How to make your MBA fun, enjoyable, and rewarding
Use the services of your career centre early and often. Get to know the staff really well. You know how they say employers usually hire people they like? The career centre people will give more help to the people they like.
Join a few clubs, get on the executive of one (or a few) or start a new one. It's a great way to meet people and practice your skills. BTW, employers like initiative and leadership
It's an overused cliche but it has to be said: network, network, and keep networking. More importantly, socialize. You'll find it more relaxing than networking and you'll get more than a job or a business contact, you'll get a friend.
MBA Reference Sites
- Quick MBA
- The Cliffs Notes of almost all MBA textbooks
- Harvard Business School Working Knowedge
- It reads like an online version of Harvard Business Review with though the articles are written in a more mainstream business press style. There's a good mix of academic and practical articles. A great start to an assignment but also a very interesting read.
- Top MBA
- A general resource guide to getting into the MBA. I went to their MBA fair before applying and I found it really helpful. Even got to take a sample class. I recommend all new applicants attend the fair to get an idea of what each school has to offer. Be sure to take the mock class.
- Knowledge @ Wharton
- Harvard doesn't have a monopoly of business knowledge. Another great resource for very insightful articles in business
Favourite Sites About Marketing
- Reveries
- If it's offbeat, quirky, or cutting edge, you'll find it here in Fast Company columnist Tim Manners' webzine, Reveries. Learn about the latest trends, offbeat products and services, and unusual marketing campaigns.
- Marketing Profs
- A collection of opinion pieces about various aspects of marketing. The "Know How Exchange" (Click Forums to access it) is a great way to pick the brains of marketing professionals. They have a special section for students. I've always been rewarded with fast and quick answers to my questions.
- Marketing Vox
- Short snippet articles about what's going on in online marketing
- Clickz
- Another great source for online marketing news. The articles here are a little more in-depth than Marketing Vox
Favourite Business Books
Stumbling on Happiness
Malcolm Gladwell has an excellent review of this book on Amazon. Gilbert comes to startling conclusions as to what makes people happy which I think every businessperson should know if they're going to sell an appealing product or service.
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Everyone was talking about this one and I finally got around to starting it. Thus far, I'm finding "Thin slicing" quite fascinating. Bears resemblance to Procter & Gamble's "First moment of truth" concept.
Free Prize Inside!: The Next Big Marketing Idea
I got this book as a free prize for listening to one of Seth's webcasts. Very enjoyable read. I especially like the part when Seth talks about how to sell innovative idea within a larger corporation. Seth Godin created Squidoo so this plug is partially a shout out to the creator.
Brand Leadership: The Next Level of the Brand Revolution
This was my brand management textbook but turned out to be so interesting, I read the parts that weren't meant for class. Ok I'm a branding geek.
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
An interesting take on what makes good pop culture good. One can apply the same insight to good brands and products.
Now, Discover Your Strengths
This book was given to select employees at my former employer. I found the strength test to be quite accurate and it gave me focus on my career search and ambitions
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
I've only read pieces of this book but it's amazing how someone applied value investing principles to picking prospective baseball players and made it work (Ok, Billy Beane can bring the A's to the playoffs but the formula still needs some tweaking to win a World Series)
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Now that I've read Blink this one's next
Career Help
- Linked In
- A social networking site for professionals and job seekers.
- Vault
- A great resource for finding out the good, the bad, and the ugly about working at most major North American corporations. It also gives good cover letter, resume and networking tips. A lot of the site requires a paid subscription. Some school career centres will provide access to Vault to its students as part of their tuition.
- Wet Feet
- Very similar to Vault.
- NexCareer
- Nex Career performs outplacement services while Destiny ME provides career coaching and job search help for those whose companies aren't paying for it. I've had really positive experiences with my career coach there helping me sell myself through my resume, my elevator speech, and finding themes among my disparate previous careers. So for those in the Greater Toronto Area, I highly recommend it.
- Second Harvest
- Ok this has nothing to do with careers but I volunteer for this charity and they could use the publicity. It's a great cause (delivering food that would otherwise go to waste to various social service agencies throughout Toronto) and I encourage anyone to donate.
Even if you do have that great job, you should try to give back to the community by volunteering. You make new friends and have a lot of fun.
Cool News of the Day
Fascinating articles about marketing and cultural trends from Reveries Magazine (mentioned above).
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Interesting marketing news collected from mainstream online publications throughout the world
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