms and Conditions” or “Participation Requirements”? And people get tricked into signing up for memberships that are free for the first month and then the fine print (again!) says that it automatically charges X amount to their credit cards.

All I am saying is that as marketers, we have the responsibility to be honest. Revenues are important, but honest revenues are even more important and sustainable. Not to mention that as a consumer, if I am promised something by a brand I enjoy and then discover that I was tricked into a sales scheme, I lose trust in that brand. And as we all know, it takes more money to get new consumers than to keep existing ones.

Acquiring Wealth, Power, and Success Morally and Ethically

2010-01-31T20:42:00.000-08:00

…a.k.a AWPSME. This is probably one of the best classes I have taken at Pepperdine. School is meant to teach you critical thinking, but sometimes you just learn how to navigate the huge workload so you can still have a life. What I love about AWPSME is exactly that: critical thinking. No subject is taboo; all views are welcome and challenged.

It is true that we do a lot of talking in that class, but it is all with a purpose. The goal is to form our own opinions and moral/ethical guidelines. One of the topics we discussed and that stuck with me was consumerism and how that affects our lives. We all use technology to become more efficient so we can have more time for a balanced life, but what we end up doing more often than not is taking on even more work to the point that we do not have a life. It is partially our own fault, but it seems like it is also expected of us to give more and more every day to the point that we become exhausted and cannot get to enjoy the very result that we were striving for. And instead of trying to understand the cause, we try to become even more efficient. What do you think happens next? You guessed it. We take on even more or we are expected to give more and history repeats itself.

What follows usually is the feeling of exhaustion and entitlement. We are working so hard that we are entitled to spend money: go shopping, buy the car that we always wanted (even though it is more expensive than we can afford), the home or whatever else we want. Not need, want! Our overhead expenses rise and we have to work even more to cover these expenses. Then we treat ourselves to a vacation or another shopping spree because… you guessed it, we work very hard and we deserve it. So you are starting to see a pattern here. It sounds horrible and most people, if not everyone, would say “well, but that’s not me! I don’t think like that.” And it might very well be that way, or we might not even realize that we do. I am guilty of having done that. I did it and didn’t even realize it.

Is it worth it, is it not, you are the only person that can answer that. But if you think you might be tempted to do that, take a look at your spending habits, identify your needs and sift through the wants. It is very empowering to be in control and also save money in the process. Some of the books we are discussing in class (see list below) talk about how to live below our means so we can improve our net worth. The additional money is the source of choice and freedom to invest, do what you’ve always wanted to do, etc. Food for thought…

Small is Beautiful – Economics As If People Mattered by Fritz Schumacher
Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez
The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William Danko

Why I Chose Pepperdine

2010-01-24T18:40:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago I was in a meeting with the Dean, Associate Dean, and several student leaders talking about the school’s strategy for 2015. In discussing different aspects of marketing, I realized I never wrote in my blog about why I decided to come to Pepperdine. I might have mentioned bits and pieces, but I could not recall writing specifically about that.

As cheesy and as ironic as it seems I knew I wanted to come to Pepperdine. I liked the school and the program before I even had my first thought about getting an MBA. Five years ago, one of our friends was going through the JD/MBA program at Pepperdine so he would always tell us stories about the school. He was not thrilled with the work required by the JD program, but he kept raving about the b-school: small classes, very diverse student body, personal attention from administration and faculty, and industry-experienced faculty. All those things sounded great to me! Our friend is also a very gifted storyteller, so by the end of his 4 years of JD/MBA I felt like I had been through the program and I was on a first-name basis with everyone there. So when the time came to pick a school, I just knew I wanted to go to Pepperdine.

Then I got in contact with the recruitment office and received quick and personal, not cut and paste, responses from the Executive Director himself! The first time I received a message from Paul, I was very pleasantly surprised. I liked the personal attention and the tailored responses. And then there came the time for the interview. Like any other aspiring MBA student I did my research on what a b-school admissions interview entailed, bought a new suit – not before shocking the ladies at Ann Taylor by disregarding the b-school law that says you have to buy a black suit – and when the day came, I was admittedly nervous. I met with Kathy Holland, who welcomed me with a big smile and explained that the interview is more like a chat to see if I am a good fit for the school and if the school is a good fit for me. Is she joking, I remember thinking. Where is the business scenario question? Or other ridiculous questions about how I am going to change the world? It did cross my mind for a second that maybe she was just trying to trick me. But no, she was being serious! The interview was more of a conversation about finding common grounds and making sure that the program was exactly what I was looking for. And it was!

Fast-forward almost two years, my opinion about the program has not changed a bit. I still like the small classes because it allows me to get to know my classmates and the professors and it makes for a very dynamic and rich class experience. I like the applied learning and occasionally frustrating group projects because it constantly challenges me to find new ways to solve problems. I also like the easy access to our industry-experienced faculty. Their door is always open for advice and sometimes projects that students can get involved with. Oh and the campus is just gorgeous! That is the true perk of the program. Although I never thought that I would ever say these words, I love my commute! Taking the Malibu Canyon every day and seeing the low marine layers in the morning sometimes creates the most unbelievable colors. It is the best commute ever! It would make for National Geographic pictures if only I wasn’t driving. And then there is Bambi’s family - our campus deer - and Mr. Fox that decide to occasionally say hi on my way to class.

But let’s not digress. As much as I love this program, it is not for everyone. Whenever a prospective student asks me if they should choose Pepperdine, I always say that it depends what they are looking for. It is not a cop-out, it’s the truth! There are plenty of people that want to be in a big program, they want to get in, get the info and get out without being part of a community. Or maybe they want to be in a cutthroat environment. And that’s perfectly fine! Different people have different needs. And if that is the case, then those people would hate Pepperdine. The MBA program at Pepperdine is definitely an experience and the paper at the end is just the byproduct.

Haiti

2010-01-17T12:18:00.000-08:00

It has been five days since Haiti has been struggling with the aftermath of the devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake. I have been watching the reports on TV and followed some of my friend’s reports that either traveled there or have work connections there. It is times like these when no matter how much economics we know and no matter how we can justify the existence of poor countries, there is no way for me to comprehend and accept so much pain and destruction. Moreover, this earthquake has hit Haitians just as they were recovering from the hurricane season of 2008.

Some of my friends and I were talking about going to Haiti to help. Understandably so, authorities do not allow any volunteers unless they are trained in disaster relief. Instead, we decided to make individual donations to Fonkoze, a Haitian foundations that provides micro loans to Haitians to fund their entrepreneurial dreams as well as educates them about healthcare, environmentalism, children’s rights, and literacy. We got involved with Fonkoze through one of my friends and the VP of the Malibu Graduate Business Society (MGBS), Bryan Zirkel. He sits on the board of this foundation and from him we found out that Fonkoze’s Headquarters in Port-au-Prince collapsed, as well as their sister bank, Sevis Finansye Fonkoze (SFF). The only way we can help right now is trough donations or by continuing to talk about Haiti. We cannot let this become just another story, because the second we do, those people that desperately need our help will be forgotten.

For those of you interested to find out more about the institutions I mentioned, or how to help Haiti, see below some useful links.

• Fonkoze
• Red Cross
• Oxfam
• US Agency for International Development
• Partners In Health
• UNICEF
• CARE
• World Vision
• Yele Haiti

Happy New...Internship!

2010-01-03T18:19:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! Tomorrow marks the start of the Spring session and the last of my MBA program. I am already getting a little sad as I know I will miss the school, the faculty, and of course my classmates. I have only 14 weeks to go! It's hard to believe that I am almost done with my MBA.

This entry is mainly for the first-year students or the prospective students who are already thinking about internships. I have talked about my internships in other entries as well, but I haven't covered any of them in detail. It's time to share with you my experience with the Step Up Women's Network. This internship was made possible by the school's Social Enterprise Internship Program, so if you are interested in non-profit or CSR (corporate social responsibility), I suggest you take a look at this program. Here's the article about my internship. Enjoy!

Also, wish me luck as tomorrow is my first day at a new internship with a very well-known marketing research company! After an interview, a test, and a very thorough reference check, I was extended the offer to work with them in the Spring. I am looking forward to it and hope it will be a great experience that will turn into a full-time position soon.

The Future of Marketing or Marketing of the Future?

2009-12-23T18:50:00.000-08:00

I remember when I was a kid and my friends and I were talking about the (then) far and exciting year 2000. It seemed so exotic, so far, and so… extraterrestrial. So my friends and I concluded that by the year 2000 everyone was going to be wearing silver suits and driving flying cars! I would now blame the Jetsons for that vision.

Recently I have been revisited by a similar feeling as I see more and more articles or phone applications focused on augmented reality and geo-targeted marketing. As excited as I am about this new trend, I can’t help thinking whether it is a natural consequence of technological progress or more of the recent economy. Or a combination of both.

Marketing has changed a lot due to technology and to a certain extent this recession has really accelerated this change. For example, the reality that so many magazines – and among those my favorite one, Portfolio! – have been forced to close, has fueled the urgency to reinvent the publishing industry. The December issue of Esquire incorporated augmented reality in an effort to show that print media is not dead, it is just evolving. Is it relevant or is it just competing for the short-span attention of extremely busy readers? Given the magazine’s target audience, I would say it is relevant. And it is definitely an innovative way to make a statement. Esquire and Wired Magazine could pull it off; now, if it was Martha Steward or Redbook, I’m not so sure.

My feelings about geo-targeting are a bit contradictory. On the one hand it makes me think of 1984 and Big Brother. I can imagine it can be a bit spooky to get a message from Best Buy that says I should buy this model of TV versus the other one I was looking at last week or to check out the home entertainment system that goes with my newly-purchased TV. On the other hand, CRM (customer relationship management) has existed for a long time and companies would store the same amount of information, except that they used it to customize their offers on a larger scale. Geo-targeting takes it a step farther and targets individuals. In the end, it helps companies or brands customize their services or products and allows them to better utilize their marketing resources. As a marketing or brand manager, you have to strive to achieve both higher revenues as well as reduce expenses. And geo-targeting could be the answer. It remains to be seen, because it is no longer one-sided. You no longer have the company gathering the information and analyzing it. It is two-sided, because the consumer has to input or enable the access to some of the information that geo-targeting plans to use.

My Thoughts on Social Media and a Success Story

2009-11-22T22:52:00.000-08:00

Social media is beneficial for companies as well as consumers because it serves the same need: to interact. In today’s day and age information is crucial and timing is everything. Companies’ competitive advantage relies not only on the superiority of their products, but also on fast access to their consumers’ thoughts and needs. To this extent, social media is invaluable. It has shortened the response time for consumer feedback, giving companies the opportunity to tweak their products sometimes even before they hit the market. This is a win-win situation: a better product results in higher sales for the company, while consumers become more invested in the process and thus more likely to promote the product.

Consumers effortlessly gain a voice through social media. They offer feedback and share their expertise on certain topics and gain loyal followers who in turn make purchasing decisions based on information found on-line. Consumers have always talked and continue to talk about their favorite products. Companies need to become part of this conversation that is taking place anyway. Forming and nurturing this partnership with the consumer is therefore extremely beneficial for companies.

One of the main concerns related to social media is return on investment. Social media is gaining reputation and becoming more sophisticated and with that so are ways to measure its efficiency. The most obvious ways to measure it are leads, sales, number of clicks, cost per conversion, followers, awareness, sentiment analysis, or reach. The main benefit though is the interaction between the consumer and the brand, which builds trust.

I use social media. In fact, I even have a success story: this summer, when my Challenge for Charity Co-President and I were trying to figure out how to raise money to provide T-shirts for 300 students, I logged into our Twitter account, @PepperdineC4C. Social media is about communication, remember? So I felt that our followers should know what we are dealing with so I posted: "Looking for sponsor for 300 T-shirts. Logo will be placed next to the Special Olympics and the Children's Lifesaving Foundation logos." 114 characters and two hours later, I received an e-mail from a classmate and fellow Twitterer (is that the official word?) @neovintage who informed me that he retweeted our request, which then was retweeted by a friend, who then received a tweet back from a company @onecoconut willing to sponsor us. What? Really? I was ecstatic! And what makes the story even better is that the founder of O.N.E. turned out to be a Pepperdine alumna. Who doesn't believe in social media now?

All You Need Is…Inspiration: A Recap of the Net Impact Conference 2009

2009-11-15T23:25:00.000-08:00

This year, the Net Impact Conference took place in Ithaca, NY. Not the easiest place to get to, but definitely an appropriate venue to accommodate the 2,400 attendees. There were students from undergraduate schools, as well as graduate programs, professional members, company representatives, and executives.

The schedule was very ambitious, but very well structured. It started with a keynote by Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE and ended with another keynote by Jeff Goldman, CEO and Founder of Honest Tea, Jeff Furman, Founder of Ben & Jerry’s, and Lisa Lorimer, Founder of Vermont Bread Company. In between, there were over 100 sessions on corporate impact, design, energy and clean technology, international and corporate development, investing, professional development, and social innovation. With so many options and interesting topics, it was very hard to make a choice. I decided to attend sessions related to marketing, social responsibility, and non-profit.

Throughout the entire weekend, the energy generated by the speakers and moderators and the enthusiasm of the 2,400 attendees was just amazing and very difficult to explain in words. It was very inspiring to see so many people under one roof caring about more than just financial profit. In the world of extreme consumerism, talk about doing business responsibly, influencing big corporations from within, thinking about stakeholders instead of shareholders, and being willing to forgo huge short-term profits in favor of long-term and sustainable effort, was a breath of fresh air and filled everyone with just enough motivation and inspiration for another year.

And it wasn’t just talk. Jeff Immelt discussed GE’s business model of combining capitalism and sustainability. GE is making money on sustainable products that help the world. Immelt also discussed GE’s investment in wind power. Initially, he said, he did not believe in wind power. But then when Enron went bankrupt and GE had the option of buying their wind power business, he changed his mind. “For 200 million dollars, how wrong can we be?” he said.

My favorite speakers were Seth Goldman and Jeff Furman. I was impressed with Goldman’s honesty – no pun intended – and openness to discuss the trade offs of his deal with Coca-Cola. When asked why Coca-Cola and how does he deal with Coca-Cola’s controversial issues regarding water, Goldman said that when he made the decision, he had the consumer in mind. Honest Tea needed a bigger distribution system, to reach its growing consumer base and that is exactly what Coca-Cola was offering. Regarding the water situation, he said he was not a spokesman for Coca-Cola, so he would refrain from making any comments on that. However, he admitted there are some aspects of the business he does not agree with, but that Honest Tea is influencing the parent company from within by maintaining its fair business practices and having conversations with the CEO about healthier alternatives to high-fructose corn syrup. Any small initiative helps, he added.

All in all, the event was a great success, minus the travel part. For the SoCal attendees, getting to Ithaca was a little bit of a challenge. But the good news is that next year, the Conference will be hosted by beautiful Ann Arbor, Michigan, so travel will not be an issue.

Managing Post-Graduation Expectations

2009-10-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

The French call it sevrage. It sounds like it could have something in common with to sever. If you think of severing as the act of cutting off, or separating something, then the two terms are definitely distant phonetic and semantic relatives. Sevrage is, among other things, the deep state of confusion, pain and suffering caused by stopping an addicting behavior. You are no longer high. The adrenaline, the excitement, the energy, everything is gone and you crash. That is when sevrage takes over and conquers slowly and painfully every cell in your body until you become numb. And then there is silence… Your body slowly regains control, but you feel lost. The new you is afraid to look back, but is more afraid to look ahead. The world surrounding the new you is unknown and you forgot what it meant to perform even simple tasks. Every day is a new challenge that you tackle with the outward belief that tomorrow will be easier. Inside you might doubt everything you are, stand for, and know, but your only chance is to adapt.

This sounds extreme, doesn’t it? What am I talking about? Is it about me, about you, about…what? As extreme as it sounds, I strongly believe that as we get closer to graduation, we – soon-to-be MBA graduates – will experience some form of sevrage. Being in a challenging and stimulating environment is addictive and causes a high. For two years, we are surrounded by like-minded people who want to make a difference, implement change, and reinvent the world. Just as JD candidates see torts everywhere around them, MBA candidates see new and better ideas everywhere. Without trying to sound elitist, the second one decides to get an MBA he/she separates him/herself from the rest of the working world. He/she joins the very small percentage of people that have a graduate degree. Then for two years while in school, all – or most – ideas he/she has are encouraged, accepted, and implemented. Whether that is in a group presentation, business plan competition, or an actual business venture, the point is that nobody uses the word “impossible.” That is until we graduate.

We, soon-to-be graduates, do not really talk about reintegration into the work force. We are too busy chasing that perfect, post-MBA job to think about anything else. But how do you get off the high of creativity, efficiency, and quick idea turnaround? It’s like being on Wall Street. The constant flow of energy and sense of accomplishment is followed by market close. And what do you do when the lights turn off?

This is what we will all face in our first job after graduation. And we will go into withdrawal because in reality change is not easy to accomplish, not all ideas will be welcomed or implemented, and occasionally people will not even care that we have an MBA.

Does this sound too pessimistic? I’m sure it does to some. What about realistic? More likely. All I am saying is that we will all experience this in one form or another, unless we find a company that fits our expectations and new-found business attitudes. Or we stay mindful of this reality and prepare as best we can to readjust to the working world.

Post-mortem of a Group Project

2009-10-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

One of the classes that I was looking forward to this session was Marketing Strategies. Second-year students, now alumni, were raving about this class when I started my program last year. The professor has spent most of his career working with P&G and Nestle, so I was excited to see how the corporate world does marketing. The class itself was very good, although taught in a different manner than what I am used to. But I knew that going into it and I was ready for a challenge.

The real challenge though, and one that I did not expect, came from my group. Because the class had a larger number of students than the usual, we had to form groups of seven. I did not think much of it at first, I mean what’s an extra person or two, right?

My teammates and I are all very strong individuals: some analytical, some creative, some very good presenters. Those were all reasons why we all got together in the first place. As a team though, we were dysfunctional. We discussed rules and expectations in our first meeting, but the reality of our schedules and the different priorities and interests led to an average performance in the class. That combined with some unexpected roadblocks made for a very frustrating experience in a class where perfection is the standard.

Some of my team members and I discussed our performance in our last class. It was very frustrating that we put in a lot of work and yet the result was not what we expected. My take on it is that although I like the concept of team work in business school, I do not think it is as effective as it is intended to be. Why? For one, the constraints of school make team work different from real life. Because in real life you would have a team leader, each person has certain responsibilities, and the team’s focus is just on that particular project. And most times, the stakes are higher than just an evaluation or a grade. Sometimes, their financial rewards or future with the company is at stake. In business school, each person has different priorities. Some care about grades, some just take that class because they have to, some take too many classes and are spent, some work and take classes, and some just do not care. And no one can make anyone care more than they are willing to. And how do you motivate someone who does not care? Maybe by dangling the prospect of a lower grade in class, resulting from an unfavorable evaluation at the end of class? It is not going to work, because the grade does not rely solely on peer evaluation. What about choosing a team leader, just like in real life? Most teams are against that because they are not invested in the projects. Projects are annoying, one more thing on the to-do list, and they do not have the time for that. More often than not, team work means you meet once at the beginning of the project, divide the work, one person compiles the information for the paper, another person puts together the slides for the presentation, and then everybody comes together for a run through of the presentation.

So in our case, we did just that. And when that failed, we all took the hit and vowed to learn from it. The point is to not repeat the same mistake twice. And to learn to be comfortable with ambiguity, trust your team members, think on your feet and come up with a solution when all else fails, and continue to find ways to motivate our team members.

M...BAM!

2009-10-04T23:05:00.000-07:00

Until recently, we used to see the word "MBAM" whenever we registered for classes. That meant MBA Malibu, or the full-time program at the Malibu campus. Now, MBAM stands for something else: it is MBA Media, the newest project taken on by a very talented group of full-time students. They are the Graziadio student voice, which, as they say, just got louder! I liked what I saw so far, so I asked them to allow me to make public their plan, as stated in the press release from a week ago. Welcome, MBAM!

MBA MEDIA (MBAM) ONLINE NEWS SITE LAUNCH: SEPTEMBER 21, 2009

“The Graziadio Student Voice Is About To Get A Little Louder”

Malibu, California—September 21, 2009— this morning saw the official launch of MBA Media (MBAM), the newly created student news site for the full-time graduate business program at Pepperdine. MBAM offers GSBM students a 360-degree view of campus activities, news, and business. With MBAM, Pepperdine students now have an interactive source they can use to fully leverage their graduate business school experience both in and out of the classroom.

During the summer of 2009, a group of full-time GSBM students came together to bring the Graziadio student community the first official online news publication created by business students for business students. After drafting and pitching a proposal to the Graziadio administration, MBAM was given the go-ahead to begin preparations for their launch in the fall.

The mission of MBAM is to “effectively and transparently communicate relevant news and information to a community of MBAs and informed business leaders by leveraging a wide variety of multimedia tools.”

MBAM offers content through a wide variety of multimedia tools including videos, articles, and community discussion boards. Students can also post and discuss their own relevant business related articles. The site also offers exclusive interviews with Graziadio’s prestigious faculty, as well as interviews with business leaders from all concentrations including finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, and organizational management. MBAM also offers internship and job-related information such as 2^nd year commentaries on their internship experiences and a growing list of internship opportunities throughout the year.

MBAM is 100% student-driven, and is looking for current GSBM students who would be interested in filling available positions in the areas of advertising, marketing, post-production, and staff writing. If you are interested in learning more about opportunities to get involved with MBAM, please email Frankie Warren (Frankie.warren@pepperdine.edu)

So, the only thing left for Graziadio students to do now is to login, logon and start enjoying the site! To start your MBAM experience, please visit www.mbam.tv.

For more information regarding this press release, please contact JC Garrett (jc.garrett@pepperdine.edu)

Pepperdine's Accelerated MBA Program - "A Hidden Gem"

2009-09-27T23:32:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that when choosing an MBA program, we look at rankings. Why not, right? It is a very important financial investment after all. True, but with Pepperdine the story is a little bit different.

Our program does not usually show up on the traditional rankings lists. That is also because we are a smaller program and we do not focus primarily on research. Research is important and a big class brings more profit, that is true. But at Graziadio a smaller class is more important because it gives the student the opportunity to get to know absolutely every single classmate. Our professors know our names by class two and make an effort to get to know us. Their doors are always open and we can stop by anytime to ask about the class or talk about our career goals. And depending on your personal drivers and point in your career, access to professors and classmates can be more appealing than a cut-throat environment where the emphasis is on individual performance.

Apparently this is also what the Wall Street Journal looked at on when they selected some MBA programs that did not make the cut for their ranking, but were highly regarded by students and alumni. Read the article here.

Back on the Roller Coaster

2009-09-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

It is week 4 already! I will try to give you the one-sentence synopsis of what has been happening for the past four weeks, so let’s see how I do. Here we go: I have been busy with structuring Challenge for Charity, interviewing first-year students for leadership positions, working, planning future events, networking, setting up my personal portfolio and yes, going to classes.

As you can easily notice, as soon as you start your second year, the focus changes. Or at least, it should. Classes are very important, do not get me wrong. But, they should be 50% of your focus. My professors might not agree with this statement - or if they do, they might never openly admit it - but the other half of the time should be spent on whatever will ensure that you have a job come graduation: networking, work/another internship or projects that will hone your skills and enhance your portfolio and resume.

Technically, full-time students are not supposed to work, but so many of us do. Or did. I tried it also, because I believe it is really important to maintain the contact with the company while in school – especially if you are lucky to have a good internship - which will make it easier to find a job upon graduation. Easier said than done! I continued working with Coca-Cola until this week. Although a great learning experience, working 16 hours a week while taking four classes and running Challenge for Charity rapidly took its toll on me. So unfortunately, I had to make the decision to stop working.

The other difference between the first and the second year is that for the most part, we do not have midterms or finals. We do have instead TONS of reading to do, as well as case studies, papers, and group projects. And they take a lot of time. Which is partly why I am writing this blog entry at midnight. School is unbelievably busy, but it is also very rewarding and I am still loving every minute of it! Even when I have to read 127 pages for business law.

Who Do YOU Want to Work for When You Grow Up?

2009-08-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

It’s time to go back to school! Tomorrow marks the beginning of the second year of my MBA program. While I am excited to go back, I am also a little bit apprehensive because I know how quickly this year will go by and I have to decide what I want to do “when I grow up”. I know I want to do brand management because I like the strategy, creativity and psychology behind it, but I am not yet very sure what company I want to work for.

Interestingly enough, today I cam across my application for the TEC Mentorship program and re-read it. One of the questions on the application was: What organization do you most admire and why? Today, I am going to share with you what I said in response. That was a year ago, and I am glad to see that I still feel the same. It was a nice reminder especially in view of the upcoming job search process. Enjoy and take a second to think what kind of company you want to be working for when you grow up and also what it stands for.

When I applied to business school, my friend’s advice was to “get in and get out.” Yes, I did come to business school to acquire the knowledge to complement my experience, but once again I realized knowledge is not enough by itself. I need to know that I can apply my knowledge within a supportive and stimulating environment. I also have to know that I can do business without harming other people.

I do not know a great deal about any specific organization, but Google’s business motto “Don’t be evil” is what drew me to find out more about the company. Today, Google stands for innovative, fun, responsible business. It is a brand that made its way into the dictionary. It is a business idea that replaced the word “search” in everyday language. Googlers are visionaries, innovators that constantly brake patterns. They thrive in the challenging, unorthodox, fun- and amenities-filled corporate culture that was created for them.

But it is not all about the business. One lesson that I learned from my father was to never forget where you came from. That is why I respect how Google funds many projects that give back to the community, students, and the environment where it came from. I am hoping that Google’s clean and renewable energy project will become a reality that could be implemented on a large scale in the corporate world. As I mentioned before, I would not even attempt to say that I know everything about this company. However, what I know and have read so far, makes me admire the founders’ commitment to business and ethics.

Think Big...in Small Steps

2009-08-25T22:33:00.000-07:00

I was thinking the other day that we are so used to big things: big cars, big buildings, big promotions, working for big companies, wanting big houses, waiting for the big break… Companies want big market shares, big profit – more often than not the shorter the term the better – and big ideas. And we forget that it’s the small things that matter. Or, that by taking small steps we get to the big…everything. I am a true believer that by investing a little more time in relationships with employees, vendors, friends, or family the pay off will be a lot bigger.

This idea is based on my experience as a customer, employee, and student/leader. I will only give you two examples. I used to be a WaMu customer and enjoyed a very good and personal service. Now with Chase, I can see a difference. They are such a big company, so highly regulated and probably so preoccupied with branding Chase in SoCal that they neglect the small things that matter: thinking about what the customer needs and training (or allowing) their employees to offer a fast, reliable, and quality service. A friend of mine told me the other day that his company - otherwise very big, international and in-tune with the consumer’s needs – considers its employees very expendable and therefore only pretends to care. And I could go on and on with examples.

With this in mind, when it was time for my fellow Challenge for Charity Co-President, Ashley and I to discuss our strategy for this year, we decided we wanted to achieve big things, but by taking small steps. We did set a big goal for this year, namely to create awareness and increase the number of members, which in turn will lead us to the second goal of raising more money for our two charities: The Special Olympics Southern California and the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation. We, however, started with cultivating relationships with the incoming class as well as the charities we are representing. We went to both charities to discuss expectations, understand what they need the most, and also see what they are doing. Seeing is believing, right? So instead of assuming that our members are always ready to give us money and time just because we know it is important, we wanted them to get to know the organizations and understand why their money and time are so important. And we set up to create a two-day mini-consulting project during orientation, where our incoming class could meet the two organizations, listen to how they change lives every day and also propose solutions for challenges our charities are facing. The project was a success! Ashley and I were very impressed with how involved the students became once they understood how important their contribution is. After three hours of brainstorming and discussions, we left the room with 3 pages of very creative and valuable fundraising ideas and the commitment of all present.

Ashley and I realize this is an investment year but we know that we are pretty confident that we can create a legacy and a tradition that every Pepperdine MBA student is a Challenge for Charity member.

What Every Graziadio Student Needs to Know!

2009-08-12T22:54:00.000-07:00

For those of you who got accepted and are now very excited to start Orientation, I put together a list of terms and abbreviations you will hear a lot during your two years of study at Graziadio. This list is by no means an exhaustive list, it is just an appetizer! I am sure that in the next two years, you will come up with your own abbreviations and this list will grow exponentially. In the meantime, take a look at this one and enjoy your first year!

Biz Law – Business Law, a required class you’ll have to take in your second year.

C4C - Challenge for Charity, the school's designated charity. Check out our new website at www.pepperdinec4c.org.

DELS – The Dean’s Executive Leadership Series, a networking event that brings executives on campus to talk about real-world challenges and opportunities.

Drescher - the graduate campus, home to the Business, Education and Psychology, and Public Policy schools.

E2B - Education to Business; a big part of the 14-class Marketing 101 class, where you and your teammates act as consultants to a company. It's also the project that will test your patience, nerves, and your people skills.

FEMBA - The Fully Employed MBA program.

GSBM - The Graziadio School of Business and Management, um, the school that you're either considering or just got accepted at. This is probably one of the first acronym you should remember.

QBA – Quantitative Business Analysis class.

MarComm – Marketing Communications class.

MGBS - The Malibu Graduate Business Society, the student government association that guides us throughout the year. They have elections every year, so if you’re eyeing the White House, you should consider starting your ascent with the MGBS President position.

MBAM - MBA Malibu, the full-time program in Malibu.

MSAF - Master of Science in Applied Finance.

SEW – Social Enterprise Week, a student-driven annual event promoting and celebrating social responsible practices. It is usually scheduled in March-April and it culminates with the infamous Talent Show.

The Talent Show aka PepperJam – This is something you wouldn’t want to miss! Every year, GSBM students shed their business suits and replace their laptops with guitars, pianos, or other instruments. And there is always a surprise! The quiet classmate is an amazing break dancer, the best presenter in your group is secretly a great drummer, and the QBA professor loves to rock. Yeap, that’s PepperJam!

VCLL - The Value-Centered Leadership Lab, a student organization emphasizing the presence and importance of ethics in business.

Waves - the Drescher cafeteria. It’s not amazing by any means, especially if you are a vegetarian, but at least it is convenient and the people there are very nice.

What I Learned from My Internships

2009-08-02T23:05:00.000-07:00

First day of school is fast approaching and as I was looking at the schedule for the first year’s orientation, I realized that there is one thing that the incoming class will hear about besides “network, network, network” and that is “it is never too early to start looking for your internship”. As early as it seems to start thinking about internships in August, trust me, it is not! Now, that does not mean that you have to start interviewing right away. It just means that you should start thinking about what kind of internship you would like to land and start zeroing in on the company and a way to get your resume in front of the right people.

My goal this summer was to get as much meaningful marketing experience as possible, so I interned with three different companies – Pepperdine University, The Step Up Women’s Network, and Coca-Cola - learning about market research, online marketing, and business analysis. Based on my experience and search for the right internship, I came up with a list of ten things I learned in the process.

10) It is important to know what you want to get out of an internship before you start looking for one. I wanted a very structured internship that would allow me to get a lot of hands-on experience in different aspects of marketing and to have exposure to experienced marketers from whom to learn.

9) Talk to you friends, family, and your professional network about what you are looking for. I got two of my internships through friends and my professional network. The other one, I just contacted the company directly.

8) Tailor your resume to the position you are applying for and include relevant examples or work samples.

7) Set up informational interviews with people that are in the industry or the position you are looking for. These people will help you understand what skills you need and what exactly the position entails. And if they like you, they will become good contacts. A referral can go a long way!

6) Have the occasional introspective and honest conversation with yourself. Revisit your goals and assess where you are right now, then look at what you need to do to get to where you want to be and make it happen. Goals and views change over time and especially in business school when you become exposed to so many things. It is perfectly acceptable to change your mind and direction. That is what your time in school is for. Explore and find out what you like and want! It is better to do this while in school, rather than once you are finished or even worse, once you got a job.

5) Be open to learning new skills. The more you can do, the more valuable you become. A year ago, I knew very little about websites. Working with NAWMBA National as their VP of Website Development taught me a lot about html and content management systems, and that experience got me the internship with Step Up.

4) Think about what is more important for you: a big name on the resume, a good work environment, a meaningful experience? And make sure you pay attention to all that when you go in for an interview. Talk to people at that company and see if it is a good fit for you. More often than not, interns get full-time offers at the end of their internship, so make sure you understand how you fit in with the company and the position.

3) You never know what you do not know. Keep your eyes and ears open and you will learn a lot. People love to talk about themselves and about their experiences. Some do it because they just love to talk, but most people genuinely care and want to teach you. And that is great! Because that is when you learn the most. Why make the original mistake when you can learn from somebody else’s? And this takes me to number 2…

2) Find mentors that can guide you through the process of finding an internship, a job, or through life in general. I do not know how to tell you to find mentors, because so far for me, it just worked out. I have met people that I just clicked with and then they gradually became my mentors. The mentor-mentee relationship is a two-way street. Yes, usually mentors like to be able to offer guidance, but remember to be thoughtful and appreciative of their time and effort. It is a give and take.

1) Become a master of time management. You can pretty much do whatever you set your mind to do if you manage your time right. You will not be able to be the perfect best friend, partner, son or daughter while in school. But you will be able to balance all of that - even though it may be in a smaller proportion - if you set time aside for everything.

This is what I have got for you. In no way does this mean that I have everything figured out. But I am getting there! And if at least one of the points above will help you start figuring out what you want, then I am very happy. It will be a labor intensive process, but in the end very rewarding. Good luck!

Let's Talk Registration!

2009-07-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

Let’s play a Facebook game and talk about what's on our minds. I am pretty sure I speak for all the first and second years when I say that registration is on our minds. Second years registered for classes last week and first years registered this week. Registration is not at all pleasant, but at least it can be painless. Let me explain.

If you want to get into certain classes, with certain professors and at a certain time, registration can get pretty unpleasant. Correction: the process before registration is unpleasant. I spent, to my husband’s dismay, three hours figuring out plan A and plan B for my fall classes. Plan A had all the classes that I really really wanted as electives towards my marketing concentration and with the professors I wanted. I had to compromise on time but I think I still have a pretty nice schedule with Wednesday completely off. Plan B took a little bit longer to come up with. As it was meant to include my alternative classes in case I got waitlisted for my Plan A, it was pretty tough opting for classes that I had little interest in. Luckily, I am a 15-month student so I got to register a day before most of my colleagues and got into all of the classes I wanted. The good thing about second-year registration is that everybody is working towards a concentration and taking mostly electives, so the chances of more than 25 students wanting the same class are pretty slim.

This year, the incoming class had the privilege of registering for classes themselves. I am very curious to see what think about the process and how they are handling it. Most of all I am very curious to see if they learn the most important lesson about registration: be awake and ready to click on the "add classes" button at 7:30 a.m. Sharp!

Celebrating One Year of Blogging

2009-07-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July everyone! Every year on an annual celebration, I remind myself to look back at the year passed and see what I’ve accomplished. It is very easy to always want to do more and forget to be grateful for what you have, so looking back makes me put things in perspective and stay grounded.

Yesterday, I thought about where I was last year on the 4th of July. Besides the proverbial barbecue, I also remembered that I was getting ready for the big transition to school. I was leaving behind six years in the workforce to start my b-school journey. I was nervous and excited at the same time. And it was also in July when Paul Pinckley, the Executive Director of Student Recruitment for the Full-time MBA Program announced that I was selected as one of the five students to blog about my b-school experience. I was excited to blog about the MBA program because I thought it was a good marketing initiative. Little did I realize that it was an initiative from which I was also going to benefit. How? Simply by allowing me to record my thoughts and experiences on a regular basis. Last week, I went back and re-read some of the earlier entries and just smiled. It was interesting to see what I was thinking a year ago or even a few months ago. Looking back now, I feel like this first year of b-school has been a truly growing experience. Let’s put it this way: a year ago, I did not know what I did not know. Now, I think I have a pretty good idea of what I know and what I still need to learn. For me it is clear that every entry marks my being one step closer to a wiser self.

And what exactly am I trying to say here and how does this apply to you? My suggestion is to keep a blog or journal of your experience. Write weekly entries. They don’t always have to be great accomplishments – you’ve read mine, I think we can all agree that they couldn’t be farther from accomplishments – but it will give you the opportunity to process your experiences and record them. It is part of the self-discovery process. Even if you think you know yourself very well, any experience will teach you more about yourself. Some lessons are not as apparent as others and sometimes it takes some time to see how a certain experience shapes you or how it influences the course of your life. I’ll give you an example:

You might remember that in the fall I had an interview with AT&T for a leadership internship position over the summer. The program is very well designed and offers great training. Just like other MBA’s across the country I wanted to be one of the AT&T interns. I was asked for a second interview – a very structured and tough interview – and then I waited for the verdict. Before I found out, I stopped to think about what I would have changed, if anything, if I were to have the interview again. I analyzed every question and every answer and decided that whatever happened, I knew I gave it my best and I wouldn’t have changed anything. I always say that everything happens for a reason. And it does, at least in my life. I didn’t get the position. I was a bit upset, but not disappointed. I knew that this closed door meant another door would open somewhere else. Also, as it turned out AT&T had to accept a lot less interns this year and none of the offers made to people I knew were in marketing. This experience allowed me to understand what I was really looking in an internship position: First of all, it had to be in marketing; second, it had to be a very structured program; third, it had to have supervisors with lots of experience in marketing from whom I could learn a lot and who were willing to teach me; and fourth, it had to offer a project that I could take from beginning to end. I found all that in a marketing analyst position with the Office of the Dean of the Fully-Employed MBA Program at Pepperdine and also in an online marketing and communications intern position with the Step Up Women’s Network, a national non-profit headquartered in Los Angeles. Again, a closed door opens another door somewhere else.

It's Time for Updates: 3. Home Sweet Home

2009-06-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

Before starting my internship(s), I decided to allow myself 3-4 weeks to relax. I think I deserve it – heck, we all deserve it – after this challenging spring session. As second year students now, while we aren’t receiving any bail out money, we are at least getting a reward. For some, it’s a trip abroad or a fancy new computer. For me, it is allowing my mom to spoil me with her amazing cooking.

So I set out on a long, 18-hour trip to Romania via Germany. Before I even got home, I got a huge wake-up call in Germany. Yes, I knew from my accounting and finance classes that the Euro is dominating the Dollar, but my transactions were on paper, so who cares if the direct quote is 1.3 or 1.6. Minor details. Well it matters when I’m stuck at the airport in Frankfurt and I have two hours to kill. The very “nice” lady at the check-in is telling me that I’m too early for my departure. I try to explain that I just got off the plane after a 11-hour flight from L.A. and I would
really appreciate it if I could go to my gate and just relax there. She looks at me with a blank stare and then she moves on to the next person. Shoot! I guess I shouldn’t even try to ask to speak with a supervisor. So I decide to check whether I get wireless and take care of some e-mails. Yes! I do get wireless, however, the fee for one (yes, one) hour is 8 Euros.
What?! T-mobile in L.A. is $5.99, here it comes at a premium and it’s almost $11. I go to business school, so a little cost–benefit analysis is telling me that checking my e-mail at that price is a big no! So I decide to go back to my friendly airport worker.

My second treat was going home to Sibiu (Romania) to visit my family and friends. It was three weeks of bliss and I was glad I got to see everybody and travel a little bit. It’s always good to go home because my mom still treats me like a child and does everything for me. So I was pampered with lots of love, attention and especially homemade cooking that I missed. It doesn’t matter how many times I make my mom’s recipes, they just don’t taste as good as when she makes them! And I’d say I’m a pretty good cook. But it always tastes better when mama makes it.

I also missed my town and its old buildings so I took many walks and tried to experience it through tourist eyes. You can see some of the pictures I took in my “tourist walk”. It was a very interesting experience and I recommend it to anybody because you get to see everything from a completely new perspective. You might also discover something new about your hometown.

It's Time for Updates: 2. Sports Weekend

2009-06-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

This was the first treat after finals. Every year, Challenge for Charity chapters from nine business schools (Stanford, University of Washington, USF, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, and Pepperdine) reunite at Stanford for Sports Weekend. It is a weekend of fun, competition, and business. The Board Meeting is the place and time for each chapter to show their accomplishments over the year as well as discuss strategies for the year to come. Then the competition begins: teams from each school compete in every sport known to mankind to win the Golden Briefcase. The weekend ends with a big party where the winning team gets to take home the briefcase. Until next year!

To see highlights from this year's competition, watch this video. Incoming students, get ready for Sports Weekend 2010!

It's Time for Updates: 1. Finals

2009-06-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

I’ve been MIA for weeks so it’s time to update you on what’s been going on: finals, Sports Weekend, trip back home, and finally internships. I’ll post the entries separately though to be easier to find.

Finals

Yes, those tests, papers, and presentations that take over your life. Literally and completely! During finals week I’ve averaged 4 hours of sleep a night. By the end of the week, I was looking like I was auditioning for a scary movie role. Good thing girls have make up!

But let’s go back to finals. Monday I had my 4-hour final in finance followed by a treat: a final in QBA (quantitative business analysis)! I did it, but I really do not recommend taking two finals – especially these two – on the same day. Unless you’re a genius, which does not apply to me. The finance final was alright I thought, not too difficult, not too easy, but definitely long. Professor Harjoto is the best finance professor and one of my favorites. He goes above and beyond and wants to make sure you understand everything. He holds full-day (i.e. 8-hour) reviews before tests, something that’s really unheard of in b-school. He makes himself available in person and via e-mail for questions… he really is amazing! He and I disagree on one issue though and that is me changing my concentration from marketing to finance. He thinks I have it in my blood, I think I just have finance in my brain and marketing in my blood. Time will tell, I guess.

Professor Hahn, my QBA professor, is great too. He starts each lecture with a review of the previous lecture to make sure you understand the material. The review really helps and you almost don’t have to read anything for his class (if you repeat this to anybody, I’ll deny it.) :) Plus – and this is my personal favorite thing about his class - everything is applied and he uses examples you can relate to and will definitely use in the future. And in his final he just wants to see that you understand the output and can interpret the information. He is also C4C’s liaison with the school and supports our efforts to promote our activities.

The other and the most important class for me this session was Marketing. I think I got lucky and had truly amazing professors this session. Professor Rapier has over 20 years of experience both on the client and agency side and brings to class tons of examples from his work. Kotler’s book was a valuable resource and Professor Rapier encouraged us to question parts of it with real life exercises. One thing that everybody loved about Professor Rapier is that he was very hands off, which gave us the freedom to explore in our reports and projects, as long as we could back it up with evidence. If you take his class you’ll very quickly become familiar with three (well, four) words: relevance, authenticity and market research. ;-) And then there was our famous E2B (Education to Business) project, which provided plenty of real-life experience. I will write a separate entry about it because there is plenty to talk about, but I will just say that our marketing plan presentation in front of the company and our professors concluded the finals week for me.

I am officially done with my first year! I’m excited, nervous, and anxious that the second year is going to fly by as quickly as the first one.

Information Technology and Operations Online Game

2009-04-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

We are five students - first and second years - who blog about our experience at Pepperdine. Just as the rest of the students at school, we have very diverse backgrounds and offer our readers different perspectives on what to expect during the first year of school.

One of my fellow bloggers is Brian. We were on the same team in our Tech Ops class this past session and he wrote in his blog about our online class and Root Beer Game. I really like his writing style and his passion about our program, so I decided to post the link to his blog and the Tech Ops entry here. Enjoy!

Are We Witnessing the Making of a New Case Study?

2009-04-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

I have a feeling this is going to become a case study asking the question: Should have Pepsi rebranded their core products? And if so, was it the right time to do it?

As business students, we have to read and write reports on case studies all the time and to me, Pepsi's rebranding seems the perfect candidate for one. I obviously do not have access to their financials, however, after reading this Business Week article, I can't help wondering whether it was smart investment with perfect timing, or just a huge and costly mistake. Time will tell! And it could turn out to be the best thing Pepsi could have done in this economy. At the same time, it seems to me that to embark on such ambitious endeavor (redesigning 1,121 different bottles according to the article) without enough time to research your market's potential reaction might be pretty costly.

Read the article and also check out the link to the unofficial copy of Arnell Group's presentation of the new logo.

My “Aha” Moment

2009-04-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting in my hotel room at the beautiful Zermatt resort in Utah and reflecting on this past week, I realized I might have had my ‘aha’ moment: be open! Be open to opportunities, be open to meeting new people, be open to learn.

Be open to opportunities. This week has marked the end of my year with TEC (The Executive Committee) on Campus. I mentioned TEC a few times and promised I would write about it at some point. The reason I kept putting it off is not because it is not important for me, but because the experience is very difficult to quantify or describe in words. TEC has been the most rewarding experience here at Pepperdine and I know I’m going to miss it terribly. And I’m glad I was open to it!

I know that the name of the program makes you think of a professional mentorship that will help you hone your skills and realize your goals. Or get you a job. Nope! It’s nothing like that. Not even close. It is a journey of self-reflection and trust. You go through this journey with eleven other colleagues and they become your personal board of advisors. Why do you need that? Because as Gary Brinderson, the TEC Chair, says it is lonely at the top and you need to get rid of the noise in your head in order to be a successful leader. My reflection on my strengths and myself led me to the discovery that in pursuing brand management, I need to learn the process first. If I know the process then I can turn any marketing strategy into a success and apply it to any product.

Be open to learn (from opportunities and people). A few months ago I received an e-mail about a leadership opportunity with NAWMBA (The National Association of Women MBA’s), on their brand management team. I applied and two phone interviews later, I found out I was selected as their Regional VP of Website Development. I don’t care that much about the “important” title. I do care about the work that I’m going to do to build the NAWMBA brand and also about all the women that are going to benefit from that. And I also care about the wonderful women that I met this weekend at the leadership retreat in Utah. Each one of them has an interesting story, background, and various drivers pushing them to succeed. And I’m learning from them about their experiences and careers, what to do and what not to do.

Be open to meeting people. I left LA late last night to come to the retreat. My plane got delayed, I was already exhausted, and couldn’t wait to get on the plane and continue with my work. I chose to sit down next to a lady with a very active 4-year old daughter. The reason behind it was that the kid was going to be up playing and I could have the light on to work on my computer. I had the ambitious plan to get two full hours of work while en route. The lady and I exchanged pleasantries and then I started working. The flight attendant – though a funny Southwest Airliner – was not going to have me work on the computer while take off, so I had to obey and turned all electronics off. To kill time, the lady and I started chatting. Immediately, we bonded over my frustration about not being able to use my computer and hers about not being able to use her Kindle. One conversation led to another and heavy turbulence warned us that we were descending into Salt Lake City. I never got any work done, but spent two wonderful hours in the company of a woman with a very interesting life story and her daughter, who coincidentally shares my first name.

I could go on and on with the examples, but you get the idea. Keep your eyes, ears, and heart open and your journey will be so much better!

It's Tough, But Somebody's Gotta Do It

2009-03-29T22:05:00.000-07:00

There are only 3 weeks left of this first year and I definitely feel the stress now. There are so many projects and papers due and so much group work that I feel like four weeks is not enough to finish everything. That, coupled with my other responsibilities of co-running Pepperdine’s chapter of Challenge for Charity, working with the National Association of Women MBA’s (NAWMBA) on developing their brand, and following up on different internship leads, leaves me no other time to breath.

With only a few days left to finish our E2B marketing plan and finance project, tempers are getting shorter and shorter. The good thing about these extensive projects is that you are forced to learn how to deal with different characters with sometimes different priorities and under a
tight schedule. And you’re supposed to make it work so you can carry out the task you were given! This is probably one of the most important take-aways from business school.

Sometimes though we take breaks. Very short, but we still do. Or we mix business with pleasure. Last week we had an online game to do for our Technology class. Because the game was called Root Beer, my team and I got together to play the game and have Root Beer floats. Work hard and play hard, right? Yesterday for example, a bunch of first and second-year students went to Santa Monica for a Beach Battle. The event was organized by C4C and about 10-15 children from CLF joined us to play volleyball and build sand castles. Breaks don’t happen very often these days, but we need to keep our sanity. Three more weeks to go!

Catching Up

2009-03-19T14:43:00.000-07:00

I’ve been running behind on updates on this blog because it’s been a crazy busy couple of weeks. It’s not an excuse, it’s the simple reality of having no time for anything else other than school. Well, to be fair, I managed to sneak a weekend trip to Vegas for my sister-in-law’s birthday.

But let’s bring you up to date with what’s been going on lately. A couple of weeks ago, Net Impact and The Value-Centered Leadership Lab (VCLL) organized Social Enterprise Week (SEW). It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences at Peppedine. I had the opportunity to help bring together very smart business people whose organizations are driven by ethics and social consciousness. Some of our fellow MBA’s discussed their business ventures and how they got the ideas and funding. We had food provided by the Green Truck. And the week ended with Running the Malibu Waves Race, organized by Challenge for Charity (C4C) and benefiting Southern California Special Olympics and The Childrens Lifesaving Foundation (CLF). The race was a great success and the winners received certificates decorated by children that CLF is helping.

What else is going on? I’m still working on getting an internship. Many MBA’s - yours truly included - are feeling grateful that being in schools protects us from potential layoffs. At the same time, the state of the economy is making it more difficult to get internships. Many companies are faced with having to reduce the number of interns, or are taking the same number of interns but can’t afford to pay. Now more than ever your network is your best asset. And if that doesn’t work, then select a few companies that you are really interested in working with and call them to see if they’re taking interns this year. Because I want to work in marketing, I chose three marketing agencies that fit my professional and personal interests and called them. The responses have been positive so far and I’m hoping to work with one of them. I’ll keep you posted.

I Fuel Good!

2009-03-01T21:22:00.000-08:00

Last night, my husband and I went to see Fuel. I heard about this documentary by accident. I saw an internship posted on Pepperdine’s career services website and I got in touch with the company that produced the film. As it always happens in life, one conversation led to another and last night, I’m at the AMC theatre in Santa Monica expecting to see just another documentary. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was more than that.

Josh Tickell, the man behind the project, has spent more than ten years of his life finding a way to replace the oil we are so dependant on with something else that is renewable and nontoxic. And as it happens so many times, the answer was right there. It had been invented many years before. We all heard about it. And not only that, but some European countries were already using it. It was diesel fuel. Yes! The original one, that is. The one that Diesel himself invented, the one that was made out of vegetable oil: biodiesel fuel.

Then what stood between Diesel’s invention and its use on a large scale? Well, it was Rockefeller, Standard Oil, Exxon Mobil, interested governments and partnerships. I won’t spoil all the fun for you, I would just suggest you go see Fuel and form your own opinion about it. It recently won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary and through the energy of supporters has made it to a cinema near us. It is definitely a documentary worth seeing. It will first make you angry and then hopeful because it doesn’t just show the problem, it also offers solutions!

Who Can Control Time?

2009-02-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

I've heard somewhere - and I wish I could remember where - that time is the only aspect of our life that we can control. It sounded like the coolest thing I've ever heard. Wow, I can control time. Nice! Only that I don't think I believe it that much. If I controlled time, then today for example I could have finished studying for my finance mid-term tomorrow, then I would have done some econ studying for the final on Tuesday, and then some more for my Thursday final in Accounting. Is that such an ambitious plan? I don't think so! Did my time allow for all that? Not really.

Yes, I get that this whole controlling the time thing means that we get to pick the most important task that absolutely has to get done and then we rank the rest in terms of what is and isn't important and has or doesn't have to get done. That is called prioritizing, if I remember correctly. While in business school, however, I feel that even after prioritizing my to-do list is still very long. And all those items left on the list are in my "very important and absolutely need to get done" quadrant!

Speaking of this lovely quadrant, finals are here! Yes, that means that 6 weeks have gone by already and session A is almost over. It also means that before I know it, my first year of business school will also be over. This idea will definitely take some getting used to. I still have to lock in an internship before I get to enjoy my summer vacation. Keep your fingers crossed for me to get the internship I want and then I will tell you all about this whole process! First things first though: finals week! Wish me luck!

Think Outside of the Classroom Box

2009-02-01T17:29:00.000-08:00

It's already week five in the quarter and I have no idea where the time has gone. It seems like just the other day I was celebrating the new year. That's grad school for you!

Second-year students say that Spring quarter is the most difficult one and I can definitely see an increase in the number of projects on my list. For example, I have the E2B project in marketing that I already talked about in a previous entry. There is an individual project and group presentation in Finance. There's a group project and individual project in Accounting. And a project for Macro Economics. The individual project in Finance and the one in Econ build off of the project I completed in Accounting last quarter that looked at the profitability, solvability, and liquidity of an S&P 500 company of our choosing. I selected Nordstrom, for the obvious reasons. What?! A girl really likes to shop.

Despite the heavy workload, one major difference between this quarter and last is knowing what to expect. While I'm still sleep-deprived, my overall level of stress is a bit lower. Maybe that's because I haven't started my individual projects yet! A big part of the lower stress level is due to my effort to keep a broader perspective on the business school experience, with all of its opportunities beyond the classroom. It may not be good advice to not focus on studying 100% of the time, but business school is what you make of it. Studying is important, but don't forget to look outside of the classroom into the different clubs and activities that are constantly going on around here. For example, Net Impact is planning a volunteer trip to Guatemala over Spring break. C4C (Challenge for Charity) is organizing the Running the Waves marathon and is also getting ready for Sports Weekend at Stanford in April. Student clubs are also changing their leadership teams and many of my friends are becoming board members on many of these teams. I'm excited about this, as having already established friendships in place will make collaboration among the clubs effective.

So while my stress levels may go up over the remaining weeks in the quarter, it will definitely be balanced by the excitement of being involved in so many activities.

History in the Making

2009-01-20T21:31:00.000-08:00

Today is indeed a special day. I’m not going to talk about the political implications as I believe that each is entitled to their own beliefs and I personally don’t care who’s Democrat and who’s Republican, I care about the individual, the results, and the values. I’m just going to say that I was very impressed to see people all over the world watching the inauguration, to see the energy present in D.C. and how hopeful and united they all seemed.

Unfortunately I was in my macroeconomics class, so I couldn’t watch the whole inauguration. I snuck out to listen to the inaugural address. Obama has definitely come a long way since two years ago. He seems more confident, more assertive, he looks and acts like a true leader. I wish I could ask him what he was thinking as he walked out in front of the crowd. His speech was as I expected: strong, loud and clear, and very real. My favorite lines: “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; … know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.” Somebody said to me today that Obama’s speech was written by 24-year-old. If so, congratulations to him. I wish I was that wise when I was 24.

I also wish I were in D.C. today. It must have been an amazing and humbling experience.

Women in Marketing

2009-01-20T07:49:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday I attended the Women in Marketing Event at Red Bull Headquarters in Santa Monica. It was an event organized by Tadpole, a marketing and consulting company owned by Carolyn Deighan. Carolyn worked with Red Bull for a good number of years then she moved on to opening her own company.

The event was amazing and the response overwhelming. There were about 200 people there. Although the event was called “Women in Marketing”, I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few men attending. They were probably hoping to get a good insight into the female psyche. News flash, guys: sometimes we don’t even understand ourselves.

The nine women invited were a breath of fresh air. Successful, funny, very direct, smart, and very passionate about their job. Amy Stettler, Global Account Director at Apple, Amy Taylor, VP of Marketing at Red Bull, Caralene Robinson, Marketing Director at Boost Mobile, Circe Wallace, Senior VP at WMG Management, Dyana Kass, Sr. Marketing Director at Interscope Records, Kenna Bertell Florie, VP of Marketing at Roxy, Renne Lawter, Owner of Eyerus, Shanti Sosienski, Owner of SOS Communications, and Staci Levine, Partner, SnL Communications, each answered specific questions prepared by Carolyn Deighan. I was happy to learn that although most of them work in a male-dominated environment, they did not attribute their success to having to act as a “dude” to be taken seriously. If I were to sum up their answers into one sentence, it would sound like this: find your passion, be yourself, be prepared, set goals for yourself, don’t take things personally, laugh at yourself, and don’t be afraid to express your opinion. It sounds like very common sense, I know, but to me, it was refreshing to hear from the mouths of these very successful women.

The night then continued with smaller open discussions groups where participants were able to ask their own questions and network and then ended with goodie bags and lots of smiles. The event was definitely a success and I recommend both women and men to attend the second edition.

B-school Is Speaking My Language!

2009-01-11T22:40:00.000-08:00

First week of school! Lots of familiar faces and some new ones, but more important, lots of readings and work. Yes, I have to remember I signed up for this. This is my full-time job. And seriously, in this economy, I am lucky I have this job.

School is finally speaking my language: marketing. I just had my first marketing class this week and I love it. By now you probably noticed that I either love something or I hate it. There's no middle ground. And yes, I love my marketing class and my marketing professor. It's a new professor, so I took a chance signing up for his class, but it's already starting to pay off. I might have not taken a marketing class before, but I knew what I didn't want in one and that was a researcher. I wanted somebody with experience and this professor has lots of it. He uses a lot of examples from projects he worked on that sometimes contradict Kottler's "Bible" and that's exactly what I was looking for. I don't care that much about books, I need to know how theory translates into the real world. So far, so good! I love it and I thank my marketing fairy for inspiring me to sign up for this class!

The part that I'm looking forward to in this class - but that also makes me nervous - is the E2B project. This means that we have a real company coming to us with a real problem and we are supposed to offer them a real solution using real money. The details of the projects are unfortunately confidential, but all I can say is that we have a certain budget to market a new product. The five teams in our class have 14 weeks to come up with a marketing strategy that will be presented on our last day of class. The best strategy obviously wins and the company will implement it. Pretty exciting!

I promised an update on my finance class. Don't be jealous, but I got lucky again. My finance professor is amazing. I couldn't go to the makeup class on Friday and he allowed me to take the quiz (yes, we have quizzes every week) during his office hours. Then he said I could ask him questions during the quiz. Initially, I wasn't sure I understood what he meant as I've never had a professor say that. I was thinking "a quiz is a quiz, you either know the answer or you don't", but then I got stuck on one of the problems. So I said to him that I was 100% sure I had the right logic, but didn't seem to get the right answer. I explained my thought process, he nodded then asked me if my NOPAT was for 2007 or 2008. Ohhhhhhh! I was calculating the 2008 NOPAT with my 2007 numbers. Good one, Simona! And then I got why he allows questions. He wants to make sure you get the concepts and the logic. And if you're a distracted student with the attention span of a 2 year-old like I am, then you might lose precious points on a test. Who would have thought I'd like finance?! That is when I understand the concepts and I'm looking at the right numbers.

Back to School!

2009-01-04T21:41:00.001-08:00

I was going to continue with what happened in Cabo, but we got back to L.A. in the meantime, life got in the way, and here we are: it's Sunday night and tomorrow is "back to school" day. I am excited to go back, but I'm definitely not looking forward to the workload. I used to get very frustrated and didn't get why graduate school is so much work if you cannot possibly get everything done. Then I realized - or at least that's what I've been telling myself to feel better - that one of the things business school teaches is to prioritize.

This session I manage to have only 8 a.m. classes. It sounds brutal, but I feel that I'm going to be so much more productive if I'm forced to wake up early and then I'm done with class at noon. If I have an afternoon class, then I tend to sleep in - that is if waking up at 7 a.m. qualifies as that - then I can't do too much because at 10 a.m. I start getting ready for class and by the time I get back home around 6-7p.m., I don't feel like doing anything productive. Finishing class at noon is going to give me the rest of the day to get my work done. Hopefully this little ploy of mine is going to work and watch out, Pepperdine, I'm going to become the definition of the word productive.

My first class tomorrow is Finance. I've never taken a finance class, so when I was deciding on classes, I asked some second-year students for advice. I told them I needed a "Finance for Dummies" class and a professor with a lot of patience. I realize this is graduate school and my request is ridiculous, but I'm spoiled by nature, so you can't really blame me for asking. Luckily, they had a recommendation for me. So, I signed up for Prof. Harjoto's and I guess I'll find out tomorrow how that's going to work out. Just reading the class assignments for tomorrow got me sort of nervous as I felt that part of it was going over my head. Luckily, I understood most of it and got excited that now I get how the stock market works - something I was never really interested in - and realized that so much of Financial Accounting goes hand-in-hand with Finance. I quietly thanked my accounting professor for making us analyze financial statements as part of our individual project, because now I understood what chapter 3 was all about. Although I thought I would never say this, I'm pretty excited about Finance class. I do predict a love-hate relationship at times because of the math involved and all the formulas. But the concepts and the strategy behind financial decisions, that's exactly what I came to learn in business school!

Wish me luck though, I'm still not ready to go back.

The Chronicles of Cabo: The Wake Up Call

2008-12-20T23:06:00.000-08:00

I made the major and healthy decision of not bringing any electronics on this trip and here I am writing this entry on a piece of paper. What a novel idea! Who does this anymore? Who blogs on their paper first? And what would Carrie Bradshaw say? But then again, I'm not writing a column in a newspaper, nor am I talking about sex, so I think this is allowed.

I'm in Cabo right now, on our second night here and since I just got woken up by our new neighbors' loud conversation, I figured I might as well write something. It's 11:30 p.m. and being the wild 29-year old going on 60 that I am, I fell asleep a couple of hours ago. After all, there's only so much swimming, ping pong, and weird cha-cha electric slides I can handle in one day! But I digress. The room we're in is absolutely amazing with one exception: for some unknown reason, there is a door that separates our room from what I believe is a suite. And behind this door, there is... a kitchen! I'm still trying to wrap my head around any possible reason why a 5-star hotel would have a kitchen. And given that between our room and this kitchen there is only a door, we can obviously hear everything! This morning I woke up to the sound of breakfast bowls being thrown on the kitchen table and after the manager assured us that our neighbors would be leaving today and there would be nobody else placed in the adjacent room, surprise, surprise! Guess why I just woke up? We have new neighbors who seem to be amazed at every single applience they see in this kitchen. It must be a cool kitchen!

I found this whole situation amazing, but my husband's fuming and is already on the phone with the manager. Me? I wonder what our neighbors are going to have for breakfast and what time they usually eat in the morning.

P.S. I'm in the hotel lobby right now on the hotel's laptop trying to find the right symbols on this Spanish keyboard, so if there are any typos, blame it on the Spanglish keyboard.

My Daily Lesson and Laugh

2008-12-17T14:41:00.000-08:00

I just love, love, love this guy. And this time I'm not talking about my husband. I'm talking about Gary Vaynerchuk, a marketer, businessman, you name it, that has become an internet celebrity lately. Why I love him? He's a little bit over the top, but has an amazing energy, tons of experience, is super creative, and can talk for hours. Plus you learn a lot from him. He's kind of like a Donny Deutsch - another love of mine - on steroids. So if you want to be entertained, but also learn, go to his website. I can only imagine what he would say about this blurb. :)

Tradition... Tradition!

2008-12-16T22:10:00.000-08:00

Last night we saw Fiddler on the Roof. It’s only fitting since this is the time to remember our traditions.

For me Christmas means my family all together, the smell of freshly baked sweet bread, carols, and snow. Growing up we only decorated the house for Christmas the week of the holiday. And we were all excited about that. The energy and excitement would build up to that day and then each member of the family took care of their own part of the deal: mom was in charge of the menu, dad would pick the Christmas tree and the kids would decorate it. On Christmas Eve, the whole family would get together and then after dinner, we would all go caroling at friends’ and extended family’s houses until the morning or we would stay home and wait for carolers. Then on Christmas day, the whole family would have lunch together. So for all these reasons, Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year.

Since we got married, I’ve gotten used to a new tradition: Hanukkah (which reminds me, I still need to buy candles.) It would probably not be considered kosher in other households, but in ours the menorah is right next to the Christmas stockings. And we keep both holidays, though my husband does not receive eight gifts. I, on the other hand, might and love every single one of them.

This year is the first time we are not going to be with family for Christmas. We’re going to Cabo and so it made no sense to me to get a Christmas tree. But my husband insisted on getting one, so we did. See? I listen. From time to time. Once the tree was decorated, I started feeling the excitement of the holiday. The smell of pine tree always takes me back to my childhood years and I just love it.

This year is the first time we’re skipping the tradition of being home for Christmas. It surely does not mean we’re starting a new one. We’re just mixing it up.

First Day of Bliss

2008-12-06T09:40:00.000-08:00

It’s officially over. ¼ of my degree is done. Finished. Over. Can you tell I’m excited? As you know my now, I’m really enjoying my MBA experience and I am learning a lot. But… three months of non-stop studying, reading, meeting, papering can take its toll. Last night, after two finals on the same lucky day, my husband asked me what I learned after three months. I started telling him about all the knowledge I received. He said, “No, I don’t mean that, I just want to know if there’s any lesson you learned”. I have to admit I wasn’t sure what to say initially. Then I realized that the most valuable lesson I took from these fourteen weeks is to change your teams as often as you can. It might sound counter intuitive and inefficient, but it really helped me get to know a lot of people in my program and learn a lot about different work styles. Working with different people allowed me to go outside the comfort I had with my old team and adapt my work style to the personalities in my new team.

An extension of the lesson I already mentioned is what became my number one rule in working with teams: designate roles within the team. The way I see it you have two choices: play it by ear and just wait for the two, three weeks or whatever time you have assigned for the project and hope that everything will work out, or establish roles from the beginning. This way everybody has a defined responsibility and carries his/her own weight in the team. The one thing that any MBA student hates is having to pick up the slack for one team member that is on permanent holiday or always busy with various commitments. Plus you can’t hold anybody accountable for responsibilities they were never assigned. My various teams and I learned to spend the first meeting discussing the teams’ expectations, goals, and individual responsibilities. This way everybody was on the same page and we were able to spend the remaining time focusing on the project.

As I said though, my one-month of bliss is here. Yesterday was “glued to couch” day! I did nothing productive, wore pajamas all day long, watched TV, and checked my e-mail. (Yes, I had to check my e-mail, I couldn’t help it.) It feels strange not having to be anywhere right now or having to work on a project. But I’m going to enjoy it immensely. Monday will be a different story though. I’ll have to start operation “house de-mess-ification”. There are tens of pairs of shoes lying around, clothes that I haven’t seen in a month, and notes, books, post-its, everywhere. You can see part of it in the attached picture.

Once the mess is gone, I can focus on my plans for this break. One of the things on the list for this month is doing research for a business plan competition my team and I are participating in early next year. Then I’m working on getting some internship interviews, catching up on books that I bought in the past couple of months but never got around to reading, and finally, my husband and I are going to Cabo for seven great days of fun and R&R. I’m really hoping four weeks are going to be enough for all of this.

Food for Thought

2008-11-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

This morning I received a link to a website that talks about a young woman's battle with breast cancer. I will not mention her name, as I'm not sure she wants this, but I will just say that I'm very impressed with her efforts to fight this. There are many other feelings that I have right now after reading her story: I feel empowered by her story, I feel helpless and do not want to intrude, I am angry at the health care system in this country, and also really hopeful that we will see her again in spring.

Cancer seems to be the word of the month. I guess I am one month late as October is the official cancer month. However, with the story that I just mentioned, with the one-year mark coming up since we lost our godfather to lung cancer, and my reading Randy Pausch's book "The Last Lecture", November is the cancer month, at least in my mind.

For those of you who haven't heard of Randy Pausch, he was a Carnegie Mellon professor who relentlessly fought a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Once he found out he could not beat it, he focused on the things that really matter to him: having fun, spending time with his family, and building memories with and for his very young kids. From his determination to do all this before he said goodbye, came three amazing things: 1) the famous (by now) Last Lecture he gave to his students, friends, and family at Carnegie Mellon; 2) the book The Last Lecture, which was published in 35 languages already and combines fragments from his talks, plus some more of his thoughts and advice, and 3) the Time Management Lecture, which is…self-explanatory. Unfortunately, Randy Pausch lost his battle in July of this year. His legacy – if there’s any consolation – remains to influence people.

It is interesting to me how when we hear stories like Randy’s or the young woman’s, we sort of wake up and see the important things in life. But then we gradually slip back to the same old routine and feeling that “this is not going to happen to me”. And yours truly is guilty as charged. I wonder what it takes to make us not forget! And I am not talking about living with the fear of a fatal diagnosis. I’m talking about putting things into perspective and learning from other people’s stories. What I learned from these stories is this:
• Be optimistic.
• If you can change it, deal with it.
• Live today like it’s your last day (we have all heard this before, but how many of us do it?) • Treat the cause, not the symptoms.
• Decide what’s important to you, early in life, and then focus on that. Randy Pausch and others call this the 80-20 rule: 80% of your satisfaction/happiness (fill in the blanks) comes from 20% of your life. So figure out what the 20% is.
And my favorite (Randy Pausch’s dad’s words, which also remind me a lot of my own dad):
• “Just because you’re in the driver’s seat doesn’t mean you have to run people over.”

This is not meant to make you sad. It’s meant to be a nudge to wake up and smell the roses. You know what they say, if you can’t pay it back, pay it forward ;).

When I Grow Up...

2008-11-14T16:41:00.000-08:00

Before I started school, I was 150% sure that I wanted to do brand management. Why? Because it would allow me to be creative, to see a product from day one and take it to “graduation day” when it becomes a brand (by the way, this is probably the shortest definition of brand management ever ☺). It only took a few weeks of school to get me so confused that I have no idea what I want to do right now. It doesn’t mean that I’ve ruled out brand management. I just added organizational change to my exploration agenda.

So what do I do to figure out what I want to do? Well, I’m setting up informational interviews with people in brand management and organizational change. I want to learn more about the field, specific positions within the field, and especially the challenges they’re facing. I’m also reading a lot on different industries that I’m interested in, looking at job descriptions for brand management positions, and career paths. On top of everything, I’m also looking for an internship. As I am in the 15-month program, I’m not required to do an internship. However, I decided to pursue this option, if I find a program and a company that I really like.

AT&T, for example, has a great internship program. And what I really like about it is that they emphasize leadership over marketing or whatever field you want to specialize in. It is first a program that gives you exposure to executives, mentors, and networking events that will ultimately help you hone your leadership skills. I never thought about working for AT&T until I saw this internship program. I guess I never took the time to look at this company as an option because I was fixated on cosmetics or publishing. Now however, after looking at this program and talking to former interns, I would consider myself lucky to participate in AT&T's internship program. A few weeks ago, I took the first step towards this goal, when I was among the few first-year students selected for an interview. Now, I have to wait until March to find out whether or not I receive an offer. Four more months is a long time! And the million-dollar question is now how do I keep my name fresh in the recruiter’s mind until then, without being annoying?! ☺

A New Voice: the "MBA Widower"

2008-10-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Everybody knows that pursuing an MBA program is challenging. However, nobody knows that better than the partners of the MBA students. They are the ones that give up a lot of the time they used to spend with their partners, they have to take on new responsibilities, and be supportive at the same time. Dr. Mallinger, the Director of the Full-Time MBA Program, rightfully calls them "MBA Widow(er)s."

When I started school, I jokingly told my husband I'd see him at the end of next year (i.e. when I graduate). Little did I know that I would have so much work that it sometimes seems like we just get to say "good morning" and "good night". Since he's the one that's directly feeling the consequences of my being in school, I decided to give him the chance to tell his side of the story as well. Here's his entry:

There have been a lot of changes over the last few months that my wife and I have experienced as a result of her starting the MBA program. First, it’s the amount of time I get to spend with her. It's amazing the sheer number of hours of work she has outside of class - reading, preparing presentations, studying for exams, etc. I knew she was going to be busy, but 12-15+ hour days 6-7 days a week is intense.

I do what I can to be supportive. I feel in some ways I've become the house-husband. Who knew I could go from a cook whose definition of a home-cooked meal meant a microwaved peanut butter and jelly sandwich, to using spices and different ethnic foods. We've started making sure to set aside specific time in our schedules for us to spend quality time together. I think this is important for any couple where one of the individuals is in graduate school. There simply is too much to get done in a 24-hour day to cross everything off of the to do list. So prioritizing is key. Saturday is our 'no work/MBA distractions' day. It's become my favorite day of the week because we get to wake up together and spend the whole day together focusing solely on enjoying our time together.

Another change is the energy and inner-spirit emanating from my wife on a near daily basis. My wife is someone who thrives in a challenging environment where opportunities for personal and professional development abound. From what I've seen the MBA program at Pepperdine is the definition of that environment. As a result, my wife seems to walk, talk, and think with a greater spirit than ever before. One of my favorite parts of the day is when she comes home from class and I ask her how her day went. Her face lights up as she describes what she covered in class, the contacts she's made, or the projects she's worked on. She even seems to get excited when discussing her accounting class. And to think she's a creative-marketing type, not a finance type!

One major point of advice I can offer to couples who are considering a spouse going to graduate school is the following: both people need to think of the experience as an investment in the relationship's future. It's easy to think the one spouse not attending school is putting his/her life on hold for the other. However, I think framing the experience in this light is counterproductive. Granted I'm choosing not to take certain career steps at the moment because of financial and logistical realities stemming from my wife attending school. However, there is plenty of opportunity for me to grow during this period. I have numerous colleagues at work who are in similar situations. Some aren't faring so well in their relationships because the spouse not attending school has begun to resent having to "put things on hold," especially when the other spouse is going through a rapid professional (and personal) development period. I try to absorb much of what my wife learns through hearing about her experiences. I even tell people I'm obtaining a joint MBA degree, vicariously through my wife. I've thought about pursuing an MBA degree, so this is great exposure to the experience, enabling me to test the waters for free.

Overall, it's only been a few months since her program has started. So I'm excited to see what the future has in store. One thing is for sure, it's going to be a busy time...but one not short at all in excitement.

You Know You’ve Been in SoCal for Too Long When…

2008-10-20T22:38:00.000-07:00

I had four days off from school - sort of a mini-break - to charge the batteries and get the energy for the second half of the trimester. My husband and I decided to use this time to go visit family on the East Coast. I realized I miss the seasons, the yummy N.Y. pizza, Central Park, and a lot more. I love the East Coast because life there is so much different than in California, especially Southern California. So, I decided to put together a “You Know You’ve Been in SoCal for Too Long When…” list. Here it is:

1. You see $2.77 at the gas station and think it’s per gallon of water, not gas
2. You feel the cold outside and think it’s because of the AC and not because it’s fall
3. You realize that rush hour doesn’t mean all day long, but only from 3:00pm to 6:00pm
4. You hear thunder and you think there’s something wrong with your car
5. You realize that rain and lightning really exist
6. You are surprised that the freeway is not a parking lot
7. You are startled by a total stranger saying “hello” to you
8. You don’t remember the last time you saw leaves changing colors
9. You notice that there other shoes besides flip-flops
10. You are surprised that houses come with more than decent sized backyards

One Step Closer to the End

2008-10-13T21:03:00.000-07:00

I already blogged about my midterms week. Today you’re in for a treat because I just finished my finals, so I want to give you a little bit of an idea about what last week was like. Let’s randomly start with Monday. I’ve heard rumors about weeks starting on Sunday or Monday (depending on where you’re from), but my weeks just blend in with no beginning and no end. Ever since I started school I think in sessions and months, so no weeks. But for the sake of this post, I’m going to start with Monday.

Monday…wow, I know what I did last summer, but I can’t even remember what I did last Monday. It’s a good thing I can turn to my faithful friend, the iPhone, and check out my calendar. OK, so it looks like I started my day at 5am. Oh yeah. Because my group and I had a presentation on EMR (i.e. Electronic Medical Records) at 8:00 am and met at 6:30 am at school to do a final run through. So,
6:30 am – meet with IT group to do a run through
8:00 am – EMR presentation and IT class
12:00 pm – lunch with our IT professor and my IT class (Dr. Williams invites everybody over to his house at the end of the class for lunch with his family. If you have a chance to take one of his classes, I strongly suggest it. He’s a really smart, fun, and fair professor.)
1:00 pm – Elyse (one of my close friends and accounting buddies) and I usually do our accounting homework on Mondays.
4:00 pm – meet with accounting group to do a run through of the presentation for Thursday
6:00 pm – economics study group for final Thursday
10:00 pm – I can’t think anymore, so I go to bed. My husband says something to me, but I can’t process. Information overload. Shut down follows.

Tuesday
I planned to read two of the chapters for my accounting final, but I have a presentation at 1pm, and I just realized I don’t have the cable (I think that’s what it’s called) that connects my Mac to the projector. So, I skip my lovely date with the accounting book and go to the Apple Store to buy one. I run back to school because at noon I’m supposed to meet my group to do a run through.
12:00 pm – meet with my OB (organizational behavior) group. I realize the Apple guy gave me the wrong cable, so it takes two runs to the school’s computer lab to finally get what I need.
1:00 pm – we give our amazing presentation on the leader of our choice: Hugh Heffner. ☺ We had a little bit too much fun with this presentation that doesn’t even count towards our grade, but everybody loves it and that’s what we’re there for. We live for our audience!
5:00 pm – the fun is over, it’s time for accounting study group
7:00 pm – more fun with my economics study group. A switch goes on in my head and I miraculously get the difference between the marginal rate of substitution and the slope of the budget line. ☺ YAY! I go home happy and feeling smarter than ever.

Wednesday
Did I mention before that Wednesday is my day off? That only means that I have no class, but I have a c*^& load of stuff to do. I allowed myself to sleep in, that is, until 8:00 am.
10:00am – I have my monthly one-on-one meeting with Gary Brinderson, TEC Chair and CEO of Brinderson Engineers and Constructors. I will talk more about TEC in another posting, but I will just say now that this is an amazing opportunity for any student and I would encourage you to take advantage of it, whether you decide to go to Pepperdine, UCLA, or USC.
11:00 am – grab some lunch with Elyse and dive back into the amazing world of accounting
5:00 pm – more econ study group. Originally about five of us, the group turns into about 12 people and we decide to take over one of the smaller conference rooms and make good use of the projector and the knowledge of one of our colleagues.
10:00 pm – I stare at the TV. I’m thinking this is a good way to relax, but I can’t tell if I’m staring at Obama or McCain, so I decide to go to bed.

Thursday
Almost the end of the week. I wake up at 6:00 am to make sure I make it to school at 7:15am. We’re the first of the four groups for our accounting presentations. We talk about Rite Aid, the accounting principles they violated, and how we can prevent that in the future in our companies.
10:00 am – after all the groups finished their presentations, we start our final.
1:00 pm – one final down, one more to go. I start my econ final.
3:00 pm – I’m the third to finish the final, so I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. I decide not to think twice about it, jump in the car, and drive to Newport Beach with my TEC buddy, Tim.
6:00 pm – we hate the traffic, but get to Newport in time to meet with a few other TEC people and have dinner.
12:00 am – the point of us going to Newport the night before the TEC meeting was to get some sleep. But one fun thing lead to another and we’re up talking until almost 1am. I decide to go to sleep with the lights on and people talking around me.

Friday
TEC group meeting from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm, then drive back to LA on the parking lot that is the 405 freeway.

Saturday
No, my week is not over. As the Director of Communications for Challenge for Charity, I spend my entire day in a board meeting with our C4C President, Lisa Steward, and members of the other C4C chapters.
To celebrate almost the end of a crazy week, my husband took me to the Greek at the Harbor restaurant in Ventura Harbor. It was an amazing night, with delicious food, and crazy great entertainment. I recommend going there.

Sunday
I took my “final” final. Our IT final was a take home exam due today, so I decided to get it over with on Sunday and not wait any longer.

This is the short version of last week. If you think it’s too long, try living it. ☺

Time Is Not on My Side

2008-09-28T23:44:00.000-07:00

I’m sure you’re noticing that my posts are getting shorter and shorter. That’s because I feel like my days are getting shorter and shorter! I remember a time when there used to be 24 hours in a day. Now I don’t even notice the hours, I just count the weeks. And it seems like last week was week one. And now it’s week five! Or six, I’m not really sure.

It’s…well, almost Monday morning already and I’m still working. The next couple of weeks are going to be super busy. I just finished with mid-terms and now finals are almost here. And group projects! Next week, I have 2 finals and a presentation on the same day. Lucky me!

I know I seem to complain a lot ☺, but I’m also grateful. The workload is huge, not having enough sleep is frustrating, but you know what? When else do I have time to do something for myself? I’m feeling lucky I don’t have to work (especially with the current job market) and I can focus on studying (as lame as that sounds). Because I know that once I finish school, I’m going to be out in the real world again, and I will probably barely have time to do anything for myself. Yeah, grad school is crazy, busy, competitive, and leaves you with no energy, but it is still a controlled and nurturing environment. And I’m planning on taking advantage of that for the next year and two months. Then, back to real life!!! For now, I still have to send a few e-mails and then (hopefully) catch five hours of sleep. Good night!

Work, More Work, and a Little Bit of Play

2008-09-21T21:41:00.000-07:00

Papers, mid-terms, group meetings, school events. This is what week four looks like in the life of a grad student. Actually, this is what every week in grad school looks like, minus the mid-terms. Before I started school, people told me that grad school is a full-time job. Now, I would tell those people that grad school is actually like working two full-time jobs, with one exception: you can probably leave your work at the office with most jobs. In grad school you’re not able to do that!

And I’m not saying this just to scare you. It’s just the reality of the situation. It’s not undergrad, so you don’t have four years to complete your degree. Plus if you want to take advantage of all the opportunities that school offers then you need time to get involved. Pepperdine definitely offers a lot of opportunities. It’s up to you if you want to take advantage of them. From the various student clubs and business competitions, to student mixers and yoga, you get a chance to do everything. So relax, you’ll work really hard, but you also get to play. ☺

A Day in the Life

2008-09-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up feeling restless, so I decided to do a change of scenery, and study on the terrace at Pepperdine instead of the library or home. I figured the beautiful view was going to make it easier. ☺ Well, my plan worked for about 10 minutes. Not that I didn’t like the view – it is great, that’s why Pepperdine was voted the most beautiful campus in the country – it’s just that it gets too hot!!! So now I’m back in the library.

I survived the first three weeks of school. So far, it’s been an amazing experience. I met tons of smart, interesting people, and I even feel that I’ve learned a lot in class. It is tough for me going from a work schedule, where I could leave my work in the office, to a school schedule, where I have hundreds of pages to read, group meetings, and homework. It is a lot! Take Monday for example, I started my day at 8:00 a.m. and finished at 10 p.m. I had class from 8:00 – 12:00, studied at the library from 12:30 – 5:00. At 5:15 we had a meeting, I got home at 7:00, showered and quickly ate, and then at 8:00, I met with another group to do our accounting homework. When we finished at 10 p.m. my brain was screaming for a break. I went to bed and the next morning I was ready to do it all over again.

It’s really important to try to get some balance while you’re studying. I’m working hard on that! For now, my plan is to be on campus Monday - Friday until 5 p.m. (or later), whether I have classes or not, and then to take Saturday off. This – if it works – will allow me to get my schoolwork done and have a day off on the weekend to spend it with family and friends. I’m pretty sure that if I manage to do this, I’m not only going to survive b-school, but also enjoy it. ☺ For now, let’s see if I survive next week: mid-terms week! Whoo hoo!

Overdressed and Underprepared

2008-09-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

My husband and I went to see John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl last weekend. We have been in L.A. for two years, and we have never been to the Hollywood Bowl. So, I just assumed it was a high-class, fancy event and we dressed accordingly. We drove to Sherman Oaks and took the shuttle. On the bus, one of the ladies asked me if we brought food. I said ‘no’, but I found the question a little bit odd. It was not until we got there, that I realized what she was talking about.

People were wearing jeans, T-shirts, flip-flops, and carrying huge baskets of food. I was thinking “What? You cannot bring food into a movie theater, but you can do that at the Hollywood Bowl!” Well folks, that is the culture at the Bowl. People get there long before the show, they bring food, wine, snacks and have a picnic before the show. Or, you can buy your food right there. Or, if your wallet is giving, you can buy the seats with a table and have your own server.

Getting to the Bowl and watching the people before the show was a cultural experience in itself. Now, the show… well, the show was amazing. Indiana Jones, E.T., Star Wars…we heard and enjoyed his most famous soundtracks (except for Schindler’s List, which I personally think is his best work). When the orchestra started playing Star Wars, about 100 people pulled out their lightsabers to join Williams in conducting. Then, the special guest, Stanley Donen took us for a ride into the past and talked about Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and the technical and political challenges he faced at the time. Donen is a very gifted storyteller that proved he can still dance at his age. The entire experience was definitely a treat that made us appreciate the present a little bit more and somewhat envy the past. It also taught us a lesson: next time bring food and wear jeans!

MBA and Motherhood

2008-08-27T20:23:00.001-07:00

Although my blog is not necessarily directed at women, I am posting this link to an article I saw in Business Week today. It talks about female MBA graduates that decide to become stay-at-home moms after a few years into their career.

The article is interesting, but I think it could use a little bit more research. I do not think you need an MBA, a PhD, a JD, or MD degree to decide to stay home. I think women choose motherhood over career regardless of their education. I also do not think that it is easier for MBA moms to stay home because they spent less money on their education than a JD, or MD mom. Also, the article does not say how many MBA moms work part-time or have their own business at home.

At the end of the day, I believe that the problem is not that MBA moms want to stay at home. The problem is that businesses are not very flexible or family-friendly. If they were, I am sure more MBA moms would opt to keep working. Plus it would be a better business practice. A family-friendly, flexible environment would keep the employees - male and female - happy, and more productive.

The U.S. seems to be more reluctant to change in this respect. Many European countries allow one of the parents to take two or three years off, and the government pays them either a fixed salary or a percentage of their most recent salary. Even so, a lot of parents decide to keep their jobs and either hire a nanny or have a member of the family take care of the children. But at least the options are there.

I hope that by the time I decide to have children, I am going to be working for a company that will offer some options. Right now, I do not think I want to be a stay-at-home mom, but I still want to be there for my baby as much as possible. There are so many firsts in a baby's life, and I do not want to miss them. So flexibility is definitely something I would look for in a company. Anything is possible, you just have to be open to it.

Orientation Week

2008-08-24T21:18:00.000-07:00

I wrote and re-wrote this entry many, many times in my head. It has been a very eventful week, so there are a lot of things to talk about. I will take the chronological approach, so that you can get the most of this account.

Sunday, August 17th, was the first day of orientation. There were about 200 of us, nervous and overwhelmed to see so many new faces, but very excited to meet everybody. It helped a lot that a few days before, the campus organized an informal welcome reception giving us a head start in getting to know one another. Now, a bit less intimidated, we proceeded to take pictures, get our ID’s, take some more pictures, and talk some more.

Monday was the day that most of us headed to Calamigos Ranch for a retreat and for our first class in Organizational Behavior. It was a very interesting experience, but also very draining. We spent the next couple of days talking, networking, bonding, sharing a lot of emotional stories and space, and also some umm... brewing, sugary… water!? I swear there was some water in that!

Although very tiring, Calamigos gave us the opportunity to meet a looot of interesting people from all over the world. We definitely heard some amazing, eye-opening stories. I wish I could repeat them here, but for obvious reasons, I cannot. I just remember thinking: “Wow! Do these things really happen now in the 21st century?” It made me realize that we talk about globalization as an economic advantage, but we are more often than not clueless about what is really going on in the world.

Thursday was a full day of career workshops. I personally love that Pepperdine, and the Graziadio School in particular, puts so much effort into offering career resources. The sessions were very insightful and helpful, and I was pleased to see that some of the guests were actually MBA alumni. As Pepperdine graduates, we might not have the same career-launching platform as students attending big school names, but we do have the biggest alumni network in California. And sometimes, in business, and especially in LA ☺, it is not about what you know, it is who you know.

Hope of Deliverance

2008-08-16T11:02:00.000-07:00

I have to say I am really impressed with Pepperdine. I got my class and orientation schedules at least a month ago. I have been receiving lots of e-mails from staff and faculty about orientation, classes, career services, financial aid, etc. I have even been assigned a mentor and received e-mails from her. At this point, I think I know everything I need to know to start my program.

It seems though that not all schools do the same. A friend of mine - who was accepted into a graduate program at another private university in Los Angeles - was very concerned because she is starting school in a week and has still not received further information. Her program, she said, seemed so disorganized that she was not even sure if there was anybody else attending it. She was obviously exaggerating a bit, but I could relate to her story to a certain extent.

Last year, I applied to that school’s MBA program. I knew that the program - though a very good and competitive one - was not a good fit for me, but like everyone else, I thought I needed a back-up school. I got all my documents together and sent in my application. Surprise! To this day, I have not heard back from them one way or the other. To their defense, they did contact me once to ask for my original transcripts. When I called to follow up, I was told that they received everything, and that if there was anything missing they would call me. I have not heard from them since, nor did I call back again.

The point of this story is that I know my case and my friend’s are not unique. I have heard similar stories from other people as well. Some found out they were accepted three weeks before their program started, some had to call the school to find out that indeed they were accepted, but were never sent a letter. To me, that is just bad customer service. And it is really sad to see that a reputable university with great programs is sabotaging itself. I was told that this happens because of the very high number of applications. From a business standpoint, I do not see how that could be an acceptable explanation. If you, as an organization, promise something, you have to deliver. If you cannot, then let your customers know! I am happy to see that so far Pepperdine is not only great at marketing, but also at delivering on its word.

Orientation starts tomorrow! Brace yourself for my next entry! ☺

The End and the Beginning

2008-08-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

I am writing this entry at my desk in our beautiful new apartment. Yes, we finally moved. It only took 12 hours yesterday to move everything, but we are more or less settled in now.

I cannot believe though how quiet and spacious this neighborhood is. Just like any other person living in L.A., I have a love-hate relationship with the city. I love the diversity, but I do not like the self-absorbed and sometimes biased people. I love driving, but I hate the traffic. Here, people smile and seem genuinely interested in the conversation you are having. I was eating some zucchini fritti today and somebody came over and asked me if I ever tried that with ranch. She loved it and wanted me to try it as well. She would never go back to marinara, she added. I was very pleasantly surprised by both the lady and the zucchini-ranch combination. So far, I love this place.

Friday turned out to be a very emotional and surprising day. It was my last day at work, and although I knew people saw me as a fun but fair boss and co-worker, I did not expect them to actually be sorry to see me leave. They went all out, got me a cake, a laptop bag all decked out with everything I need for school, including an organizer with everybody’s contact information so that I “have to keep in touch”. Also – and this was the cherry on top – they gave me a photo album with everybody’s picture, pictures from different events we organized and went to, as well as pictures of some of our students. I was so touched! I admit, I even teared up.

It is strange how life works. The end to something means the beginning of something else, pain becomes joy, and the unknown can become very exciting. I am usually very nervous at the end of a journey, because I do not know what to expect. For the first time, I am not really sure what lies before me, but I cannot wait to find out. It is a good kind of anxiety. I am ready to find out where this journey takes me. And it all begins in a few days!

Stress code: yellow

2008-08-03T20:58:00.000-07:00

I guess the first day of school is fast approaching because I’m getting more and more e-mails from school and lists are piling up on my desk.

The other day I received my first message from one of my professors. Yes, it was in English, but I didn’t understand half the things he was talking about. What is “Bb”, what is “e-Reserves”, what book, and my questions continued. I read the message after a crazy day at work, I was hungry, and already anticipating packing, doing some more stats, and reading more pages from the book I was assigned for orientation. I didn’t need more work! Not yet! I’m sure I’ll have enough work once school starts.

I felt so overwhelmed. I stood up, fed my growling stomach, and then went back to my computer. Let there be light! And there was! I realized Bb referred to the Blackboard feature that I never used (until then), and the e-Reserves referred to a link where I could find the readings for the first day of class.

Well, food was not the key to deciphering the message, but taking a break definitely helped. I realized then how easy it is to feel overwhelmed now in the middle of all these changes (new school, new apartment, new neighborhood, new colleagues, new everything). Things should quiet down though for the next couple of weeks. It’s my last week at work, then I have a week off, and then it’s orientation week. I’m really excited to meet everybody, so I’m counting down the days!

Tick, tock, tick, tock…BZZZZ!

2008-07-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

I have two more weeks of work left, two more weeks until I move, three more until orientation, and four until my first day of class. Wow! Time just flies by, and I have so many things to do.

Number one: financial aid
I accepted my financial aid, but now I’m waiting for the bank to send me the papers. I guess I was very lucky, and never had to pay for my degrees. Until now! I looked at my financial aid paper, and there was a strange feeling of… uneasiness to say the least, when I saw the final number. A pretty low six-figure number! Gulp! Well, I’m not the first and I’m not the last to have student loans, so I decided to move on to the other things on my to-do list.

Number two on the list: the Harvard quant course
I have to finish the online quantitative course the school recommended. If there’s anything that makes me nervous about school is the quantitative aspect of the work. The course I’m taking is definitely interesting, and once you get the concepts, it can be quite entertaining and useful. It can also be frustrating at times if you’re like me and do not have a technical background, because certain concepts might then take longer to understand. I’ve never taken a stats class, so it is very interesting to me to see how you can manipulate information to get the result you want (not that you should!), or, how one single element can skew the end result. I’ll definitely think twice now before trusting a poll. ☺

Number three: move apartments
We found a really nice place closer to school. It cuts my commute down to maybe 15 minutes instead of an hour, one way. I just have to start packing. I’ve been procrastinating enough. In my defense though, I did go through my wardrobe and got rid of the unwanted (i.e. never worn) clothes. I figured two years of not wearing them translates into “what were you thinking buying this?!” OK, I got my own message, and got rid of them. Now, I just have to summon enough energy to start packing the rest of the stuff.

Number four: orientation
I received my orientation schedule yesterday. I guess it’s a preview of what b-school is really like. As part of the retreat or communication workshop, we have activities and meetings scheduled the entire day. Sometimes we start at 6:45. Yes, AM. I’ll have to reset my stubborn internal clock that insists that there’s no daylight before 7:30am. Oh, and I also have a book to read before orientation.

In all seriousness though, I am excited for school, and I can’t wait to meet everybody. It’s only 3 weeks away!

Have you been Twittered?

2008-07-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

As soon as one of my friends heard that I started a blog, she sent me an article on twitter.com. The article sounded pretty interesting, but it was more like a teaser. I didn’t understand very well what Twitter was and why I should even join. The article made it seem that Twitter is like Facebook for writers. You can keep track of one another’s work progress, network, and get inspiration. Sounds good, but I’m not a writer.

I decided to find out more about Twitter because I was intrigued by the service’s description on the main page: it’s meant to help people keep in touch by short answers to the question “What are you doing?” You do not have to join to find out more about the site. If you go to twitter.com, you can watch a video about what twitter is and how it works. That’s how I found out that you actually do not have to be a writer to want to join. You just have to be somebody who likes to keep in touch with family and friends, and know what they’re doing between phone calls and the time you’ll see them for coffee later. You can get and post updates – under 140 characters – from your computer or phone.

It all sounds good, but being the pragmatic person that I am, I’m wondering when much becomes too much? In other words, do we really need to know everything our friends are doing every second of the day? Also, in the age of instant gratification and information overload, is on-line networking replacing real life and direct interaction? However, one aspect of this service that I do like is the ability to support businesses. Tweeter blogs about various companies using the service for updates between and for employees, about disasters, or even for sending news from Mars. This makes Twitter unique, and will probably grow to be the pager of the 21st century.

I decided I did not need to Twitter now. It seems, though, like a very useful tool, developed by a growing and innovative team, so I’m looking forward to future developments.

Dream big, and make it happen

2008-07-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we went up to see Hearst Castle. The castle - or the ranch, as Mr. Hearst apparently called it - is immense. But that’s not why I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the dream, with the passion and determination he had to see it through. It took 28 years to build it. Who wouldn’t have given up in the meantime?

And then there’s the history and the collection of art. It seems crazy that Mr. Hearst spent so much time and money to find and incorporate those unique works of art into his house. But then again, we all bring a little something back from the places we visit. His favorite place just happened to be Europe. ☺ And he just happened to dream of recreating Europe in his corner of heaven. I’m a dreamer, so I respect and admire another dreamer’s work.

Visiting the castle last week was good timing, because I realized I needed to be reminded of why I’m doing what I’m doing. Sometimes you want something so much and put a lot of work into it, but then in the process you get bogged down and lose sight of the end result. It’s been a crazy busy time at work, and getting ready for school added more stress. Visiting the castle and hearing its story reminded me that I have a dream, and I’m taking the steps to make it happen.

Who? What? Huh?

2008-07-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

If you’re reading this, then you’re either considering business school, or you’ve already been accepted and you’re trying to figure out what to expect when school starts. Oh, or you just got to this page by mistake, which is also ok. I believe that everything happens for a reason, so even if you’re here by mistake, you can keep reading. Who knows? You might find something useful.

I’ve never kept a blog, but for a while I toyed with the idea of having one for my friends and family back home. However, being the old-fashioned gal that I am, I stuck with the loooong and personal e-mailed updates on my life. Now the story’s a bit different. This is not just for my friends and family, it’s also for you, the chance or intended reader. Plus, it’s not just about my life. It’s about my life before, during and a bit after business school. :)

A year ago, I was struggling with integers, VICs, intercepts and other wonders of the math world. Yes, I was preparing for the GMAT. And at the time, I thought there was nothing more important than acing the test. Fast forward a year: I have my acceptance letter and I’m getting ready for the first year. Now, I feel that there’s nothing more important than finding the right balance between school and the rest of my life. How I’m planning to do that? Hmm, stay tuned. I (‘d love to) think that I’m starting to figure it out! For now, I have to make sure I have everything I need to start my b-school adventure: a place closer to campus, a new computer (what better reason is there to get a new computer than going to school?), business cards, and the one thing that makes this all happen: student loans!