Great Ocean Road

After the mid-term exams, I spent the weekend with 9 other classmates along Great Ocean road. We decided we need a good break from studying after the exams and we spent one night at the Twelve Apostles Motel. We rented one mini van and one of our classmates drove his car. It was a great idea and I am glad I joined the group. It was a good break from studies and school. We finished 48 bottles of beer and a Barcardi in one night. =p

We stopped at Torquay, Lorne and Apollo Bay along the way. We played with water at the Torquay beach, had a public BBQ and enjoyed the beach at Apollo Bay and had coffee at Lorne. A memorable trip with a breathtaking view! I'll let the pictures say for themselves.

AT Kearney Case Interview Workshop

I attended the AT Kearney case interview workshop the day before the Accounting for Managers exam. I made the right decision to attend the workshop, instead of mugging Accounting at home. The session was very helpful and I am so greatful AT Kearney consultants took time out of their busy schedule to come and give us the workshop in MBS.

Two AT Kearney consultants gave an introduction about the company, the kind of projects they handle and the career prospects in the company. After that, we were spilt into groups of 7 to 8 people and we were led by AT Kearney consultants on how to handle case interviews. We were given a case to analyse and we were led through the case, with each of us contributing our ideas. It was my first case and I learnt a lot from the session. We were told that case interview performance usually gets better with more practice. I learnt how to think through the case and learnt what to do & what not to do in an interview. Planning is very important and we should always take time to think through the case thoroughly before rushing to answer it. Another important point is to answer the question and not to suggest ideas that won't improve the situation. It seems pretty straight forward but people still tend to forget this point.

I am so glad I attended the workshop!

Mid-term exams

The main reason for my long disappearance from blogging is due to mid-term exams. I had five different exams held over a period of two weeks. Managing People for High Performance, Managerial Economics and Data & Decision was held the week before. Financial Management and Accounting for Managers was held last week.

I was mugging through the last two weeks, skipping parties and dinner invitations. I have been quite consistent with assignments every week so I have managed to get the concepts of most classes, but I have not been up and ahead on my readings and revisions. So I spent the last two weeks really catching up. It was pretty tiring so I learnt my lesson. I need to catch up with readings and revision and assignments every week, not only when the exams are near.

Comparing with NUS Engineering whereby the lecturers ask questions on anything and everything unexpected under the sun, the five exams were manageble. If you have studied, you will definitely pass and even get a good grade. I did pretty average in most subjects, so I need to buck up for the finals. At present I am pretty busy with syndicate assignments due in a couple of weeks. After that, I will be mugging again for the final exams in early December. It is only a month away... hectic hectic MBA life.

Women & Management

MBS offers its students many different clubs and organisations to join outside our busy schedule of studying. If there is nothing that interests you, you can even set up your own new club. A couple of friends from my class set up the Statistical Analysis Club, which is pretty cool. After exploring different options, I decided to join the Women & Management club. I always believe women make better leaders than men. Well, we do listen better than guys. =)

MBS Women & Management club organised a networking lunch on 10th October. It was an informal event whereby successful women professionals and managers from various industries come together to discuss the challenges women managers face today. It was awesome! I was the emcee for the introduction of the guests and I am so glad the lunch was a great success. There were guests from BCG, Telstra, IBM, ANZ, etc. The audience attendance was mainly females with three gentlemen who were very much welcomed by the group.

Anyway, girl power always rulez! =p

Singapore day

The theme for last weekend revolved around my hometown, Singapore! I attended the Singapore recruitment event on Friday evening at Telstra Dome and went to celebrate Singapore day with 11,000 other Singaporeans at Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Saturday.

The recruitment event was mainly made up of Singapore companies in finance, healthcare and engineering industries. There was a nice videoclip of Singapore Marina Bay area, the lifestyle of the people and the buildings around Singapore river. It made me miss home! I had the chance to talk to ANZ CEO in Singapore, Bill Foo. Most companies told me to apply for an internship back home during December-February school break. Let's see... The rest of the companies include MINDEF, MAS, SANDS, Capitaland, Far East Organisation, Vestas, and so on.

The next day, I had a great time at the Singapore day! As usual, we had to queue and queue like in Singapore, but it was all worth it. There was hawker food I have been missing so much, like Hokkien Mee, Char Kway Teow, Chilli Crab, Kaya Toast, and so on! And everything was free!!! There was also a concert where Phua Chu Kang family acted a sketch, Tay Ping Hui & Hardy Mirza sang, and my favourite band Electrico was in town too!

Melbourne weather was great on Singapore day, we were picnicing under the sun and enjoying food from home. The Hokkien Mee was from the Wisma Food Republic stall! Perfect! It was great to be home in Melbourne. =)

Welcome BBQ

I guess everyone loves free food & drinks, especially us students. Last Wednesday MBS had such an occasion, with free dinner and beer - the Welcome BBQ! I thought BBQs were always outdoor and involves fire, charcoal, and grilling. But we had this one indoor, with already cooked food and free flow of beer.

Whether indoor or outdoor, it will always attract many people. There were full time students like us, the part time students, the exchange students, the seniors and so on. There were so many new faces and was great fun minggling around with "familiar strangers".

I chatted with a couple of exchange students and got to know a few part timers. We should have more occasions like this, with more free beer, as the beer ran out really fast in the first 30mins.

Johnson & Johnson

J&J came on campus last Thursday to give a presentation and to recruit the students for both internship and full-time positions. It was full house at the Cohen Theatre, with a few of us having to stand throughout the session. The group that came were mainly from the Healthcare divisions of J&J, namely, Pharmeceutical and Medical Devices & Diagnostics.

The presenters talked about how meaningful it is to save lives while working. They shared several stories about how patients were saved around the world with the devices they developed in J&J. Some of the stories were really touching and inspiring.

J&J is hiring all over the world in positions such as Product Manager, Finance Manager, Marketing Manager, and so on. It was a pretty good presentation from one of the FORTUNE 500 companies in the world. However, they spent a long time selling the name J&J. I thought it was not really necessary to sell the brand as the crowd was already attracted to the talk by the name Johnson & Johnson.

Salsa class

Last Monday, I went for my very first dancing lesson of my life - Salsa! There were about 10-12 of us, mainly from my class. Salsa class is organised by the Latin American club in MBS, called LANG. It was great fun, though I stepped on a couple of foot. =p

Alex, the instructor, is a cuban guy, who has dancing blood in him since birth. He was telling us no one teaches you how to dance in South America, you just move! Yah yah... I was moving, just no Salsa blood in me. Hehehe... 1 step forward, 3 steps backwards, then move sideways... He made it seem so easy.

The music was rhythmic and supposedly makes you wanna dance, but I was too involved with getting the steps right and was busy looking at shoes the whole time. So Alex told us to look up and go with the flow... and I ended up stepping on others' foot. Oooppps! I hope someone still partners me next week. =)