Just finished with my follow-ups from the thank you’s I sent out after Round Tables. Now I have a new list of next steps:
And probably a million other things that I haven’t thought of. Girl’s got to work it!
Alarm went off on Saturday morning, a little later than a normal day here but early nonetheless. I tried to get a little reading done and then got the house cleaned up and breakfast out for our second Top Chef Breakfast Club. Played it a little lower key with some muffins (I made from a mix), fruit and yogurt. Was still a blast and was great to have everyone over, not sure how much longer we will be able to keep this up.
Then we powered through a good 7 hours of studying. When both of our eyes were crossed we closed the books and headed to a friend’s house for some home cooked japanese. It was absolutely delicious and was such a treat. After some homemade zucchini bread for dessert we waddled home. There it was more studying, I promised not to go to bed until I finished everything for finance. at midnight, I finally had finished and we capped off the night with an episode of Mad Men before heading to bed.
My alarm went off at the weekend time, and I was in no position to get up. I had a massive headache from the lack of sleep and I finally got sore from all the physical activity on Friday. I convinced Charlton to take the dog out and slept for a few more hours. Once up, breakfast and homework. Then lunch and homework. At about 1 I got all cleaned up for my academy interview with the director of the Consumer Marketing Academy. I think it went well, I should find out if i got it in a few more weeks. Then it was off to target to get some much needed school supplies and more Lean Cuisines for the week. Then home for lots of lots of econ.
We took a dinner break at Cheeseburgers in Paradise since Charlton had gotten a coupon. Nice to have a sit-down dinner for about $10. Then it was back to the grind of more schoolwork.
I just finished everything for tomorrow. Now I can get a jump on Tuesday & Weds’ HW. Got to get ahead as much as I can this week with as many meetings and activities that are planned.
**Also booked my hotel, flight and disneyland ticket for the NAWMBA conference. Happiest place on earth, here I come (with my suit)!
I did sort of shut down once I got home though, I did read for critical thinking for next week but I didn’t email my contacts back like I should have. Was just done for a bit.
At about 5:30 we headed back to school for Kelley field day. We were divided up among our cohorts and competed against each other in various physical challenges, like water balloon tosses, tug of war, 3 legged races, dizzy bat relay races, water balloon volleyball and to cap it off a car pull. I got to compete in every event and my team mate and I got second for the female teams in the car pull. The green cohort didn’t win overall, oh well, hopefully we will be able to redeem ourselves later in the semester.
After we finished up at Kelley we headed over to the soccer field to watch IU go against St. Johns. They ended up tied but it was fun to just unwind.
Going to have to head to bed soon, we are having our friends over again tomorrow morning for the second installment of the Top Chef breakfast club.
Yesterday was a full morning of speed dating, er networking. We headed back to the convention center and were shuffled into two panel discussions. First up was marketing, with presenters from Walmart, P&G, Kraft and Target. Was an interesting combination of manufacturers and retailers so you can get a sense of their relationship and how they work together/against each other. Since the panelists didn't switch I then headed to the consulting/supply chain session. There were a few interesting companies but nothing that I was planning on pursuing.
Afterward we were herded upstairs to the real Round Tables. Each had a sign for the company some balloons and a company rep. And with any blind date one of the daters shows up in a blue shirt or with a red flower in the lapel, many companies showed up with a slew of products decorating their tables with their products.
I met with Target, Jewel-Osco, American Greetings, Kraft, Abbott Labs, General Mills, p&g and Kimberly-Clark. Everytime you really started to get into a conversation with a rep a cowbell would ring and we would all have to go to another table like a crazy game of musical chairs. I gained a lot of insight into how their internship programs were set up and came away with a few more companies to target during my internship search.
With no class for the day, we came back home had lunch and watched some Mad Men. Then I had a much needed nap and got to writing my thank yous and other networking emails. I made some pasta for dinner and then worked on my quant assignment before crashing at 12:30.
What most people will tell you makes an MBA program is the network you acquire (there are a lot more factors, but this is right up there in developing rankings, etc) and tonight was my first exposure to Kelley’s recruiting network. I was pretty impressed to say the least, 40 companies there to speak to the incoming class who has only had 3 days of school. Just mindboggling! Most of us don’t have any experience in the fields we are planning on pursuing post-grad yet we have people here that want to meet us, so cool.
So the day started out with management and econ, then some researching down in the lounge. At about 3ish we headed home, watched an episode of Mad Men and then did some more schoolwork. We grabbed a quick bowl of soup and then headed to Bloomington’s Convention Center to meet the company representatives.
I was a little nervous, didn’t really think i was prepared to meet them, but it ended up being a great experience. I met with reps from Nestle, Best Buy and two from various marketing functions within Walmart. I learned a lot and think I can add a few to my list of companies to pursue.
Then I wrapped up the night with some thank you notes and some webinars on networking for my LPCD deliverable.
All of our classes tomorrow got bumped to friday to accommodate more Round Table meetings (8 more companies on my docket) and seminars for us to attend. should be another adventure in networking!
Day 2 of the program and I am already putting in twelve hour days! Got to school around 8 am for my core classes.
Today was critical thinking, quantitative analysis and accounting. I loved critical thinking, Professor Metzger is a riot and really does make you question your logic…and it was only our first session! I am really looking forward to the rest of the semester. Quantitative analysis was a lot of housekeeping, but that should be expected when you have a class so heavily dependent on tools, need to make sure everyone is on the same page. And accounting was accounting, going to be hard to get excited about that class.
Then it was time for lunch down in the lounge, which was basically me eating a peanut butter sandwich while I read up on CPG and retail happenings. Once all the crumbs were gone it was onto econ reading and case prep before a team meeting to work on the econ assignment. An hour later, I had some answers written up and a very confusing supply curve. We’ll see how we faired tomorrow.
After the team dispersed, I hung around in the breakout room and worked on my Friday accounting homework. Need to get it out of the way so i can focus on Round Table research and the Thursday night football game! Had only one problem left before I had the 1st Kelley Women meeting.
The meeting was really informative and talked about opportunities for leadership in the organization. I have already applied for a co-chair position, will find out sometime next week if I get it! I love the organization, it is such a champion for women in the workplace. We also talked about the upcoming National Association of Women MBA conference I am attending in Disneyland at the end of October. Kelley is hosting the event and it should be a great opportunity to network.
Finally left the Godfrey Center at 8:30, not bad for my second day! Once back here at the house I put in another couple hours finishing accounting homework, recopying last night’s speaker notes and researching half of my Round Table companies. Now its time to hit the sack so I can do it all over again tomorrow!
