I have been asked by some people why most of my posts are community or activity related and lacking in academics and career. There are a couple reasons for that I suppose.
- I was fortunate enough to secure a summer internship with GE Healthcare through the PrECLP program prior to starting USC Marshall. If you’re thinking about a career in marketing, I encourage you to apply to one of the summer camp programs prior to business school. It will definitely give you more time to take on other activities and take a huge load off your back if you secure that internship. Although I should be doing more networking and career resource center (CRC) stuff having the internship does take my focus away from career-related activities
- We have some great professors here at Marshall and some so-so ones like most schools. But who really wants to read (or write) about microeconomics or regression models??
For me, the business school experience is really all about the activities and it is where the best learning opportunities take place. Yes, I can take a course on organizational behavior or global strategy, but until I lead a team or go through the mental exercise of a case competition, it’s just theoretical. But for those of you who are really interested in all aspects of career, academics, and community, I’ll give you an example of a week in the life of a Marshall MBA – term 4. Because, seriously, you don’t really get a view of what life is really like for an MBA from just one day…
So I just finished spring break last week; my first week back just starting term 4. Should be a walk in the park right? Nope
Monday
8am – Term 4 is the start of PRIME, our international immersion that includes lectures, team projects, and site visits. I will be going to Brazil/Argentina in May working on a CRM project for a South American bank, Banco Galicia. They gave us a brief lecture on library resources and where to find data for specific countries, emerging markets, etc.
9:30am – GSBA 515 – Global Strategy with Carl Voigt. A course on competitive strategy and long-term competitive advantage for firms from a global context. This is one of my favorite classes so far, but Professor Voigt is known for cold-calling so you have to come prepared. We did a case study on the Walt Disney Company and tried to analyze and understand the corporate strategy of the business. Is the model sustainable? Has Disney diversified too far?
11am – Lunch meeting to finish the Market Demand and Sales Forecasting group assignment due Wednesday. We had to put together some regression models to figure out the effect of feature and display promotions on the sales of ketchup vs its competitors. Fun. Moving on…
12:30pm – I had Global Economics and Sales Forecasting classes in the afternoon, but decided to go to #TEDxUSC instead. USC and the prestigious TED conference have partnered to deliver this independently organized TED event right here at USC. You can read more about it on CNN.com, but a bunch of amazing speakers talking about Biosphere 2, the Atlas Project, video game as art, and finding cure for the blind. We even had a surprise guest, Melissa Etheridge, who sang a duet with the Muslim rockstar, Salman Ahmad.
“Differences are what keeps the change from happening,” said Etheridge, explaining how people of diverse cultures must overcome their differences in the quest for peace.
9pm – Started reading the RKS Guitar case for Tuesday and writing my 7 page analysis on Terry’s Group – Pyramint Chocolate for my New Product Development class due on Thursday. Wrote about 1 page and the beer from the TEDxUSC mixer kicked in. Fell asleep around 1am.
Tuesday
I just realized how long it would actually take to write out what I did for the whole week, but since I started already, sigh… escalation of commitment.
11am – MKT 530 – Product Development and Marketing Strategies with Diane Badame. This is an elective course on systematic approach to product development and management. It talks to the processes, techniques, and concepts firms use to develop, test, and introduce products and to manage products over their lifecycle. We talked about RKS Guitar and Design company and whether they should enter the high-end segment of the guitar industry. Professor Badame is full of energy and her in-depth understanding and marketing insights makes the class goes by really fast.
2pm – Met my case competition team to talk about the Marshall Marketing Challenge. It’s an internal marketing competition where we form a team and market a product to fellow students. We had to develop a marketing proposal and sell the product in the marketplace with fun money next Wednesday. We ended up with a product called Neutrogena Sheer Bodytint, which is basically a sunless tanner. What the heck are we supposed to do with this?
3:30pm - I was supposed to study for my PRIME midterm on Wednesday, but had to send out tons of emails trying to get PR for the Marshall Net Impact AlterEnergy event on Thursday. Then I had to finish my portion of the Sales Forecasting group assignment. Fun.
6pm – Went to the law library to study for PRIME, but wasted most of my time thinking about ideas for the Marshall Marketing Challenge.
10pm – Ate dinner and went home to study for PRIME. Read my Global Strategy case for Newell. Fell asleep around 3am.
Wednesday
8am - Classes from 8am-3:30pm. Took the PRIME midterm. Didn’t get cold-called for Global Strategy. Interesting session on GDP in MacroEcon. Turned in my Group Assignment for Sales Forecasting. Wanted to take a nap. Drank 2 mugs of coffee and a coke.
11am – As President of Marshall Net Impact next year, I want to build more awareness in the business school regarding sustainability and societal issues and how business can drive those changes. The Sustainability Steering committee kicked off their first meeting to do just that. The VPs of Sustainability drove the meeting and talked about educational events, site visits, and networking opportunities to engage students in sustainable practices. It was a very productive meeting; I am very fortunate to have a great Marshall Net Impact leadership team for next year.
3:30pm - Sent out a bunch of emails to other Net Impact chapters and perspective students interested in sustainability or social enterprise/non-profits.
5pm - Met with my Marshall Marketing Challenge team and started brainstorming more about the product and how we can maximize profits with this Sheer Bodytint. We threw a bunch of ideas around and finally decided on an idea to just sell individual pumps on the day of the event. How would we do that?
9pm - Went home to finish my 7 page analysis on Terry’s Group – Pyramint Chocolate for my New Product Development class. Had 2 pages by 12am. Not good. Went to bed around 4am.
Thursday
9am - I woke up early to do some research about GE Healthcare since I had a phone call with my hiring manager about my internship at 12:30pm. Gathered some good data on the business and read up on diagnostic imaging, clinical systems, and life sciences. Read up on emerging markets and healthcare in India/China.
11am – Turned in my 7 page analysis and talked about Terry’s Group’s strategy for Pyramint Chocolate. Professor Badame loves the consumer experience with the product so she brought in Terry’s Chocolate Oranges for us to whack and snack. Yum!
12:30pm - Called my hiring manager to talk about my summer internship in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I got a brief overview of the available internships for the summer, but not much details. We rescheduled another call for next week to discuss in more details.
1:30pm - Ate lunch and send out some emails to check with my teammates on my Net Impact Service Corps team regarding our marketing project with the Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles. We are putting together a survey to look into the qualitative aspects of women donors and why they donate to charities and non-profits.
2:30pm - Met with the Society and Business Lab (SBL) here at Marshall. We had a talking session about how we can raise the level of awareness within the USC Marshall School community regarding the advantages of socially and environmentally intelligent business practices. Great conversations about strategies, goals, and curriculum. Even talked about how we can use Twitter to build our brand… by the way, follow me on Twitter @andrewmchoi
4pm – Went home to do a video shoot by our pool for our Neutrogena Sheer Bodytint commercial. Amazing…
6pm - Went back on campus to attend the Marshall Net Impact AlterEnergy event. The guys on the team did a stellar job. We had 5 companies represented on the panel – Sharp, Southern California Edison, Tioga, Axio, Solar-Reserve. I have to admit, this is not my area of expertise, but there’s definitely a growing interest in renewable energy at Marshall and certainly enough to make this an annual event for USC Marshall Net Impact. I anticipate that next year’s event will be even bigger and better.
9pm – After some networking, I met with my Marketing Challenge team to finish putting together the Powerpoint deck and practiced for the presentation on Friday. It’s nice to have some creatives on the team; they’re definitely hard to find in business school. We were working on a slide for segmentation and customer profile. Only a creative can put together something like this below with a real USC Marshall student profile. Amazing!
2am – Tried to finish my Global Strategy case on Birds Eye and the UK Frozen Food Industry. Tried to study for my MacroEcon quiz. Tried hard. Failed. Fell asleep around 4am I think.
Friday
9:30am - I didn’t have a morning class today so I slept in until 8am and went to class. Fortunately, I didn’t get cold-called for this class because I barely remembered what I read about frozen food value chains at 3am in the morning. I hope Professor Voigt doesn’t find my blog…
11am - Marshall Marketing Challenge presentation. This was fun. All 6 teams had great ideas and presentations, but of course ours was the best (of course). Check out this video below starring our very own Marshall’s finest acting talents. ‘Nuff said.
12:30pm – GSBA 526 – Global Economics with Selahattin Imrohoroglu. This is basically your MacroEcon course at a graduate level. We learn about American economic and social goals and policies and their impact on business; growth, stability, and the new priorities; international forces influencing business. More discussions about budget surplus and deficit today. Took the quiz. I think I did terrible. Maybe that’s why I never blog about my academics…
3pm - Met briefly with Matt Oden, our new Sustainability Director here at USC. Our Sustainability committee at Marshall Net Impact meets with him every other week regarding sustainability practices and using eco-friendly products in the business school. Great guy, very sharp.
4pm - Went to the Lab to grab a beer with some Marshall buddies to celebrate the end of the week…
There you have it. This is not a typical week, but it’s not atypical either. Business school is no joke. For 2 years, you will be spending and investing most of your time in the business school community. Your friends and family will see you once every 3 months. Your significant other will get pissed off because you’re never home and not spending any time with him/her. But if you really take advantage of the experience, you will come out well versed in the language of business and a stronger leader. It’s all about trade-offs.
Read the full article: Week in the Life – Term 4 USC Marshall MBA