Don't mind the MS Paint skills. I know it's impressive. I especially like the tangential coloration designed to reflect the artist's connection with the forest aka green spraypaint.
A year and a half ago when I told people I was going to a business school in Spain they looked at me quizzically. "Why Spain?" I'd go through my whole spiel about wanting to live abroad and gaining international experience. Blah blah blah. I had already mastered that speech thanks to my interviews so it lost its meaning after a while. Now that I've been there and actually gone through that experience, there is new meaning to my previously canned statement. It's funny because when I first started, that attitude reflected in my canned statement and the chaos of the ESADE program made me lose track of what truly the ESADE MBA experience is/was.
I'm reminded of a parable that a managing partner told us bright eyed first years on our third day of training at Deloitte.
A man came up to three bricklayers busily working. He asked the first bricklayer "What are you doing there, sir?" The first bricklayer responded, "I'm laying some bricks." He strolled up to the second bricklayer and asked the same question. "What are you doing there. sir?" The second bricklayer responded, "I am building a wall." The man eventually made his way to the third bricklayer and asked the question again. "What are you doing there, sir?" The bricklayer responded, "I am building the Colosseum."
As I look back upon my first year at ESADE, it was almost as though I lived that parable. Mired in case studies, groupwork and networking events, the first third of the MBA was chaos. The constant deadlines and adjustment to living in Spain made me solely concentrate on getting through that day, that week and then that term.
The middle period of the first year was smoother. Still busy with internship applications and classes, we had hit a rhythm in our lives that allowed us some time to step back and enjoy things. Finally, we were building a wall.
The last term was where things gelled. Piles of readings and groupwork were given to us by our teachers but we were undaunted. We've learned what was necessary and what wasn't. How to allocate work amongst our teammates. Amidst all that we still managed to still go out, have fun and relish our last term together.
As the term ended and I came back to the US for the summer I finally realized that the ESADE MBA was letting me build my Colosseum. The program hasn't given me an arena where gladiators duel and chariot races are staged. It hasn't just taught me the basics of supply chain management or strategy frameworks or how to crack a consulting case interview. It hasn't just allowed me eat tapas and drink beer in the lovely Plaza del Sol. Instead, it has given me all that as a foundation to provide me an enriching life experience, a host of memories and a new network of friends that'll stay with me for a lifetime. That, my friends is my Colosseum.
Finally. Already was afraid that your blog reached a dead-end.
ReplyDeleteSecond that. I am still in class busy with the last courses of the 12-month program and so essentially laying the last bricks of the wall that are making up my Colosseum.
It's really not just about the classes and the curriculum. I would be very disappointed if I had to pay for just the classes and would miss out on the rest of the experience. The whole environment, the city, the country, the language, the classmates, the nights out, the beach, the group work, the immersion into a different culture. That all is what makes an MBA an MBA and what makes spending the money for it worthwhile.
Just my cinco centimos.
Slaws, is that you? :p
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