If it weren't for my MBA, I wouldn't be spending my time at work picking out baby clothes.

Let me clarify: If it weren't for my MBA, I wouldn't have had a shot at a brand management internship. And then I wouldn't be working at Nestlé USA. And then I wouldn't be working on a relationship management program. And then I wouldn't be responsible for leading photo shoots for my new employer. And then I certainly wouldn't be selecting the most perfect clothes (from a brand message standpoint) from an entire rack of adorable little outfits.

Of course, I couldn't be more thrilled. Besides, there's so much more to my new job than simply picking out baby clothes (stuffed animals, for instance).

This first assignment has proven to me that, in the end, it's not the classes one takes in business school that really matter. Don't get me wrong – I loved school, loved my classes, and had quite a few courses that taught me specific techniques and practices I use often. But no course load can prepare someone for the strange, crazy, constantly changing world of marketing. No, for me the MBA was about something more profound than just a few new skills – I needed and got an immersion course in the world of business.

WAS IT WORTH IT?  From a strictly financial ROI perspective, my choice to go back to school and earn my MBA will pay out in an absurdly short period of time (around two to three years). As you might suspect, I have achieved this swift payout timeframe thanks to a great job now and a lousy job before.

From an emotional ROI perspective, I have the career satisfaction I always sought. I had jobs before that I liked, and I had jobs before that taught me new skills. But I never actually had a job where I felt like I had (to borrow from the DeVry advertisements) "a future." And, simply put, if I hadn't gone back to school and gotten an MBA, I would not have this job.

Sometimes it's easier for me to remember the things I've "forgotten" (economic concepts from first year) than it is for me to be conscious of the profound changes I've undergone. As cheesy as it might sound, I couldn't comfortably use a term like "ROI." Basic concepts that underlie every business decision – the time value of money, for example – were completely foreign to me.

I must also confess that, much to my surprise, I really enjoyed being back in school. I've always thrived in an academic, structured environment. As the end of my undergraduate days approached, however, I was too burnt out on 16+ years of continuous schooling and too anxious about my future to really excel. This time, I got to earn the grades I wanted… I even got another chance to graduate.

DID I ENJOY IT?  Still, I'm glad it's over. And, like a parent who advises his offspring to do as he says, not as he does, I'd highly advise against following my specific path.

As I've explained in previous journals, I took a path – partly by design, mostly by chance – that worked out very well for me. (Entered a part-timer, snagged a traditional internship through the career center, and finished my second year taking full-time classes.) I would definitely not advise others to try to replicate this path. It's too risky, and changes are afoot to make it even more difficult.

In my first journal, I explained why I opted for a part-time program:"...I have since found a new, far more fulfilling job, because a two-graduate-student household would be a financial strain (okay, more like "financial absurdity"), and because, oddly enough, I am the kind of person who is actually calmer when working (even when I was an undergraduate, I always had a grueling internship or two)."

I wasn't wrong about the latter two points. Money was short, and I personally benefited from having a job in my first year to distract me from my "did I get it or didn't I?" anxiety about my internship pursuit.

But shortly after I wrote those words in this journal, I began to despise most everything about "my new job." I could feel myself unlearning important lessons, slipping backwards in my internal career development, becoming a worse team member day by day. And, from almost the very beginning of my MBA education, I realized that there was almost no way to reach my goal – brand management at a consumer goods company – without an internship.

In the end, things worked out great for me. I wasn't wrong about the financial hardships of a two-grad-student family, and I'm still not sure I could have handled the anxiety of first-year while being a full-time student. I just wouldn't advise anyone else to try it.

Business schools are simply not set up to provide their part-time students with the resources and support to earn internships (and thus leave their full-time jobs). (USC Marshall has decided to specifically prohibit part-time students from on-campus internship interviews.) Some schools intervene more in preventing you from accomplishing this, but I believe that nowhere do they actually help.

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