Managing the MBA Busy-ness

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Even further with such a jaw-dropping multitude of wonderful exchange and joint-degree opportunities, the incentive to leave HEC Paris in the final semester to grow academically elsewhere is high. For these reasons, my interactions with the class above me have been limited, but have made an impression. Last year's two conference organizers, both of whom recently graduated in December, helped and continue to help my co-organizers and me as we plan this year's event.

While club and extracurricular activities at HEC Paris keep us busy, they offer us chances to learn experientially and act entrepreneurially. So after a semester, I muse that perhaps this busy conference-organizing, club-running environment that we join as HEC participants creates one of the program's greatest strengths. HEC provides a nearly risk-free setting for us to cut our teeth on real projects and further develop our interests. And as an added benefit, the clubs and their activities allow for interaction within and between different intakes, as well as between the student body and the school's staff. So, I hasten to add that I think the clubs work to strengthen the cohesiveness of the HEC MBA community.

Sense of Mission

Regarding my last four months, the ever-changing nature of our schedule—we would have accounting for three hours on a Monday one week and one-and-a-half hours on a Thursday the following week—strikes me as the only aspect that required adjustment on my part. A creature of habit, I find settling into a groove a little easier if my schedule does not change drastically from week to week; however, on the positive side, each week was different, adding a bit of freshness to my routine.

Now as I head into my second semester, which for me is my next-to-last semester since I will pursue a joint degree with Tufts, I almost feel a sense of mission as I have much to accomplish, including developing and finalizing my summer plans.

The HEC career management center keeps us students busy with information seminars on what to expect from different career tracks—finance, marketing, consulting, etc.—talks on how to choose a career best fit to your own unique skill set and interests, as well as countless company presentations from McKinsey & Co. to the International Finance Corp. and the GE Experienced Commercial Leadership Program. Between the internal self-assessment encouraged by our career center and the variety of talks it has organized, my head spins with new ideas about what I can do with my future.

Pursuing the joint degree with Tufts will allow me one more summer of practical professional exploration before I jump straight into the full-time professional world, so for better or worse, this summer I feel less constrained and am leaning toward pursuing less mainstream opportunities. Specifically this summer I aim to secure business-related project-based work in a developing country, something I have wanted to do for a while. HEC offers several options for the summer "personalized phase," such as the "Mission Action Project," which offers students a unique opportunity to gain field experience in a challenging environment under academic supervision. Because in the future I envision myself doing international economic development work in emerging and developing markets—likely for larger companies or foundations—I see tremendous value in pursuing such project-based experience now. In the coming months I hope to add structure to this plan and find an appropriate project that allows me to put my MBA to use.

Bilingual Class

In addition to the research I'll devote to finalizing my summer plans, I will also embark on a new semester with new classes, several of which, including management accounting and corporate finance, will be in French. I chose to come to HEC in part because I wanted to perfect my French, the only foreign language I have devoted ample time to learning. So four minutes before the deadline to choose between the bilingual or English section, when my neighbor Rob convinced me with his enthusiastic account of how much his French improved in the bilingual section, I decided to go for it.

In closing 2009, and with it my first semester at HEC Paris, I realize how much I have learned and how many new relationships I have formed. As I head into 2010 and my second semester at HEC Paris, I look forward to new challenges, opportunities, and relationships to form.

Christine Marie Shepherd is enrolled in the full-time MBA program at HEC Paris with an expected graduation of 2011. Before business school, she managed about 100 conferences and events annually for the Center on the U.S. & Europe at the Brookings Institution. She is fluent in French. Earning her undergraduate business degree at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business, she graduated cum laude in 2005.

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