Most Likely To Finish First Semester

I made it. I'm not sure how, but I'm convinced that the University of Washington employs a few of Santa's little elves to grade our final exams and projects, and to dole out the one comprehensive "MBA" grade that appears on our transcripts. I'm not complaining, or questioning any of this – no, not me. In fact, my first-quarter MBA grade has renewed my belief in God. Thank you, God.

There were dark moments: A week before finals I strategically stopped fastening my seatbelt in the car. During study sessions, I yelled at my classmates, Tammie, Joanne and Vanessa, who were only trying to help, demanding answers to my questions like, "How could the FASB come up with such a STUPID accounting rule?!? IDIOTS!!"

There were also bright moments: I made it through the first two hours and fifty-five minutes of the three-hour accounting final exam without crying. The economics final included no difficult quantitative problems. I was even able to provide some help to classmates in areas I felt OK in.

In the end, it turns out that I actually learned something. Scratch that. In the end, it turns out that I learned a lot. More than I thought was possible within these three months. I learned and internalized so much that it's hard to believe that, in August, I didn't know any of it. Knowledge that it's hard to believe I didn't know last year when I was functioning as a decision-making, strategizing, journal-entering manager. Most of what I learned was real stuff: good stuff. In fact, I have learned just enough to make myself dangerous. I feel like the yellow-belt martial arts student who has just enough confidence in her abilities to get her ass kicked.

The intensity of our core classes brought out some interesting feelings. I love my professors. Not the "Gee,-I-love-you-so-I'm-going-to-give-you-really-good-marks-on-your-course-evaluation" kind of love, but instead the "Gee,-I-love-you-so-let's-run-off-to-a-desert-island-and-talk-about-strategy" kind of love. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Ira Glass has to worry about his first-place position on my "nerdy older man" crush list, but I have blown off This American Life more than once to prepare cases and assignments.

Our collective stress from final projects and exams has washed away the natural formality that might still have existed among new friends. In fact, on the last day of finals it seemed perfectly normal for our class to vote and compile a "most likely to..." list -– the kind of list that, under normal circumstances, people take years to know each other well enough to compile. As formality vanished from our MBA lounge, so did much of the earnestness that had followed many of us into business school.

As important as our academic work is our career search: something we were encouraged to begin before we even arrived on campus this fall. Yes, before we even left our old jobs to begin the MBA program, the Business School had us working on developing our networks and positioning ourselves for future employment. We are becoming more focused, more targeted. We are developing our own career strategies. We are using phrases like "the opportunity cost of time" when determining who to eat lunch with and which classes to skip. Some of us have stopped riding our bikes to school on days that we have to wear "business casual" clothing (not me: I can still be seen riding in wearing dress pants with the left side rolled up to avoid the chain). We are moving from the doe-eyed first-day-of-school look to the squinty-eyed how-can-I-score-an-internship-at-Microsoft look. We're conducting "informational interviews," broadening our networks, learning about various industries and functions. Companies hold "meet the firm" nights at the university; our Business Connections Center holds various dinners and events where we can meet and network with people from different companies. This quarter, I'm going to an "etiquette dinner" where I will learn to slurp soup without looking like a slob.

Continued on next page>>  | 1 | 2