Week Four

A nice view of Boston's skyline!

Sunday rolls around a little too quickly for my liking!  I get out of bed a little earlier than I want to so I can get started on the mountain of work for this week.  After reading a few case studies (we have three case memos due this week...), I decide to bake scones instead of doing homework!  I make sun-shaped scones this time.

Once my baking adventures are done, I go back to the books.  My new team members and I meet at 2pm. I share some of my scones with them, and then we work through the entire case for a few hours.  I’m working with a different team for most of my classes this semester!  Luckily, we are all on the same page about how we think Ducati should rebuild their corporate strategy.  We divvy up sections to cover.  Then we take a quick break before tackling the Statistics problem set for this week.  

I go home and attempt to make kimbap – Korean “sushi” rolls!  They actually turn out pretty well, even though I’m completely inept at cooking Korean food.  Just ask my mom! 

I didn't roll one of them tightly enough!

I can’t believe it’s already Monday… I’m feeling grumpy and tired after staying up really late to read cases and work on the Finance problem set.  I need to go back and review some of the chapters we’ve already covered in Finance… if I can manage to find any free time.

Right after class, my partner and I meet to crank out the Supply Chain case write-up. We quickly put paper to pen.  Or more accurately, fingers to keyboard!  After a quick lunch, I tuck myself away in the Career Center to work on the third case memo due this week - for Operations.  I manage to finish a good chunk of the number-crunching portion before I need to take a short nap on a couch in the grad lounge before my back-to-back tutoring sessions.   

After three hours of trying to teach Accounting, I am utterly exhausted.  It’s time to go home and… continue working.  I need to complete the Operations memo by Wednesday and draft a cover letter for another residency application! 

Tuesday is not nearly as hectic.  I take time after class to put the finishing touches on my Operations memo and relax just a little.  I have another tutoring session at noon (whew…); thank goodness it’s only for an hour! 

And later in the afternoon, we have our first meeting with LevelUp over in Cambridge.  I’m really looking forward to working on this project; at the same time, I feel like curling up in bed and fast-forwarding to the weekend.

We’re at the midpoint! Wednesday starts with Finance and Operations.  Then my team meets to finalize our Ducati case memo.  I’m pretty happy with our proposed strategy – we put some finishing touches on the actual text, as well as an exhibit we’ve decided to include.  Somewhere between last semester and now, case memo writing has gotten, dare I say, enjoyable?  Stranger things have happened.

Several of my classmates and I decide that we deserve a little break from the usual “homework-cover letters-panic-cry-more homework” routine and head to our favorite spot for the evening!  Hooray!

Thursdays are always challenging, since we have our two longest classes one after the other.  Still, the Ducati case was a pretty fun one to work on, and the discussion regarding their corporate strategy is lively.  It’s definitely one of the more “attractive” cases we’ve worked on – it’s hard to deny that Ducati has a very luxe brand image, and their motorcycles are incredibly sleek.   

We have Career Management class on Friday.  This session is all about the Career Fair!  Judi kindly reminds us about how to prepare, and how to act at the Career Fair coming up on Tuesday.  It’s a little nerve-wracking, to be honest.  And by Friday afternoon, I know which companies I will be interviewing with!  I’m pretty excited about it. 

Later in the evening, a classmate invites us to a wine tasting at Central Bottle.  We have fun tasting a few selections, and then we decide to move onto Meadhall!  I’ve become really interested of craft beers in the last few months, and Meadhall has OVER 100 CRAFT BEERS ON TAP.  I discovered a new (to me) beer called Choklat – it is exactly like it sounds – it’s a chocolate-flavored beer!  

Look at all of those taps!

Saturday, I finally go and get a haircut.  I haven’t touched it since I came back from my teaching stint in Korea (in June of 2010), so a trim is long overdue.  Anyway, I found Diego Salon on Yelp and managed to get an appointment in the morning!  Now I am just a little bit polished looking.

After getting my hair done, I meet with my team for brunch!  We convene at Church – their mushroom omelet is delicious!  Then we tackle the Stats case write-up for this week.  It’s fairly simple – we need to run a test of normality on the data set, and then evaluate the conclusions that were made.  We get most of the work done, and promise to look over it again next week.  

The rest of the evening is spent finalizing my resume and references for the Career Fair.  Just a few days left! 

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

Week Three

We have officially entered the third week of the semester!  Sunday is grocery-shopping day, because I don’t seem to have any food in the fridge or pantry.  Well, except for a lone bottle of mustard.  Yikes.  Then I tackle the Finance homework.  The entire chapter is about time value of money.  After an hour of punching random buttons, I finally figure out how to use the financial calculator! 

Monday after class, I spend some time procrastinating working in the grad lounge.  Then Dena (from the Admissions center) stops by and asks if I’d like to join the Admitted Students luncheon!  I get to chat with some of the admitted students for almost two hours.  It’s really exciting to see the caliber of people the school is bringing in for the next year, and I’m excited to get to know them better!

Later in the day, I have my first class for the 360 Huntington Fund.  Two different stocks are presented – Dollar General and Verifone.  It’s interesting to see how the two presenters approached their analysis of the stocks.  I have to leave the class a little bit early in order to meet the student I’m tutoring in Accounting.  I finally go home around 8:30, making this the longest day of the semester thus far.

Tuesday ends up being a workday after class.  I have to get through the assignments for the rest of the week, because I won’t have time!  I manage to get through most of the work, including all of the handwritten problems for Statistics.  Like I’ve said, I’ve never taken Stats before, and it takes me a lot more time to work through problems and make sure I actually understand them! 

I start feeling a little sick on Wednesday. No surprises there, considering how much work I’ve taken on this semester.  I make it through classes okay, but then decide that I need to take some time to rest. Unfortunately, this means I have to cancel on some of my other plans for the day.  It’s important that you maintain a social life outside of school, but you also need to step back sometimes and take a moment for yourself!

So Thursday rolls around.  We get our first graded homework problem set back from the Statistics professor – eek!  Right after class, we have a quick meeting for our upcoming LevelUp project.  LevelUp is a phone app where you link your debit or credit card to your smartphone, and the app will automatically assign you a QR code.  Each time you use the app to pay your check (at select vendors in major cities) you can earn credit at these locations!  LevelUp is already being used by my favorite pizza place in the area – Penguin Pizza.  I’m very excited to be a team leader for this project – my team will be in charge of coming up with new ways to promote LevelUp! 

While the last thing I want to do after five hours of classes is deal with even more homework, I absolutely have to start working on the assignments for next week.  My first task is to complete some editing work for Professor Garcia.  Then I finish reading a chapter for Strategy before falling asleep on the couch.  It’s been a pretty long week!  I try to do more work after waking up, but I call it a day after I keep dozing off into my Finance textbook.

Friday, we have an employer panel during Career Management.  It’s interesting to hear from employers about what we should have prepared for interviews, especially as we gear up for the upcoming Career Fair on February 7^th!  I need to make sure to contact all of my references and keep them updated. 

After class, we have a short break, so I persuade some classmates to go to lunch at Boloco with me! I don’t like eating alone (who does?), and it’s always fun to sit down and chat outside of class or the grad lounge.  We have to eat fairly quickly and then head back to campus to get ready for the Saatchi&Saatchi presentation! 

Mr. Cotter works on the Toyota brand in the New York area, and it’s really great to hear him speak about some of the key changes in advertising and branding for the industry as a whole.  Like many of you may know, Toyota has been facing some major challenges over the past year, and Saatchi has taken action to maintain Toyota’s brand image. He’s very open and frank, and he encourages everyone to ask questions we might have about Saatchi and also his presentation!

I have a surprising email waiting for me after the presentation. I’ve been assigned two stocks to evaluate for the 360 Huntington Fund. I’m officially a junior analyst! Luckily, I’ll be working alongside a more experienced team member, so I won’t be too confused.

Then, I participate in another mock live interview at Judi’s recommendation.  It’s been a while since I’ve had to go through a professional interview, and practice makes perfect!  My interviewer gives me some great tips for my resume, and I left feeling much more confident about my interviewing skills.

Several of my classmates meet up to unwind after another crazy week, and we decide we want to get some dinner.  After trying to get into several over-crowded places, we settle on The Mission!

On Saturday, I have an Accounting tutoring session in the morning.  It’s another working day – we have three case write-ups due next week.  I’m working with a new team on two of the write-ups, so anything that can be done ahead of time without my teammates needs to be completed before our meeting on Sunday! This means reading all of the cases... yikes.  

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