Kicking the Dot-Com Habit

"After seven years of scrambling at tech start-ups it occurred to me that I needed to find a new frontier"

by Danvers Fleury

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Danvers Fleury
UNC - Chapel Hill
MBA Class of 2008

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Let's get one thing straight: I'm not Superman. I lack an alter ego, washboard abs, and now, a steady daytime job. If I applied to the Daily Planet I'd be lucky to make Jimmy Olsen. If given superhuman flight powers, my costume would need to be partially made out of Dramamine. Yet, I have two things in common with the Man of Steel: Most of the international students in my summer classes at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler think that I look like Christopher Reeve, and upon graduation I plan to save the world.

My name is Danvers Fleury, and I am a member of UNC at Chapel Hill's daytime MBA class of '08. Since you're spending time reading MBA Journals, you strike me as the kind of person who is taking their search for the right school seriously. Congratulations, you're already ahead of the pack. Many folks have no real idea of which program is right for them and in worse cases still have no clue of how to ascertain that information. They apply to five schools based on ranking and geographic location, and sometimes never even visit. You're probably looking for more than that.

This journal is a good starting point, but please don't stop here. Talk to people and ask them what their experience in an MBA or MBA search has been. Talk to your peers, former bosses, everyone and anyone who can lend insight into the true character of a program. Visit that program. Pretend that you're an undercover detective when you take campus tours. Who looks suspicious? Watch current students interacting with each other. Ask lots of questions and don't shy away from putting tour guides on the spot. People may say that their school is all about teamwork, leadership, or integrity, but analyze their course offerings and program structure, and see if that's true. One school may be ranked No. 12 and the other No. 9, but they are acclaimed for very different reasons. Know what those reasons are before you apply. At the least it will enhance your interview and at most it can save you from a potentially bad fit.

Alas, before I give too much advice, please allow me to introduce myself.

Danvers?

You can't pronounce or comprehend my first name. I don't blame you, as it's a weird one. I grew up in Acton, Mass., 40 minutes west of Boston, and was named after a small town that near the site of the Salem witch trials. My father Donald, whose brothers were named Dean, David, and Dennis, wanted to keep the D-trend going but was running out of names. My mother, once a child of large proportions named Patty, wanted to name me something that wouldn't lend itself to childhood rhyming taunts. Thus, I'm the only Danvers you've heard of. You may now spend two futile minutes trying to come up with a rhyme.

Panda and Rivers don't really count.

Okay, Flanders does.

I attended Boston College from '97 to '00 as an undergraduate majoring in general management with focuses in human resources and marketing. When I began my time at BC, it became obvious after a semester that if I did not make a bold move, I might have to attend a more affordable school. My father was considered critically ill at the time, and when he did not die, I lost a major part of my scholarship.

Remember Beanie Babies?

Out of desperation, I took the little money that I had and launched an online business. My girlfriend at the time was an artist, so I began looking into art. Many people who sold art online often misspelled the names of the artist; these auctions tended to get very little action. Other times, sellers wouldn't include a photo of the art itself, which killed the selling price. I began bidding on mismanaged art auctions, and putting them back up for sale with a better ad before I even received the item. This led to fast, handsome profits, but relied on market forces totally outside of my control and was impractical, time-consuming, and not scalable.