Student Advice « TMMBA Talk

Student Advice

TMMBA b i e s

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

Wei Huang Class of 2012

As I was headed out to the MBA Forum at UW this spring, I checked my voice mail. I heard our midwife telling us to take my wife to the hospital because she had a case of preeclampsia, which is a pregnancy disorder that affects the mother and unborn baby. Our baby was full term at 38 weeks. On April 5, 2011at 10:59 PM PT, our first baby Hana was born. It was amazing to see the little one who was kicking my wife all those weeks.

Since the TMMBA program started, nine babies have been born to date (still working on getting the pictures of the others). Many of the fathers are new and some of the fathers are already experienced. The first 3 months were the hardest and I advise anyone entering the program to get a lending hand while adjusting to their new lives. I was fortunate to have my father-in-law and mother-in-law help out. I also had a great team (C5) to pick up the slack for me. I’m not sure how my classmates who have multiple kids do it but they an amazing group of people. Can you imagine going to school and work full-time with children? I’m envious of how my classmates with multiple kids survive school and work. But in case you have kids and you are interested in the TMMBA program, having a baby or having kids in the program can be done!

Here’s the unofficial TMMBAby stats.

1 baby – January

2 babies – March

3 babies – April

1 baby – May

2 babies – September

1 girl (Hana), and 5 boys.

My little Hana!

Proud father to Xiaoyuan

Proud father to Chongguan

Proud father to Adarsh

Proud father to Jason

Proud father to Amador

Posted in Life outside TMMBA, Student Advice, Why TMMBA? | No Comments »

Khan Academy – my favorite website (and pastime) for 2011 (Tracy Gojdics, Director TMMBA)

Monday, November 28th, 2011

Have a hard time remembering exactly how things work or exactly how to explain something? Then you’ll want to check out my favorite website for 2011!

Chances are good if we have talked for any length of time in the past month that I have probably mentioned the entreprenuerial venture Khan Academy (KA). I am one of its biggest fans (along with Bill Gates). I first became aware of KA during the 2011 Eastside Leadership Conference hosted by the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce. During the conference they featured innovators/leaders in the education space with companies such as DreamBox Learning and KA. For KA they showed a Ted talk featuring Salmon Khan where Khan discusses the use of video to reinvent the classroom (also referred to as “flipping the classroom”). I have been hooked on KA ever since.

There is so much to learn via KA - from GMAT Prep to Organic Chemistry to Statistics to the Credit Crisis. I have learned something about all of these subjects, I am by no means an expert. In fact, I find that sometimes it can be difficult for me to explain concepts such as confidence variables or currency trading to others. I know that I know the basics and maybe more than some given the rigorous TMMBA curriculum, but watching the 10-12 minute video segments has really helped to cement my learning.

The videos are not for everyone as you do have to watch them instead of just listen, but I really recommend giving them a shot. Some of the topic areas will make a wonderful supplement to your in-classroom learning. For me, they have served as a great refresher for subjects and topics I’ve learned over the years and best of all - KA is free.

Some people wonder where I find the time to watch these videos. Good question. I usually read for an hour every night. Now I read for 30 minutes and watch 3 videos. I’m up to 4 books and 30 videos since October. Check out my favorite website for 2011 and leave me a comment with your thoughts.

Posted in Student Advice, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Prepare for going back to school: advice from current students

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Sara Jones, Assistant Director and Class of 2012

Tonight is the Welcome Reception for the newest class of TMMBA students. They will get to meet their study groups for the first time and pick up their reading materials and assignments for the orientation weekend. To help prepare for the journey ahead, we talked to a few current students to see what advice they have for new students or people who are considering TMMBA. Here’s what they had to say:

View every experience as a learning opportunity. Put yourself out of your comfort zone and you will be surprised what you learned about yourself.

Talk to family who are going to be impacted by going back to school. Set aside time to be with your family and make it a priority.

Know what you want to do or where you want to go after TMMBA. Be conscious about it and find opportunities to gain the right experience during the program.

Have a strong support system in place to help get you through the program.

Seriously consider the amount of time it’s going to take. You can’t do everything, so pick your activities and be really good at time management.

The program is a safe environment to stretch yourself. If you see an opportunity, go for it!

What would you add to this list?

Posted in About TMMBA, Student Advice | No Comments »

How do you keep up with technology and business events?

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Jared McInelly, TMMBA Class 11

Everyone is very busy. There are so many demands on our time, work, family, school, etc. I’ve found that school has taken all of my leisurely browsing-the-web-to-keep-up-on-technology time. So, I have to boil things down to a few key resources. Here are the things I use to keep up on technology and business issues along with a short description of each.

Podcasts

I love podcasts. By subscribing to them in iTunes, new updates are downloaded to my iPhone automatically. I have an FM transmitter that allows me to listen to them on my car radio while driving around in the wonderful Seattle traffic. Here are my favorites. All of these can be subscribed to in iTunes by searching for them by name. (Sorry Andriod users, I have not joined your secret society and so I don’t know how to help you get these).

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series. Stanford University. This is a weekly (during the school year) speaking event open to Stanford students. They record it and post the talks online. This is one of my favorite podcasts to listen to. Because it’s Stanford, they get some of the best speakers from some of the most interesting companies in the world.

TWIT: This week in technology. Leo Laporte is the moderator with a panel that changes weekly. They discuss the tech news of the week. This is a great way to find out what is new and upcoming. Plus, there are some great personalities in the group (and some consistently grumpy ones).

HBR IdeaCast. This is a 20 minute interview with the author of one of the main articles for the week’s Harvard Business Review. Very insightful and a quick and easy way to get the point of the article without having to read it.

Business Week – Behind This Week’s Cover Story. Similar to the HBR IdeaCast, this is a short interview with the author of the latest Business Week cover story.

Manager Tools. I don’t know where these guys came from but they are pretty good. They discuss, sometimes in painstaking detail, specific, actionable tools you can use as managers. My favorite Manager Tools podcast was the one that had 17 steps to remember for a perfect handshake. I don’t bother trying to remember all of their items but I do find the overall point of each podcast very helpful.

RadioLab. If you like science, even a little bit, you’ll love this podcast. I look forward to a new episode of Radiolab like I look forward to Christmas. Yes, I’m a geek.

Websites:

Geekwire. This is a site founded in Seattle to cover the tech beat in the Seattle area. These guys are good. They also have a podcast but it tends to be boring.

Google News:

I set up alerts on topics I care about and check it on occasion. I include on this list all of the blogs that I like to read. That way I get to see them all at once and it’s easy to tell if they have a new update. Which is much better than checking them all individually.

I’m interested in what you have found helpful, please respond in the comments if you know of a good site, podcast, etc. that you use to keep up on the latest business ideas and technology.

Posted in About TMMBA, Alumni, Life outside TMMBA, ROI, Student Advice | No Comments »

Meaty Meetings – No Filler!

Friday, April 8th, 2011

Bhaskar Dutt, TMMBA Student

Class 11 had a great session a few days ago with the always-entertaining Greg Bigley, in which we discussed how our study teams were working out. While on the subject of team meetings, I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that the team I am part of, Team Blue Chips, had some of the most efficient and productive team meetings in the cohort (yay, team!). I thought others might want to hear about our meeting practices, so if that sounds useful to you, read on!

We average a little over one meeting a week (usually on Monday nights, starting at 7 pm) and rarely have our meetings go over two hours – apparently this is on the low side compared to other teams. Last quarter we invariably met virtually, over Skype, since commute times made it hard for us to meet much in person. While there is certainly a loss of communication fidelity when the meeting is voice-only (it is amazing how much communication happens through facial expressions, gestures, and body language!), we tried to make the best of it and on the whole were satisfied with the experience. Here are some of the things we did to keep our meetings meaty and free of filler:

Send out meeting request in advance, with agenda: The current Coordinator (a role rotated on a monthly basis within our team) is responsible for creating a meeting request for the team. This should contain an itemized agenda of what the team plans to cover during that meeting. This is essential for setting expectations.
Be on time: The team will wait up to but no more than 5 minutes for late-comers. If a team member can’t make it, they should try to inform the team via email in advance if possible. Time is extremely short for all of us, and so we have tried to build a culture of punctuality to maximize the efficient use of our time.
Decide on time frame for meeting: Based on the amount of material we have to cover, at the beginning of the meeting we estimate how much time it will take and try to keep to that schedule thereafter.
Assign meeting leader: A team member is designated the meeting leader for each meeting. This role is rotated and involves going over the agenda to open the meeting, keeping the meeting on track, taking notes during the meeting, and sending out meeting minutes afterwards. This gives each of us some practice in running tight meetings, and leaves the team with a record of things discussed and decisions taken during the meeting.
Assign leader for each case discussed: This is not exactly meeting-related, but certainly proved to be a good practice. We assign a leader for each case (ahead of time, of course), and rotate the responsibility, like all others. The case lead is expected to prepare the case thoroughly, lead the discussion around it, and prepare any case materials for submission. As far as possible, other team members should also prepare the case and provide their perspective during the team discussion.
Cover meeting items thoroughly, but keep it moving: The meeting agenda items are then covered in order, with each case lead driving the discussion for their cases. The meeting leader and case leader should keep the team focused during discussions, making sure that we don’t rat-hole or digress too much, so that we can end on time.
End meeting with AAR: At the end of the meeting, we have a 5-minute after-action review (AAR). This consists of each of us quickly and frankly listing things that either went well or need improvement. These could be things that we recognize ourselves doing or feedback for other team members. The emphasis is on continuous improvement as a team, so we aim to leave the AAR with specific action items.
Send out meeting notes: After the end of the team meeting, the meeting leader sends out the meeting minutes by email. These contain a bullet-point summary of what we did during the meeting, and in particular, list the AAR discussion points along with action items, if any. These notes are also listed in our online repository, where we keep all team materials.

And that’s about it. It’s not particularly complicated, but it takes discipline to be prepared for each meeting and stick to the plan through it. The advantages are definitely worth it, though – we have more time to ourselves, and generally end up well-prepared for class as a result of these meetings. I can’t guarantee that these exact practices will work for everyone, but they have certainly made life that much easier for Team Blue Chips!

Posted in Student Advice, Teams | No Comments »

3 Things Companies Must Do On Twitter

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Kalpesh Shah, TMMBA alumnus

More than any other social media tools, Twitter is about conversation with people in a company’s ecosystem. These include not only your customers, but also your employees, suppliers, government officials and any other person that deals with your company directly or indirectly. Here are three things that are common among companies that use Twitter most effectively.

Be Honest

The Chicago Tylenol murders had the potential to destroy one of Johnson and Johnson’s marque brands. The company could have easily disowned the problem because sabotage during production was ruled out in this case. However, the company not only issued a nationwide recall of Tylenol products, but also worked with pharmacies, hospitals and law enforcement agencies to educate the consumers. The company earned praise for being honest with the public and was able to re-establish its brand in few years. The need to be honest is even more paramount today because people have quick access to so much information. Trying to spin an issue can result in even more public relations nightmare. As a Microsoft research shows, being honest and proactively sharing information can help create a positive response from customers.

Monitor

Twitter moves at the speed of thought and a company has to respond at the same speed. The only way to respond that fast is to monitor what is said about the company. As Motrin’s Twitter Moment proves, not monitoring, or worse, ignoring what is said about your company/product will not make the problem go away. It will only make it worse. Toyota went about the right way and turned #toyotafail into social media PR win (Disclosure – I work for the company that owns CoTweet).

Employees with Power

In order to respond at the speed of light, you need employees who are authorized to respond without having to check-in with management. When messages and conversations about your company are flowing at high speed, you may not have the management resources available to make every decision for the employees on the front lines. These front line employees have their ears to the ground and must be able to respond immediately. As JetBlue use of Twitter shows, just responding to your customers can make them happy customers at the worst of times.

In summary, as long as you have well trained employees who can monitor conversations about your company and can respond at the speed of light while being honest, your company is well on the way to using Twitter’s power to your advantage.

Tags: Twitter
Posted in Student Advice | No Comments »

It’s all fun and games…

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

Chris Rosenquest, TMMBA Student (Class of 2011)

Well maybe not but it certainly has been a lot of fun!

Yes, still, after 13 months, I’m still having a lot of fun. I cannot believe how quickly this has gone by.

The current semester holds entrepreneurship, one of my favorite classes so far. Due to the sensitive nature of our product, I’ll refrain from describing it here but if you’re interested please reach out. I believe we have a truly great business model in a market that’s dying for a innovative products.

We’ll get the opportunity to pitch to to some VCs and get excellent feedback and direction on where to take it next. We’ll also consider entering into the business plan competition to see how far it will go there as well. And we also have a *working* proof-of-concept. We’re very excited!

The thing about this program is that it’s all practice! A place to test your personal boundaries and to go beyond where you’d normally go. It’s a safe environment and a testing ground for growth. This opportunity to test yourself is combined with the prestige of the professors who will teach you some of the most interesting topics on business and management.

I’m really having the time of my life meeting great people, learning and expanding.

Posted in About TMMBA, Curriculum, Student Advice | No Comments »

The golden rule of time management

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

Hamed Ahmadi, TMMBA Student (Class of 2012)

Most of us, the TMMBA students, have full time jobs; that is, at least 40 hours a week. Adding the time attending the classes and review sessions, and working on pre-class materials, assignments, projects and exams, we are easily booked up for 60 to 70 hours a week, which is almost 9 hours a day, 7 days a week! It is a lot of work, but I think well worth the time and effort.

When I tell this story, I always hear: “Wow, how do you manage that?”. I believe this is a question we already asked ourselves before signing up for this program, and most likely, we came up with different answers. The truth is there is no single magical solution to this problem that can make everybody happy. However, there is a golden rule: “find your style”.

One of the great advantages of the TMMBA program is that it helps you find your style. Although I just started this program, I’ve already gone through a similar experience. I found my style when I was a full time grad student and a full time employee for almost three years. That pressure made me recognize my two-word golden rule, which is driven by a well-known software development framework. This framework can be adopted by different people and customized for various uses. The words are “be agile”.

Let me elaborate the concept of agility in the context of time management.

If you’d agree with me, planning is the key principle of the time management. However, excessive planning may give the opposite result, and here is why: plans are made under assumptions about future and there are always variables involved in our assumptions that could change anytime (honestly, my degree of certainty about something in the future does not exceed %99!). So, the awesome plan we have in our hands right now may lead us to the wrong summit! In addition, people who put a lot of time and effort in the planning tend to strictly follow their plan and be less flexible about changes, even if necessary.

Now, you might ask how much planning is enough, or how far ahead we should plan, or when we know it is time to make a decision. Well, there is no right or wrong answer; it totally depends on your rule. In my agile world, I take advantage of a two-phase planning. In the first phase, I usually try to understand the overall picture so I roughly know where I am going. That means I have deadlines, important dates and events laid out. Then, I divide the whole period I am planning for into time-boxed iterations and set goals for each iteration, depending on what is going on in that time period. Nevertheless, the detailed plan of each iteration is going to be determined in the second phase, i.e. the beginning of the iteration. The short length of iterations enables me to plan with a high degree of certainty and also gives me the flexibility to try new things and adjust my routine from what I learnt in previous iterations.

In other words, I try to plan and make decisions in “the last responsible moment”!

Good luck.

Posted in Student Advice, Why TMMBA? | No Comments »

GMAT from my perspective….

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

Wei Huang, TMMBA Student (Class of 2012)

Hello Everyone!

I’m going to provide some GMAT information. I’ll also include some of my experiences and favorite resources along the way.

Enjoy!

Test Structure and Overview

http://www.mba.com/mba/thegmat/teststructureandoverview

This link provides all the information about the exams. Also, all the GMAT prep books include the exam details.

Registration & Location (Puget Sound):

Website: www.mba.com – Need to create a login and password.

Cost: $250

Remember to register early to guarantee a spot. These testing locations also test other exams.

There are 2 sites available in the Puget Sound region: Renton & North Seattle.

Renton:

1300 SW 7th St # 113

Renton, WA 98057-5225

(425) 277-6690

Seattle:

10700 Meridian Ave N

Suite 407 (between 107th St & Northgate Way)

Seattle, WA 98133

Neighborhood: Haller Lake

(206) 417-9986

For Military personnel:

Department of Defense (DOD) – Never knew what the DOD stand for when I was registering.

NTC Pierce College McChord AFB – DoD only, McChord AFB, WA, United States

EDU CTR 0001 Fort Lewis – DoD only, Fort Lewis, WA, United States

Day of the Exam info:

You are provided multiple yellow laminated sheets with an erasable sharpie-like pen that is used instead of paper and pencil. So keep that in mind when practicing.

Here’s a good description of the ‘scratch paper’:

http://www.amazon.com/Manhattan-GMAT-Simulation-Booklet-Marker/dp/0979017580/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1288814463&sr=8-11

A key and locker are issued to you to put your personal belongings in.
Your finger is scanned so when you return to your testing station, your finger is always scanned.

After sitting down, there are a series of questions about what B-schools you want to apply to. Unfortunately, you have to answer the questions before moving on to the writing assessment portion. I always thought the actual exam would be just like the practice exams – start writing away on the first writing assessment and moving on to the other sections. The 5 or 10 minutes or so it takes to complete the questions, in my opinion, slows the momentum down when taking the exam. You feel all pumped and ready with all the formulas, idioms memorized and then you have to pause to answer the questions. Adds an additional nervousness

Anytime you return to your computer, the proctor escorts you to your seat and logs you in.
End of exam – you have the option to submit or not submit the exam.
Exam results are printed on the spot but it’s not the official paper work.

Favorite GMAT website:

www.beatthegmat.com

I believe everything you want to know about the GMAT and the MBA application process is all here. The forum is amazing. You can get answers to about any of the questions in the GMAT books. A lot of the forum moderators are instructors from Kaplan, Princeton Review, Manhattan GMAT (MGMAT) and from other GMAt prep schools. I remember in a post that one of the MGMAT instructors actually took the GMAT to test the theory of not finishing the exam. It’s not good to not answer all the questions. Also, GMAT consulting companies are also on the forums answering questions.

Admission essay tips – A lot of advice!
BEATTHEGMAT flashcards – great to have so you can memorize those idioms, formulas or tips.
Scholarships are also available from Beatthegmat.com
Recommended GMAT books that are a must-have. It’s all in this site and I really recommend future applicants to visit this site.

GMAT Prep classes:

Manhattan GMAT – I love the MGMAT Prep. My instructor was excellent in explaining solutions. On difficult questions, he would have 3 ways in solving the questions. Also, there is online material that you can review. The online material is a recording of a previous class and the material is the same material you go over in class but with a different instructor.

Also, included in the prep class is a Microsoft Spreadsheets that keeps track of all your MGMAT, and all of the Official GMAT books (aka ETS). Wrong answers are highlighted in red until you get the answer correct. I enjoyed correcting my mistakes until I got it right instead of looking at the answer right away. There are also stats and graphs you can look at to see where you need to improve. Also, included in the prep class is the yellow laminated sheet, pen and a stop watch. There is also admission guide that is included, which is a very helpful guide that includes admission tips/advice/samples.

The class cost me a good $2000.

Hope you enjoyed the info and find these tips useful.

Good luck!

Posted in Admissions, Student Advice | No Comments »

Your Schedule and the TMMBA

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Chris Rosenquest, TMMBA Student (Class of 2011)

Since I started this program a lot of people have asked me, “How do you manage school, work and everything else you do?” Here’s my take on scheduling during the 18 months of the program.

The first thing I tell them is yes, it’s possible to manage it all and do well at all of it. The second thing I tell them is I use a calendar.

Schedule Your Life:
So a lot of people say “work-life balance”. Now add school into the mix and then make it all work. It’s entirely possible to make it all work and be satisfied and happy without suffering. In fact, it’s entirely possible to not only make it all work but to excel at it all.

This part is more training on scheduling than having specifically to do with the TMMBA program, but for those of you who haven’t had much training with your schedule you’ll find that being thrown head first into school will provide that for you.

Schedule everything. And I mean it. When you get up, when you go to bed, when you have lunch, when you spend time with friends, when you spend time with family. Schedule work meetings, home work, classes and personal days…
All of this scheduling is more of an exercise and less of a necessity. I recommend all of this scheduling for the first two months of your TMMBA so you can get a real sense of how long things actually take.

You might say, “it only take me 25 minutes to get ready in the morning,” when it actually takes 35. “It takes me 10 minutes to get to work,” when it really takes only 5. All of this scheduling will allow you to find out how long things actually take. This alone will give you a good sense of scheduling and how to maximize your time. From me doing this, I know it takes 3 minutes to read an 8×11 page of normal size font. This comes in handy when scheduling time during the lunch hour to read an assigned case.

Find a way to share your calendar with friends and family. This allows you to easily schedule your school time, work time and play time. The people you enjoy spending time with will be able to easily schedule time with you because they will also see when you’re free.

You will become hyper efficient with your time and ability to accomplish tasks.

Keep it in mind:
This is an 18 month program that will end in 18 months. Meaning, your friends and family will be there at the end of the 18 months so keep them in mind during that time and make sure you’re spending time and appreciating them through this process. Schedule time with them or at the very least keep them in the loop on a regular basis. This is the same thing with work. Let people know what support you need and reach out for help when you need it.

Besides, you want people to be at your graduation don’t you!?

Posted in About TMMBA, Life outside TMMBA, Student Advice, Why TMMBA? | No Comments »