Summary of First Year

Looking back now that I have completed 13/14 exams, I feel like it was a pretty great year. With 7 large paper's handed in, 20 classes completed and countless assignments, quizzes and readings, I have to say I did learn a fair bit.

I learned the material, and can remember most of it (but please don't ask me to write the exams again). I learned even more about people and the entire interview recruiting and industry side of things, and of course the real lesson: Time Management.

One thing I hear frequently is that MBA school isn't difficult material it is just a lot of work. That is true to a point. Everyone is going struggle with some component of it. Be it the game theory in strategy, mathematics in about half the courses or writing ability in the other half. But the MBA gives you an opportunity to play to your strengths and develop skills in the area of your weaknesses. I think one of the mistakes people make (myself included) is only focusing on your strengths, and doing the minimum to get by on the weaker spots.

Below are a few of might highlights and low lights for each quarter and other area of activity in the year. Long blog post today... trying to compensate for not having posted in a while, and expect I won't be able to post frequently over the summer.

Recruiting:
Obviously a very important component of the MBA experience regardless of what you want to do, it is important to develop the skills necessary to get the job you want, whether it is a traditional banking/ consulting goal, or how to pitch your entreprenurial idea to a Venture Capitalist, the school did a decent job of this. However, very much a we'll help you if you help yourself operation. Which is important. Classic learning from accounting and operations is utilization and maximizing results on limited resources. So it makes sense to invest time where it will pay off. I found the students that were successful were focused and committed to what they wanted. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. Some people didn't have a clue and got lucky and others not so much. So much to say here, in the end I had a positive experience but was also very fortunate to have decided early, had tons of support and developed friendships with people interested in the same industry so we helped each other out. January to April can be a really tough time at school, but keeping perspective goes a long way.


Graduate Business Council:
The GBC Class rep role was a big part of my first year experience. It was both amazing and frustrating. When people feel they have an outlet to complain to they will. It is the 'job' of the rep to filter and try to discern between class wide systematic issues and individual one offs. It can be wonderful, you have lots of opportunity to meet people outside your section and cohort but can also be a thankless job. All in all a great experience because I was working with 3 other amazing reps and we could lean on each other and vent.

Friendships:
By far one of the best things about my experience are the friendships I developed. Meeting people who I was already connected to via university or Vancouver. As well as just meeting people constantly. I would say that the effort to go out to big events early on is well worth developing the network and can improve the entire year. Also, definitely go to MBA games. It helped bring a group of us together to have a genuine opportunity to chill outside of Rotman.

Q1
Stats
Financial Accounting
Managing People in Organizations
Foundations of Integrative Thinking
Economics (micro)

Q1 is a shocker. It is where everyone starts off motivated and doesn't know what is going on at all. We are still figuring out printer points and professors and what we want to be when we grow up and how everything all works together. We also learn that if you are hungry, there is no shortage of Pizza. So don't load up before you get there. All the club kick offs and intro meetings will serve Pizza. Also a good intro to prioritizing work. It is impossible to do all the work for everything. So figure out what to focus on and what can be skimmed.... High-light of Q1 meeting new people. Low-point spending thanks giving writing papers instead of relaxing with the family.

Q2
Finance
Strategy
Managing customer value
Financial Accounting
Stats

In Q2 is where it heats up. Q2 can also make or break it for people interested in banking/ consulting. Banking people, because so much success is depending on networking and attending events and participating in competitions and Super Saturday and Industry Night. Consulting, and to a degree banking, it is also the grades. Top marks are required (for the most part) so getting through Q2 is an uphill climb. It is also crappy weather, and you don't get a break from Q1 exams before you have homework and readings due for first class of Q2. High light for me was winning the stock pitch competition. It was a roller coaster competition and fun, but also a lot of work. Low-light was being exhausted for 8 weeks straight, and worrying about summer jobs.

Q3
Strategy
Finance
Managing Customer Value
Leadership
Economics (macro)

The time spent in Q3 is like an alternate universe from Q1 and Q2. The course load is very back heavy. A couple of quizzes and assignments. But most of the marks came in exam week. This is by design as students have a hard time getting to class let alone study while the summer recruitment machine wakes up. The high light is hard to decide so i have a few: getting the job I wanted, MBA games, inter MBA socials, Winter Olympics... Its also hard to pick a low point, except maybe a little disinterest in school as I finally let myself relax a little.

Q4
Operations Management
Managerial Accounting
Ethics
Integrative thinking practicum
Economics (International)

Well I am almost through... but Q4 is a bit of a return to last semester after Q3, I will include spring break here, as it was in between the two. So we come back from a week off and it is very difficult to get energized for school. I started to plan for South America Study Tour, summer internship, next years club involvement. Not so much focusing on the classes at hand. I am paying for it now, as I review material that I didn't stay on top up through the quarter. But I am overall pleased with this quarter. Good way to round out the year. Always room for improvement. But still a net positive. High light - going to see my family for Easter in Vancouver. Was brilliant to be out west and see the friends and family. Low light.... Flying home after a big night out and not feeling so great in the air.

That's all she wrote.

Home stretch

There are several expressions for being in the 'home stretch.' Near the end of the tunnel, just shy of the finish line, almost there. The only thing ringing in my head is that I am almost at the end of the line, of the first step. Everything gets broken up in MBA land. First Quarter, First, Semester, First Year, Summer, Second Year, First Semester Second Year etc. And the reality is, as we pass each milestone, the baby steps seem less important. For instance, the first exam week is this marathon adventure whereby we live at school, study for all hours, the 6 weeks leading up to exams (i.e. from day 1). Then by the time fourth quarter roles around. Exam week is a comfortable recurrence. We are no longer as perplexed by exams, and have made up our minds about the level of work required for different classes for different levels of success. There are few exams and more assignments and a general sense of people already focusing on whats next.

First quarter finals - focus on first quarter finals
Second quarter finals - focus on second quarter finals, a little on recruiting and networking, and Christmas... but not entirely checked out.
Third quarter finals - focused on recruiting, hanging out with friends, spring break, the winter Olympics and - oh yeah - third quarter finals.
Fourth quarter finals - focused on anything but school. I am hoping it will this weekend, as I need to get a lot of ground covered to round out the year, but it really hasn't hit yet.

To elaborate a little on all the other non-school priority things that are occupying my time and attention, just for those who may consider a similar career/ study path as me:
Study tour preparation: Vaccines, visa's, currency exchange, class research, planning packing details, reading up on Brazil & Argentina

•Summer job preparation: buying another suit and some dress shirts, attending every financial modeling class the school offers, bugging my friends with IBanking experience about what to expect and getting excited

•Next year class schedule: Planning what classes I want to take, what profs I want to learn from, how many 'bid points' each will cost me, whether or not I care if I am in the same classes as my friends and wondering if I will still want to take mostly finance classes after a summer of finance, or if I'll switch to basket-weaving.

•Next years club involvement: weighing the options of and applying for club positions for next year and crossing my fingers that I get the position I want.

•Cleaning up my apartment: this is clearly a function of actually allowing myself the free time to spend time in my appartment and this want to clean it!

Maro Club : Racism in 2010 in downtown Toronto

I am happy to say that there was no blood, fighting or injury this evening. However me an several of my classmates went out for a night on the town to celebrate a few birthdays. With a program of 270 first years, every week or two there is a cumulative night out party to celebrate the passing of time and have a few drinks.

Tonight, we went to Maro Club. Our friend knew one of the staff members and could get us guest-listed so we trekked a little out of the way, further west than usual, to check out a different spot. I am usually happy to try new places, especially places that can accommodate large groups, as we often end up being 75 plus from the school that will end up at the same bar, on a 'small night' its 20. And that is a weekday.

After being told to get to the club by 11:30, we arrived a few minutes late to find man of our friends had been held in line for 20 minutes or longer. We spoke to the bouncer, manager, another couple of bouncers, and then the manager.

I understand how the night scene works in a big city, short skirts and pretty smiles dominate. Guys with cash get to skip to line, to finance the short skirts drinks for the evening. Friend of a friend jumps the line, one person with a $20 can walk up to the bouncer, pull a smooth "Richard" handshake and bypass.

It is a money driven world. It sucks, but that is capitalism, and in a capitalist economy, it makes sense. The income discrimination is a reality, and so long as businesses are running the night scene and not the Canadian Government (where everyone will be equally inconvenienced thank you very much) it won't change.

But my experience tonight was so shocking, that I wonder exactly how ignorant and stupid some people are. After getting the run around about whether or not we would get in. We had 30 friends already inside, and another 20 or 25 people outside being told 'we were capped out.' The folks inside were messaging us saying "its not busy at all - whats going on?"

The long conversation with the manager, eventually revealed the truth, when he said (paraphrasing) - we just don't want to let in that many Asians and Brown people.

We have a very diverse student body, and people come from all over the world, and all over North America with different Ethnic backgrounds, born and raised in cities like Vancouver, Toronto, New York and L.A., but apparently this Toronto club forgot it was in the epi-centre of one of the most culturally diverse cities there is, and decided to act in a way befitting a small child in 1930's not a grown adult running a business in the 21st Century.

Shame on you Maro, and I hope your operations are shut down, and that the individuals influencing these beliefs can recognize the tragedy of how these small decisions can become big societal beliefs.

How to get A's in MBA School

Coming to Rotman is an interesting experience, because the students that are here are all in the upper half of their undergrad classes, have interesting and valuable work experience and scored decently on the GMAT. In short, they are smart. And now you have a situation where the classes are all bell-curved and they can only give out so many A's...

There are a few key lessons I learned about how to be successful in classes - several of which I need to remember and reintroduce into my daily habits!

1. Go to class
2. Pay attention in class
3. Do the assigned homework problems
4. Get involved in every group assignment
5. Study for exams in groups - cover the courses from start to finish, other students can add an extra layer of perspective to material that you may have thought you understood but you actually didn't.

Additional thoughts - stay on top of classes throughout the quarter - it is amazing how fast 6 weeks (and then the whole of first year) goes by and you end up wondering how it all happened so fast!

That's all for now, I am going to go and take some of my own advice and catch up on readings!