September 11, 2009
The MBA Experience
My Typical Week in Google Calendar
MBA life is busy, there’s no need to sugarcoat that fact. I think the school’s intention is to see if it can fill up your Outlook/Google calendar so much you can barely see any white space in between events/meetings/classes. I now have to colour-code my events so I can tell them apart, otherwise my calendar just looks like one big event when you look at it from far away.
When I see my classmates, I think our end goals are all the same: Input = your life for 17 months, Output = good job with a hopefully higher salary in the field that you are aiming for. But the activities that we choose to fill our student lives with are very different, I think it breaks down to the following core line items:
- Study, homework, projects, case studies –> so you can graduate
- Meeting people, network, share experiences –> broader perspectives, future contacts
- Getting involved with school clubs, student council, volunteer –> altruism, hate to say it but it also makes the resume look good
- Things for your health (eat, exercise, clean) –> hopefully to survive, mentally and physically, to get past this year and a half
- Party, drink, more parties and planning weekend trips to beach islands –> hookup (if you’re single), but alcohol is just a good way to de-stress
The reality which I currently face at this moment are: 2 midterms, 3 case studies, 3 networking events, 2 workshops/training sessions, and a badminton tournament – all in the next 5 days. Mind you, a bunch of my activities are self-inflicted. Having just organized a badminton tournament, I’ve also started to take guitar lessons up on campus, and I’m starting to volunteer for Junior Achievement of Singapore. I just went for training this evening and will be teaching the JA Titan program during October.
It feels like 24 hours really isn’t enough for one day, but I’m having a great time trying to balance all of these activities. Reading break is coming up soon and hopefully I can catch my breath at that time.
August 20, 2009
Textbook: The (x+1) Edition
Anyone who has ever taken a post-secondary course will understand what I’m talking about. At the beginning of the semester, you head to your first class and the professor will tell you the required textbook for the class. Being the frugal and money-saver you are, your first attempt will be to buy a used textbook. So you ask friends that took the course last semester, or start heading for the used bookstores. Of course 9 times out of 10, you find out this year they have come out with a brand spanking-new edition.
You then proceed to ask the prof if you can use the older edition, and again, 9 times out of 10 their response will be “Well I’m teaching off the latest edition” or the deal-breaker “The tests and final exams will be based on the latest edition”. Most students will shut-up then proceed to the university bookstore to buy the latest and greatest copy. I have, however, seen some diehard students sneak an older version into the bookstore and do a page-by-page comparison with the new edition.
The problem that I see, stems from two sides:
1. Textbook Author and Publisher: Most of the time there is nothing valuable being added to the book. Some words are changed, a picture or two added here and there. A new edition is created and they can enjoy a new round of royalties out of the sales.
2. Profs: Come on, you’re teaching the course, most likely you taught the course last year. I can’t imagine the majority of professors coming up with new and innovative course materials based on the latest edition each semester. You know whether you have referenced new materials from the textbook, just tell us straight up if you didn’t change anything from last semester’s course.
1+2: This is when the prof is the author of the textbook, and they’re using their own books to teach their own course! The worst is when they’re acting sly or smug about it – talk about self-benefits – and not to mention wasting students’ time.
I’ve seen classmates buying the older edition thinking (hoping) it’s okay, only to realize afterward the latest edition does come with new content. I’ve also seen the new edition of a textbook labelled “Updated Internet Edition” when all it’s got are a few URLs scattered throughout the text (this was during 2001 at the height of the dot-com boom).
This is not a rant post, I actually find it amusing that as a graduate student, I am once again facing some of the same conundrums that I encountered when I was in undergrad. In some odd ways this is quite comforting; it means I can take shelter inside this ‘student’ bubble-world. Hopefully when it’s time to step out, the real world looks a bit brighter all around.
PS: I hope for the day Google digitizes all textbooks and allows students to run a diff on 2 versions and BAM! – you find out all the content that has changed, so this game can end once and for all.
~Art
August 15, 2009
Here’s another go at it…
I was at a Sentosa party tonight, and a bunch of my classmates and I were chatting about campus activities, student clubs, and MBA life in general. We recalled something that was said to us in our orientation: “Enjoy your next year and a half as a full-time student, because you’re probably never going to get another chance at it in your life.”
And this is quite true. The reason we’re doing an MBA is not for our love of academics. We all hope to graduate, get a decent job and ascend up the corporate ladder. Most, if not all, of us will not go for another degree after this.
So what does this all mean? Not sure about the rest of my classmates, but for me it’s doing those things that I missed out on during my undergrad years. Back then it might have been due to apathy, a lack of understanding of the real world, or just focusing too hard on courses. Now I’ve given myself another go at it, at being a student again, and this time there will be no excuses. This all sounds very nice and fluffy, and I’m not known to be a theoretical pie-in-the-sky kind of guy. I’ll stop here and come back when there are concrete results to all this gibberish writing.
~Art
August 10, 2009
Hello World! Hello Singapore!
Today marks a full week that I have been in Singapore. The past 7 days feels like a mad rush to establish the basics of a (modern) life: bank account, mobile plan, immigrations paper, furniture shopping. I feel like I’ve dropped a few rungs in Maslow’s hierarchy and am desperately climbing back to a familiar level.
Today was also the first day of class at NUS, marking the beginning of a 1.5 year MBA program that should bring plenty of adventures and excitement. Coming in without a large set of expectations and keeping an open mind, hopefully possibilities will open up that I never knew existed before!
Interestingly, today also marks exactly a month since I left my last job in Vancouver. Looking back on my last 3 weeks in Vancouver, it was a whirlwind, make that a cyclone, of activities. When you have a limited amount of time left, you naturally spend it with the people, and do the activities (i.e. food, sports, places) that are most important in your life.
Constraint is a necessary and positive thing in life. Abundance breeds complacency, and this is no time to be complacent.
~Art
