This week was another busy one in MBA-land, hence my post being a few days late. Besides the classwork, there was a ton of recruiting events. Here’s the rundown on what I learned this week.
1. Artists can be Accountants. This week our usual accounting prof Mr. B took a seat and let our Q2 accounting prof lead a class. She started off by telling us about her background, which included being an artist and only ever taking accounting to help with running her own business one day. Fast forward and here she is as an accounting professor. It is well known that I am NOT a lover of accounting (though is anyone really?). But this week, I think things started to click. The prof drew a visual representation of the accounting process from transactions to all the statements and things started to click for me. I guess all I needed was for someone to draw me a map (literally).
2. I am an example for my class. But not always in a good way. This week we had to give a 2 minute speech to our class. I was one of the first students to go. I brought a folded sheet with notes partially as a safety blanket and partially to have something to hold onto and keep me from fidgeting. I was two sentences away from finishing without any major debacles when I lost my train of thought a took a look at my notes. Of course the line I needed to see was on the fold of the paper which threw me off my game. It took a bit to recover, but I finished and quickly sat down. One speech after me the prof asked the class to discuss how the first few speeches went. A few minutes into the discussion he looked at me and asked “Renee, what happened?”. To which I illustrated for the class the issue with the notes being in the fold. Let’s just say no one else in the class brought up their notes after that discussion.
3. Networking is Work. This week I have had 2 networking dinners, a networking reception and the marketing forum. That means lots and lots of talking to recruiters. Telling my story several times. And asking lots of questions that seem thoughtful but not too prepared or scripted. While many of the events have been fun, they definitely feel like work. This upcoming week I have a break from briefings and recruiting so there will be a chance to recover.
4. Going back to school was the best decision ever! This week was the Marketing Forum, an eventthe Marketing Club puts on that brings representatives from companies to give presentations and meet with us. As I was listening to a VP from Frito-Lay talk about their latest marketing campaign (which is awesome) I realized how much I love marketing. I also realized what a great opportunity I have at Darden. I knew going back to school was going to expose me to companies and experiences I would never get otherwise. But on Friday, as I was talking to reps from Heinz, Frito-Lay, General Mills, Johnson and Johnson, DuPont and MarketBridge it finally hit home. I have a great chance here to take my life in an exciting new direction. Now I just have to do the work to get there.
Til next week….
