This blog documents my MBA student life at Ryerson University, Canada (2010-2012). It was an attempt to demystify the MBA experience, help understand MBA topics & encourage MBA wannabes. I have a Pre-MBA blog about B-School application process (and a few other blogs) as well. I used to blog actively in the past and interact with readers regularly, but life got very busy after my MBA. Good luck. Take care. Cheers! Gerry.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
MBA program in Business Schools - many lions (good students) in the jungle (class) ?!
They say that there is only 1 king in the jungle. But when it comes to the MBA program, there are many lions in the jungle. Everyone in the MBA is smart. That is the best part. Your learning comes not only from the professor, but also from your colleagues. This is an excellent prospect. Its fascinating to have many brilliant minds in the same room and have a healthy discussion. Even though the student strength of TRSM is small, yet the quality of discussion is pretty good. Ofcourse, I can not compare it with that of other business schools, because I do not have information or experience of other schools.
Having so many brilliant minds in class can be both encouraging and demoralizing sometimes. Encouraging, because they set the bar pretty high and you are inspired to do well. Demoralising because you see that these people are always on top of things - they have all their work done and everything, their submissions are on time. And they even have time for fun and play! That ability is admirable indeed.
Ofcourse, you can feel some consolation by thinking that you are not alone and if you are not the best in the class, you are not the worst either, but it is good to have competition. And it is best to take the whole experience positively. And learn from colleagues too. Make the most of what you got!
Having so many brilliant minds in class can be both encouraging and demoralizing sometimes. Encouraging, because they set the bar pretty high and you are inspired to do well. Demoralising because you see that these people are always on top of things - they have all their work done and everything, their submissions are on time. And they even have time for fun and play! That ability is admirable indeed.
Ofcourse, you can feel some consolation by thinking that you are not alone and if you are not the best in the class, you are not the worst either, but it is good to have competition. And it is best to take the whole experience positively. And learn from colleagues too. Make the most of what you got!
I have a strategy presentation on Monday
Presenting with a colleague for Strategy class. The topics to cover are:-
- Toyota Production System
- Kaizen
- Lean Manufacturing
- Six Sigma
Does a STUDENT make a school or a SCHOOL make a student?
This is the question that I have been asking myself for 2 years now. I mean, which of the fiollowing below is true?
- Does a good business school get its reputation by selecting good students and use their intelligence and abilities to their advantage (and in the process become "elitist" and snobby!) OR
- Can a good business school even take average students and groom them to be successful? And the magic is not with the student, but with the school
There is no clear answer to this question. I guess it is a bit of both. Good business schools select students who will add value to their program. And at the same time, benefits from the students. This may seem unfair to other students who want to get in and benefit, but that is how the system works.
Getting into the MBA frame of mind
Getting into the MBA frame of mind took me 20 days.
In the beginning, it was overwhelming. I just turned into a robot, a zombie. Did things without thinking, without feelings. Slowly, it started sinking in... The last straw was when the assignments began. That hit the message home!
This is the very reason why I belive that students should ideally start preparation waaaay ahead of time. They can do this by doing the following:-
In the beginning, it was overwhelming. I just turned into a robot, a zombie. Did things without thinking, without feelings. Slowly, it started sinking in... The last straw was when the assignments began. That hit the message home!
This is the very reason why I belive that students should ideally start preparation waaaay ahead of time. They can do this by doing the following:-
- Become an expert in MS Office suite (Powerpoint, Excel, Word)
- Know APA format
- Study Accounting basics
- Buy a book from the market on the lines of "Crash course MBA" or MBA made easy or MBA for dummies or something like that - any good book written by an MBA giving you a summary of all MBA subjects.
- Practice presentation skills
- have business attire ready
- Have your cash and financial matters sorted out
Summary of Terms 1, 2 & 3 in the MBA program.
Basically, the Ryerson MBA program is like this:-
- Term 1 - General Core subjects + foundation subjects if needed
- Term 2 - Specific subjects related to the specialization you choose + foundation subjects if needed
- Term 3 - Major Research Paper / Thesis / Internship / International exchange / Language or cultural training
If you start in May, you can cover the foundation subjects prior to starting the Term 1 in September. You get a head start, that is an advantage.
Contact me, if you have questions.
If anyone has any question or wants any feedback from me, please feel free to contact me at gerrysom@yahoo.com . I shall try to answer your questions during my free time. I do not claim to be an expert, but I shall do my best to give you useful info.
What makes an ideal MBA student?
I am trying to blog on this topic to help me get the answer to this question myself. I guess the following are valid points:-
- Complete weekly individual assignments
- Complete group assignments
- Read before each class and be prepared
- Study during class and after class too
- Read newspapers - local - especially business section, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal,
- Read magazines - like Time, Economist etc
- Read journals - Harvard Business Review etc
- Know perfectly - MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint
- Know APA format well
- Have great writing skills
- Have great presentation skills
- Have great team skills (extremely important)
- Have good English - spoken, writen, comprehension
- Pay attention in class
- Participate in class discussions
- Have proper business clothing & shoes
- Have proper business attitude
- Maintain a proper calendar and stay on top of deadlines
- Know how to distribute workload & communicate with classmates / teammates
- Communicate with Professors on a regular basis
- Get proper career guidance from time to time from the Career Department
- Make contacts - as many as you can.
- Make friends for life
- Work on your resume constantly - tweak it now and then
- Work on prospective employers - keep scanning the horizon for opportunities
- Attend job fairs
- Attend workshops
- Attend seminars
- Attend parties - if any
- Attend MBA Association events - if any
- Learn golf
- Learn socializing skills
- Learn how to manage stress
more to come later ... can not dedicate too much to the blog .. will be back soon :)
(P.S: All this, ofcourse, is apart from your normal routine everyday tasks like:
- Banking
- Worrying about money inflow / outflow
- Social life outside MBA
- Family life
- Part time job if you are doing that
- cooking, cleaning, washing, shopping etc - everyday chores
I can assure you, that the Full Time MBA is very demanding indeed!)
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