Week 20: Business Decision Models, Operations Management, Marketing Fundamental, Finance Fundamentals (Module 5 con't)

Week 20 and the pace is picking up...as if that was possible. I have been getting up at 7 AM (tried 6 AM and it was a "no-go") and working straight through till 12 PM (some later) every night for what must be the past 3 weeks straight. Weekends are those prized days that I get to sleep in to 8 AM (sometimes even 9 AM! OMG!). My only solace is that pretty much every other person in the program is in the same situation and is feeling the same pressure and fatigue. Just a couple more weeks and we get a few days off!

This week I attended On Campus Recruiting sessions for Cormark Securities, Secor Consulting and Petro-Canada ("retail locations/lubricant divisions"). All were interesting, but I don't think any of these companies are "me". I will stick to my original plan to look for work more closely related to upstream oil and gas.

Classes have been tough this week. Although we had Wednesday off, it was just used to attempt to catch-up on all the work we have due. There was also a finance test on Friday morning. I certainly hope the school addresses the issue of the professor teaching this course for next year. He is not being very effective and a lot of the students are somewhat frustrated by the situation. A lot of people needed to skip class the day before the test, myself included, just to attempt to get prepared because we have been too busy to find the time in the past few weeks. As if that wasn't enough, recently I just discovered the finance text we are using for this class is used in a commerce undergraduate course. They do cover the text in 4 months and we do it in 3 weeks! But what the hell, we can take it...after all we are MBA's, right?

(Strange that the one of the central themes of the Organizational Behaviour and Leadership courses was "work-life-balance", yet all MBA programs pretty much throw that to the wind.)

Friday afternoon we played "the Beer game" in operations management! What a blast. It was played with different teams sitting around tables and operating a "supply chain" of "beer" symbolized by poker chips. This game definitely taught us all a good deal about the "bull whip" effect using a fun and hands-on approach. Everyone "bet" $2 up front. This "all-or-nothing" prize was awarded to the team that succeeded in keeping up with supply while minimizing inventory and backlog costs (i.e. achieving "the goal"). I would post more here, but it would only ruin the experience for others.

We also had another prospective student join our class for a day this week. It is that season again when the next year's class is busy submitting applications, coming out to be interviewed and sitting in on lectures. Weird to think I was in that position just under a year ago. Now I'm clinging to a coffee cup to fight off sleep so I can complete the endless stream of assignments. Yep, livin' the grand life...sigh.

Even with everything going on there are still people managing to find time to fit in some exercise. Yesterday evening I was in the pool with our "inner-tube" water polo team during our first intramural match. Other people have found time to play some basketball and soccer. Still others are making time for running and swimming regularly. All of this is supported and encouraged by the programs program who supply equipment, entrance fees and "fit-to-lead" trainers where needed. It is a good way to begin training for this year's MBA Games in Halifax. (checkout the video Dalhousie has put up on YouTube for more info.)

This weekend is going to be filled with editing reports and team work sessions to continue the Business Decision Model "field trip" presentation and Marketing "product relaunch" presentations now that the "lead/second" pairs have brought them to "95%".

Also, I have information sessions for Imperial Oil, Nexen, Total and Shell next week. That is only going to add to the workload...

(now I really have to get back to work and stop procrastinating by writing on this blog. It is amazing what seems interesting and "uber" important when you have so many other things that need doing)