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.