The semester is half way over…and I’m happy to report I’ve received and accepted an offer at The Topps Company, where I pursued my internship and had a phenomenal summer. So now there’s time…time to take stock of where we are and where we are going.
It’s also time to pick classes for my final semester– which is always tricky as there are always plenty of options, many classes I want to take, and only 60 credits to fulfill (most classes are 3 credits, so an MBA turns out to be around 15 classes). After much deliberation, I have decided to take the following classes:
-Pricing Strategy
-Consumer Neuroscience
-Business of Sports Marketing
-Marketing Planning & Strategy
-Financial Statement Analysis
-Corporate Finance
I’ve chosen a bit of a combination between marketing and quant-focused classes, which is good for me as I’m really trying to develop the mix of skills I’ll be using at Topps. What’s nice about returning to classwork after your internship/job offer is that you have more clarity on what courses you should take to develop the specific skills you’ll need once you graduate.
Additionally, I’m taking corporate finance because it’s an unofficial Stern “must take” — everyone says the class taught by Professor Damodaran (world-renown valuation guru) is one of the course highlights of their MBA.
Other than that I’m using the bit of extra time I have now (that recruiting is done) to catch up on school work, see old friends, attend Stern’s weekly “Beer Blast” more frequently, and continue with my part-time jobs on campus–where I am a tour guide and T.A. for a non-Stern Marketing Management class. I’m trying to keep a good balance of business, work, and play.
It’s definitely enough to fill my days and even though there is more “time” with recruiting out of the way, there is somehow less time than ever before to do all the things I need and want to do. But I suppose that’s the way it goes with time, your life sort of fills it up, regardless of how much you have … so you may as well enjoy the ride of “being busy.” That’s another macro-lesson of Business school by the way, BUSY IS GOOD, because in life, busy is just the way it goes.
Anyway, that’s enough philosophizing for now. For one of my current classes–LEADERSHIP MODELS — we have to read a biography of any leader in ANY field or discipline. I’ve chosen the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, transcendental meditation founder. It’s amazing to be able to read such a “non-businessy” text for one of my classes, and apply the principles we are learning. Reading about Yogi’s path to leadership is the biggest item on my agenda today, well — that and watch a lot of football. You have to stay balanced, right?
M