The First Week Back

I hit the ground in a dead sprint this past week. 

On Tuesday, we have Supply Chain Management with Professor Lieb.  This course is about logistics and performance metrics, and it’s interesting to me.  I view Supply Chain as a gigantic puzzle, where the pieces (and thus the solution!) are always changing and moving.  It’s fascinating to see how the slightest shift can have massive repercussions throughout an industry.

Surprisingly, one of my classmates recruits me to join the 360 Huntington Fund, Northeastern’s graduate student-run mutual fund.  I have a very limited understanding of stock valuations, but he assures me that they will teach me everything I need to know.  I think I can fit this into my schedule, as they only meet every other week.  I’m not on the Finance “major”, but I think it will be interesting to participate, and I’ve been looking to learn more about the stock market.

We only have one class on Tuesdays, so I spend the rest of the day working on cover letters and a few small assignments, including my work for Professor Garcia in the Marketing department.  I’m helping her proofread and edit a book she’s written for her New Product Development course.

The next day (Wednesday), I spend the morning in Finance and Operations classes.  Operations Management seems similar in course material to Supply Chain; they are both about the logistics behind manufacturing and distributing a product, and there’s a lot of overlap in the course readings.

For our Operations course, we have a project that involves observing production/manufacturing processes at a company.  My learning team decides to visit the Ben & Jerry’s factory up in Vermont!  We’re going to make a weekend out of it and hopefully get some skiing in.  And maybe I can finally learn how to ski properly, instead of always sliding down the hill on my butt.  Needless to say, I am a terrible skier. 

The rest of the evening, I quickly draft a cover letter for one of my residency applications to send into Judi for feedback (my career advisor!), and then cram for the Statistics quiz.  I’ve never taken a Statistics course before, and all the terms and equations make my head swirly.  Even though it’s only a small portion of our grade, I decide to make flashcards.  My reasoning: if I don’t get a full grasp on the terminology now, I’ll be lost this entire semester.  Also, it forces me to write out the definitions.

Thursday, we have Strategy followed by Statistics.  I don’t remember much about the Strategy class session, unfortunately, because I’m trying to remember the difference between interval and ratio data.  We do a short case discussion about Home Depot before breaking for the day.  I spend the “gap” time between the classes reviewing my flashcards.

Professor Tarasewich gives us 15 minutes to complete our Statistics quiz.  Twenty multiple-choice questions PLUS a “short-answer” problem in 15 minutes?  Nerve-wracking beyond belief, and I panic some more.  I work as quickly as possible through the multiple-choice in order to give myself enough time on the last problem.  I don’t know how I feel about the quiz; we should get the results next week. 

The rest of the day feels like a breeze; I have a meeting with the case competition club, and then I attend the Insider Insight with L.Knife.  They are offering a Marketing & Sales corporate residency starting in June, and I wanted to hear more about the company before submitting my application!  After the presentation, I head to the gym (one of my New Year’s resolutions…), and then I go home to finish work for class.  

Friday can’t come fast enough!  We have Career Management; we go over interviewing tips – mock interviews are coming up next week!  Everyone is required to complete a mock live interview and a mock phone interview before we can apply for other residencies.  The Career Management office asks professionals from different companies to come in and interview us.  It’s a good way to practice and get feedback from the volunteer interviewer!

The afternoon follows the usual pattern: gym, reading for class, editing for Professor Garcia.  It’s not glamorous, I know, but it needs to be done. 

I take a much-needed “day off” on Saturday.  Instead of spending the day nose-deep in all of my books and case studies, I watch sports!  First, I attend the Northeastern vs. Boston College hockey game at Fenway Park.  College hockey is kind of a big deal around here.  Kind of like football in the South! 

Watching the game at Fenway Park!

After the hockey game, we watch the Patriots take on the Broncos.  I’m not a fan of the Patriots, but I’m even less of a fan of the Broncos.  I apologize to any of you Tim Tebow fans, but I find him irritating and self-serving.  Somehow, I manage to put my serious distaste for Tom Brady aside for just one game.


*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.