When September Ends

Time has clearly gotten away from me! The last few weeks went by in a flash. There were more cases, more deliverables and more readings than I even care to remember. Eventually they all start to blur together.

Anyway, instead of playing catch-up and attempting to write about everything that’s happened since the time of my last post (which was already a month late to begin with!), I’ll just start anew!

The sheer amount of work involved for classes has been increasing week to week! Sometimes it makes me anxious seeing the list of things I have to do each week grow longer and longer, but we are all pulling through somehow.  It’s just a matter of finding the time and actually getting work done!

We’ve been having our executive luncheons for a few weeks now. So far I’ve attended two! The first was with Mr. Robert Wilson of W.R. Grace. He spoke with us in depth about his career, and then we discussed some of the Marketing cases we had already worked on. It was interesting to get the “outside perspective” on some of these cases. My second luncheon was with Tara Aliotta. She is a partner of the insurance practice at PwC, and the lunch was a total blast! 

Along with all of the usual school commitments, I am the secretary for the Marketing Club, and I’m also a student representative for Section 36 (along with my friend Habib!). We had our first meeting with Dan Volchok this week, and spent most of the hour airing our grievances and stressing out about classes. Typical graduate school stuff, you know?  There’s not much you can do, but it was nice to have Dan listen to us for over an hour. And feed us pizza! You can never turn down free food as a totally-broke grad student. 

This doesn’t mean the social events have slowed down in any way!  A few weeks ago, I went to my first hockey game ever!  I was very fortunate to be invited to watch the Bruins opening game – even as a first-time observer, the championship banner ceremony was thrilling to see!

The 2011 Championship banner!

My friend from college was in town unexpectedly the weekend before that, so I was thrilled to meet with him for dinner! I haven’t seen him since graduating college (in 2007). It was so nice to catch up and talk about all the silly things from way back when.

With my college buddies!

Our class has bonded very quickly, and weekends are usually spent celebrating a classmate’s birthday or commiserating over all the homework.  Some of us went to play paintball after classes.  And it was Keri’s birthday this past Saturday! 

 

With the birthday girl!

After our paintball adventure!

This coming week will be a true test of my endurance – I have my regular class schedule, and then on top of that: an Accounting quiz, two executive luncheons, two networking meetings, a Marketing presentation (for which I’m a presenter), a MIR case study, work at Victoria’s Secret and a HR case study. Sometime between all of that, I hope to find time to go to the gym. And possibly sleep.

To make matters even more chaotic, we are having a holiday readiness meeting this coming Saturday at Victoria’s Secret! Yikes! It’s only the middle of October. Why are we doing this already…?


*The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Northeastern University, its faculty, staff or affiliates and are solely the opinion of Esther Bliedung.

The Second Week (A Month Late...)!

Monday starts out like usual. Keeping up with all of the reading and case studies has probably been the most challenging part of the program.

I have dinner with a friend of mine who is currently studying jazz piano at Berklee College of Music. I haven’t seen her since June, so I’m really excited to meet up with her and see how she is doing with school! We meet at The Cheesecake Factory in the Prudential Center and spend about two hours catching up on everything that happened over the summer.

I end up at home around 8. After finishing some more work, I top off the evening watching the ‘Castle’ season premiere with my roommate. We’re both huge Nathan Fillion fans!

Tuesday we only have Accounting, but it’s also our sign-up day for executive luncheons. These are special events put together by the Career Center that allows up to 6 students to sit with an executive from a major company over lunch. It’s a great networking opportunity. As expected, it’s mad chaos at exactly 2pm, as everyone tries to get the top picks (Hasbro is chief among them). I manage to get three of my top five choices, and I pick two more that sound interesting. I haven’t settled on an academic track just yet, so I want to try out all different things before making my decision.

I manage to successfully register for my luncheons, but then I have to battle with Boston traffic to get to work. I end up being over an hour late, but the managers have been very understanding about my demanding course schedule. They’ve let me change my schedule almost weekly, and I really appreciate it!

On Wednesday, I have my first meeting with my career advisor! I’m excited that Judi will be my advisor during my time at Northeastern. We chat for almost an hour about my personal background, career plans and (dun dun dun!) my resume. She gives me some very helpful tips to strengthen my resume.

I meet another friend (she’s a NEU Law School alum) for dinner and drinks at a local sushi place.   

Thursday is a bit of a blur. We have our regular classes, along with a MBA Skills Class in the afternoon, so we’re not done until 4:15. I have to leave right away to get to work by 6. I manage to make it in on time for once this week!

Oh, I almost forgot. Thursday is my friend Habib’s birthday! Happy Birthday, Habib! I hope you enjoyed the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream!

And finally, Friday comes around! We have our Career Management breakfast sponsored by W.R.Grace. It’s all about dining etiquette, which I find useful. I have a very bad habit of putting my elbows on the table, as it turns out.

I’m out the door and off to work for a few hours before the first (of hopefully many) MBA Potluck Dinners hosted at my apartment! I ask my classmates to cook (or bring) something to share. People start trickling in at 7, and by the time 9pm rolls around, there are more than 20 of us in the community room of my apartment complex! The party eventually peters out around midnight. Whew!

Most of Saturday is spent sleeping in, and then going to work for a good part of the afternoon and evening. It’s not super-productive, but sometimes you just need a slow day to take a moment to breathe.

I also take some time to complete an assignment for our Human Resources class. We have to read a case and submit a post on our Blackboard discussion board. I want to be the first person to comment to avoid repeating things that everyone else has said. Strategic move, perhaps, but it also motivates me to get the assignment done! 

On Sunday, I have a work meeting in the morning (it turns out they want me to take a leadership position during the holidays...). I rush in and out in an hour, because I have plans to go SKYDIVING!  My fellow thrill-seekers and myself drive down to Cape Cod to jump out of a plane!

All suited up and ready to go!

Getting ready to jump...!

Pure adrenaline rush!

I make it to my soccer game later that night. Even though I’m exhausted, I wind up playing the entire game, because we don’t have any subs for the women! It’s fine, though – we win 5-0, and I come back home feeling very happy about the weekend.  

The First Week

Monday (the 12^th) was our first actual day of school. Section 36 had classes with Professor Goettle (Economics) and Professor Clark (Marketing). This semester we’ll be competing against each other in Economics using the Business Strategy Game. Each team will represent separate companies in the shoe industry! I don’t know about you, but I love shoes (and almost anything related to fashion). Fingers tightly crossed that this factor will make me more interested in the game for the whole semester, beyond the letter grade at the end.

The first Marketing class involved going over a lot of administrative things, including taking a survey about Orientation. Once we got into the actual “lecture” portion of the class, it was a lot more interesting! Professor Clark is a very dynamic teacher; he even ran into a wall in order to demonstrate a point. I like this class a lot already, even if it is mostly due to the fact that, y’know, my professor purposely runs into walls. 

A group of folks from both sections went to get our coursepacks for Accounting and then headed over to the library to get started on all of our work. We spent about four hours working through the Accounting and then other assignments. Classes ended at 12:30, but I didn’t get home until after 6.

Section 36 has the luxury of sleeping in on Tuesdays! This is exciting, considering my wake-up time on most days this past week and a half has been around 5AM. It also gives us extra time to review for Accounting classes on Tuesday... if we're productive. I had my first class this morning, and I already know I’m in trouble. I didn’t do poorly on the initial assessment, but now comes the part where I have to learn how to use that information! I’ve reached out to Maude so I can get connected with an Accounting tutor as quickly as possible.

Tuesday features another multi-hour session at the library attempting to get through the second part of the Accounting homework. After two hours, I can’t get my balance sheet to balance properly, and I decide to work on other assignments in order to clear my head.  Later on in the evening, a classmate from the other section helps me work through the problem and get a grasp on the concepts involved. Ah, the powers of online chatting. 

Wednesday and Thursday are more of the same – class, case studies, and work. All I can think of is that I’m so ready for the weekend to be here!

On Friday, we have our first formal meeting with the Career Management team. Our class featured a guest speaker – Suzanne Goldstein. She gave us a very interesting presentation about figuring out our passions and interests (these are different, by the way). Suzanne has actually written a book about the whole subject – feel free to check it out if you’re interested. 

All the pretty ladies! :)

Friday night, a good part of the class goes out to Fanueil Hall to celebrate a classmate’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Tanushree!).  It is nice to unwind and dance the week’s stress away. It's also kind of funny to see everyone outside of a classroom setting. There’s only so much you really talk about when you are at school, but once you get everyone away from the textbooks and papers, their true personalities shine.

Saturday and Sunday, I work a few hours at Victoria’s Secret each day, and also work on some class assignments. The oh-so-glamorous life of a graduate student… I know. It may not sound so appealing at times, but the work needs to get done! 

And so we concluded our first week. It’s going to be an interesting semester, for sure. 

O-WEEK: Part Two!

Day Three:

I’ve never encountered the case-study method before. Quite frankly, it scares me. Professor Clark (the Marketing professor) guides us through a quick crash course. This allows me to realize one huge, terrible error I’ve made: I failed to look at the figures. This is definitely an area I need to improve right away, since we leave the class with yet ANOTHER case study. And this time, we (as Learning Teams) will have to present our recommendations to a faculty panel.

And then we have another Learning Team session! There’s a short lecture on team development, and then we’re given almost an hour to continue developing our team charters and type up a rough outline. The extra 15 minutes I spent typing up our outline the night before frees up the rest of the hour for all of us to get a major head start on our case study. Our team decides to book a room in the library for later in the day to hammer out the crux of our presentation.

My teammate strikes a pose in the International Village!

I’m not sure how I make it through the rest of the schedule. I really, truly try to be attentive during the MBA Career Center Perspectives talk. It is definitely good to hear from past MBA students about their experiences, but I am tired and hungry, and my thoughts are preoccupied by the case study.

Finally, it’s time for our planning session. We talk a lot before we realize that all of the other team members have similar solutions for this particular case. After three hours, we’re all burned out and decide to call it a night after divvying up the rest of the Powerpoint slide duties.

Day Four:

The day of judgment… dun dun dun! Everyone shows up in suits (and ties for men), and we make a pretty dapper-looking group. We’re given another three hours to work on our case study presentations. It’s utter chaos.

Finally, at almost 3:30, the whole ordeal is over.  Presentations on this case study are done. Finito. Our group feels pretty good about what we accomplished and our presentation, and at this point, we don’t care if we win or not. Everyone runs out of the room and makes a mad dash outside. It’s the first day all week that it hasn’t been raining!

At 4, we have our class photo taken. Then a good chunk of our class decides it’s time to really unwind, so we troop on over to Conor Larkin’s. I’m sure any Northeastern alum can tell you about this place – it’s the pub of choice for NEU students, and when we walk in at 4:10, it’s already pretty full. That doesn’t deter us from taking over half the bar. We’re a pretty intimidating bunch in our suits, after all.  

This is all followed by a happy hour and dinner at the Alumni House. The winners of the case study competition are also announced (we don't win, but it's okay!). Northeastern has been feeding us great food all week, and the dinner is no exception. I duck out a little early to go home because I’m completely wiped.

Day Five:

Saturday just consists of the club fair lunch! I hadn’t really thought about which clubs I wanted to join, so I meander through the two rows of tables and just write my name down on the list for anything that sounds interesting. I also get to chat with Katrina (I call her Kristina by accident – sorry!), the “upperclassman” who is the author of the first NEU MBA blog! She is so very helpful in alleviating my fears about business school (I don’t have any business experience! I don’t know what I’m doing here!), by giving me some very sage advice along these lines:

           

             “Don’t you think Northeastern knows better than you do whether

              or not you can handle the work? They selected you for a reason.”

This gives me an immediate sense of relief. It seems so basic, but it’s true! Northeastern has looked at all of my grades, test scores, essays, recommendations and my interview! They know that I’m capable. Of course, that doesn’t mean I can slack off. But there’s a reason I’m here, and I’m sure this bit of advice will help me along the two-year journey!

After the club fair, I go to the bookstore to pick up the Marketing course-pack and the obligatory Northeastern sweatshirt. My goal is to be at least 24 hours ahead on each reading deadline so I’m not scrambling each week. This is crucial for me, as I have a lot of other responsibilities outside of school. I need to maintain a rigorous schedule.

Sunday:

I stepped down from my full-time position at Victoria's Secret to start school, but I still work some nights during the week as a part-time associate. The extra pocket money is nice... and so is the chance to get away from all the school stuff for a short while. 

After my short shift at work, I'm supposed to play in a soccer game at 9PM, and I'm all ready to go until I realize that I haven't touched the Accounting work due for class. I scramble for a few hours before I admit defeat and call out of the game, unfortunately. I'll have to keep myself better organized to balance all the school work with the fun stuff! 

Classes officially start up tomorrow, and I’m already thinking about what to wear this week. Haha! It's always better to plan ahead, I figure! 


*Please note: the views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Northeastern University, its staff, faculty or affiliates and are solely the opinion of Esther Bliedung. 

O-WEEK: Part One!

ORIENTATION IS OVER! I feel like I can breathe a little easier now. The last four days have been intense. I think I worked more in the last few days than I have in the last few years. I felt so completely exhausted at the end of each day, but I am very appreciative of the learning experience.

For individuals like me, who have been out of a rigorous academic system for several years (Class of '07), it was a good acclimatization course back into that whole crazy, chaotic (and ultimately rewarding) world.  It gave me a sense that Northeastern really cared about my success as an individual by giving me that time to catch up and “re-learn”.

So, here’s the plan! I’m going to divide the Orientation week summary into two separate posts to give you some more detail about each day. There are so many things about each day I could go on and on about, but I’ll try to keep things as succinct as possible!

Day One:

I walk into Dodge Hall at 8AM, and after breakfast, we dive right into introductions from faculty and staff, followed by a quick overview of our program. We take the next hour and a half getting to know each other through a series of short ice-breakers. There are 61 of us this year, and the men outnumber the women by a substantial amount. A lunch break and the profile photo sessions are right after that. Then we split the group and break into our separate sections (yeah, section 36!).

Our section meets with Professor Bannister for a Skill Development session. Prof. Bannister gives us a brief overview of the "Living Document": the 40-page paper we'll be working on all year as we learn to develop/improve our management skills. This session is then followed by the dreaded Accounting assessment. I don't really remember what happens for the next half an hour, but I leave Dodge 150 in one piece. I do have to spend another half an hour recuperating on the couches in the main lobby.

And then to finally, finally wrap up the day, we're taken out on the Boston Duck Tour! This is my first time taking the tour, even though I’ve lived in the Boston area since 2008. I come home and we have a small toast to my first day of graduate school. The celebration is short-lived, though, as I remember I have to work on my first-ever case study for our group session on Thursday.

On the Duck Boat with Mr. Joker!

Massachusetts State House.

Day Two:

Wednesday is no less challenging than the first day – we start out with our section’s Learning Team session. I think everybody is anxious to find out how the section has been divvied up. We break into our Learning Teams and get a chance to know each other a little bit better.  I’m glad our group is so diverse in personality, personal & cultural background and academic experience. It’s a good mix, I think.

Next we’re in a Student Services info session, and there is a LOT of information. Thankfully, we have Maude as our ultimate guide and resource and guardian angel. I  have pestered her with roughly 12390050239548091 emails containing every possible question one could have about the program. She is so so so so helpful – be nice to her!

Then we’re off to the Warren Center in Ashland for our team development session. My Learning Team decides to forge ahead with some of the work that isn’t due until next week – mainly, developing our team charter. We cover a lot of ground on the 45-minute bus trip, and we feel pretty comfortable with our outline.

The rest of the day is spent doing a lot of interesting problem-solving, team-building games, mostly in separate sections. This puts a (raging) fire in our collective bellies – our motto seems to be “let’s beat the other team’s score!”. Section 36, aka “THE GREEN TEAM” dominates, especially in the Don’t Break the Ice activity and the Magnifying Glass activity. And that’s the God-honest truth.     

I fall asleep on the bus ride back to Northeastern – it’s been a long day on very little sleep (thank goodness for coffee). I’m a little bit more awake when I get home, which gives me some more time to fiddle with the case study. I also decide to type up and streamline the outline from our Learning Team charter to get it out of the way. It’s a late night, but I go to bed feeling a little better prepared.  

The Starting Point!

Let’s start from the very beginning! My name is Esther Bliedung, and I’m very excited to be a part of Northeastern University’s Full-Time MBA Class of 2013. Well, I graduated college in 2007 (from Furman University), and I spent four years deciding whether or not I should even apply for a graduate program. Furman has a rigorous academic program – it was even voted the 2nd most rigorous undergraduate program in the entire U.S. – so the prospect of going on to graduate school immediately after that was just too much to handle.

So instead I chose to enter the working world. I spent a year here, a year there… not quite sure what I was looking for in a job or career. Finally, after all that time, it dawned on me that I needed something more than just a Bachelor’s degree in a Humanities-based subject to really get things going in my career.

As I started my search for the perfect graduate program, I became increasingly concerned about my “spotty” work history. I had moved cities and changed jobs a few times, and there was (and still is) a lack of cohesiveness in my professional resume. I wanted a school that could give me the experience I needed while I was still in school. My only other requirement was that it had to be a graduate program located in Boston. My husband is currently employed in the city, and it would have been pointless to look at programs located anywhere else.

Of course, I had heard of Northeastern’s corporate residency program before – my husband was a graduate of the MBA/MS in Accounting program in 2009. Another friend of mine is a member of the Full-Time MBA Class of 2011. Both sources gave me glowing reports about how helpful it was to have REAL work experience in their desired fields, which provided them with a solid chance at gaining full-time employment upon graduation. They are both currently employed with the companies at which they spent their corporate residency!

I’m very hopeful and excited about the next step in my academic and professional career. I will update this blog periodically to share stories with you about the Northeastern MBA program. I hope that my posts will be able to provide you with more information about the program and the school! If you have any questions, please leave a comment, and I will respond as soon as possible! Thanks,
and enjoy reading!


P.S. I initially forgot to include the link/source for my alma mater's latest bragging rights - my apologies!



*Please note: The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Northeastern University, its staff, faculty or affiliates and are solely the opinion of Esther Bliedung.