The quest for wisdom, from France to China, of an HEC MBA & Tsinghua MBA dual degree student (class of 2011)
Posts Tagged ‘Social’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…
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 Many things have happened during the past two weeks and I have to admit that my self-assigned discipline of writing here at least once a week is starting on a wrong foot… Here are a few noticeable things we did. Negosim The second week of classes, basically after a first week of cheering and hugging, we got onto business with a business simulation game called Negosim. We were all dispached into groups of 4 to 5 people and our task, as the board or directors of a B2B company, was to compete with others. It was a fantastic experience for those two main reasons:
Classes We were assigned to our sections (I’m in the bilingual section) and classes started for real on the 3rd week, along with group work and case studies. By the way, one of the reasons why I could not post my article on Negosim last week was because we had a Marketing assignment due for Monday 8am. This week, I started to realise how crucial good planning is. After reviewing my class schedule and making a quick estimation for class preparation (reading material + preparing cases) I found that I’ll need to spend around 60 hours weekly on studies. Basically, my key is that for each class, I’ll have to spend once to twice as much time for preparation. Holidays are finished for real now… Integration week-end This week end we went on integration in the Loire Valley. It was a mix between cultural visits (to the châteaux here and there), partying (with the regional wine, of course) and fun fun fun :) I feel that by now, I know 80 to 90% of my intake by name. Tags: Academics, Assignments, HEC events, Social, Students A week has passed, and the tension starts to build up before classes start. More students arrive in Paris from other countries. As a result, I could see new faces during another HEC get together when we went for a picnic on the Pont des Arts last Friday (Aug 28th). In total, I could meet people from UK, the US, Japan, Hong Kong, Brazil, Columbia, and of course France. On my side, I’ve started figure out what I could bring into my room and I think I won’t be able to do without renting a utility car for moving in. To be continued… Tags: Logistics, Social I haven’t written much since I came back to France (beside a page about interviews). Indeed, as the day when school starts (September 7th) beckons, more students are gathering in Paris. So last Friday (Aug 21st) we had a nice event where we had drinks and a few of us continued for dinner in the Montorgueil area. All good stuff :) Tags: Social As the HEC MBA September 2009 intake is almost made up by now, there are a few ways for us admits to network. The HEC connect website, of course, but also less official means on Facebook or LinkedIn. Via that, some of the French parisian crowd organised an ice breaking event by the Eiffel Tower yesterday. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t so happy about it and the evening was fresh with a few drizzles. The mood however was great and enjoyable for the 7 of us who attended. We exchanged on our admission process, prior experience, expectations, financing, and on many other topics. Now I feel like my MBA is finally getting into motion :) Tags: Social |