Diary of a full-time MBA student
Federico Arellano
Full-time MBA – Current student
Home country: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Professional background: Export-Import / Retail
Day in the life of…
7:00am
Alarm goes off. Studying an MBA is an intense and rewarding experience but it takes its toll in the morning! I have breakfast with my girlfriend and watch the news on Channel 9.
8:30am
Leave for school. I live 4 kilometers away from MBS so I ride my bike everyday. It’s great exercise and a scenic ride. Although I use main streets, I am still amazed at how respectful drivers and pedestrians are of traffic signals and of others in the street in Australia.
I prefer to ride to school than take the tram, as it’s much faster. Many people at school ride back and forth.
8:50am
I get to school and go straight to my locker, I leave all the books and notes that I will not need for the morning and go up to the kitchen area, on the second floor. I make myself a tea and go into the classroom. On my way there I say hello to at least a dozen people, including Reception staff, Student Services and peers. MBS is a small school and it feels like a family.
9:00am-9:45am
While I sip my tea, I check my e-mails and talk to other students who are also early for class.
9:45am-1:00pm
Business Strategy class. This is one of my favorite classes. Douglas Dow, the professor, is an ex-BCG consultant and Canadian by origin. He has a great style for presenting cases, I don’t want to miss a thing. Today we are talking about “Networks Effects” and “First Incomers to market”. The case is Honda (Part A). After the break, we learnt - as suspected - that there’s a Part B to the case, and consequently we are drawn by Douglas to different conclusions under the light of new events. I like this approach, it really makes you think and leaves an open end to things. Finally, we analyze what really happened and how is the company doing today.
1:00pm-2:00pm
Lunch. I frequently have “club” (I’m the president of the Latin American Networking Group) or syndicate meetings during lunch, but today I have the hour free. I normally bring lunch from home and use the cafeteria facilities to eat. We eat in large groups of 6 to 8 students as the tables are large. Eating there is a worldly experience: Over 70 per cent of the full-time MBA class is international, so we talk about our cultures, eating habits and traditional plates.
2:00pm-4:00pm
Syndicate meeting - this is what small working groups are referred to at MBS, and we normally have a syndicate group for each subject. Today we are getting together for Marketing. We have to come up with a positioning strategy for customized M&M’s in Australia. This product goes under the name of “My M&M’s” in the US, where it was successfully launched a couple of years ago.
I like to work with this syndicate, we get along well and work to strict deadlines. There’s Vladimir from Peru, Raj from India, Denis from Hong Kong and Fahad from Qatar. Today, work is running smoothly. We have divided ourselves into two sub-groups, one a focus group and the other a customer survey, and we are now discussing the insights we can draw from our results.
4:00pm-7:00pm
I go to the library for some quiet study. I have a case to read for Managing Processes (Operations) and run through some exercises. The library is a comfortable place to study. I sit in front of Albert, one of the engineers in my class, just in case I have a question as I can always ask him!
Even though the study load is pretty heavy, there’s always networking drinks or company presentations and its important to make time to attend these events. Today Infosys is coming to campus - with 72,000 employees globally, the company is the biggest IT firm in the world. We attend the presentation and then go to the pub. On our way there we review our formation for Friday soccer. This has become a Friday tradition and I would not miss it for anything!
8:00pm-9:00pm
The Corkman is the local pub. The bar is just 100 meters away from the school and there are always familiar faces. The bar people, John and Mahala know your drink - the perks of being a regular! Tonight there’s a few guys from our class, some people from the new class and even some staff. Tonight there’s live Irish music.
9:00pm -11pm
I get home and have dinner with Virginia, my girlfriend. We share stories about each other’s day while we watch TV. It feels nice to relax a little bit.
11:00pm-12:30am
I read a paper on emerging economies and inflation for tomorrow’s Economics and Public Policy class before getting to sleep. It’s been a long day!
