Sunset at Retiro Park

After a day of studying class notes at the park my efforts were graciously rewarded at sunset.

- Please excuse the brevity and typos. Posting from my iPhone

Location:Paseo de Eduardo Dato,Madrid,Spain

Finals Round 2:

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I’ve said it many times this year: My LEAST interesting life here in Spain is my academic one. I’m fully aware of how irresponsible that sounds, but if I am to be perfectly honest, this is the truth. Of course it is the truth. I live in a European capital where people start their nights at 3am and each newly explored street yields a new bar or restaurant (some good, others not so much). The ‘living’ part of life comes easily here. That is why this second round of finals seems so difficult compared with the first.

The first round of finals seemed to really matter (as dumb as that sounds now). It was new. It was a first challenge. It was an opportunity to prove myself. Now it just seems like a whole lot of fruitless labor. Economics, Cost Accounting, Financial Management, Operations Management, Entrepreneurship, and Marketing Fundamentals(cummon!), they will all be over in 2 weeks whether I study or not. Of course this is a terrible mindset to have… or is it?

In reality I AM studying. Actually I am studying quite a bit. At first I thought I was studying for finals, but recently I found myself selectively choosing the content that interests me. When I am engaged I am ACTUALLY engaged; soaking it up and enjoying it. So finals week will be a pain in the @$$ for sure, but at least this time I will choose where to apply my efforts.

Well into the MBA program... what will change?

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I am now roughly 1/3 of my way through my MBA. The experience has been great; full of adventures, challenges, and incredible opportunities to meet interesting people. In a multitude of ways however the MBA experience has been different from what I had anticipated prior to starting. These differences will shape my actions and approach for the remainder of the program. In short business school is now more of a 'daytime activity' while I shift my focus more toward people and career planning.

So what is different and what will change?


Well for starters, after paying a truly sick amount of money to IE Business School for my MBA education I am quite underwhelmed by the overall quality of the program (particularly considering the impressive #6 global ranking). From the professors and staff to the general organization and service level, the 'official' program lacks a sense of real quality and genuine value. Maybe my expectations and standards are too high, but never the less my experience with the school cannot lead me to believe I will have much help landing my ideal post-MBA job. That criticism aside, I believe the IE MBA is still one of the best in the world, attributable to the 'unofficial' program created amongst the student community.

The benefits of this program come almost entirely from the quality and variety of the MBA participants themselves. It's the people. People from over 83 countries on 5 continents. People who have built strong global careers, people who have faced great challenges and overcome, people who have proven personal strength and vision beyond their years. It's the people that are the ends. The daytime activity of the MBA is nothing more than the means to these ends.

Of course my goal out of this program is to get a job... and not just new friends. This is why my second focus for the remainder of the program will be on my career planning, more precisely my next immediate job. In the most rational terms after all this is why I am here in Madrid - to further progress my career.

Therefore even when classwork loads up and finals are barring down, even when pressure mounts up and competition amongst peers intensifies, I am making a commitment to myself to focus on what is most important. For me, from my experience thus far, this means people and my career planning. I will be leaving the rest to fate.