closeEvents & Promotions
| Last visit was: 23 Apr 2024, 15:11 |
It is currently 23 Apr 2024, 15:11 |
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
09:55 AM PDT
-11:00 AM PDT
10:00 AM EDT
-10:30 AM EDT
10:00 AM PDT
-11:00 AM PDT
02:00 PM EDT
-03:00 PM EDT
03:00 PM PDT
-04:00 PM PDT
07:00 PM PDT
-08:00 PM PDT
15 Oct 2018, 05:02
| FROM Nomadsmba: Interview prep… |
|
Preparing for the Tuck interview took a lot of research and speaking to a current student. If you can also get access to alumni you should take advantage of this. The first thing I did was to go on MBA forums to search for all the possible questions I could be asked and prepared answers for them. I also decided on the ‘scenario’ to use for certain types of question e.g. “tell me about a time where you showed leadership.” Remember that you could be asked for instances at work or outside work so don’t just focus on work related responses. I won’t bore you with the exhaustive list but will tell you what I got asked. The questions I am 100% sure you will get asked and I got asked are: Why an MBA? This is a question I have discussed previously with you and is also the title of one of my blogs. You have to convince them you have thought through why you want to do an MBA and how it is the logical next step. This kind of follows on to some cases where you also get asked “Why now?” with the the “Why an MBA” question. In answering the “Why an MBA?” question you will usually find yourself answering the “Why now?” question as well. Walk me through your resume. This is a standard question and was the one I spent a lot of time preparing for. You will be surprised how tough preparing for this question is. You want to go through your timeline starting with the earliest e.g. I always start with “My name is ….. and I was born in ….. I graduated from the University of …. ” I then go on to talk about my different professional roles. When talking about your roles it is important to highlight your key achievements in each role. I used the STAR approach (Situation, Task, Action, Result). There are a number of websites that offer advice on this that are just a google search away. You do not want to spend more than 2 mins going through your whole resume. You also want to go through a number of dry runs where you record your voice and listen back. It took 20 attempts to get to a point where I could do the walk through in 2 mins. The other questions I got asked were “What do you think of Hanover”, “What will you contribute to the Tuck environment”, “Give me an example of when you had to deal with a difficult individual at work”, “What has been your biggest achievement so far.” The interviewer had a genuine interest in where I was from and wanted to know what the biggest difference was when I moved back home after being abroad for a number of years. The Tuck interviewer was very friendly and the interview was more of a conversation. You however do not want to get too relaxed and should always remember this is a formal interview. This was a virtual interview due to my location. Tuck send you a calendar of all the available slots and I was allowed to pick one that was convenient for me. A second year conducted the interview and they contacted me before the interview date to provide their skype number. You should do a dry run under interview conditions and consider the following:
I think the interview went well but I will just have to wait till decision day to know. I am yet to hear from Ross or McCombs |
15 Oct 2018, 06:02
| FROM Nomadsmba: The age old problem… |
|
I have decided to write on this as its one I get asked all the time and is also one that has always been at the back of my mind. As you would have noticed from my profile, I am in my mid-thirties. I had initially decided to just do a Masters in Finance (MSF) at McCombs which is a 10mth intensive program. In addition I would have been allowed to work in the States for 3 years as the course will be STEM eligible in 2019. I had given up on the idea of a full time MBA as I thought I was too old. I definitely don’t want to do an online MBA as I think the benefits to me will be minimal while a part time MBA was not an option as I am not resident in the States. The average age of most MBA classes in the US is 28. Of course this means you have candidates on either side of 28 but if you drill down to the age range, you will find the upper range to be 34/35 which will suggest I will, more likely than not, be an outlier in any program that takes me. From speaking to a number of admission officers from Tuck, Fuqua, Cornell, Darden, Stern, the general feedback is age is not a factor for them. What is most important to them is your reason for wanting to do an MBA and how you will contribute to the program. A lot of them will tell you about a 40 year old they had in one of their classes. But when you go ahead and look at different posts, you will hear a lot of talk on why recruiters prefer candidates between the ages of 28 and 32. This generally revolve around the demands of investment banking and consulting being for much younger people and being too old for a leadership development program. My conclusion is that you should just apply to the school of your choice. The most important factors are why you want to do an MBA and why you think this is the best time for you to do it. If you go through this process and still feel a full time program is the best choice for you then just go ahead and apply. You might want to research the age range of various full time programs to see which one suits your age profile the most. Try and make the most compelling case for their program through your resume and essays. No one can tell you what will be going through the mind of the admission officer that will process your application. You just never know! |
17 Oct 2018, 02:02
| FROM Nomadsmba: GRE vs GMAT |
|
I know this was a subsection in an earlier blog – Before the application windows open… – but I did a bit more research and let’s just say it left me nervous. Most schools will tell you that they do not have a preference for which test a candidate takes and treat both equally. All the admission officers I spoke to also echoed the same sentiments. However when I researched this a bit further, the data left me confused and I will tell you why. So I got an average GRE of 320 (Q158, V162). This is the 68th percentile for Q and the 91st percentile for V. I wasn’t too please with the quant results but this was after a couple of attempts. If one isn’t too careful, you can end up spending a lot of money redoing tests believing you can do better the next time round. When you use the GRE to GMAT converter provided by ETS, this equates to a GMAT score of 630. I was left crushed. As you will see when you look at the top MBA programs, you need a score of over 730 to be competitive. You always get told that MBA admissions teams consider the entirety of your application and no one area carries more weight than the other. Let’s just say this hasn’t made me feel any better. I was also a bit confused in addition to being crushed. I then thought, if Iuse my percentiles and apply them to the GMAT I would have a total score of 710 (Q47, V40). However this is very different to how the converter calculates. There are a lot of technicalities in how they compute the conversion but in looking at a lot of the articles that compare the GRE and GMAT, the general conclusion is that for quants, the GMAT is tougher and for verbal, the GRE is tougher. I can go on and on as to why I do not feel the conversions are appropriate but I know a number of you will tell me to just study harder and get better marks! Most MBA schools do not publish the average GRE scores of their MBA classes. MBA Crystal Ball however provides some insight. The fact that schools do not publish their average GRE scores also adds to my worry in that they believe these are generally weaker than their GMAT equivalent which is a shame if true. Unfortunately this is one topic I do not have an opinion on as all the information out there is just conjecture. The only useful information will be from admissions teams but they do not provide any. Even if they did it will surely vary from school to school. Again you will find a lot of material out there and most of which isn’t in favour of the GRE. I however do believe that you should take the test you are most comfortable with and give it your all. I will take the admissions officers at their word in that it’s your all round application that matters. You also have the opportunity to bolster scores you do not deem strong enough by taking additional verbal and quant classes. I for example have taken professional accountancy courses. A friend also made me aware of this course that is run by Berkeley. At $825 it is not cheap. There are also much cheaper courses run by Udemy and Coursera that are good. I will however discourage you from submitting the results from these classes if they are not strong. I have already been invited to interview by Tuck so that should count for something. I guess we will know better come decision date! As always I welcome any feedback or insight into the topics discussed. I am happy to put my hands up and accept that I do not know that much when it comes to MBAs. All I provide here are my thoughts and experiences. Have a wonderful day! |
18 Oct 2018, 11:13
| FROM AUSJ: Introduction |
|
I’m making this blog hoping that it others may find useful during their MBA Journey. A bit about me; I am Australian with; 4 years experience in Consulting , a below average GMAT, and significant experience in Asia targeting T10 US Schools as well as INSEAD / LBS. |
18 Oct 2018, 11:13
| FROM AUSJ: R1 Strategy and Essays |
|
Last week was my final application for R1 (Duke) and has finally given me some time to breathe and start writing this blog. The schools I applied to R1 are as follows;
Why did I chose these schools? I wanted schools that ;
As for the essays, I cannot understate how draining writing and editing essays is, particularly if you are applying to many schools. As mentioned, I’d originally planned to apply to 7 schools in R1 but only ended up applying to 5. I also started writing them very late in the application cycle (mid-August) which gave me 6 weeks max for Duke and only 4 weeks for LBS. Thankfully I began with Ross and the 3 mini essays as well as standard career goals essay formed a solid base for the rest of my applications. Once I had my career goals and why MBA story nailed, much of the other essays were significantly quicker, i.e LBS and Haas. The essays I spent the most time on where definitely Duke and Tuck. Duke’s 25 random thing seems easy but is actually incredibly challenging. I consider myself to be a fairly interesting person with a lot of unique experiences but still struggled once I hit the 20 mark. Tuck’s ‘Nice Essay’ was also very difficult. Explaining in detail a time when I helped someone else succeed in 500 words took a lot of reflection and introspection, something that I found much more challenging than the traditional why MBA essay. Key Takeaway Start with career goals and why MBA essay first and get a solid story locked down. You should be able to use this as a base for all other schools. Then move onto the personal and reflection essays allowing yourself significant time for introspection. |
18 Oct 2018, 19:02
| FROM AUSJ: Journey to Tuck Part 1 |
|
To self initiate or not? So Tuck has always been one of my top choice schools ever since I began researching MBA programs. The tight knit community, outdoor focused location, strength in consulting, and focus on international experiences (TuckGO) made it very very appealing. Tuck is a little different to other schools in that you can actually self initiate an interview with the school. If you don’t self initiate then you have to be invited from the adcoms to interview. I always considered Tuck somewhat of a reach for me due to being below the GMAT average and because of this, I didn’t actually self initiate an interview in NH. I decided it wasn’t worth the risk of 2k USD , 30 hours of flying and 3 of my prized annual leave days (Asia doesn’t value annual leave compared to Australia) on a potentially fruitless endeavor and instead, I hoped for an interview invite. I didn’t make this decision lightly. According to some data analysis on gmatclub , GMAT Club Data Crunch, interviewing at tuck gives you an admission chance of 42%. This in comparison to their admit rate of around %20 suggests that you basically double your chance of admission simply by visiting Tuck and interviewing. Thankfully, to my surprise, I received an invitation to interview just 5 days after application deadlines. I was shocked that Tuck was able to get through my application so fast and decide that I was worthy of an interview. This filled me with a bit of confidence that my application strategy and essays were quite strong. Adcom Initiated Interview The adcom initiated interview lists 3 different interview options;
After checking where the hub cities where, I realised most of them were in India and South America That rules out option 1. I also really dislike skype interviews as I am way too awkward and never sure where to look. Option 2 ruled out. That only left me with option one – to visit Tuck in person. It was clear at this point that Tuck was at least somewhat interested in my application so I have decided to take the plunge and visit Tuck in person. My interview and class visit is in the first week of November. Unfortunately due to a hectic work schedule I have less than 24 hours scheduled in Hanover but nonetheless, am very much looking forward to visiting in person. Next steps Flights are booked, hotel in NYC is booked and Airbnb in Hanover is booked. Time to spend the next 2 weeks prepping for my interview. |
21 Oct 2018, 23:02
| FROM AUSJ: R1 Update and LBS Interview Details |
|
Unexpected but welcome results To be completely honest I’m surprised how well R1 has gone for me. Not to humble brag but so far I have received interview invites to 4 out of the 5 schools I’ve applied to, all scheduled over the coming weeks
The last of the interview invites to come in was from Haas, which was the one I least expected. Haas acceptance rate is about 12% which is around the same as MIT Sloan and Harvard and only properly beaten by Stanford GSB at a grueling 6%. Haas admits about 50% of people that they interview so at this point it looks like I have a 1/2 chance of getting into Haas. LBS and the non blind interview From what I understand so far, all school interviews will be blind. Meaning that the interviewer only has access to my resume. One school that does not follow this process is LBS. My understanding is that the LBS alumnus has access to my full application, including essays, transcript and resume etc. I’m not sure how this changes things, if at all, but I am curious to see if there is any difference based on this information. LBS and the video interview In addition to an Alumni interview, LBS also asks applicants to do a recorded interview with 2 questions – one known question and one unknown question. “As part of the video component, we will ask you to answer two video questions, one of which will be: 1) What will you gain from the London Business School MBA Programme that you won’t gain from another MBA programme?” As mentioned in another post, I really dislike video interviews but nonetheless, they are a necessary component of the application process. I’ve been delaying this video interview and now just have one week left to complete it. Time to start preparing I guess . |
06 Nov 2018, 08:02
| FROM Nomadsmba: McCombs Interview |
|
Apologies for the mini-break. I know I started off by writing a number of blogs in a short space of time and then went AWOL. I promise you this was not intentional and was work related. I was put on a new engagement on very short notice. It has been an intense couple of weeks having to deal with a very difficult Client but I now have some breathing time which I have decided to use writing this. The only upside to this is I can say I have more examples for my interview on ‘dealing with difficult Clients and how I handled the situation..’ I was invited to interview with McCombs and scheduled the online video interview for Tuesday (23rd October). McCombs allows you three options to interview – On campus, Alumni or online. On campus was not a possibility as I am located on a different continent, I initially opted for the Alumni but when I tried to find one in my area none came up so I was left with the online option. I had a conversation with a family friend who is a current first year student at McCombs to get an insight into the culture and his experiences at McCombs. I cannot emphasise how useful this is. Speaking to the admissions officers is one thing as they will always tell you the positives of the school but having someone who will be frank with you is invaluable. If you are wondering, he had mostly positive things to say about McCombs. His only concerns were not specific to McCombs but the MBA in general. These included the workload – especially for those who do not have an economics or finance background McCombs send you a link which can be activated at the time scheduled for the interview. You are not able to access the link beforehand. This obviously got me nervous as I wasn’t sure of its compatibility with my laptop (it is a work laptop so there was a risk of it being one of the many links that are blocked) and wasn’t able to test it before hand. I took my personal laptop with me as a precaution. At the time of the interview I was able to log in with no issues. The internet connection was intermittent on my end which got a bit frustrating but I had already explained this to the interviewer beforehand and she was understanding. The interviewer was a second year student who made every effort to put me at ease. She asked the usual questions:
|
06 Nov 2018, 13:02
| FROM Nomadsmba: Rice Interview |
|
A couple of days after the McCombs interview I had my Rice interview. I chose to have them a couple of days apart because I knew I would have some capacity and didn’t want to risk scheduling the Rice interview for the following week and something coming up at work (and that is exactly what happened). I have been most impressed with Rice as a whole even though I wasn’t able to meet anyone from their admissions team. For example, I noticed that their website did not have any information on the experiences of the spouses of students and this is something my other half wanted some insight on. I reached out to them asking where I could get this information. The admissions officer provided a detailed response where she shared a number of ways spouses are made to feel a part of the community. I then got a message two days later from a second year student saying the admissions officer had been in touch informing him I wanted to know about the experiences of the spouses of MBA students and that he would be happy to have a chat with me. He is married and shared the experiences of his wife. He was very generous with his time (call lasted about 30/40 mins) and the conversation went really well. This all happened before the interview. Like McCombs, Rice send you a link to access the interview at the time given. The interviewer was a second year student, and has been the case with my interaction throughout the process with Rice he was very pleasant. He asked all the same questions as with McCombs. What was interesting about him was he also shared his own experiences of the questions he asked which enabled me get to know him better. He encouraged me to ask him as many questions as I could and we have kept in touch since. Rice are a very small, tight knit community and this has been very apparent in my experiences with them. |
12 Nov 2018, 10:02
| FROM Nomadsmba: Ross Interview |
|
I had my Ross interview last week. At one point, I thought I was going to miss it. The calendar on my phone reminded me that the interview was meant to be at 4:45 pm my time. It had been a really busy day on my Client’s site and I was only able to get away at 4:30 pm but then got stuck in rush hour traffic. The interview was meant to be via Skype. I received a ‘wave’ from the Ross Admissions team at 4:40 pm on Skype at which point I was still on the way to my office where I had booked a meeting room to have the call. I finally arrived at 4:50 pm and was convinced I had screwed up. Things only got worse when I tried to call them back on Skype and there was no answer. I then decided to call the Admissions Officer who had confirmed the interview details. She was really lovely and told me my interview wasn’t for another hour. So for some reason I got my EST conversion all wrong. This was a blessing in disguise as I was able to compose myself and do some last minute preparations. The interview seemed to go well. Ross are the only school who had said I should have a form of identification ready for the call but they didn’t ask for it. The interview was with a second year student. She started off by telling me about herself (her background and what she was doing at Ross). She was on a dual degree programme (I will talk about this later). We then went into the standard MBA questions: Tell me about yourself? Why you want to want to do an MBA now? Why Ross? etc. We then got to the scenario based questions and she asked me about:
|
14 Nov 2018, 04:02
| FROM Nomadsmba: Me, Myself & OPT |
|
This is probably the most concerning issue for us international students. Getting a job in the US post MBA. I constantly ask myself what the job prospects are as an international student? How my lack of US citizenship/green card impacts my chances of landing internships? What will be the impact of the current climate – Trump and all – on me? From my interactions with current students and alumni these concerns are valid and is something we as international students seriously need to consider when applying to business schools in the US. As international students on F1 status, we are entitled to the OPT. What is OPT? According to Wikipedia, OPT (Optional Practical Training) “is a period during which undergraduate and graduate students with F-1 status who have completed or have been pursuing their degrees for more than three months are permitted by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to work for one year on a student visa towards getting practical training to complement their education.” If you complete a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) designated program, and meet other specified requirements, you are allowed to apply for a 24 month extension after completing your OPT, giving you a total of 36 months of OPT. So what is the point of all this information I am giving you. Let me try and break it down. Firstly, my chances of landing an internship are reduced because I am not a US citizen/green card holder. This is the feedback I have received from current international students. One student I spoke to chose her location because they have a large number of tech startups and technology is her passion. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to land an internship with any of them as they do not consider international applicants. Companies argue that they employ graduates from business schools for the long term and the investment is huge. The risk of losing you after one year because you are unable to stay beyond your 12 month OPT is one they are not willing to take. Secondly, if you are seriously considering working in the US for more than the 12 month OPT, you want to look for a way to get a STEM designation. This is where it gets complicated. Not many of the top business schools have STEM designated MBAs. From my research, University of Rochester became the first school to offer a STEM designated full time MBA. This only happened in 2018. There are a number of schools who already offer specialty Masters of Science degrees that are STEM eligible. McCombs have advised their MSF program will be getting a STEM designation this year. A number of schools offer Master’s degree programs in Data Analytics and Supply Chain Management that are STEM eligible but these are all specialised degrees. University of Wisconsin offer a Supply Chain Management specialization, which is STEM-designated and so do a number of other schools listed in this article. This then brings me to my next point. This then got me thinking “Isn’t there a way to combine these into one program?” Let me expand. The curriculum for a lot of the MBA programs I looked at have core classes in the first (and sometimes second) semester. After this, are electives where you get to choose your classes. Some schools offer concentrations in Finance, Marketing, Operations, Real Estate etc. where you have to sit a number of specific classes to graduate with a concentration in those areas but generally you are allowed to design the program to suit your interests. I began to wonder if, for example, I go to McCombs, can I pick as my electives all the classes in their MSF program and graduate with a dual degree (MBA/MSF) which will then give me the STEM designation I desire? I have asked this question and am waiting for their response. Remember I mentioned in my last blog that I will expand on the dual degrees and self initiated degrees at Ross, Michigan. This is an advantage I believe Ross has. They have a number of dual degree programs for the MBA but more importantly they allow students initiate their own dual degree programs so you can pick a program that will qualify for STEM and do it in tandem with your MBA. As previously mentioned, you will have to apply to and be accepted by both programs you are interested in. As an FYI, their Masters in Supply Chain Management is STEM eligible and can be done in conjunction with an MBA. I personally believe it is important to consider all this while having discussions with potential MBA schools. We need to look beyond just the strength of the school or the program but also the opportunities that will exist in the US (if this is where you will like to work) post graduation. You should ask schools about their STEM eligible programs, whether there is a way to tailor these around an MBA and employment opportunities for international students. Do not think these are no go areas. Schools are aware the applications from international students on the whole has dropped in recent years and they are happy to have conversations on how this can be improved. |
26 Nov 2018, 19:02
| FROM AUSJ: An update from LBS and looking ahead |
|
So it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve been super busy with work and preparing and under taking interviews and what not I’m absolutely stoked to have received an offer from LBS a few days ago. They sent out the decision via email around 7pm GMT Ever since I first started researching schools I’ve been attracted to the flexibility and diversity of the LBS program and every interaction I’ve had with current students / alum has been fantastic. My LBS alum interview was fairly intense and probably the most intense interview I’ve had so far (my interviewer was very friendly though) . It lasted almost 2 hours and the interviewer really deep dove into my work experience and asked a lot of behavioral questions. There was nothing completely left field about the interview by my only advice is to know your resume inside out i.e be prepared to talk in detail about anything on your resume, and have a few different examples about difficulties in the work place or overcoming challenges. As for the case study, I felt that I didn’t do well in it (compared to consulting case studies I’ve done) , and there is no way I could have prepared, but at the end of the day, I got an offer so It must not have had that much of an impact on my profile. Having an offer in hand from a school like LBS definitely takes some stress off waiting for the US schools and I can go back to try to focus at work. Waiting for the LBS decision was probably the 2 most unproductive days of my life Looking Ahead
|
09 Dec 2018, 12:02
| FROM lillianmbula: So the TB is finished!!!!! |
|
So the doctor gave me a clean bill of health…….almost. I will be fine once the side effects of the drugs end. Tentatively this week ? I pray it does. Either way I have decided that I will begin studying for the gmat again. GMAT take 2 here I come. |
11 Jan 2019, 02:02
| FROM Nomadsmba: Results… |
|
Happy New Year All I know its been a while since I posted and I apologise for that. A lot has happened since I last posted. Round 1 decisions came out in December and the results are… Ok let me talk about a few things before I tell you how I fared. Waiting on decision day has been one of the worst wait of my life so far which caught me by surprise. I could not sleep well the nights before. It did not help when I found out that the schools tend to call accepted applicants a day or two (four days in some cases) before the decision date. Being in Africa where I am on average 6 hours ahead of the schools I applied to, I had a very nervous wait on decision day. It’s a very nerve wracking and unpleasant experience and I will not wish it on anyone. It will be easy for me to say try not to remember the dates the decisions come out, steer clear of MBA Livewire (ClearAdmit) and GMAT Club forum in the days leading up to the decision date but from my experience these are easier said than done and I failed miserably. I had both websites up and running and clicked on them almost every 20 mins. The worst feeling is when you find out they have started calling applicants and you hear nothing by the end of the day. All I can say is try and find things to distract you on the day but as long as you have internet access, this might prove almost impossible to do. So to the results… The first decision date was Tuck, Dartmouth. The decision date was the 6th of December. As this was my first decision date, I was not even aware that accepted applicants got called a day before. So when I checked on MBA Livewire on the 6th and saw people had received calls the day before I was pretty despondent. It also didn’t help that I had received a call from an unknown number the day before. Tuck do not release their decisions until 5pm EST which is almost midnight here so it was a day of complete agony. As you will probably have guessed at this point I was not accepted. I was put on the waitlist. The next decision date was Jones, Rice. Their decision date was the 14th of December. By the time it was getting to Jones’s date I had already gotten over the disappointment of Tuck and felt I was better prepared so imagine the shock when I was driving back from work on the evening of the 10th and received a call from the Director of Admissions saying I had been accepted to the program and had received a partial scholarship. I was pretty ecstatic and happy I had made the decision to pull up on the side of the road before taking the call. The next decision date was McCombs, U of T. Their decision date was the 18th of December. I got a call on the 17th from a first year MBA giving me the good news that I had been accepted to the program with a partial scholarship. The scholarship amount was however significantly less than that of Jones. The next decision date was Ross, Michigan. Their decision date was the 19th of December. As I did not receive any call on the 18th, which was the day they had already announced they would notify all international applicants, I knew I hadn’t been accepted. This was another agonising wait and I was surprised at how disappointed I was on not hearing from them. It only made me realise how much I wanted to go to Ross. When I logged into the portal on the next day I realised I had also been waitlisted. So I got accepted into two of my choices and waitlisted at the other two. I rejected the option to be waitlisted for Tuck and accepted the waitlist for Ross. Regarding how much of a long shot being waitlisted is, I have to be realistic and focus on the two offers I have received, Jones and McCombs. As discussed in my earlier blogs, McCombs has a better general MBA program while Jones has a strong Energy program due to its location in Houston, Texas. Making a decision has been relatively difficult and I will elaborate in my next blog. |
22 Jan 2019, 09:02
| FROM Nomadsmba: Why so difficult… |
|
Why has making a decision been so difficult. This is because there are so many thoughts that run through your head, a lot of which have their own merits. Relationship: I definitely have a stronger affinity with Jones than with McCombs. Throughout the recruiting process, I have felt Jones have gone out of their way to make me feel very valued. A lot of the communication has been with their Director of Admissions who has been wonderful so far. This has not been the case with McCombs. There are however others who will argue that McCombs have a much bigger pool of applicants and as a result cannot provide the same level of interaction. I have however had regular contact with Ross who have a large pool of applicants and are a lot more personable than McCombs. Location: A lot of people will tell you Austin is a more interesting city than Houston with lots to do especially for a young couple (yes I still consider myself young). You then get others who tell you that Houston has the headquarters of more Fortune 500 companies than Austin. I also mentioned in an earlier blog the fact that Houston is the centre of the Oil & Gas industry in the US which could prove important for me. I know my fiance will prefer settling in Austin but she has had a ‘frank’ conversation with me where she made it clear she will be equally happy with either decision. Living costs: Austin is a more expensive city than Houston. I have to take this into consideration as I will be taking out a significant loan to fund the program. This has not been as key a factor in my decision making but has been something I have thought about. Program Strength: This is another point I have raised previously. McCombs has a slightly better ranking than Jones for its MBA program. I however know that Jones has strong Energy and Finance programs which are my interests and therefore important to me. I could go on about other factors, recruitment, students, experiential learning but I won’t as I do not believe there was that much between the two schools from conversations with current/past students and from my research. The two main factors that made me choose Jones are the quality of genuine interaction I have had both with the admissions office and students and their location as the energy hub. |
27 Jan 2019, 14:02
| FROM nickrubick: Review #1: LBS Sloan Next Steps.. |
This is the first in a series of posts that will cover my thoughts and feedback on anything that I have ‘consumed’ during my LBS journey. This arrticle covers the main tasks of note given to a Fellow prior to starting the Sloan programme. At this point it is probably a good idea to point out that as I was a British Citizen already living in the U.K when I enrolled onto the programme, I have not had to go down the U.K application process. I therefore can’t advise on this. However, if you do need some advise then I will be happy to put you in contact with one of the many fellow Sloan candidates that did go through this porcess. Contact me via email or LinkedIn and I will be happy to help. So of the main tasks needed to be performed other than obtaining a U.K visa, we can break these down into two main groups: 360 degree feedback and traits questionaire, and pre-course study material.  360 Feedback and traits questionaire You will receive access to these around November time.. The ‘5 Step Traits’ questionaire is simply a quick quiz asking how you sit on various items. Your answers to these questions will create a persnality profile that you will use to identify any personality areas that you would like to develop while on the Sloan programme, so it is advisable to answer these as honest as possible. Other than having to honestly assess yourself, there is nothing to be concerned of here. The 360 degree feedback process is a little more involved. You may have already completed a 360 feedback as part of your organisational performance assessment. I hadn’t, and so this was a new experience for me. The crux here is that you are relying on your fellow colleagues and other stakeholders (clients etc.) to fill out a feedback form for you. To add an element of complexity, the feedback is anominous and so you wont know who has and who hasn’t completed the feedback. You will need a minimum of seven responses in order for the feedback to be valid, and upto twenty. I would suggest pick as many people as possible, and try and pick people who are more likely to complete the feedback, thus to minimise the risk of you not having enough respondants.  Pre course learning materials You will received these around Mid-December, meaning that you will ahve around three weeks to complete them… Plagerism, this course is fairly straight forward, and very useful, it covers how you need to reference researched materials in all of your assignments to ensure that you don’t get disqualified for using other poeples’ work. I fully expect to go back and use this course as reference material (no pun intended) throughout my study year to ensure I stick by the rules. This course doesn’t take long (approx 2 hours) and is very straight forward.  Accounting, OK so this is abit of a cop out here, but this is by far the most time consuming course to complete, and I can’t advise on it as I didn’t complete it! This course takes approx 12 to 15 hours to complete, and there is a minimum pass mark that you must acheive. I didn’t take this course, because there is also an option of am accountancy competency test, if you pass this quick (approx 30 minutes) test, then you are done, happy days. Before moving on, it is worth me saying that I haven’t had much exposure to accounting in my profesional life, and I atribute me passing this test to the fact that I had spent the last financial year compiling the accounts for my business, and also from the accounting module in the London School of Economics MBA essentials course. So my advice here would be to jump on an online accounting course ahead of time (I’m sure that there are many out there that are free – try Coursera.org if you are stuck). This will likely mean you also pass the aptitude test, and won’t need to take this damned pre-course over Christmas when you are probably spending quality time with your loved ones before you fly to London for a year. If you already have an accountancy background, well all the better. Data analysis, this course is not mandatory, but it was quite brief and light so if you have a spare hour or two you may as well go through it. This course is fairly straight forward, and goes through the principles of data collection and statistics, covering the terms used (mean, median. mode, standard deviation etc.) and what they mean (again, no pun intended). So in summary, nothing to be too worried about here, your main concern will be ensuring you get enough respondants for your 360 degree feedback, and that you pass the Accountancy aptitude test. |
27 Jan 2019, 15:02
| FROM nickrubick: Review #2: Coursera.org, online management and energy courses |
This is my second reviews post, and covers several of the online courses provided by coursera.org that I have completed. Reflecting my aspirations beyond Sloan, these have been a combination of managment and energy courses.  Managing the Company of the Future. Created by LBS | Julian Birkinshaw.  Admitedly, it has been some time since I took this course, but from memory it was quite fresh and insightful while being light enough to easily digest. This course covers the diferent organisational structures used by modern companies, ideals used to motivate staff, and common problems encountered by businesses due to inappropriate organisational structures and processes. It is worth saying here that Julian is a very highly regarded professer as well as the deputy dean of London Business School, so considering that this course is free I would strongly recommend it. The Maneger’s Toolkit. Created by Birbeck University of London.  This course for me was not so crisp, there were some useful areas covered, such as conducting interviews, giving feedback, and facilitating meetings, however the content seemed a little tired and dated. I would strongly recommend the Managing the Company of the Future course ahead of this., as they are both free. Global Energy and Climate Policy. Created by SOAS Universtity of London.  This course was fairly decent, it offered a lot of reading material around the subject, and went into some detail as to how energy policy is changing around the world, and what structural changes are necessary in order to ensure transistion to a sustainable society. My only gripe is that because it is political in nature, the contect is fairly high level and conceptial in nature, although that said there are some quote insightful interviews etc so if you are interested in this subject I would recommend you having a look. Our Energy Future. Created by the University of California San Diego.  I have saved the best until last here, I really, really enjoyed this course and found the content incredibly informative. I would recommend everyone at least watch the opening two videos on the first module, these were superb. The only downside to this course was it was quite time consuming – I think it may have taken around 15 hours of my time by the time I finished, and this is without consideringh any of the written essays (if you opt to take them – you can just opt to watch the video content). Key take homes for me were:
|
21 Feb 2019, 15:02
| FROM nickrubick: Pre-programme prep continued: LBS Sloan Next Steps.. |
|
Following on from my written piece on my ‘intended’ preparation work, this article covers the main tasks of note that MUST be completed by a Sloan Fellow prior to starting on the course.. At this point it is probably a good idea to point out that as I was a British Citizen already living in the U.K when I enrolled onto the Sloan programme, I have not had to go down the U.K visa application process, and therefore I can’t advise on this area. However, if you do need some advice then I will be more than happy to put you in contact with one of the many fellow Sloan candidates that did go through this process. Contact me via email or LinkedIn and I will be happy to help. So of the main tasks given by LBS that are needed to be performed other than obtaining a U.K visa, we can break these down into two main groups: 360 degree feedback and traits questionnaire, and pre-course study material. 360 Feedback and traits questionaire You will receive access to these around November time.. The ‘5 Step Traits’ questionnaire is simply a quick quiz asking how you sit on various items. Your answers to these questions will create a personality profile that you will use to identify any personality areas that you would like to develop while on the Sloan programme, so it is advisable to answer these as honest as possible. Other than having to honestly assess yourself, there is nothing to be concerned of here. The 360 degree feedback process is a little more involved. You may have already completed a 360 feedback as part of your organisational performance assessment. I hadn’t, and so this was a new experience for me. The crux here is that you are relying on your fellow colleagues and other stakeholders (clients etc.) to fill out a feedback form for you. To add an element of complexity, the feedback is anonymous and so you wont know who has and who hasn’t completed the feedback. You will need a minimum of seven responses in order for the feedback to be valid, and up-to twenty. I would suggest pick as many people as possible, and try and pick people who are more likely to complete the feedback, thus to minimise the risk of you not having enough respondents. Pre course learning materials You will received these around Mid-December, meaning that you will have around three weeks to complete them… Plagiarism, this course is fairly straight forward, and very useful, it covers how you need to reference researched materials in all of your assignments to ensure that you don’t get disqualified for using other peoples’ work. I fully expect to go back and use this course as reference material (no pun intended) throughout my study year to ensure I stick by the rules. This course doesn’t take long (approx 2 hours) and is very straight forward. Accounting, OK so this is also an area where I can’t really give much feedback, this is by far the most time consuming course to complete, but I didn’t actually complete it! This course takes approx 12 to 15 hours to complete, and there is a minimum pass mark that you must achieve. I didn’t take this course, because there is also an option of an accountancy competency test, if you pass this brief test (approx 30 minutes), then you are done, happy days. Before moving on, it is worth me saying that I haven’t had much exposure to accounting in my professional life, and I attribute my pass grade to the fact that I had spent the last financial year compiling the accounts for my business, but also from the knowledge gained from the accounting module in the London School of Economics MBA essentials course. So my advice here would be to jump on an online accounting course ahead of time (I’m sure that there are many out there that are free – try Coursera.org if you are stuck). This will likely mean you also pass the aptitude test, and won’t need to take this damned pre-course over Christmas when you are probably spending quality time with your loved ones before you fly to London for a year. If you already have an accountancy background, well all the better. Data analysis, this course is not mandatory, but it was quite brief and light so if you have a spare hour or two you may as well go through it. This course is fairly straight forward, and goes through the principles of data collection and statistics, covering the terms used (mean, median. mode, standard deviation etc.) and what they mean (again, no pun intended). So in summary, nothing to be too worried about here, your main concern will be ensuring you get enough respondents for your 360 degree feedback, and that you pass the Accountancy aptitude test. |
21 Feb 2019, 15:02
| FROM nickrubick: Review #1: Coursera.org, online management and energy courses |
|
This is my first of many intended posts that will cover my reviews of courses and other educational content that I have used or read. This particular post covers several of the online courses provided by coursera.org that I have completed. Reflecting my aspirations beyond Sloan, these have been a combination of management and energy courses. Managing the Company of the Future. Created by LBS | Julian Birkinshaw. This course was fresh and insightful while being light enough to easily digest. It covers the different organisational structures used by modern companies, ideals used to motivate staff, and common problems encountered by businesses due to inappropriate organisational structures and processes. It is worth saying here that Julian is a very highly regarded professor as well as the deputy dean of London Business School, so considering that this course is free I would strongly recommend it. The Manager’s Toolkit. Created by Birbeck University of London. This course for me was not so crisp, there were some useful areas covered, such as conducting interviews, giving feedback, and facilitating meetings, however the content seemed a little tired and dated. I would strongly recommend the Managing the Company of the Future course ahead of this., as they are both free. Global Energy and Climate Policy. Created by SOAS University of London. This course was fairly decent, it offered a lot of reading material around the subject, and went into some detail as to how energy policy is changing around the world, and what structural changes are necessary in order to ensure transition to a sustainable society. My only gripe is that because it is political in nature, the content is fairly high level and conceptual in nature, although that said there are some quote insightful interviews etc so if you are interested in this subject I would recommend you having a look. Our Energy Future. Created by the University of California San Diego. I have saved the best until last here, I really, really enjoyed this course and found the content incredibly informative. I would recommend everyone at least watch the opening two videos on the first module, these were superb. The only downside to this course was it was quite time consuming – I think it may have taken around 15 hours of my time by the time I finished, and this is without considering any of the written essays (if you opt to take them – you can just opt to watch the video content). Key take homes for me were:
|
21 Feb 2019, 16:02
| FROM nickrubick: Digital transformation in the aerospace industry… Really?? |
 A brief post to offer a bit of food for thought to my comrades in the Aerospace industry. I’m sure you will find this helpful, and if not immediately helpful, then at least it will offer some food for thought…  One of my first modules on the LBS Sloan has been ‘Leading the Market Driven Organisation’. I won’t shy away from the fact that I didn’t get much exposure to the principles of marketing while in the aerospace industry; most clients are either government or large multi-national organisations. You don’t often find people wanting to but an aeroplane, or an aeroplane component, because they have just seen an advert on SkySports, or because someone dropped a leaflet through their letterbox. Considering the above, you can forgive my initial response to the recommendation to “transform my industry through digitisation”, as stated in my course text book. I’m sure many of you currently in this industry would agree; this sort of thing doesn’t apply to aerospace. Or does it…  ..It was only a little later in the day, when I started to think about paint points and problem areas that I had a Eureka! moment. So for my last client, on my last project, by far the biggest pain point was managing suppliers and late delivery of purchase orders. Unfortunately there are suppliers out there who seem very intent on winning orders and making promises, but not so good at delivering parts. One particular supplier had promised some components within 10 weeks, but we were still pulling our hair out due to non-delivery way beyond this time. Now, in the business to consumer world, there are already several simple tools used to prevent poor supplier performance. For individual consumers, consider the ratings systems put in place by organisations such as Amazon and Ebay. For suppliers offering loans and mortgages, consider Experian and Noddle. This is when the penny dropped. Why isn’t their a business to business rating system? Even better, a transparent tracking system that links to each business’ MRP system and shows what orders are overdue. If banks and financial institutions can do it with individuals’ bill payments for credit ratings, then it must be possible for other industries. This application would have a profound affect; as businesses that were unable to fulfill their orders as promised would not likely win future work. This would reward productive and well run organisations and encourage other businesses to follow suit. I predict that over time this system would improve productivity of the entire industry value chain…  …After all, we can put man made objects into space, and fly objects around the globe heavier than double-decker buses, with an unparalleled safety record. So surely we can create a simple system that protects all buyers, and drives all suppliers to improve productivity ? This is crying out for an organisation or entrepreneur to grab this opportunity and actually really transform the aerospace industry through the use of tech that has been readily available in everyday life for over a decade.  So thinking a little smaller and immediate, how can the individual take advantage of this right now? Well while we wait for this platform to arrive, there must be demand for a small consultancy service that organisations can use to provide supplier due diligence prior to placing critical purchase orders. This happens already, but it usually focuses on how solvent the supplier is – will they go bust before they produce my parts? Instead they should concentrate on how many current orders with other clients are overdue – if they can’t fulfill current orders, then they will not likely fulfill yours either. Finally, a low hanging fruit to consider when you are writing proposals. Why not place some data at the back of your next proposal that shows your historic delivery performance? I have never seen this in a bid for work from a supplier, yet when I am mid project with muck and bullets flying all around me, time is the most important consideration. So why not try it? If you win more work, then feel free to buy me a beer!  The above is all a brief brain dump of my thoughts before I forget them. I would be really happy to talk further on the topic, or any ideas that you readers may have in relation to this. Do you think you could help make any of the above a reality? Then please drop me a message! |
|
|
||
Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Wednesday, Apr 24, 2024 11:30am NY / 3:30pm London / 9pm Mumbai Watch earlier episodes of DI series below EP1: 6 Hardest Two-Part Analysis Questions EP2: 5 Hardest Graphical Interpretation Questions  ➡️ Sayali narrates her experience of succeeding on the GMAT after 4 attempts & 2 years of preparations with 32 percentile improvement on GMAT verbal.
Tuck at Dartmouth
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
 |
