Finally a Graduate..

One year and nine months. That is what took me to reach the end of the MBA tunnel. 61 courses to cover and 9 units waived I began my journey a bit scared, a bit confident and mostly arrogant. Throughout my journey I encountered some really good professors and some not so good. The professors I liked best were the ones who taught me to love something I would have never ever chosen to learn. They made me  develop interest in something I thought was never meant for me. For instance Prof.David Caldwell's management class made me rethink management as something that needed more than politics to survive. Setting goals, negotiation, confrontation, these are terms we hear and read about all the time but do we ever use it in the right way? I never thought of it the way Prof.Caldwell made me think. For example, I used to set big goals for myself. Not that it is wrong to set big goals but most of the time I never achieved them. His course talks about setting small but achievable goals which according to me is very necessary to make things work. He taught me how important being humble was and that MBA was all about networking. In fact networks sometime can make or break careers. Contacts could help a person in any situation in life. Why it was important to go out of the way for people and so many other simple things in a totally different manner. The best part is that I could put all those ideas to work when in class and afford to make mistakes and learn. Could I have done that in the real world? No matter how much one would argue the answer is NO.
Then there was Prof.Desmond Lo who gave marketing a whole new meaning. He made it fun when he connected quantitative with the qualitative stuff in a no brainer way. Prof.Andrew my another favorite professor taught us that managers sometime go overboard when expanding internationally and forget common sense. There are 100's of theories in marketing that can teach one what to do in a situation but not forgetting common sense can make a big difference. Prof.Linda Kamas's Macroeconomic class actually made me consider getting a Phd in Economics. Of course later I realized I was happy being MBA and not Phd so I moved on. But nevertheless I now make more sense of any raise or appreciation that one gets or a property goes through. I realize what real and nominal means and how inflation factors into everything. A big deal for me. Finally Prof.Fern. He taught me how to think everything form a value and cost perspective for a company. How to know what resources and capabilities are the epicenter of every strategic decision a firm makes. I am glad and thankful that I got a chance to learn from one of the best professors I ever could. The learning has been tremendous and the retention strong.
Of course there were the worst of the lot who were of the opinion,"You do not get my course then drop it." And some like Prof.Sarin who wanted to teach but were torn between should I teach or should I let students learn.I wish he gave more than what he did. He is superb when it comes to teaching business valuation. I liked Prof.Das too but I wish Prof.Ostrov learnt to teach mathematical finance more from a business perspective. The worst of worst was Prof.Shin who taught only to derive and never explained business application of game theory. He is highly unapprocahble and comes across as a snob. He thinks he knows everything and the ones who do not are good for nothing. Bad bad attitude. I wish he listened to feedbacks.
All in all I my learnometer is higher than it could ever be and am very excited to get a job and apply the concepts.
Goodluck to me!