Week 43: Electives - Block C (t-minus 8 weeks)

Week 43...gone. Another week passes and we are have completed the first week of Block C electives. That leaves 8 weeks of classes until the program is finished. Also, it is raining hard today and as a result I suspect the vast majority of the remaining snow will disappear. Unfortunately this also means the outdoor rinks are going to go with the snow.

A Facebook group for the incoming 2010 class has been established. Only accepted and confirmed students are allowed to join. A number of us from the current class have been asked to join this group and answer any potential questions the incoming students have to help make the transition as smooth as possible.

Nothing new with the Tri-Colour Fund, New Venture Project, or Consulting Project courses. They are still in limbo and working pretty much on a self-directed basis. A couple of our classmates were in Louisiana for a business plan competition (I think this is the one, but could be wrong). In addition, a couple of our classmates are out in Vancouver trying to see if their plan to find gold will pan out.

Investments is the finance course this block and the one I am enrolled. The professor, Sean Cleary, is very knowledgeable, but lacks the enthusiasm and passion some of our previous professors have exhibited. The text for this course is selected chapters from the CFA "investment series" (ie "Managing Investment Portfolios" and "Equity Asset Valuation"). This week is on portfolio management for individuals and institutional investors. Next week is focused on the asset valuation material. Today we had Peter Jarvis as a guest speaker in class. Peter is the Executive Director of Toronto CFA Society and has held a number of very senior roles with various investment and retirement boards.

Services Management, the consulting&project management course, has also started. From what I have heard it is a fair bit of work, but all of it rather fun. People are working in groups to present and it looks like there are some individual memos that need to be completed for the cases/material covered in the classes.

Advanced Topics in Marketing, the marketing&sales course, is the final course. This course has started off on a good foot and there is a group presentation involved. I will find out more for my next posting.

I would like to again mention my classmates blog on his experience in India at ISB. His experience may not be representative of all exchange experiences, but it does bring to light some of the challenges that studying abroad can present.

This week the point four was at "Fanatics", a sports bar. We are also having a mixer with the law and medicine students this evening at "The Joy Supper Club", but prior to that a bunch of people are planning to attend a local OHL game. Saturday is a "scrabble" party where attendees wear a letter and go around trying to make as many different words as possible. Also, fit-to-lead has arranged a ski trip to Calabogie. The MBA hockey team also had a game this week and a few people are still making time to play squash.

Not much else to report on. The BCC has been helping me to continue to find opportunities to apply to. In addition, I have been contacting alumni for informational interviews to see what potential opportunities may be available both now and in the future.

I'm still having trouble believing there are only 8 weeks left.

Week 42: Electives - Block B (con't)

Week 42 comes to an end and so has Block B of electives. The weather took a turn for the worse this week and we are back in the heart of Canadian winter. The tease of almost spring weather, combined with the slight reprieve in workload, has only made the sudden onset of renewed cold, snow, tests and papers at the end of this week seem more dubious than usual.

Global Strategy has ended, but it still lingers. There is a large research paper due and the deadline has been graciously extended into the weekend. We formed groups for this assignment. Almost all of the groups have some members that have not been able to focus on this particular assignment, given the workload from other classes. As a result most of us will be making use of the extra time given. Also, those of us in the class have been invited to join the professor's "listserv", which he uses to send out current global strategy and management papers that he finds from time to time.

Risk Management ended today at noon with a final exam that I'm sure everyone is glad to be finished. Louise apparently has been a very good professor, but that doesn't make the material covered any easier.

Dynamic Pricing (aka Revenue Management) also ended with a large project being completed today. Apparently the groups also had to give a presentation on their final models. I haven't heard much concerning this course since everyone taking it has been far too busy to discuss it.

No news on the Tri-Colour fund, Consulting Project or New Venture Project courses.

People continue to seek employment. The BCC continues to do what they can for the students who are still looking, but the fact remains that the economy is sluggish and continues to slow down. Last week we had a brief Q&A with the BCC Director, David Edwards, and the BCC Manager, Julia Blackstock. Both have been excellent to work with and continue to do their best for us. They revealed what we all already knew; numbers are down from previous years. This is true across all business schools, but nobody is willing to talk about it between schools (aside: as one professor put it "the moose in the room"). What's interesting is that the school has actually seen more positions posted at this time than for the same period last year. What appears to have been happening is that a lot of employers have been putting candidates on "hold" prior to the first actual interview or just after the first interview. This is likely because of the deteriorating business conditions they find themselves. With that being said, the class still remains optimistic and people are re-doubling their efforts. What else can you do but remain positive and keep looking?

This week some people found time for a game of "shinny" on one of Kingston's many outdoor rinks. The point four was moved from Thursday to Friday to accommodate all the Risk Management and Dynamic Pricing students and will be at "MyBar". Also, the Kingston Canadian Film Festival is coming up next week. The weekend should be filled with some much needed R'n'R while people prepare for Block C next week. Now back to that Global Strategy paper...

(Aside: One of my classmates has started a blog about his exchange experience to the Indian School of Business)

Week 41: Electives - Block B (con't)

Week 41 has ended and I find myself in Quebec City on Valentine's Day. My wife and I decided to take a trip to this frozen wonderland to see Carnival (2nd link), the ice sculptures, the ice castle and get a picture with Bonhomme. Also, this weekend is a long weekend. With most people caught up on their assignments and reading they have decided to use the extra time to take a trip or continue job hunting.

The Strategic Leadership paper was due this past Wednesday. Finally that course has been put to bed.

Global Strategy saw us involved in several in class discussions on how subsidiaries should be run and what the roll of the home and host countries plays. The professor also came back with the results of a feedback exercise for use in the class about what was going well and what was not. This was very helpful and I think other professors should look into doing something similar. This week we submitted the final individual case analysis assignment. This just leaves the final team research paper due at the end of this next week.

The Dynamic Pricing course has been a fair bit of work. This past week has seen a lot of work put in by the students. In addition, I here the classes are bit overwhelming for some as the professor makes everything seems quite easy, but when they go to do it themselves it is actually quite complex.

Risk Management continues to be very similar to the Finance Strategy course. One individual has found the material quite similar to the level 2 CFA material he is studying. Combined with the other finance courses this will likely compliment his studying well and put him in a good position to write the exam this June.

Not too much has changed with the project courses, Consulting or New Venture projects. In addition the TriColour Venture Fund was supposed to be getting going, but it seems as though the professor, Elspeth Murray, is a little busy. The students are hoping for some sort of syllabus and timeline in the near future.

This week for fun the class had the point four at the Grad Pub so we could compete in Trivia Night. Some people are taking trips this weekend and those staying behind are looking to take in some curling. Because of the very warm weather in Kingston this past week all the outdoor skating rinks are pretty much melted. Also, we said goodbye to two more of our classmates as they are headed on exchange to the Indian School of Business.

One more week down and one more week until this block of electives is over.

Week 40: Electives - Block B

Week 40 has seen us start the next block of electives, Block B. The weather remains cold, but we have had a few "warmer" days. In addition Kinston has "feb fest" on, which is the city's winter festival with a wide variety of activities to take in (ice sculpting, figure skating, old-timers hockey game, etc.).

Although Strategic Leadership ended in Block A, most of us are still finishing our interviews to write our papers. My colleague found a particularly interesting person right here in Kingston to interview thanks to an article in the local paper. James Hultquist-Morrissey purchased "Zoom" airlines and plans to turn it around. He was a pretty interesting person to meet. The paper is due by the middle of next week and then this course will be done. It is nice to have the extra time, but it has added to the work load of all the new courses.

Risk Management is being taught by Louis Gagnon who is one of Queen's more popular professors with the media as of late. He specializes in derivatives, credit swaps and other forms of financial risk management, which is what the course is about, and given the current economic crisis these topics have been of interest in the media. Everyone is liking the course a lot, but there is quite a bit of work if you don't understand what is being taught since you need to spend extra time studying. From what my sources tell me this course has been a deeper look at the topics covered in the Financial Strategy course in the core of the program.

Global Strategy is being taught by Doug Reid and it is challenging. His teaching style is a little more toward the Socratic method where he helps facilitate a discussion and the works to pull the content out of the students. The professor expects a lot of readings to be completed for each session and you need to have them done to ensure you can follow the topic of discussion. In addition, this is also my first class with a large number of our new exchange students and I am finding their unique perspectives very interesting and educational.

It is also my understanding that the two project courses, New Venture Project and Consulting Project, are also underway. These courses are a little more "self directed" and have students work on an idea they have once the professor running the course approves it. I have also heard of a few students submitting their business plans for their new ventures to competitions. If they win they will have some seed money to see if they can grow these ideas into viable businesses. Some of them seem like they are really strong ideas with good business plans to back them up. Last year a student was able to win several of these competitions and use the money to continue moving her idea of starting a caviar farm closer to reality (see this news story for more information).

Fun stuff going on...this week a large group from the class went skiing at Tremblant for a few days. The point four this week was at "the Ale house" and was a joint venture with the grad student society for a valentine's day themed party. (Aside: There has been a lot of talk about the class leaving the AMS and joining The Society of Graduate and Professional Students.) Last Sunday's "learn-to-curl" outing was so popular there are plans to return next weekend. There are also a couple of networking events this week where our full-time class has had the opportunity to meet the Cornell-Queen's MBA students.

The search for full-time employment has been ramping up for everyone. A lot of us are feeling a bit under the gun with graduation just over 3 months away. The current economic condition is not helping, but there are still people getting interviews and finding jobs. However, our numbers are definitely down from pervious years.

I had a conversation with the director of our program and spots for next years class are filling up fast! 64 spots are filled compared with 32 at this time last year! There has been some talk about how to accommodate more students (ie 2 classes of 50 students), but who knows what the administration will decided. I do know that they will not let anything compromise the quality, which is good for the students, but it puts the administration in difficult situation. I think expanding the program to that size would be ideal. It would still be small enough that everyone would know each other, but the increased size would allow Queen's to attract speakers and employers that require a larger audience before they will come a school. Only time will tell what they decide. (Update: article from The Star (Toronto) on rising MBA applications in general)

(My apologizes to the visiting student whom I talked to on Friday. I did try to find you afterwards, but you disappeared. If you have any other questions please e-mail me and I would be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.)