Wow, it's been a little while since my last entry. Sorry for that! After orientation things definitely picked up. We didn't have quiet the ramp up we had over the summer; it just started with full force. Even with the lack of ramp up it has been manageable, you just have to take it week by week.
So what is it I'm doing with my time? Here's a quick overview of the classes for this term:
Financial Accounting
Surprisingly I am enjoying accounting quite a bit. We'll see how that changes when the mid-term grade comes back, but it's going well so far. If you're not familiar with the difference between financial and managerial accounting (I wasn't), financial is more concerned with investor-facing information. We spend most of our time on balance sheets, cash flow statements and income statements.
Economics
Econ has been a mix of trying to remember what I learned in HS econ and applying some more quantitative approaches that I hadn't covered before. It's your typical MBA-prep on economic decision making... don't forget the opportunity costs.
Communications for Managers
A lot of frameworks for presenting and writing effectively, with a lot of practice thrown in. We regularly have to read articles and concepts in communication and then get called on for "hot seats" where we give 90 second impromptu presentations on the class for those topics. We also have a weekly lab were we meet in small teams and practice the topics a bit more. An added bonus is delivering longer presentations while being videotaped; nothing better than watching yourself present to lose your appetite.
Organizational Processes (OP)
Behavioral science at its best. Why people do the things they do, how workplace culture evolves and why some strategies work and others don't.
Marketing
Another class I am enjoying way more than I thought I would. I've always been interested in marketing research, but
our professor this term is fantastic and is expanding my interests into other areas of marketing as well.
Logistics Systems
One of my favorite classes this term, Logistics Systems is a taster's choice of forecasting, inventory management, transportation planning and other logistics topics. It has sufficient depth in each topic but also covers a wide variety of topics. We've wrapped up forecasting and demand planning so far and are nearly through some interesting applications of the EOQ model.
Integrating the Lean Enterprise
A very open-ended class focusing on lean practices in more than just one functional area, like manufacturing. We discuss how to create stakeholder value across the entire enterprise, as most initiatives rarely effect just one function. I say open-ended because the class is largely focused around a long-term group project with a local company. Your project largely drives the tools and level of enterprise that you'll be studying in depth. Good times!
Proseminar
This is a weekly seminar, mainly for LGOs, were we have a speaker from industry come in and talk about topics relevant to our program. We've had speakers from education administration to Apple's supply chain.
Econ, Accounting, Comm, OP and Marketing are part of the MBA core that we take with the rest of the Sloanies. The Sloanies also have to take Data Models and Decisions, but our summer courses covered much of that. We, instead, get to take a few more electives (e.g., Logistics, Lean) to fill out our schedule.
The classes and pro-sem have been great so far, and certainly provide enough to keep you busy. However, there are plenty of ad hoc activities that fight for your remaining time. Clubs, committees, speakers, bar nights, company events... you have to learn to choose wisely.
Then there's blogging too; I need to fit that in more regularly.