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Student diary part 4: Remy Carera
Remy Carera is an MBA student at IE Business School in Spain. His monthly diary showcases his experience of the MBA course and what it entails. This month he talks about studying in the sun, summer internships and sailing around Croatia!
As good as it gets!!! I refer to the fourth term which has been the best so far coming after 3 terms of serious learning during which time the library was my second home. We are now really starting to feel like MBAs, and the new classes and professors are truly something from the next level. Our brains have gone into overdrive thanks to the different tools or techniques we have learnt to use to analyse cases and complex situations. Moreover, classes like government, business and society, negotiation or HR management have made us see work from a far more pragmatic perspective.
Hence it’s now far easier to manage our time, handle work group projects and read all those cases. Note that I am not saying that it’s easy - just easier… I guess we are getting used to the workload and have learnt how to pinpoint crucial information and use it, which translates into more quality time. So now I am really enjoying Madrid, and my day-to-day routine of lunch on a terraza followed by doing my reading somewhere in the sun.
It’s not surprising that this term is so special. We have gone from studying day after day to doing internships, packing to go on an exchange, preparing amazing holidays, having job interviews and choosing our elective classes for the fifth term.
At the beginning of this term the atmosphere was a bit different, 15 out of 60 students in my section went out into the world (literally) for internships, which meant that our class was suddenly much smaller and some of the comments and jokes we had got used to hearing from these guys weren’t there any more. But what’s great is the way they are keeping in touch with us, asking for pictures and news from our section. From what I have heard doing an internship makes for a very intense term because in addition to doing their job they have to take a few online classes.
There are also a few students that are going off on exchange programs. It is kind of sad to wave them off and think that the next time we will see them will be at our graduation in December. On the one hand doing an exchange is a great opportunity to get closer to where you are planning to work, to network a little bit more or simply to take a last opportunity to live in a completely different country before going back to work. On the other hand a 14-month program is already short, so to be honest I am glad I opted to come back after the break and take the elective classes I chose. Also there are still a few things that I want to do with my peers before leaving. Everything has gone by so fast - I cannot believe we already have our summer break!
I told you before that doing an MBA is like being part of a family, and that feeling is even stronger now that we are organizing weekend trips all round Spain, wine and cheese parties in the sun or planning summer trips. To give you an idea of the scale of things, there is a guy in our section who is completely mad about sailing, and who decided to organize a sailing trip around Croatia in August. His idea has taken on a life of its own - he now has 7 boats hired and still there isn’t enough room to fit in all the people who want to sign up for it! I wanted to share that with you to give you a feel for the spirit of the IMBA, because I think it’s a perfect example of the effect it seems to have on one and all.
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