Bittersweet

October 27, 2014

Filed under: Accounting,Career,Fall 2014,Finance,IMS Summer 2013,Life in Waco,Prison Entrepreneurship Program,Spring 2014 — carlosgieseken @ 3:08 am

Back in June of last year I started IMS. Graduation felt like it was 20 years away, even though it was only technically like 19 months away. And every week and month that passed, as we took more and more turns in front of the firehose of information pointed at us that summer, December 2014 just kept getting further and further in the distance. My brain took on a freshman’s mentality, where graduation was so far away, there was no reason to even worry about it.

Even as this Fall 2014 semester started, graduation was just around the corner but it still felt like a far off distance event. Well now it’s less than two months away, and it’s really hitting me. It’s bitter sweet for so many reasons.

I’ve made some truly amazing friendships in a really short period of time. You bond pretty quickly during high stress situations and the stress-relief activities that follow. I was an English major in college and a journalism student in my first grad school experience. So group projects were few and far between. Business school has been a completely new experience. We formed study groups almost immediately back in IMS, since we were getting so much accounting, finance, economics, and business math concepts thrown at us on a daily basis. I spent countless hours in the break out rooms that summer, by myself and with friends, wrestling with credits and debits, net present value, and with aggregate supply demand curves. It’s a special bond you make when you’re struggling to learn information at breakneck speed and sometimes the professor’s explanation makes no sense whatsoever. I’ve mentioned before how grateful I have been for the generosity of time and patience classmates extended to me that summer and in the semesters that followed.

Then the Fall 2013 semester started, and we were presented with a bunch of new people at orientation. And you better believe us IMS folks were a tightly wound clique. But then that new batch of people were all awesome and good, smart people. And we went through that semester, which was one of the most stressful I’ve ever been through. Every class felt like an oral exam. Regurgitating facts was never going to be enough. And then all the presentations we gave in our classes and in our Management Communication class. And we welcomed the “new” people into our circles of friends, camaraderie developed in the classroom, in late evening study sessions, and over laughs on the weekends.

I’ve grown so much over the last year and a half and made friendships that I know will last the rest of my life. From the summer IMS trip to the Cleveland Correction Center for the Prison Entrepreneurship Program to the Spring 2014 trip to Nike HQ in Beaverton, Oregon for Focus Firm, I’ve had some amazing experiences with some amazing people. And I’m really, really going to miss them all.

But at the same time I’m ready for the next chapter of life. I’m ready to use all these newly acquired skills and newly forged confidence. I’m looking forward to hearing about how successful my classmates are going to be. I’ve no doubt there a spattering of CEOs and chief financial officers in the bunch.

I can’t wait to cheer their successes, even if sometimes only through virtual fist pumps brokered by Facebook or text message.

 

 

A pleasant surprise

July 14, 2013

Filed under: Finance,IMS Summer 2013 — carlosgieseken @ 11:55 pm

The first day of summer session II was last Thursday. We spent the first half of our finance class discussing career advice and other bits of wisdom with our professor, Dr. Rose. After discussing the importance of knowing and living by your values, he paused.

“Now who is going to ask me the question that you’ve all been wanting to ask?” he said.

There was silence for about 10 seconds when a classmate responded, “What happened to your back?”

Prof. Rose wore a back brace over his clothes as a result of back surgery, which involved implanting rods and screws into his spine. The brace went around his waste and looked like a professional wrestling belt that was at least a foot wide. Out of politeness, I think, most of chose not to ask about it.

Not mentioning it during a job interview, he warned, would be a huge mistake.

“When you go out interviewing for jobs, you may interview at a company with all sorts of scandal or bad press,” he said. “They expect you to ask about it.”

To not ask it, he said, meant we would be too shy, or too scared to ask, or it would look like we hadn’t done our research–all things a company would find unattractive.

It was a really great way to make a very important point and a great way to start a class we were all worried about.

Waiting for class to start, we all wondered what would be coming our way. We’d heard from many sources that finance was going to be a challenge. “Dr. Rose is fair, but he’s tough,” we had heard. “If you have trouble with the class, don’t waste time. Go see him in his office hours.”

At 10 a.m., class started. We were pleasantly surprised when the first half was spent in what felt more like a nice chat than a lecture.

Here are some other bits of wisdom Prof. Rose shared:

  • Emails are a professional picture of yourself.
  • Values guide your behavior which shapes your reputation.
  • There are a lot of smart people out there. There’s no need to hire smart people who are also jerks.

“A lot of this stuff may be more important than anything you learn in the course,” he said.

We then dove in, discussing concepts like financial management, risk management, wealth, and market value of equity.