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JUNE 2003 MBA JOURNAL: B-SCHOOL REVIEW Pablo Velazquez: Reflections on the Overall MBA Experience "Since my last entry, much has happened in my life. It's been a rollercoaster ride with its respective peaks and valleys." Since my last entry, much has happened in my life. It's been a rollercoaster ride with its respective peaks and valleys. We were expecting our first child at my last entry but my wife had a miscarriage. It was tough but someone very important once told us, I am with you always, even to the end of time. Now, thankfully, we are celebrating the birth of another first child. She is one month old as I write this, and beautiful. It turns out that this one came at the right time, with only two weeks left in the program. Finals were a bit tough, to say the least. The second half of the program was more difficult than the first due to the fatigue factor. My wife was fed up with not seeing me; I was tired from no sleep and too much work. The house we bought a year and a half ago is still a construction site. What's more, only about half of the graduating class has a job offer. You've read about the class scheduling and the mentor board. However, I spent the last half of the program networking and hunting that elusive interview. For part-time or "Professional" students, Cox requires your employer to sign a letter authorizing you to participate in on-campus interviews. Of course if you're paying your own way, no letter is required. I was able to get a letter without incident and proceeded to sign up for my first mock interviews. I was successful in getting a real interview with 7-Eleven, headquartered in Dallas, only to hear that familiar mantra, "We have no positions available at this time." Frito-Lay was only interested in graduates from Northwestern and Stanford for marketing positions and Blockbuster and Pizza Hut didn't have a structured MBA recruiting program for Cox grads. We were also given access to the national eRecruiting system of which Cox is a participating member. The Career Management Office posts application deadlines, on-campus interview schedules, career fair dates, and networking opportunities. It also publishes our resume in an online book for employers all over the country to view. Had the economy not been in such an anemic state, I'm sure more companies would've come searching. There seemed to be more finance jobs available than anything else. Last fall, there was only one marketing position for every three finance positions listed. General management or HR positions were only scarcely posted. As a professional student I couldn't attend many of the networking functions because most were held during the day while I was at work. So there I was, an MBA candidate with no paid experience in marketing, little opportunity to network on campus and few precious moments to job search on my own. Nevertheless, I was determined. The career fair in February yielded a welcome opportunity. Neiman Marcus, the country's leading luxury department store, made an appearance. They were not at the previous fair and they came with real opportunities. I met their representative, who was also a fellow MBA candidate at Cox, and was immediately attracted to the position they were looking to fill. I left my resume and was asked to take an online test. A few days later I was invited to interview with the HR department. I made the first cut and was invited to come back for the second round. A limo ride, three meals, one test, and five interviews later, I was done with what Neiman Marcus calls "the assessment". Most notably, we had breakfast with the CEO of Neiman Marcus Group and lunch with the CEO of Neiman Marcus Stores. Meeting with CEOs was a first for me. What warmed my heart was that I understood exactly what they were talking about and was able to contribute intelligently to the conversation. It was my first formal introduction to the world of the Fortune 500 and I wanted in! The level of excellence that is expected is exactly what I have been looking for. I will come back to my job hunt later but I digress to write about the program once more. I finished the program with a personal best GPA, a cabinet full of class notes, and half a bookcase weighed down with expensive textbooks. The speed of the module format at Cox is so great that I recommend you save everything; no doubt I will have to review. One of my biggest complaints had to do with the classes being only seven weeks long. Many of the larger classes have both A and B modules to extend any given class to the full 14 weeks but when you get to your electives, almost all the classes are only one module long. We were told that this is the national trend in B-schools but I'm not sure prospective employers are served as well by breadth rather than depth of knowledge. Luckily, having built up my business library, I am ready to start reviewing when necessary. One other complaint with the program was the scheduling of classes. Granted, Cox is only two years into this transition to "modules", but there has been a lot of grumbling about class availability from semester to semester. I've also heard that the summer class selection is paltry. However, with those few negatives, the networking database alone was worth it for me. Sure, I look like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings compared to my pre-grad school portrait and I am about $55K in the hole, but I have a Rolodex full of numbers that I can call on to deepen and expand my professional horizons. I am also looking forward to getting to know my study group members better outside of school. B-school was one of the toughest yet most academically fulfilling experiences of my life. It has been a joy sharing my stories with you. And by the way, Neiman Marcus made an offer that I accepted. This summer I start my post-MBA job as a Senior Merchandise Planner in Dallas. It's been a long road from the barrio in Chicago where I was raised. So to all those other little five-year-old kids growing up in the inner-city speaking only Spanish, ˇSí se puede! 
BW MALL
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