Frog to Dragon: HEC MBA & Tsinghua MBA Blog
The quest for wisdom, from France to China, of an HEC MBA & Tsinghua MBA dual degree student (class of 2011)
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This week was the last week of class at HEC for the students of my intake. On one hand there are those who have found a job and who are ready to enjoy the holidays before starting their new post-MBA life, on the other hand there are those who are still looking for a job end getting a bit anxious. These days there are many farewell celebrations at HEC to wave goodbye to studies and Paris. 16 months have gone past at such an incredible speed. My situation is different because, as a double degree student, my curriculum spans accros 2 full years and will end in June 2011. As a consequence, there’s a gap between my current mindset and the one of my classmates following the normal cursus. Indeed, even though I’m conscious that my studies are coming to an end, I’m not yet fully ready to face the professional world…
Tags: Life on campus, Students  Walking out of HEC I can’t believe it’s already been a month since my previous post. Before I go and start the second chapter of my MBA experience, I wanted to reflect back on what I have learned and what I’ll take away from it. 3 classes I enjoyed:
Tags: Academics, HEC events, Life on campus, Logistics, Students, TEC Summer has arrived. After a little struggle (15°C on June 21st) heat has settled on campus, as well as the football world cup :) Now, PP1 is almost done for me. I still have a couple of classes next week but I’ll be on vacation right after. During PP1, we had the options of doing a long internship (5 months) of study electives. I was more interested by classes (and vacations) and I made a scrupulous selection based on my own interests and feedback from previous intakes.  Happy participants of the theatre elective In addition, as I was not accepted to the Luxury track (very selective) I tried to pick classes that would be most useful after my MBA, while being unique and hard to get at Tsinghua, as I will still have the chance to study electives there in September. As a result, I took the following classes: The quality of each class was variable, but I was generally very satisfied by my electives.
Tags: Academics, Life on campus Hey there!  Violets blooming all over the campus woods What can I say, I’m very glad I could pack away my coat and enjoy again nice walks around the campus. Flowers are just about everywhere these days. Everybody is in good mood :) It is also time to look back as we have now completed our second Core phase. During this period, I have learned about: Like in Core 1, I didn’t know much about any of these topics. I confirmed my strange taste for Financial Accounting as I enjoyed the classes we had in Management Accounting. This is big news for me and I’m now starting to include this skill into future career options. (Seriously, who’d want to include Accounting as a career option!) I may say that this period has been as life changing as Core 1. But maybe as a continuation. I felt that Core 1 was a “Reset” time, while Core 2 was about (re)building my expectations.
Tags: Academics, Life on campus As you may have noticed everywhere around the world, this week was full of Chinese New Year celebrations. Well at the HEC MBA too where the (extended) Chinese community organised the Chinese Week. Happy Chinese New Year! Hail to the Tiger!
Tags: Life on campus, Social You may have noticed that I’m getting to blog a bit more regularly. Well, part of it is because many interesting things happen. Yesterday and today HEC hosted the recrutment “Carrefours“. Carrefour means crossroads in French and is also the name of France’s largest supermarket chain. And indeed, the whole event seemed like a big marketplace. However, persistence (and a sustained smile) is key, as well as good preparation. On another note, while I went to the Carrefours fairly light-hearted, mainly looking for information as I’ll finish my studies from Tsinghua only in June next year, we (of the September 09 intake) noticed many old faces from the September 08 batch who finished class in December. I didn’t want to ask to many questions but it seems like the job market is tough for those who just graduated…
 Fajitas party! So what’s the deal with fajitas? You may ask. Well, I just wanted to (at last) comment on the social life at HEC, since it’s something that we’re most most proud of in our MBA. Just two days ago, we received an e-mail from the president of the Latin Club about a fajitas party organised at the Piano Bar (it’s a bar with a piano) by the dorms. That came in as a total surprise out of some ideas that emerged during the week-end (which was the January 10 integration week-end in the Alps). Here you go: fajitas, sangria, caipiroska, margarita, pisco… Total succes! Latin Club! We love you! :)
Tags: HEC events, Job search, Life on campus, Social First of all Happy New Year 2010! :)  Happy New Year 2010! It gives me the opportunity for me to look back at my Year 2009 where many things happened. So what’s your new year resolution? Mine is to learn Chinese. I really hope to become more conversational with my Mandarin this year. Time will tell if I succeeded. :)  View of campus from Expansiel So that’s it! Now I’m (hardly) back from my end of year holidays and ready to take over Core 2! The least we can say is that, academically, Core 2 starts slowly. And this is a good thing since I happen to be hammered with ever more club activities. In parrallel, I need to seriously look for a July-August summer internship. Finally, the newcomers from the Jan 2010 intake arrived last week. It’s a bit strange to now be considered as the “seniors”. Tonight we have a special “buddy” event to meet with the younger intake people we will give advices to. Otherwise, I think I’ve never seen so much snow for so long in France…
Tags: Life on campus, Students Today is the last day of Core 1 and we are having our last Core 1 exam this morning (HR Management).  View of the lake frozen Yesterday, the HEC Campus was graced by snow. Yes! lots of snow! Making the surroundings of the campus really beautiful. Someone organised a snow fight… which I joined ;) During this period, I have learned about:  Snow fight from my window These were all subjects I didn’t know much about, except maybe HR Management. (They don’t teach you much in Consulting…) So, can I say I’ve learned much? Yes! Definitely. Can I say that my Core 1 experience at HEC changed my life? Yes again.
Tags: Academics, Life on campus, Students, TEC |