Ross Ambassador Blog

Ross Smarts

Coming to Ross, we all carry our baggage of stereotypes and things we think we know. I have to admit that group work was such a thing for me. I like to think I am pretty open-minded and easy to work with, but so far I have always seen group work as mostly a brainstorming exercise with real work being done on your own.

I had to readjust my thinking pretty quickly once I found myself sitting in Ross core classes. Once you realize that most of your grade depends on working with a team, you are not left with much of a choice. I have to admit I had my fair amount of anxiety. But what struck me most from working with all my teams so far is how smart the people here are. There is a treasure of knowledge, experience, and diversity surrounding you here at Ross and it is up to you to make use of it.

It is not always easy to work within a team - for example convincing the engineers in your group that the most straightforward approach for a paper for a class which deals with leadership and interpersonal relations is not the best thing can be a challenging task, but that is also an important lesson about your future career - you can’t always choose who you are going to work with, so you better learn to work with other people.

It is surprising how much learning happens when you work with your peers. When things are not laid down in plain sight for you, and you have to work hard to get to the core of things, you find yourself learning much more. And since everyone on your team is likely to have unique background and therefore unique perspective, you are quite likely to slap yourself on the forehead more than once when “obvious” things are pointed out to you.

Going through the strenuous MBA application process has a big advantage. You are surrounded by people who are not just as smart as you are, but are considerate and open-minded, so that you do not have to worry about people “showing off” or trying to impress their professors.

I have been at Ross for more than 3 months now and any time someone asks me “What’s the best thing about Ross?” only one thing comes to my mind - it's the people. The Ross Smarts.

 

Beat Ohio!

Cheering with your classmates, group-singing Journey or Eminem during timeouts, rocking out to the drumline...football really is one of the best extracurricular activities at Ross.  Even for someone who has been watching Michigan games her whole life and had been to the Big House a handful of times, nothing compares to sitting in the student section.  This time, some of my classmates were nice enough to sell me their tickets since they'd be gone over the Thanksgiving break, and I was able to have my whole family join in the fun.  Sharing Michigan's first victory over Ohio State since 2003 with my mom (undergrad class of '76) and my brother (undergrad class of '07), and over 100,000 other thrilled Wolverines, I really felt like a part of the maize and blue.

Reminds me of why I chose Ross in the first place, which I hope will be helpful to you when admissions start coming in soon!  As soon as I was admitted, Michigan's community became obvious.  Within six weeks of being admitted, I had been to two happy hours organized by my future classmates, been congratulated by the alum who interviewed me, met with an '05 alum to discuss non-traditional MBA careers, and been to an official admissions event.  Although I was just as excited about the academic programs and career prospects of the other schools I was admitted to, this was a notable difference.  Michigan's alumni network (the largest living alumni network in the world!) and student community made my decision much easier.  And the atmosphere in the Big House post-win made it top of mind once again.

Go blue!

Speed Networking Followed with a Food Fiesta

For marketers, it was a busy week last week with Marketing Symposium (mentioned in my previous post) .. but a huge success, with over 20 companies, 120 recruiters, and 150 student participants! 

Starting on Thursday, I had three company mock interviews, which consisted of 30-minute interviews followed by 15 minutes of feedback from the company reps. The interviews weren't as intimidating as I was expecting, and the feedback was insightful since we now know what to improve on in these next two months before our real interviews. Following the mocks, we had a speed networking event with the recruiters which was a fun and casual way to talk to Ross alums, such as discussing what super powers we would want to have!  Friday consisted of learning about different trends in marketing through educational panels and speakers, and the two-day event ended with a career fair in the afternoon.

Then, my three-day food fiesta started.  I joined (a.k.a. crashed) Section 2’s International Potluck Party – a great variety of homemade international foods.  See Lucas’ blog post below for his description!  On Saturday, Nicole (left) made us a delightful pulled pork dinner that we had bid on from Penny Wars.  Lovin' the Michigan pride:

Sunday consisted of group meetings, including a “jam session” with the Design + Business leadership team.  We got together to brainstorm and incorporate our visions on how D+B could grow in the coming years.  Great ideas can come from colorful post-its and white board tables!

We also had our Section 6 Thanksgiving Potluck.  I had NO idea our section had so many talented chefs!  This was by far one of the best meals I’ve had since arriving in Ann Arbor.  I suppose too many cooks in the kitchen is not always a bad thing ..

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Go Blue!!

 

International Life

Hi folks!

Ross is a place where you have so many clubs and different activities! One club that I've joined is the BRASA (Brazilian Student Business Association). It's not only a club for Brazilians, but also for those who are interested in careers in Brazil, or who want to know the culture.

Last week we had our first official BBQ, to get together all former and new members. In the upcoming months we'll have different events such as the Carnarbor, which is the Brazilian Carnival here in the city, and the Brazilian Day, a professional event where we present an overview about Brazilian economy and politics, giving an idea of the markets that are growing in the country. 

Another amazing social event that I had was the International Potluck from Section 2! Fro those who are not familiar, potluck is a gathering where you bring food and beverage. We got together and all internationals from my section brought traditional food and beverage from their home countries. You can fell the diversity that the school fosters! My section has people from Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, China, Bulgaria, India, Singapore, Chile and of course, US. Since my section is huge, around 85 people, we divided the party in different houses and then we got together in one, after we ran out of food!

It was awesome. Not only I tried so many different food, but also it was a good break from recruiting season, and an opportunity all my buddies outside the clasroom environment. 

Finally, today I went to the football game, which is a big tradition at U of M. The game was incredible, besides the really cold weather! Next week will our last home game! Time is passing by so fast! Can't wait for next year's season!

A (studious) reflection on Fall A

I did an Ambassador lunch today and met with some really cool prospective students (one flew out here from Japan!).  They asked alot of the standard questions like what we like the most, what we'd change, etc.  The discussion got me thinking about the past few months and how fast things have flown by.  Since Ross is on a quarter system, the classes run 6-7 weeks, and we cover a TON of material in a short amount of time.  The first term consisted of Microeconomics, Accounting, Statistics and Strategy.  When I saw my class schedule before the term started, I remember thinking how much of a snoozer the class mix would be (seriously, Statistics, Econ and Accounting in the same term?!?).  Well, I was wrong.  Statistics was taught by probably the most energetic Stat professor the world has ever known.  During my undergrad days, I took a probability course for my engineering major and a business statistics course for my minor.  Back then, I remember consciously removing any and all sharp objects from my desk lest I doze off and impale myself on a hyper-sharpened pencil…  This time was different.  Prof. Ahn made it impossible to lose interest in his class.  One day he polled my section to see who our favorite superhero was, and then he segued into a hilarious discussion on how to categorize superheroes.  The data from the poll was later used to build a confidence interval for the proportion of MBA students who favor Batman.  Kinda dorky, but we were all thoroughly engaged during the lecture.

My econ class was taught by Prof. Jan Svejnar who narrowly lost the 2008 Presidential election in the Czech Republic.  He is a really interesting man (he’s got a Wikipedia page if you’re interested in learning more about him).  He gave a funny story about his time at Princeton where he met John Nash of “A Beautiful Mind” fame (I won’t repeat it, but if you have him as your teacher, make sure he brings it up during the Game Theory lecture).  I think what I liked most about that class was how he didn’t shy away from controversial topics.  For example, our final exam had a question involving the economics of tort reform as a factor in reducing health care costs…not a universally accepted policy, but an interesting discussion when placed in economic context.

Finally, there’s Accounting.  Going into the class, pretty much everyone was dreading 6 weeks of debits and credits.  I mean seriously, is there a less sexy subject than accounting? (oh wait, I’m a former Computer Engineer…never mind)  My teacher was Prof. Miller, a former Harvard professor brought over during our previous Dean’s tenure.  Instead of the typical mechanical discussion of accounting, he taught us to focus strictly on economic reality.  In six weeks, he taught us all how to think like an accountant.  This was probably the most interesting class I have EVER taken.  He limited lectures to less than an hour a class period.  Instead, he spent most of the time pushing us to debate one another on controversial accounting decisions made by companies from Harvard Business School cases that he authored.   The terms debits and credits were used in his first lecture and never again.  Honestly, if undergrad schools taught accounting the same way, I’m pretty sure there’d be a surplus of accountants in our workforce.

So there you go.  I can’t speak to the quality of teachers at other schools, but so far, I’ve been happy with my choice of attending Ross.  My teachers this semester are equally engaging (I’ll tell you more later).  In the meantime, good luck on applications!

A Weekend in Detroit

I spent this last weekend hanging out with the awesome women of Michigan Business Women (MBW) at their first annual retreat.  Held in downtown Detroit, it was a great opportunity to get out of the Ross / Ann Arbor bubble, and get to see people outside of a school context. Ok, fine, the week leading up to the retreat (oh wait, that was just last week), I was seriously thinking about not attending.  There is just SO MUCH going on; I couldn't imagine would what happen if I left Ann Arbor for 24 hours.  When would my Finance group meet?  Who would go to the Kerrytown Farmer's market on Saturday? Will all of my group meetings take place on Sunday now?

But, somewhere deep down in my brain/heart (the small part that wants me to have a work/life balance), I knew this would be good for me.

And it totally was.  Totally. (Sometimes, I like to pepper my speech with unnecessary adverbs). 

First of all, you should know that there are some pretty incredible women here at Ross.  Women who value community, integrity, and know how to throw an awesome conference. We had sessions on Mindful Leadership (I need to be better at this) and even had a life coach come in (I need so much coaching).  As someone who let Fall A just whirl by her, it was really useful to remember the importance of reflection and giving yourself time and space. 

I don't want business school to just fly by, to have all the experiences I have just be a blur: I want to look back on this and be able to pinpoint key experiences, to have moments that stand out and capture the best parts of Ross.  I mean, Ferris Bueller sums it up pretty well: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."  (did I just date myself with a Ferris Bueller quote?)

So, my challenge for myself now is to try to stay present and to be engaged in this learning experience.  If only so that when I go home for the holidays, I have some concrete examples of what I've learned and what I've done, instead of trying to tell my mom how busy I am and how I can't remember anything. (Btw, that's a really fun conversation to have with your parents.  Especially if you speak Chinglish, like I do).

Oh, before you go off and think that the retreat is just full of thoughtful, reflection workshops, you should know that these women planned some pretty kick ass after-conference events.  They split us up into groups of 8-10, and took us out to different restaurants for dinner.  My group ended up at Pegasus Taverna, this fantastic Greek restaurant in Greektown.  Uhm, they have a dish where they light cheese on fire.  Cheese! On Fire! Crazy pants, and so good.  Then, we all went to Pulse, which I think is just a cocktail lounge, but we managed to take over the back area and make it into a dance floor.

It was really difficult to muster up the energy to want to leave Detroit. Mostly because I knew I had 3 group meetings and a ton of homework waiting for me in Ann Arbor. But, the weekend was totally worth it.  I now have a better (and I think, healthier) mindset, and have gotten to know some of my classmates a lot better.  So, if you get the opportunity, you should definitely try to attend this event next year.  I know I will.

Full Disclosure: I am just a member of MBW; I was not part of the retreat planning committee, nor did MBW ask me to write this post. I just thought it was awesome.  And, since sharing is caring, obviously, I care about you.

You are now exiting the "Comfort Zone"

    One of the things I most looked forward to prior to business school was the opportunity to get involved in new things. I knew Ross was one of the most hands-on schools, but I had no idea how quickly opportunities would present themselves and “yes” is my default answer when asked if I want to do something. Maybe it’s FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), but I like to think I am nobly trying to step outside of my comfort zone. It doesn’t hurt that I genuinely enjoy doing things with my classmates.

    One of the more awesome things I recently agreed to was a role in Rock n Roll B-School. For those who don’t know it’s a raunchier rockin’ version of Ross Follies, which includes music, skits and enough dirty jokes to make a sailor blush. I am not an actor and generally dislike public speaking so this was a perfect fit. 

Rock 'n' Roll B-School from RnRBS on Vimeo.

     The show was amazing and despite being nervous, I had a great time and got a few laughs along the way. It’s not every day you can dress up and create sick and satirical comedy about the things uniquely relevant to B-School students. There is also some serious musical talent at Ross and it was great to see Carrie Thorson rock Edge of Glory.

 

    If I could give advice to any incoming student I would say to get involved in as many things as you can, the more outside of your comfort zone the better.

 

Ops Ops Baby

Who  knew “supply chain risk management” could sound so…awesome? Appealing? Totally and utterly cool?

One of my favorite things about coming back to school has been that there are so many opportunities to immerse myself in subjects that are new to me.  Since we only have classes Monday-Thursday, Fridays usually play host to a variety of conferences on every subject imaginable.  You name it, and there is probably a whole day devoted to it here at some point during the year (and if it doesn’t exist, you can create it—rumor has it that some members of the Design + Business club are working on creating an Athletic and Outdoor Conference here to bring companies like Nike, Patagonia, The North Face, etc. to come to campus and establish a dialogue with students—pretty cool!).  Between Ross’s convenient location relative to some Midwest-based giants (Ford, GM, P&G, Alcoa, etc.) and its strong alumni base, we are able to draw some pretty interesting speakers to campus.

Recently, I attended the Global Operations Conference (GOC), which was organized by a team of MBA and Engineering students in conjunction with the Tauber Institute for Global Operations. 

Kevin Harrington, Vice President for Global Business Operations at Cisco gave the keynote address at the conference.  Keeping with the conference’s futuristic theme of imagining the year 2020, Harrington focused on the main operations challenges he foresees in the next ten years.  During his speech, he chronicled some of havoc created in global supply chains as a result of a long chain of natural disasters, such as the Japan earthquake and tsunami and the floods in Thailand, which have both happened in the past year. 

Harrington detailed Cisco’s response to these two events as they raced to understand how such events impacted their supply chain and develop a mitigation strategy.  He described the war room set up at Cisco to house the team working night and day on these as the news broke on television.  I spoke to the Ross alum sitting next to me who had been on the team handling the Thai floods and listened in awe as he told me how they had approached the incredible challenge of figuring out how they were impacted by the shut-down of 17,000 factories in Thailand.

…And I thought, “This is something I would love.”

I have a long history of signing up for things that throw me into new and uncomfortable situations and force me to adapt (teaching at a different rural school in China every day, being the first group of students from my university to study abroad in Cuba, working in Sao Paulo without speaking a lick of Portuguese—you get the idea). I had always considered “supply chain risk management” to be mostly static contingency planning or theft prevention. Harrington’s speech illustrated that this aspect of operations is in fact much more dynamic and exciting than I had thought. Moreover, it seems like a niche area of operations where I would thrive and consistently be challenged.

As I get more immersed in the Tauber Curriculum, I am starting to see the areas where I may be interested in focusing for my 14–week summer project.  Supply Chain Risk Management has definitely made the cut.

Recruiting Season

It’s been two weeks since I got back from Fall Break, and things have picked up so fast that it doesn’t even feel like I went home.  While Fall Break is a break from classes, most people to use this week to attend recruiting events (panelist discussions, roundtables and company tours) in the geographic location that we are interested in.  Many of my friends went on the NY treks (Marketing Trek and Wall Street Forum) but I joined West Coast Forum which took place in California (Bay Area). 

I enjoyed the company tours the most.  I visited Clif Bar in Emeryville, and it was a great way to really learn about the company's culture.  Besides all the awesome shwag we got, I felt very inspired by the company’s truly humble story.

Marketing Symposium is this week, and it’s our huge two-day marketing event where companies come on to campus and host educational panels, breakout sessions, and even mock interviews for us.  I’ve been getting together with friends to prep for this event, and the MBA2’s from Marketing Club are also hosting mock interviews for us to prep for company mock interviews.  It’s a busy week for us, but both of my MBA2 mentors have been very helpful with their advice (and time!) since they went through the same process last year.

Some pictures from Fall Break:

Our visit to Method through Design + Business SF Trek:

Taco Tuesdays at Nick's Crispy Tacos in SF:

What do Ross-ers do afterwards?  We run down Lombard Street, the world's most crooked street!

Until next time … GO BLUE!

This Is Michigan

Welcome (again) to the Ross Ambassador Blog! 

This is a spot where we will try to answer your questions, provide a little insight into your first (or second) year at business school and increase awareness of the many programs that make Ross special. 

I am your stereotypical career switcher (officially)!  I signed my offer last week and I have my "sell" weekend starting tomorrow at noon.  Not much selling required.  It is going to be a little weird since the sell weekend is in my old hometown, Birmingham, MI.  They are taking us around Birmingham, Royal Oak and the Detroit Red Wings game!

I think there are going to be a flurry of offers given out to my MBA2 classmates soon.  I can't wait to have more good news to celebrate!  It is exciting when you hear about someone getting an offer or accepts.  I like that Ross students seem to get so excited for our classmates' successes and achievements.

Here are some pictures from the latest wine club (some things never seem to change)!  If you can't tell, the party was a Prohibition Flapper Wine Club party!

My MAP teammate, Toby, and his wife, Rachel

As always, Go Blue!