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.