One Step Forward

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” — Confucius

I am officially halfway done…with my first semester, that is. It has been a little over two months since I started the Georgia Tech Evening MBA program. These past two months have been a whirlwind of a time. I completed my midterm accounting exam and my final exam for my statistics course. Work was also extremely busy at the end of January and into February. Then school ramped up with exams and assignments. This is the very beginning of my three-year MBA journey, but it has certainly already taught me that I need to be better with my time management and really be able to grind through these busy times. There were many days on which I felt overwhelmed and stressed out. There were too many days that began with a long day at work followed by coming home, eating dinner, and immediately working again until it was late into the night, sometimes past midnight. Despite those rough days, I am thankful for the opportunity that I have in front of me. I try to remind myself about the light at the end of the tunnel (at least, that’s what everyone says!). Every day is an additional step forward towards the ultimate goal of earning that MBA.

My statistics course finished last week. That course served as a refresher on some principles and taught me some new concepts as well. However, I was really excited to finish it up and move on to my next half-semester course: marketing. I have a genuine interest in marketing as I am working to pursue a role in product management. There is a lot of marketing involved in product management; as such, I am looking forward to this course providing me with a foundation for my future courses related to product management and marketing. This course is also providing me with my first group assignment experience in graduate school. Given that all of the students in the program are working professionals, and some with spouses and kids, it is going to be a challenge for us to manage this. However, this will be a common occurrence in graduate school. It will be interesting to see how we work around everyone’s busy schedules and time constraints.

Registration will be opening up soon for summer and fall classes. Picking a schedule should not be difficult as I will be still be fully immersed in core courses. My goal is to power through these core courses before I begin taking electives in the Spring 2020 semester. I want to establish a strong foundation that carries into my electives. I also do not want to have any lingering required classes, especially with most of them being half-semester courses. As much as I am getting out of the core courses, I am most excited about taking electives and focusing my studies on topics that most interest me.

For now, I hope to make the most out of this marketing course and finish off strong in my accounting course. Thank you for reading! If you have any comments, I would love to hear them below.

Until next time,

Vishal