networking

One of our LAUNCH seminars this week was a great presentation by Will Kintish about networking. Again, another very funny, but very instructional IE presentation... He taught us about the six groups you find in any business/social event and which ones we'd have the most success with in approaching. He taught us, seemingly obvious, but highly effective short phrases to "dump" the rambling, boring person or the ignorant, obnoxious person. He challenged us to never again be the wallflowers at a gathering, but rather to go and talk to them all. And of course, we were all instructed to Linkedin it up. 

I was lucky to have that night, and again the next night, two networking events to try out my new skills... The first was a classy dinner with the new U.S. Ambassador to Spain and Andorra Alan D. Solomont thrown jointly by the Georgetown Club of Madrid and the Yale Club. I pointed out to my friend the different groups and we surveyed the situation... At the end of the night, we both got a few business cards, rubbed elbows with the Ambassador, but most importantly, had a fun time talking politics.

The next night was the monthly meeting of Democrats Abroad of Madrid. I had an "ah-hah!" moment as Mr. Kintish would say, when one woman I was talking to mentioned that she was starting to do some independent consulting on corporate social responsibility issues with companies in Spain. Ah-hah! I want to do that! I offered my limited time and resources, and my business card, we'll see what comes of that... 

All in all, as I've said before, I think networking is really important. Sometimes it's fun, and sometimes it seems more like a chore. I'm glad IE helps us with these "soft skills." It's bed time! Two more days of LAUNCH to go!

a long weekend in Madrid and the first day of LAUNCH

I spent this past weekend in Madrid. Many travelled north and south, but to save my budget and my internship-preparedness I stayed in the city to get some stuff done. I managed to get a few emails out to current students in my intake that previously worked in consulting firms I'm interested in interning for... still have to work on my CV and cover letters, the time is already not sufficient, even with a four day weekend! But, it should be noted what a great resource my fellow IE students are already proving to be. Just hearing their experiences with the consulting firms I'm interested in is very helpful. So besides internship prep, I had a good night out dancing near Plaza del Sol and a great next day with fellow classmates wandering around Retiro Park and attending the free MTV European Music Awards Katy Perry concert Sunday. I feel like I'm starting to make some good friends, and that is always a good feeling!

Today was our first day of the LAUNCH program. The LAUNCH program is the first part of the Accelerate program. The Accelerate program goes on throughout the IE MBA program through mini-workshops on soft-skills but is composed of three two-week periods, one before each term of core classes. So this first Accelerate block, LAUNCH, is about the following elements: creativity and action learning, inspiration and leadership, soft skills, careers, and awareness. I won't go too into detail in order not to ruin the surprise for future intakes, but I think the workshops are fun, a great way to meet more classmates, and IE has brought in some really qualified people to instruct some non-traditional, but useful b-school skills.