Since term 1 has started (this past Monday), I've slept a total of probably 17 hours in 4 nights. The excitement and newness is keeping me from getting stressed out, but adjusting to life again with school (vs. work) homework is a process! LOTS of reading.... for all seven of my term 1 core classes: Managerial Economics, Marketing Fundamentals, Entrepreneurial Management, Organizational Behavior, Information Systems, and the numbers classes as I'm calling them (even though all the classes involve numbers), Quantitative Analysis and Financial Accounting.
I can't say which is my favorite yet (we just started!), but I'm pretty sure I will learn a great deal from all of them. I'm looking forward to getting to know my group mates better, to writing a business plan, to being able to develop strategy using tools I could never have understood before like income statements or human resources frameworks, and to learning - I like being smart!
I think where I'll have to concentrate on managing my stress, more so than with schoolwork, is the job search. It's hard not to compare yourself to others. And, even though Career Services and the students from the previous intakes make you feel positive, like the opportunities are out there and you just have to grab them, internship and job applications add a whole new layer of homework. My short-term strategy: 1. Keep meeting new people. They keep telling us to network for a reason - every day I feel like I meet someone new who worked for a consulting firm or company I'm interested in. 2. Get a million emails sent! This weekend. Now I need to follow up with these people I've met, and with all the Georgetown and IE alums available to me online via alumni databases. Another recurring piece of advice I've heard over and over again at my short time at IE is to ask good questions. If I ever get any of these informational interviews, they'll be my first chance to ask some of those excellent questions to figure out what company fits me...
The during-the-week partying has definitely died down, although tonight I attended a big, important party - Thanksgiving! Ingredient shopping, cooking, and ticket sales took up a bit of my reading time this first week, but I love this holiday, so it was definitely worth it. Two out of the three previous years I was living in Torino, I brought the Thanksgiving experience to my co-workers in Italy. That involved pie baking the weekend before, planning out each night what I could cook ahead of time and where I could store everything in the fridge, reserving at the local butcher shop a turkey (because they had to go out an hunt me one, not a typical thing to sell/buy whole Turkeys in Italy), and taking Thursday off work to complete the masterpiece. Last year in Torino and this year in Madrid I collaborated with a group effort - much more fun, and fewer dishes to cook! This year, I am thankful for many things - the health of everyone in my family, the support of my boyfriend, but most of all, for having had the sense to choose this great 13 month experience at IE and to have met some pretty cool people so far.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!
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