MIT Sloan students speak: MBA class of 2012

Second Year’s Future @ MIT Sloan

Four months have passed by since the first year ended. Summer job was a great experience – the one that I always wanted – and now what? Well, now it is time to come back to campus, reflect upon things, polish and complement what you learned, narrow down the universe of options that MIT Sloan gives you… and that is the hard part! 

There are so many options and there are so many things one would work on, that it is really hard to say “this is the only thing I really want to do in my life”. I came here with one goal, and now, I have so many… But I don’t feel bad about it, because this shows how MIT Sloan was able to give me a new perspective on things, get me out of my comfort zone showing that certainty is relative and not absolute, and reminding me always to keep questioning things every time and for everything. 

What is the good news? Well, you won’t be alone. I’d guess around 80% of the students are rethinking their whole career – including their acceptance to their full-time offer after the internship.

The tip: although time is short and goes really fast, don’t panic and be flexible. We change a lot while being here and our initial thoughts on what we always wanted will change with all the exposure we get. Don’t be afraid to change, go back or go forward. Do what thrills you, now! Something that makes sense, not that made sense.

Cheers,

Tiago

 

Mission Task #3 - Check!

Now in my second year at Sloan, I am on a mission.

First, I want to make sure that I do as many of the activities and trips as I can fit in/afford before my MBA experience is over.  I have G-Lab on my roster for Fall/Winter (yay Latin America!), am crossing my fingers for somewhere fun over spring break and the 2^nd year British Virgin Islands sailing trip is built into my budget for the year.

Second, I want to get a job I really like.  I had a great summer internship experience and now, because I have the opportunity to, I need to really take a step back and evaluate where it is I see myself in 5 years and how I think I want to get there.  My time as an MBA student has been a amazing journey and I’ve learned so much.  I want to put my skills to use in a way that makes me proud and happy every day.

Finally, I want to tick a very important, but somewhat intimidating, item off my “to-do” list.  I, Vanessa, want to dance in a C-Function performance.

(Note: Not a dancer).

The C-Function events at Sloan are what I look forward to every Thursday.  The food and free drinks are great perks, but seeing my classmates perform in the middle of a full Walker Memorial Hall is really the most awesome part.  It’s a constant reminder that there are incredibly talented people here who know how to have fun!  I admire the work they put into the “show”  and towards the end of last semester, I found myself wishing I was up there with them.

Fast forward to now - 3 weeks into the semester – and I’m thrilled to say that I have ticked off Mission Task #3!  I didn’t expect to get an opportunity so early on, but when it came my way, I took it.  

My friend, Joyce, came up to me one day and asked if I would participate in the dance she was doing for the first C-Function of the year.  Since this C-Function happens to be one of my favorites (it’s 80s themed and sponsored by Sloan Women in Management (SWIM)) and because I was easily persuaded by Joyce’s insistence that the steps were “easy,” I jumped on board almost immediately.  I waited in anticipation for the first rehearsal to come and I had an expected reality check…I have rhythm but no form or grace. J  And yet, after 3 rehearsals, the group was ready for show-time.  Last Thursday, we donned our 80s attire (turquoise leggings anyone?) and after our 2 minutes in the spotlight, more classmates followed with an awesome performance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Everyone rocked the house.

I’m not convinced I will ever be a good dancer. But the amount of time I spent laughing while hanging out with those ladies and shakin’ to Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” put the nail in the coffin.  I will happily accept (almost) any invitation to dance in a C-Function for the rest of the year.  It’s just too much damn fun. J

 

First year of an MBA - what a blur

It’s unbelievable how fast the last year has gone by. Over the course of the last year I left the Marine Corps, started at MIT Sloan, completed the Core, recruited for banking, landed an internship at JP Morgan, finished my first year and then finished my internship at JP Morgan. What an absolute blur. I am definitely still in denial that this is my last year in business school but I am absolutely loving it.

I wanted to take some time to talk to you all about my summer internship and what it’s like to go back to school knowing where you’ll be in the next year and the foreseeable future.

I interned in JP Morgan’s investment bank, within a group called Diversified Industries. It’s a great group, with great people, that covers a very wide range of companies: Transportation (rail, airline, shipping), Industrials (waste management firms, conglomerates, etc.), Aerospace & Defense, and Automotives. I was lucky enough to work in every vertical this summer. I worked on an IPO for my entire summer, that due to the state of the markets, didn’t actually launch but I’m keeping my eyes close to the news to see when it does. I also had the opportunity to take part in several M&A pitches as well as work on several general marketing pitches to our group’s clients. I won’t sugar coat it for you; I worked a lot. But as I’ve told a lot of my classmates (and this is a big reason why I’m returning ) I’ve never been so fully engaged in work as I was this summer – my deployments to Iraq provided similar mental challenges but a high-rise in midtown Manhattan is a lot cushier and safer! I was constantly reading, financial modeling, creating powerpoint slides (actually quite a bit), or working with a team and discussing what steps need to be taken next to help frame the pitch we happened to be working on. I worked with some excellent colleagues that really cared that I learn what we were doing as opposed to just make me go through the motions of the tasks.

So now I sit in my second year, job offer in hand (and accepted), busier than I was during my Core semester, and I find myself really, really enjoying it. I am taking some great classes (ones that I chose to take versus going through the core semester and getting a baseline of knowledge), spending a lot of time helping the first year MBAs figure out the finance recruiting process as well as providing mentoring to them as they struggle through their first few months of the core. My favorite activity is by far the mentoring role that the 1st year MBAs allow me to have. I was a pilot for Orientation and I continue to keep up with my team’s progress as they all go their unique directions and struggle with figuring out how to meet deadlines as individuals and as a team. I’m also continuing to welcome prospective students to campus in MIT Sloan’s Ambassador program. So if you’re reading this and wondering whether you should come for a visit, take the plunge, buy the airfare or make the drive. You’ll find it’s worthwhile and will really allow you to see whether MIT Sloan is the right place for you.

Good luck to you wherever you are in your MBA search!

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My Summer Internship

This pass summer I have opportunity to work with Ramot and Israel Energy Start Up doing tech transfer and business model development. It was a great experience and it won't be possible unless I join MIT affiliate program call MISTI or MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives. You can learn more about it via http://web.mit.edu/misti/.

Check out all the #clickmktgconf mentions on Twitter!

Just a quick little note, but as a member of the organizing team behind the inaugural MIT Sloan Marketing Conference, I'm obsessed with monitoring Twitter today.  I'm currently sitting in on the keynote panel around Future of Marketing.  It's awesome. 

Check out the event website - www.mitsloanmarketingconference.com.

We have over 100 mentions in the past 5 hours!  Wooo!

Post-Internship @ MIT Sloan

The biggest question most of us have when starting the summer job is “can I really apply what I learned at school?” We all know that school is school and work is work, but my experience this summer showed that the answer to that question is YES – and for something that can be underestimated.

Of course concepts learned in marketing/finance/accounting are easy to replicate on several summer job positions. But the thing I wanted to share that got my attention was communication in a broader sense. After working with so many different teams, personalities and countries over the year you end up learning and improving how you communicate, relate and work with your peers – a strong Sloanie characteristic. I saw myself in different situations using “active listening”, “feedback”, “negotiation”,…

If you think about it, there are courses and books that can teach you the hard skills – I bet every Sloanie could learn finance alone, just by reading a book. But soft skills; learning from your peers, trying to convince someone from a different culture with a different logic that your argument is right or even accepting his is right... This cannot be learned reading a book; not even in most b-schools.

Cheers,

Tiago

My summer in Stockholm

One of my goals coming to business school was to broaden my industry experience. There are few places better equipped to provide such an experience than the consulting industry.

The journey towards a Summer Associate position in consulting starts early. Already in October it is important for people like me, without a consulting background, to attend as many presentations by the consulting firms as possible. This is both to get a better understanding of what working in consulting is like and to get a feel for the culture of the different companies. December and January are case months, during which the hopeful applicant will practice cases and behavioral interviews with friends. Middle to late January is game time, when applicants do 1st rounds (usually in Boston), 2nd rounds (usually in the office of choice) and sometimes even 3rd rounds often with several firms. Going in to the interviews, Bain & Company was my first choice, so I was very excited to get the chance to spend the summer with them in Stockholm.

I had a great summer, primarily for three reasons: 1. My colleagues at Bain were fantastic, an energetic bunch of really smart and welcoming people that made my transition from corporate to consulting easy, 2. Stockholm is a wonderful city well worth visiting and living in and 3. My family graciously allowed me to fully commit to the summer experience by being a „weekend-daddy“ for a couple of months.

I enjoyed my case, doing organizational and cost efficiency work for a CPG company, very much. I‘ve learned that consulting at Bain is a very demanding line of work but at the same time gives you endless opportunities to grow, develop and have fun at the same time. I can also attest to Bain being a very good place to work and that their focus on a distinctive company culture is far from being lip-service.

I also managed to do a fair amount of travelling this summer. My project team took a summer hiatus at the end of July so I got two weeks which I spent with the family back in Iceland. On the job I got to travel to London, Madrid and Cape Cod. Fortunately, my team‘s client is headquartered in Stockholm so I also got spend some time there. I lived in Söder-malm, which I am told is the “hip & cool” part of town with plenty of bars, restaurants and in general really lively. (For those of you who know Stig Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy, the main characters live and work in Söder-malm.) I was seriously impressed by the Vasa museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_%28ship%29) and had a lot of fun in the Gröna Lund amusement park with my kids.

As much as I like travelling, it is also good to be back in Cambridge, sleep in one’s own bed and I am truly looking forward to a couple of months of little or no air travel, re-connecting with my Sloan friends and being back in class!

The end of my summer internship and what it takes to put a conference together

It's been a little over 2 weeks since I finished my internship and while I'm excited to be getting back in to the school swing-of-things, I missed seeing the faces of my colleagues at Adobe with whom I became quite close during my 12 weeks there.  The whole thing flew by and now sort of seems like a blur.  I can't speak more highly though of the experience - I learned SO much, was really, truly challenged and left feeling like I had earned the respect and "we don't want you to leave"s that bid me farewell.  Adobe is a fatnastic company to work for and I really hope to have an opportunity to return there in the future as a full-time employee. 

As for what I actually did while I was there...well....first, let's start with the basics:

Role: Enterprise Product Marketing Intern
Where: Waltham, MA (right outside Boston)
What is Product Marketing?  This is a pretty good definition.
What experience did I have before getting hired?  A bunch of technology experience from my time at Ernst & Young and some marketing experience from my Market Lab project (spring semester 2011...right while interviewing).  Market Lab was really key - it taught me some commonly used terms and lingo and the steps to take when executing on a marketing project.  Not to mention it was a great experience by way of working with a start-up.
Did anyone help get me in?  A 2011 who also interned there the summer before put in a good word for me.  He just started a month ago full-time, so I have to assume he had some clout!

So what did you do?
I had a few projects to do while I was there, but my "flagship" project was around competitive research.  Super cool, just open-ended enough so I could make it my own with enough direction to push me.  I had a great manager who was supportive, available, experienced and didn't let me get away with subpar...all characteristics I needed to succeed. :) I don't want to give too much away, but my presentation ended up being a unique quantitative representation of lots of qualitiative information.  It is something I am very proud to add to my portfolio of work.  Happy to share more about the experience if anyone is interested. Just post a comment and I'll get in touch.

Last week was Orientation for the new first year MBAs.  They all seem like a really great crew of people and I'm excited to be meeting them all over the next few months.  I even have a team of my own to hang out (and "pilot") with during the core semester!  As usual, a super diverse group and like other teams, they'll be challenged to work together effectively over the next few months as they get through the core experience.  Based on what I've seen so far, I think they're going to do a good job of it. :) Go Mediterranean Terns! I should note that I am a 2012 Med Tern, so I have the utmost appreciation for this esteemed group.

Now that Orientation is over though, my #1 priority for the next week is helping the rest of the Sloan Marketing Conference organizing team pull together the rest of the logistics for what is going to be a SPECTACULAR event on September 10th (this Saturday)!  It's open to everyone, so if any of you out there want to attend, you should absolutely buy a ticket.  Speakers from Facebook, Amazon, Google, Forrester, Sears and many more are scheduled in and you'll get free swag for attending!  I was in charge of organizing a panel this summer (Marketing Analytics 3.0) and am very happy with how it is set to roll out.  Now, I'm primarily in charge of designing and printing our conference program.  To do this, I have of course been using my Adobe InDesign software....because it's the best. :)  It's 95% done and will be printed this week, just in time for the event.

Seriously...if you have ANY interest in digital marketing, Sloan, Boston and/or the companies in attendance, you should absolutely be at this event.  Follow @SloanMarketeers on Twitter for updates too!  

Organizing a conference is a lot of work, but such a fantastic way to get to know other people in the Sloan and greater MIT community (e.g. administration, professors, etc).  Not to mention that I've been emailing with CxOs over the past few months! So cool!  Watching the event unfold is going to be incredibly gratifying and something I'm sure Sloan will be very proud of.  Big shout out to the organizing team - we're in the homestretch guys!  

I'll post again in a few weeks once my fall semester classes have kicked off!  Much more to come, as always!  Enjoy the last few weeks of summer y'all.

Wait, it's not summer anymore?

Somehow, an entire summer passed between now and my last post about Nashville. That is absolutely insane. Luckily, my better-blogger-classmates have kept this blog up and alive during this time.

So... where to begin? I left off at Nashville,so I guess that's where I will start. The CMA Music Fest ended up being 4 days of minimal sleep, lots of very enthusiastic fans, and tons of learning/people watching/concerts. Some highlights included spearheading trivia contests for fans to meet Reba McEntire and The Band Perry, seeing Keith Urban up close and personal during a private lunchtime rehearsal, meeting and talking to all of the AMAZING fans who keep the music industry in business, seeing the fans go INSANE as they got to meet our artists (people were absolutely nuts for Rascal Flatts and Martina McBride, and it was maybe the greatest thing I've ever witnessed), and FOUR nights of star-studded concerts on LP Field! I remember sitting up in my nosebleed seat, watching Miranda Lambert sing her little heart out, and thinking, "I am SO happy right now." Sure, it was 90 degrees and humid at 10 PM, and the entire city was overrun with cicadas, but I would not have traded that experience for anything.

After a thrillingly country-music-filled month, I packed my bags and headed to Amazon in Seattle. That was a pretty incredible experience. I don't think I've ever been so UN-micromanaged in my life... which was amazing! I was working on a project for the Clothing marketing group in the company's retail management internship program. I got great exposure to senior-level excecutives and even had the opportunity to attend a BBQ at Jeff Wilke's beautiful home. Over the course of the summer, I met a lot of really interesting and smart people, became obsessed with eating oysters, and got to know the Sloan alumni at Amazon. I also hanged out with the various current Sloan folks who were in Seattle for the summer, bought lots of fresh flowers at Pike Place Market, and ran the Seattle Rock & Roll half marathon. I was there, working hard, for 10 weeks, and then poof! Summer was almost over.

School starts in two days, and I am sitting in California thinking that I should have had a little more foresight and maybe scheduled my return flight to Boston to arrive a little earlier than late the night before my 9 AM TA training. Oops--but oh well. I'm really excited to come back to campus as a second year, mostly so I can stuff some first years into lockers (KIDDING! Just. Kidding. We are actually really, really nice to the first-years. Also, the lockers are too small for that). No, seriously though, I want to hear ALL about everyone's summer adventures, share pictures and stories from my own, and get back into the swing of going to class, participating in C-Functions, and going on runs along the Charles River. I didn't think I would miss MIT Sloan so much while I was gone, but I can't wait to get back!

Montana Trek

In preparation for my second-year at Sloan I had the opportunity to join 27 classmates (and significant other’s) for a week of adventure and relaxation in Northwestern Montana. Growing up in Montana, I was honored to plan the trek and share my home state with an amazing group of friends.

We kicked off the week with a drive up Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park and a short hike to Hidden Lake. On Day 2, after everyone had a chance to break in their hiking boots, half of the group hiked the Highline Trail to take in some spectacular views and see a couple of Glaciers first-hand. The other half of our group got in touch with their inner cowboy on a horseback ride. Day 3 included a whitewater rafting trip down the Flathead River. For the final day our group split up for mountain biking, zip lining, hiking, helicopter tours, golfing, and even a day at the spa. That evening we celebrated our survival of the “bear-infested wilderness” with a group dinner before heading back to Cambridge to kick-off our second year.

Student-planned treks are one of the many great things about MIT Sloan. Planning the 2011 Montana Trek certainly required some work, but it was well worth it. Not only did I get to share my favorite part of the world with a few Sloanies, but I also had the chance to get to build some lasting friendships and re-charge for my final year at Sloan. Looking forward to the next Trek!