Approaching the Finish Line!

I’m backtracking just slightly to Friday the 13^th (so ominous) to give you a full (and very lengthy) recap!  

           

Friday (4.13), we present our Interdisciplinary Projects! We’ve spent all semester with our teams developing a growth strategy for a company of our choice. My team chose Gap on my recommendation. The Strategy, Finance and Statistics (hence, interdisciplinary) professors requested that we choose a company that is falling behind in its specific industry, and Gap is a perfect example of this! I’m also really fond of fashion, so it proved to be something of a motivating tool towards the end of the project when the last thing I want to do is talk for another 5 hours about how to restructure the company.

           

Anyway, we finally present our whole strategy to a panel of judges (NEU alumni) on Friday, and it is incredibly nerve-wracking. This is the first time we’ve presented in front of our entire class, not just our section. The panel is impressed with how we arranged the Powerpoint – to put it briefly, I built an entire linked “matrix” of slides into our Questions slide that allowed us to link directly to certain topics and exhibits that the judges may ask questions about. Whew. The hard work paid off, though! My team placed third out of the entire class!

With my team before the results were announced!

After the morning of presentations, I met up with a friend from high school. I haven't seen him in almost ten years! There was a lot of catching up to do. He told me about his adventures working in Kosovo, while I tell him all about being in the MBA program. 

I spend Saturday (4.14) being incredibly lazy and reading some short chapters and cases for the last “real” week of classes and booking flights (more on this later!) before I’m invited out to dinner at Del Frisco’s. Oh my goodness, it is probably the best meal I’ve had in a while! It’s not every day I get to eat an entire lobster…! It is such a nice treat after a week of IDP-induced panic. Thank goodness we have the long weekend to spend recovering as well.

            

Sunday (4.15) is about as uneventful – minus the time I spend working on a poster for a friend who is running the Boston Marathon tomorrow! I’m really excited to watch her run. This is the first time I’ve actually gone to watch the marathon during my several years living in Boston. She’s running for a charity – Tedy’s Team. They raise funds for stroke prevention research. I spend most of my day watching TV and coloring in my poster. Stressful, huh?

            

On Monday (4.16), we head out to our vantage point for the marathon! We’re watching from the 23-mile mark, so my poster says “3 MILES LEFT!” in really big letters, along with my friend’s name. By the time we get there, the elite men and women are just finishing up. It’s the hottest it’s been in Boston all year, with the temperature inching above 90 degrees. I’m uncomfortably hot just watching the runners, so I can’t imagine how the marathoners felt! My friend finishes under five hours (which is a pretty big accomplishment for an amateur runner!), and afterwards, I happily skip off to Publick House with another friend to cool off.

My friend at the 23-mile mark. No biggie!

            

We have our last Supply Chain class on Tuesday (4.17). The class is mostly to review key topics. Professor Lieb also shares with us the format of the final exam next week – it’ll be two or three essay questions regarding Supply Chain management. A few of my classmates and I spend the rest of the day studying for the Operations final. We discuss all of the cases we’ve studied this semester, along with formulas and things from the textbook and another “optional” book we read. After about three hours of review, we call it a day.

            

Wednesday (4.18), we have our last Finance class in the morning. Most of the class is spent reviewing topics for (you got it) the final. I’m still a little bit confused about some of the key points for options, so I make a note to study them over the weekend. After Finance is the Operations final exam. It is definitely not what I expected, but it’s a relief to get it out of the way. I give myself the rest of the afternoon off.

The tulips at Northeastern!

The last Strategy and Statistics classes are on Thursday (4.19). We receive feedback from Professor Lamin regarding our presentations from last Friday. Overall, she’s pleased with our work, and congratulates the winning teams. Just to brag a little bit; 3 of the top 4 teams are in our section! Then we talk about disruptive innovations and the effect they have in different industries. This is followed by our last Statistics class of the semester. I’m happy to have the rest of the afternoon to write my Living Document 2 for our Career Skills course. I finish a good chunk of the 15-page paper, and then turn my attention to Finance. I set up a study session with a few of my classmates for Friday.

            

Friday morning (4.20) is our last Career Management meeting. A guest speaker presents how to have a successful corporate residency, and we’re done! Career Management has been very helpful, but I’ve never been a morning person. Shortly after the class, I attend a presentation about ALPFA. It’s a great way to network, and I sign up to be a member along with a handful of my classmates. Then it’s time to study for Finance! A group of us meet up in Hayden Hall to go over the first section of topics that will show up on the exam.

            

We decide to target company valuation, dividend policy and capital structure during our study session. It’s so helpful having the undergrad Finance TA (also one of our classmates!) on hand to answer questions! I come out of the review session feeling much better, and we decide to have additional sessions over the weekend. I spend the rest of the afternoon finishing up my Living Document. It isn’t due until next Friday, but I (somewhat uncharacteristically) choose to finish it ahead of time.

            

Saturday (4.21) is another study day. In the morning, I read over some of the chapters for Finance. And then in the afternoon, I meet up with my classmates and the Finance TA again for another review session, this time we talk about working capital management and risk management! Fascinating, I know. I type up some of the key points from our discussion – the Finance professor is allowing us to bring in a “cheat sheet” for the exam. I also print out my Living Document and put it in a nice binder. Small things…! 

Here We Go Again!

Oh me, oh my, where has the spring semester gone?

I sincerely apologize for my absence. I have been having some unfortunate issues with my health recently, and it’s definitely taken a toll. I was incredibly ill with flu-like symptoms right before the midterms and have been battling with stress-related physical ailments ever since. This semester has been challenging, to say the least. It’s tough enough as it is trying to take a Finance midterm when you’re feeling your best; it’s an entirely different story when you’re on the verge of passing out!  

Keeping my energy levels up and staying focused has been difficult, and I’m grateful to all of my team members and professors for being so understanding, and my friends and classmates for being so supportive! I’ve had to significantly scale back most, if not all, of my extra-curricular activities in order to focus on getting better.

After changing my diet significantly (more fruits and veggies, less junk food and absolutely no alcohol… seems so simple, I know), I’m starting to feel much better! My doctor is encouraging me to incorporate exercise slowly back into my routine. I’ll have to start with walking and light yoga, then move up from there.

Needless to say, I hope I’ll be able to get back to full-strength before finals and before I head off for my Great Asia Adventure in May! I’m very excited to be participating in the IFS trip to China – I qualified for a multi-entry visa into China, good for up to one year! This is because I’ve visited China before recently (in 2010). I will also be visiting extended family in Korea before the trip starts, so I’m looking forward to seeing them and eating lots of delicious (and healthy) Korean food!

To answer the all-important corporate residency question: I am very happy to tell you that I accepted a position with Hamilton Sundstrand a while ago! I’ll be moving down to Connecticut for six months starting in June. My roommates-to-be and I have already found a fantastic apartment! 

We’ll get back to the regular weekly updates soon! Thanks for reading! 

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.

Controlled Chaos!

We have a long weekend thanks to MLK, Jr. Day, and I spend most of Sunday sleeping.  Really. I sleep in until about 8:30 (usual wakeup time is around 6:30).  About four hours after that, I decide it’s time to take a nap.  The hours I’m actually conscious, I work on some of the reading assignments and send out a class-wide email about the Marketing Club’s speaker event!  We’ll be hosting Robert Cotter from Saatchi&Saatchi on January 27^th!

On Monday, the Museum of Fine Arts is holding an open house (free admission for everyone!) in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and I decide it’s time to do something a little more cultured.  The MFA opened a Degas exhibit a while ago, and I’d been meaning to stop by for quite some time.  I finally have the opportunity to go; the only downside is that half of Boston has the same idea as me.  It’s very crowded, and much to my dismay, there are screaming children everywhere.  I love kids, but I don’t like screaming kids! 

Tuesday, we’re back in class.  We only have one class on Tuesdays (Supply Chain Management); we discuss a very short L.L.Bean case.  I’ve always liked the company, and their corporate strategy is very different from a lot of other retailers.  They offer 24/7/365 phone assistance in multiple languages, free shipping (both ways!), and a lifetime guarantee on their products.  For those of you with retail experience, this is almost unheard of! 

The rest of the day, I’m doing homework and working on some chapter edits for Professor Garcia.  She’s asked me to construct a small table to illustrate the different coffee offerings from several major coffee vendors.

I wake up on Wednesday completely anxious.  I have a long day ahead of me, starting with classes.  Both Finance and Operations are over in a flash, and it’s time for me to go into my mock live interview.  The Career Center has been really dedicated to getting everyone ready for corporate residencies, and part of this is making sure we know how to handle interviews.  My interviewer was very helpful and gave me some great feedback; namely, I should be more outspoken about my international experience and my language skills. 

Once the interview is over, I attempt to relax a little bit. Until I realize I’ve somehow triple-booked myself in the afternoon!  I realize a little too late that I’m supposed to participate in a student rep meeting at the same time I’m supposed to attend an Insider insight from Ocean Spray, and apparently I also agreed to meet a friend for dinner.  I have to cancel on my friend and miss the student rep meeting.  Lesson learned: always check my calendar!

Thursday is another hectic day.  We have our two longest classes one right after the other.  After classes, the Women’s MBA Club has a quick meeting to discuss upcoming events.  We are putting together a panel event open to all the other schools in the Boston area!  The panel will feature several successful women in business – it should be very interesting! 

The next morning (Friday) in Career Management, we practice answering behavioral interview questions (the “tell me about an experience…” ones).  I feel a little better after the class session, and decide to set aside some time on the weekend to get in more practice.  

I also get an email from a student in the Executive MBA program – he’s looking for some help in Accounting.  I’m one of the tutors for Accounting this semester (yikes!).  We set up a time for next week.   

Saturday is spent recovering from the week.  I need to decompress after everything that happened this week, and so I try and spend as little time doing school-related stuff unless it’s absolutely necessary!    

I'm sorry this post is text-only! There haven't been many opportunities to take pictures lately.  But I will try and add more pictures to the next posts! 

*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 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. 

On Forgetfulness

I just realized my last post was in October! Oh goodness… I have no excuse for you, beyond the fact that I’ve been mind-numbingly busy.  I’ll try and highlight some of the more important things that have happened.

Between October and now, I celebrated my birthday with my good friend Vicky. Our birthdays are three days apart; this is our second year throwing a joint birthday bash. We decided we wanted to have a “theme” this year, so we wore masks and called it a masquerade! We got a lot of curious glances and strange looks from the other patrons at Punter’s Pub, but otherwise the night was a success.  I just wanted to say thanks to all of my wonderful classmates for coming by and making it extra special!

Some of the masked revelers at Punter's!

The last few weeks of the semester were a crude mix of case studies, sleep deprivation and caffeine headaches. I’m pretty sure I’ve consumed more coffee in the first three months of graduate school than I have in my entire life. Yes, this also includes my undergraduate career.

To break up the monotony and get some fresh air, a few of my comrades and I went over the river and out to Cambridge to watch a professor perform with his band, GEEZER (hey, they named it, not me!). Professor Zack is our MIR (Info. Resources) professor – holy cow, can he play the sax or what! We danced the night away before having to return to the seemingly unending mountain of case studies. 

Finally we were in the home stretch! Juggling the Marketing plan paper, various presentations and studying for the last Accounting quiz in the very last week of classes was pretty intense! Our team came up with a solar-powered lawn-mowing robot. Pretty darn cool, if you ask me!

And in the middle of all this craziness, I found out I’m going to China in May! Planning on where to travel before and after the trip seemed much more important than studying for MIR – sorry, Professor Zack! Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing (and Tokyo and Singapore and possibly Malaysia)… here I come! Thankfully, I managed to make it through that last week in one piece, and I also felt pretty confident about the MIR exam. 

After our last day of classes last Thursday, I dropped all of my books and papers into a big pile and celebrated the end of the semester with a surprise birthday party for one of my good friends, Elvira!  We had a fun time at Central Bottle, which is a great place to poke around for any of you wine and cheese connoisseurs out there. Afterwards, we joined the rest of our classmates for the end-of-semester/holiday party at Our House East!

Happy Birthday, Elvira! ^_^

Over the next few days, I proceeded to numb my brain with a mega-marathon of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ – this is such a funny show! I don’t know how I missed out on in the first few years it was out. Most unfortunately, I was pulled out of my sitcom-induced coma on Monday evening when our grades were published.  I kid, I kid… I’m actually very happy with how this semester has panned out!  I definitely worked hard this semester, and my grades reflect that effort.

Winter break sounds like it would be a lot of fun just relaxing and pigging out on the couch… but it’s not. Almost immediately after grades were released, our professors for the next semester emailed us. As it turns out, there’s pre-work for both Finance and Statistics.  And there’s going to be a quiz on the very first day of Stats. Yikes. The professor can tell you that it’s only 5% of the final grade until he turns blue in the face; it’s still Statistics and it’s still really scary for me. 

Now classes have started back up again – just had Finance and HR this morning, and I will attempt to make weekly updates this semester. On that note: I’ll be working as a research assistant for one of the Marketing professors this semester! I made the decision to leave my position at Victoria’s Secret after encountering increasing difficulties with regards to my commute and my work schedule. Needless to say, I’m excited to be working with the Marketing faculty and getting some more exposure to the field. More updates to come! Thanks for reading! 

*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.