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September 21, 2008
Second year is great so far
Things are going well so far with the new school year, but as expected it’s a bit busy. I really like the fact that I am taking classes that I am interested in and they are going well. One thing that I noticed that is different about second year is the amount of group work and also the number and frequency of assignments. Unlike first year, we had at least 2 weeks before our first assignment was due, however now assignments are due much earlier. Also, 4 out 5 of my classes are based on group work, which is another demonstration of action-based learning. I think as of now my favorite class is Strategic Market Planning or “Brand Maps”. We get to play a simulation of the car industry and define the marketing plan and watch the results over the course of the semester.
I am planning the UpClose Diversity Weekend, which should be a fantastic event. It will be held November 6th – 8th. If you are interested in attending, I encourage you to apply! I’m also working on many other clubs such as Gourmet Club and Entertainment & Media. They all keep me busy, but I am enjoying the work that I am doing.
I just returned from the National Black MBA conference in DC. It was a great opportunity to meet representatives from many companies and also do a bit of recruiting. Since my recruiting is a bit more focused this year, I only talked to about 4 companies in total. I’ve decided to look into Consumer Insights or Market Research as my full-time career option since I really enjoyed this area during my internship. Two companies that are great in this area are Procter & Gamble and General Mills. I was able to interview with both companies at the conference. I should hear back from General Mills this week on if I have an invitation for second round interviews. I received an offer from Procter & Gamble and I am thrilled about it! I cannot contain my excitement. I still have my offer from Dell, so I really need to evaluate over the next couple of weeks which one I want to take. So at this point, I am pretty much done with recruiting and do not plan to interview anymore since I have the two offers that I want. It feels really good to be at this point.
So that’s it for this week. I will keep you all posted on things.
Posted by alantria at 08:19 AM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2008
The Beginning of the End
Well it’s the beginning of my second year of business school! I cannot explain the amount of excitement that I have for this new school year. I had a chance to catch up with some of my classmates at the game this past weekend; however I look forward to seeing others throughout the upcoming week. Before I go into what’s happening this year, let me first tell you about my summer. I interned at Dell in Consumer Marketing and it was a great experience. My project was to conduct a market research study on the PC market in Brazil and Mexico covering everything from consumers to competitors. I then recommended a marketing strategy for Dell following the 4 P’s approach. Even though I didn’t get to visit either of those countries (it sure would have been cool if I did), I really enjoyed learning about a new market and applying what I learned from school to my internship. Austin is also a really good place as well and very similar to Ann Arbor.
During the second year of school we have more flexibility in terms of our schedule and can pick any electives that we want to take. Because I am concentrating in Marketing, I am taking a couple of Marketing classes and also others classes of interest such as Business Leadership in Changing Times, Valuation, and advanced Corporate Reporting. I also decided to take on leadership roles in several clubs such as chairing UpClose Diversity Recruiting weekend, VP Education for the Gourmet Club, and VP Communications for the Entertainment & Media Club. So as you can see if it going to be a busy year for me, but should be a lot of fun.
I’ve decided to recruit a bit, however it will not be as much as last year. I am only going to look at a couple of companies in CPG marketing and then make my decision about where to go. Apparently this is very common for many MBA2s and I heard that about 2/3 of MBA2s take offers from companies other than their summer internships.
Also, over the summer I had a chance to study abroad to for a 3 week exchange program that Ross offers with WHU in Koblenz, Germany. I had a great time, so great that I decided to study abroad at ESADE for the Winter term. Even though, I will miss my last term here at Ross, the experience alone is a good incentive for me to go.
So as you can see I had many updates to offer in this blog and I will keep you posted in future blogs. GO BLUE!!
Posted by alantria at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)