Fall Social

Well I've survived one test so far this week.  A couple more the next couple days, then I'm in the clear for a little while.  Fall is in the air.  The weather is starting to cool down a bit and the leaves should start changing colors soon.  Should be some great photo ops in the next couple of weeks.

The GSB Fall Social is Thursday night.  If you or someone you know is interested in pursuing an MBA or some other graduate degree through the Walton College of Business, then this is the event for you.  It's a good chance for prospective students to talk to current and former students, as well as professors and faculty.  You can gain a lot of perspective from these events.  I went to this event last fall and it was nice to meet some of the students and future classmates.  Besides the foods pretty good too.  So if you're interested come on down to the Powerhouse just off Dickson, it kicks off around 6:00.

In sports news, the Razorback football team narrowly won this past Saturday defeating Texas A&M.  However, Alabama lost which means the Razorbacks may have a shot at winning the SEC West.  A road trip to Auburn this week is the next hurdle for the football team.

Moving right along, the CRE Conference last week was fairly interesting.  Lots of great speakers, most notably Kevin Roberts of Saatchi&Saatchi, Bill Simon of Walmart, and Bob McDonald of P&G.

Well I better get back to studying, two more tests coming up.  Wish me luck.

Let the Tests Begin

It's that time of the semester again when tests start showing up.  This semester is going by fast, I can't believe midterms have arrived already.  I had one test yesterday for Dr. Kali's Emerging Markets class.  The test was a normal Dr. Kali test, several short essay questions.  If you are interested in international anything, I would definitely encourage taking this class along with International Management.  These two classes pair together nicely.

I have another midterm on Monday for Accounting, very exciting.  The following week I have a couple more and then things settle down for a bit.  Next Wednesday is the annual Center for Retail Excellence Conference.  There will be some good speakers at this all-day event, including Walmart US CEO Bill Simon and Procter & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald.  Most of the MBA class will be attending this event, so if you're there look out for us.

Exciting Busy Week

This week has been pretty interesting and it's only Wednesday.  The Razorback football team is 3-0 after beating Georgia in an exciting game that came down to the last 15 seconds.  This moved them up to #10 in the AP Poll.  This Saturday they will be hosting the #1 team in the country, Alabama.  This is the first time since 1979 that to top 10 teams have played in Fayetteville.  The game will be nationally televised by CBS.  Kickoff is at 2:30 CDT.  As you can see, the week holds still more excitement.

Monday night we had our annual internship poster networking event.  Each MBA Candidate prepared a poster of their summer internship and stood by them as employers and others walked around to examine each poster.  The event is hosted by the Walton College Career Center (W3C), they did a great job putting it all together.

Tuesday was the College of Business Career Fair which was held in Willard J. Walker Hall.  The building was packed.  Prospective employers were stationed on the first two floors of the building.  There were around 70 companies represented at the event.  This was one of my best career fairs.  Usually I just walk around mingle with the company representatives and grab a few goodies from their tables and move on.  However, this year I went a little more proactive, pushing my own agenda.  I had resumes in hand and a nice elevator pitch to boot.  Many of the companies there were looking for interns and undergrad students graduating in May.  As I went around pitching my spiel, I told them what I was looking for and they stood there thinking where I would fit into their companies instead of vice versa.  I think made some good contacts.  I am hoping to have standing offers before the end of the semester.  That may be optimistic with the current economy, but you gotta stay positive.

Friday I am headed over to check out JB Hunt.  They are interested in hiring up to five MBA students to bring into their managerial development program.  This could be a great opportunity for our class. 

From my perspective it appears the job market may be improving.  We have many talented folks in our MBA Class, and I'm sure we'll all have offers by graduation.  Again I am being optimistic.  I do believe that some people in the current MBA Class will go on to do great things.  Only time will tell.

4th Week of Fall

This semester seems to be flying by.  It's already the beginning of the fourth week of the semester.  We're almost a fourth of the way through the semester and mid-terms are just around the corner.  Classes are going alright so far.  Leadership and Ethics are taught by the same professor and are both very interesting.  Accounting is accounting.  Nothing fascinating but necessary in the world of business.  We're starting our first group project in that class this week.  Emerging Markets is also interesting especially since I took International Management this past summer.  The two classes provide unique perspectives.  Consumer Marketing Research is very hands on.  We have to design a research project and execute it this fall.  The big class I have for this fall is New Venture Development.  We are still exploring ideas for that class, but we have a very capable team.  All-in-all the semester is coming along as expected.

As far as work goes, it's been busy.  Working part-time makes it difficult to get things done.  I've also taken on more responsibility lately.  The experience will only help in the future as graduation gets closer.  The job hunt is also starting to hit full stride.  We have a couple networking events coming up, and recruiters are coming on campus.  We'll see if the job market is recovering first hand.

First Week of Fall

It is still technically summer, but the open of the fall semester has also brought some relief in terms of temperature.  We had several days in a row of triple digit heat, thank goodness a cool front came through taking temperatures down to the 80s.  This week temperatures are back up but not up to triple digits thank goodness.  Enough about the weather, so this first week...

Well the first week is pretty much like any first week.  All our professors went through their syllabuses and course matrices.  No big surprises there.  The classes seem to be fairly interesting.  I'll give a more detailed review of classes in a week or so once we get into some material.  We've also been getting into groups this first week.  This has been different from last semester.  We've gotten to pick some of our own groups, which can be good and bad.  The big news is that our entrepreneurship team has come together.  We have five members, six if you count our programmer.  It was a little last minute, but I am very happy with the outcome.  The group includes one full-time MBA student, three MMBA students, and one MAcc student.  We all have different backgrounds which adds to our diversity.  We haven't finalized what idea we will be working with yet, but there are several good ones we are looking at. 

Outside of class, I've played more golf this past week than I've played the prior 8 months.  My golf game is a little rusty, but not as bad as I thought it would be.  I'm hoping I will have more time to play this fall.  The college football season starts this coming weekend and Arkansas fans are very excited about this season.  It should be a great year for the team.  The offense will be one of the best in the country, but the defense is a bit of a question mark.  We'll see what happens.  Go Hogs!

Vacation Before Fall Semester

Last week I took a week off to take a road trip with my girlfriend, Sarah.  We drove over 2,200 miles.  It was well worth it though.  We made stops in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.  We started the trip last Saturday by heading to Decatur, AL.  We stayed one night there and visited with an old friend of mine, EJ.  It's been a couple years since the last time I saw him and he now has 13 grand kids.  It was nice to catch up with him.  I used to work with EJ at the International Paper mill in Courtland, AL.

We had breakfast the next morning at EJ's house and then headed down to Auburn, AL.  We stopped there for lunch with another friend, Trey.  I've known Trey for about 8 years.  We used to hang out a lot when I lived in Alabama.

I had seen Trey last year so it hadn't been as long since visiting with him.  After lunch we left Auburn and headed down to Valdosta, GA.  We stayed in Valdosta a couple nights.  Its been about a year and half since the last time I was down there.  Most of the guys I worked with work a rotating shift so it's difficult to see everyone.  I did get a chance to go in the paper mill and visit with a couple different shifts. 

After Valdosta we headed down to Saint George Island, FL.  It's a very nice place with uncrowded beaches and a slow pace of life.  We got down there unpacked and relaxed.  We checked out some of the local sites and walked the beaches. 

We stayed three nights and enjoyed every minute.  And now it's time for the Fall semester to start. 

The Close of Summer

I am wrapping up internship and looking forward to the Fall.  This is my last week working full-time for Walmart.  It is bitter-sweet.  I've really enjoyed my time there and will miss seeing everyone.  However, I am also looking forward to the start of the semester and finishing up my MBA.  I will stay on at Walmart as a GA working 15 hours a week.  I looked at my schedule and looks like I will have Tuesday and Thursday afternoons free, as well as Friday.  I am also looking forward to the football season.  This may be the year for the Razorbacks to break loose and do something very special.  The state is electric with anticipation. 

The summer internship is a class and part of the class involves homework which includes the executive summary, internship evaluation, presentation, and poster.  Most of this is due tomorrow.  I'm currently wrapping all that up.  As I do that I reflect on the experience and it's been great.  If you are thinking of getting an MBA or any other education for that matter, remember that what you get out of it all depends on what you put into it.  The more you put in the more you get out.  I realize now that I could've gotten much more out of my undegraduate work, but at the time I suppose I lacked the maturity to take advantage of all the opportunities afforded to me. 

Anyhow, I will be taking a week off prior to the start of the Fall semester to relax.  I will be heading to Saint George Island, Florida.  This is beautiful and tranquil place.  The beach is clean, no oil, and it's not crowded.  The pace of life there is slow.  The sound of the crashing waves and the steady Gulf breeze create an ambiance that is indescribable.  Needless to say, I can't wait.