Sunday, September 6, 2009

I feel bad blogging about the new school year without having really gone into what the summer AMBA experience is like.

The AMBA summer can be summed up in one word: challenging. As a student who had never taken even an introductory econ class let alone accounting, econ, finance, strategy, marketing, statistics, and a consulting course crammed into one 3 month long summer session, I can’t say it was easy. Making it through the summer requires commitment. Students can expect to sit through classes from 9 to 5, 5 days a week, but then continue working late into the night. When five hours of sleep begins to feel like a luxury... you're a genuine Cornell AMBA.

That is not to say it is all doom and gloom. Besides the fact that we are all obviously superheroes disguised in business casual, the program and my classmates ensured that fun was to be had this summer. Three points:

Firstly, the CMC tried their best to get us all prepped and ready for recruiting season with trips to Merck HQ in New Jersey and Accenture in Manhattan to meet with alums and get a lot of advice on how to improve our resumes, our interviewing techniques, and generally get pumped up about the job hunt. Let’s be honest, without a lot of motivation and LOT of optimism, it’s going to be hard to keep focus this year. While the economy is showing some signs of improvement, job prospects for MBAs are still looking far from cheerful. The school definitely has gone beyond in helping us all remain realistic and on the offensive in our repsective job hunts.

Secondly, there is the wonderful AMBA class. If you’re out there reading this and are curious about the program at all, you should not hesitate to let myself or Alex know. The diversity within our class in terms of experience, background, interests and pursuits is as diverse as all of as charming and helpful (read that as extremely so). I’ve learned so much about things I really didn’t understand too much about before coming to Johnson like hedge funds or BRIC economies. To sum it up, I learned probably as much from my classmates as I did from my classes if not more, and that’s a huge part of what I wanted from my MBA experience. I’m glad I’ve gotten it here.