Blonde MBADocumenting the life of a blonde MBA student in sunny California. Maybe some blondes DO have brains!

It’s that time…starting (I mean REALLY starting) the MBA internship search! An internship, for me, is 8 months out still, but it’s what most full-time MBA students come into the program already thinking about as our objective. The internship is a crucial part of MBA success, as it not only boosts our technical skills & experience, but is often the path to a full-time job upon graduation!

As I said, I’m just getting started…I’ve already been utilizing the resources of my career management center, getting my resume polished, attending networking events, participating in a mentor program, and attending professional workshops. This semester is also, for me, about widely “casting out my net” to research a number of industries & areas of interest, using Vault and online job postings, so as to narrow down my search and focus as I gear up to start applying next semester.

As I “cast out my net,” I’m not worried so much about what’s on my resume and my past experience, but I’m looking for jobs or job descriptions that best fit what I want to do, i.e. looking at a job & saying “a ha!” that is what I want to do. Now, I don’t always have the requirements, but looking at a possible “future” job can help me see what areas of my resume I need to boost via an internship and other external activities. Plus, even if I don’t meet the requirements, I can learn as much as I can now about that job to at least speak confidently about it as I’m interviewing.

It seems that MBA internships are fewer & more far-between than many full-time positions at major firms. That being said, they are probably the most important step to getting the job you want, both by gaining some technical experience and contacts in your industry and by determining if that industry is the “right fit” for you ahead of time! Thus, they require a little more effort right now…

For MBA internship search tips for next summer (starting NOW), check out this article  “I Know What You’ll Do Next Summer.” In the meantime, I’ll keep you updated on my progress, and welcome any advice you may have to give!!

In the spirit of Election 2008, I just got out of the movie “W,” the new Oliver Stone biopic of, who else, President Bush. All politics and views aside, I think the movie highlighted one of the most important aspects to consider when making a decision about any leader, whether a leader of your business or of your country: decision-making.

From my organizational behavior class, there are basically three theories of decision-making (WOW some of these “b-school theories” actually make sense, AND I remember them?!?). The first decision-making theory basically involves looking at all possible alternatives & reviewing as much unbiased information as possible to make the optimal, ideal decision. This is the best-case scenario, but there is often a lack of time and information to find this optimal decision. The second theory is in picking the first available decision that meets your decision criteria, even if better options are available to at least make a “satisficing” decision. While this method is faster, it may not be the most accurate and best decision.

The final theory has to do with using images and feelings to guide the making of a decision, using decision frames of past history and successes as well as a “gut-feeling” and intuition to come up with a decision in the absence of perfect information.  This ability is probably the best and worse kind of decision-making there is, depending on if your intuition is right or not! While any leader needs to have intution, it should also have some basis to it with as much information as possible.

Most decisions are not routine as leaders do not have any guidelines for how to make them and do not know what the outcomes will be. That said, leaders need to have a combination of these decision-making abilities to make the best decision possible given all time or resource constraints.

Using one theory over another (i.e. usually the very subjective intution or “gut-feeling”) is not the best method and should be closely scrutinized when evaluating who is going to be our next President (or next CEO)…

Josh Brolin as "W"

So, this week is the final midterm before finals, and FINALLY the last Saturday morning review session (at least for a couple of weeks)…the professors seem to like to schedule these midterm review sessions to get all of their class sections in one place and make me drive my butt all the way to school for 2 hours on a Saturday morning, coffee in hand…

Question: Is it bad when we learn more in these midterm reviews than we do in 8 weeks worth of classes?

Just give me the formulas, exact areas to study, quickly run through 1 of each of the problems, and send us on our way…and teach it right the first time!!! At least the Saturday morning is worth it…can’t always say the same for the weekly classes…

Tired of Midterms ~
Blonde MBA

As an MBA likely graduating into a recession, you’ve got to wonder how it will affect the job market we’re graduating into. Of course, as estimates have recession MBA’s earning 20% less over their lifetime, perhaps we should follow “Laid off by Lehman Brothers: One Broker’s Story” as below, on ways to cut back!

I promise I did NOT abandon this site! As you can probably see, October is the month for MBA midterms…and every other workshop, speaker, kick-off, mixer, holiday you can think of! I probably won’t get to post until next week again, because I have 2 back-to-back midterms that I have to give up my weekend to study for.

At least most of the midterms so far have come back with positive results. I think (and evidently the professors think) that GPA is not as important in the MBA program as in perhaps our undergraduate program. They seem to want everyone to succeed and grade us accordingly…

This does NOT mean that us MBA’s are not working our butts off to succeed on a weekly basis, participating in cases and projects (and not just for our particpation grade…OK at least most of us). Tests won’t matter as much in the real-world…being able to apply what we have learned and the work-ethic and interactions that got us there will.

So while I feel like an “adult” among all the younger 18-21 year old undergrads that attend the same school I do as an MBA (and the younger MBA students that seem to make up the majority of the full-time MBA program), I do NOT try to fit in…at least fashion wise…as much.

I do not have my 18-year-old body unfortunately (it all started with the freshman 15), but even if I did, I don’t think I would wear the current-fashion trends of tights, miniskirts, and sky-high heels to class on a daily basis (or a swimsuit in one faux-beach girl’s situation in my class…you’re an MBA for crying out loud…brunette I might add)! I also do  not prefer to wear skirts, button-up shirts, or plaid a la the St. Agnes uniforms of my high-school days and the ’90s.

What I do like? Being able to wear flip-flops & jeans after 5 years of professional dressing…for now anyway!

When school started, I mentioned having taken about a zillion personality tests, trying to answer the questions “who am I?”, “what’s important to me?”, “what career best fits me?.” Well, this week I got a little more insight into why these personality tests have some importance beyond just pinpointing the strengths & weaknesses that most of us already know we have (whether we use them to our advantage or not) and providing a start for effective leadership in our lives & organizations…

Simply put? Knowing who we are and what’s important to us allows us to (1) manage ourselves & the direction we’re heading, and (2) communicate & best manage others who will most likely have different personalities, goals, and values from us.

First, it starts with self-awareness of ourselves. Knowing what values we hold most dear can guide every aspect of our lives, from picking a job of importance to picking friends & partners who have similar values. Knowing ourself also has everything to do with how we behave, so by taking time to process information through our self-awareness, we can effectively RESPOND to situations in our lives rather than simply REACT to them — a key characteristic of both good communicators & hence, good leaders.

I guess I’ve always thought of personality tests strictly in terms of MYSELF, but the second part of this is recognizing what’s important to others so we can best manage & relate to them, being empathetic to what values they hold dear so we can respond appropriately. This heightens our (*buzzword alert*) EQ, a.k.a. Emotional Intelligence, being able to perceive & monitor the emotions of ourselves & others, thus lending to the respect needed of a true leader.

Like my new kicks? Before you ask, the answers are: no this is not the 80’s, no I do not have an argyle sweater tied around my neck, yes I feel like I’m a Seinfeld joke gone wrong, yes I am required to wear these on the tennis court & would not otherwise have picked these out. Oh, and yes, everyone else is wearing ‘black-soled’ running shoes that we were told we cannot wear!

Can you tell I’m self conscious? As if my tennis skills (or lack of) don’t bring enough unwanted attention!

They better improve my tennis game…anything to maintain a hobby that brings a welcome study break & some much needed exercise!

Phew it’s been a few days, but I think I’m still recovering from taking 2 tests last week! In the next 2 weeks, I have 3 more midterms, 2 projects, 4 workshops, 2 other events + ongoing course work…but I guess that’s the MBA program for you!

What with all the financial concerns of the economy, my subscription of BusinessWeek these last 2 weeks has had nothing but Wall Street & related concerns. In continuing to figure out how this might affect me personally (as in the fact that MBA’s graduating into a recession/depression make on average 20% less over their lifetimes *yikes*), some good news…

“Gutsy marketers spend into the teeth of a recession” according to the article Best Global Brands. With current economic difficulties, the marketing budget may be an easy target for cost-cutting, but many companies use the recession to “get a leg up” on the competition in the area of brand building.  While everyone else may be cutting down on their marketing strategies, those who spend can theoretically lure in more customers via advertising, then when the recession smooths over, come out on top in terms of brand identity & loyalty.

Of course, as consumers in this same recession may also be cutting back their spending & quickly changing their tastes & habits to cheaper tastes & habits (hello McDonald’s [coffee], goodbye Starbucks), marketing research (*ahem, my chosen area of MBA focus*) will be crucial to make sure that if marketing dollars are spent, they are spent very, very wisely!

frappucino or crapuccino?