May 06. : Wine, Cheese and Gyaan
An interesting day. The Business Career Center (BCC) gave their presentation. They were total attention in the class. The BCC team discussed about what they would be offering us ( info session,guest speakers,networking chances,preperation of portfolio,resume building,) and answered a lot of questions for us.
A few insights provided:
- The MBA placements market would be good worldwide or atleast as good as last year.
-The consulting and finance recruitments would be strong.
- There are hopes of recovery in tech and telecom recruitment.
-There would be reluctance on the part of Bio Pharma companies in hiring MBA grads.

They also introduced a 'Mentorship' program where we could chose an alumni and work with him/her in planning and understanding the next phase of our career.The bottom line was that we need to understand BCC is a starting point, a partner who can only provide us opportunities. It is upto us to make best use of them.

The afternoon session was the most interesting one. We had the 'Alumni Panel' meet followed by the 'Wine and Cheese reception’. The alums were from the batch of 2000 to 2005.The alums gave us great tips. They came in from different fields. There were alums from the banking industry, management consultancy, air line industry and hi tech companies. The tips that they gave us were good. It was a eye opening session.

In a nutshell, herez what most of them spoke about:
-Try new experiences. Join clubs, take part in biz case competitions etc.
-Step out of your comfort zone. Every one is here to learn. This is a supportive enviornment.It does not matter how many errors you make if you finally get it right.
-Manage your time. You just have 24hrs in a day and there is truckloads of stuff to do.
-Set up your priorities. Is it grades or is it to do a lot of things.
-Know yourself. There lies the key to your success. Understand what is your learning style, preferred working style, best working hours, personal habits, friends are you most comfortable with, your HBDI and MBTI style and your networking style.
-You are a part of the Queen's MBAst Elite group and we owe a responsibility for that.
-Make use of the faculty. Understand concepts. Learn from it, appreciate it and understand how you can use that once you get back to work.
-Work hard on your job search. Make a list of companies that you feel you could add value to and do a resume assault!
-The stage 4 ( Final stage) of the program has a consulting project that one could opt for. It has 2 credits to it but is quite stressful too. You could opt for that.
-Think of the Business Care Center at Queen's as a starting point, one part of the partners.
-Go to point 4s.It'll help you get to know people, relax and network.

There were a few Indian alumni too who had some valuable tips for us guyz.
Over a period of next one year, I have realized that it'll be a challenge to get a lot of things done .

BTW,It was great to see the guyz and girls from my class in business formals The folks looked really good. The french guy in the class even gave us some gyaan on what makes a good wine. A lot of folks took some pictures.
Here are a few from my camera. ( I had not set the date, so the date shown in the camera is incorrect!)