Four months wiser

So far, it has been a wonderful journey at School. Being an international student, I still remember our first overseas student orientation session, where the class spoke more than twenty different languages. Throughout the orientation week, we were advised to network and learn things not just inside classroom but outside as well.

Let me start with what we learned through the course material. I know that I will find this difficult to forget over the next many years of our life: DeBeers. I am sure that by the end of the MGMT 5150 course, most of batch mates knew more about DeBeers’ HIV/AIDS strategy than many of the firm’s employees. Some of my peers were so stressed by DeBeers discussions and meetings that they pledged to never buy a diamond in their life. But most of us will definitely agree that each DeBeers session taught us how to make meetings more efficient and constructive. Apart from the Skills for Leadership, we did study all finance and organization behaviour subjects. I must say it was a challenge as well as fun studying all these subjects.

School life has also taught many singles staying on campus to cook. In the first semester, most people in their class introduction said their free-time activities consisted of traveling, reading and playing sports. But in the first week of second semester, most people said that their free-time activities now included cooking food and then enjoying the fruits of their labour. Before coming to School, I had never made a coffee, but now I can be qualified to be a world-class barista.

Next is the networking and partying. I know that many of the natural introverts struggled to break the ice with people from a completely different culture and corner of the world. Thanks to the gathering organized by GBC, our excellent cultural representatives and networking experts, we are now perfecting the art of networking. I strongly believe that the bonding and relationships built in an academic and informal setup can rarely be built in the work environment, where you are either evaluating someone’s performance or you are yourself being evaluated by your seniors.

So all my school friends, as we did in our first semester, let us continue to study and n/w. Only one sem has passed so far, and I am sure we have much more in store for us. Moreover, for many of us, it is the last chance to enjoy student life. So let us make the most out of it. Get involved, do lots of reading, enjoy meetings and attend GBC events. Thanks to all my friends who like my articles. Thanks to their cajoling that I wrote this article after almost three months. I miss all my friends back home and those working across different countries. Love you all. Cya. Do share your feedback and comments.