{"id":464,"date":"2017-01-24T14:23:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-24T18:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/?p=464"},"modified":"2017-01-26T11:14:44","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T15:14:44","slug":"learning-the-abcs-of-the-mba-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/learning-the-abcs-of-the-mba-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The ABCs of the MBA world"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Mike Weppler<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
The one-year MBA class of 2017 on the field in Notre Dame Stadium. (Photo courtesy Hannah Fronczak)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the new year arrived, I was prompted to reflect on 2016, highlighted by my experience as a\u00a0one-year Notre Dame MBA student<\/a>. It has been intense and challenging, yet fun and rewarding.\u00a0<\/span>I have learned the ABCs of surviving and thriving in the MBA world, and I hope these lessons\u00a0will help you\u00a0to succeed\u00a0in your\u00a0Notre Dame MBA experience:<\/span><\/p>\n

A for A<\/strong>cademics<\/strong>:\u00a0Wanting to take every course is natural<\/span>. Unfortunately, that leaves little time for anything else. To focus, I asked these questions: What is most important to learn for my career? How do I supplement my strengths? How do I shore up my weaknesses? What will be an interesting experience to cement valuable skills in my mind?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

B for B<\/strong>eing<\/strong>: Rule No. 1 is to own your well-being.\u00a0<\/span>The most critical error in my first seven months here was\u00a0not regularly scheduling time to\u00a0maintain my personal well-being. Life in a top-tier MBA program means an unusually diverse array of opportunities in your inbox. Saying \u201cno\u201d is a struggle but necessary to survive.<\/p>\n

C for C<\/strong>areer<\/strong>: While you do not want to neglect job opportunities, you also want to stay true to your purpose for earning an MBA.\u00a0<\/span>I came to\u00a0school singularly focused on a career transition into consulting. Though I was tempted to apply for other roles, I recognized that was not why I came\u00a0to Notre Dame. Meanwhile, a good friend started out focused on consulting\u00a0yet open to other opportunities. He has since discovered he is a much better fit on another career track.<\/span><\/p>\n

D for D<\/strong>eep Friendships<\/strong>: Cultivating valued friendships adds depth to the MBA experience.\u00a0<\/span>Seven months after arriving on campus, I know each of my one-year classmates on a first-name basis, and many I now\u00a0consider friends. Though B-school acquaintances are often considered for their networking value, I have found the greatest value in selecting a few close friendships.<\/span><\/p>\n

E for E<\/strong>xtracurriculars<\/strong>: S<\/span>electing activities that both aid in career preparation and enhance the overall MBA experience can be challenging. Limiting your number of activities to two or three\u00a0gives you greater motivation to succeed in each one and enhances the power of extracurricular-related stories you tell in job interviews.<\/span><\/p>\n

About Mike<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Mike\u00a0lived in Cincinnati, Ohio,\u00a0prior to business school. He is concentrating in consulting and business leadership, and attended Miami University (Ohio)\u00a0for his undergraduate studies.\u00a0His\u00a0favorite Notre Dame memory\u00a0is working with peer teams to come up with creative solutions to “live” cases. You can find Mike on\u00a0<\/em>LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Mike Weppler As the new year arrived, I was prompted to reflect on 2016, highlighted by my experience as a\u00a0one-year Notre Dame MBA student. It has been intense and challenging, yet fun and rewarding.\u00a0I have learned the ABCs of surviving and thriving in the MBA world, and I hope these lessons\u00a0will help you\u00a0to succeed\u00a0in … Continue reading “The ABCs of the MBA world”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2294,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3836,171158,170780],"tags":[182674],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-career-services","category-extracurriculars","tag-mike-weppler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}