the song of despair

it seems that an MBA is an anomaly. in the search for my action consultancy (internship), companies who should be bringing their cases/problem to consulting companies and paying roughly 100K-200K PHP(sometimes more) are employing MBA undergrads for 100PHP a day or 8 hours. it's demeaning considering my tuition here at AIM. at 100PHP a day, it seems like I am back at UP where i was a library student assistant... but with more brain work to be done.  

is this the case of all businesses right now? or is it only in the philippines? 

i wonder what will be the state of businesses when we graduate this december. most of my batch mates are contemplating to go abroad after the MBA.  this is brain drain all over. ah... why did the gunslinger cry at the watch tower?

the ballad of the forlorn mba

on account of being the last paper to be submitted, everyone is slacking off to catch their breath.  almost half of my batchmates have started their action consultancy or internship while the remaining ones are still looking for companies.  as for me, i'm slacking off for a few hours before i journey to my POTFin analysis of Apple Inc.  i actually found a harvard case as a model since organizationally, there is not much literature online.

its a sad thing that we AIM students are having a hard time getting internships even here in the Philippines.  I don't know if this will be the trend when we graduate. That is if we do graduate.  There are still some issues with the administration about the grades. but there is not much that we could do. so we focus on our action consultancy and then what? some might not be accepted back into the school?  the thing is, even with the problems with the current MBA16 batch, the administration has already decided to accept the next batch for this May. I wish them good luck.

blog-forward

everything just finished today. well for me at least. some people have to take the MCS exam tomorrow. our CAN group got exempted. very unlikely but we did. somehow we pushed through in the last minute and got the exemption. we just finished the OM exam about an hour ago and it was quite ... well simple. anybody who has done top-down programming in college would have no problems... but common sense would really help.
so first year business school is unofficially over (until tomorrow officially). but there are still 3 papers to submit. 1 individual, 1 by dyad partners, and the last one is by ad-hoc teams. I need to finish my part for the Chinese Nuclear Power Plant business plan tonight. I'm still researching about Apple for now.
I guess as early as now, I am feeling nostalgic. the pressure, we all hate it but we live by it. Although there have been flaws in the delivery of the MBA16 program, there are learnings. The problem is, even with the difficulties, the administration still wants us to pass our quantitative subjects! I would understand the process issues that we have, it is like a reflection of the real world outside. But then some of us are looking into another perspective. Whereas 8 months ago we were idealistic and hungry for learning, right now we are looking at finishing the course, getting our individual diplomas and getting out of the school. Its a bit sad, the issues plaguing MBA16 and the attitude of my batch. I understand what they are feeling and sometimes, I feel that way too (hmm, sounds like a song.)
we had our last strategy class this morning and it was like an eye opener. we look too much at business and corporate life that it reminded us about ourselves and individuals, as brother and sister, daughter and son, husband, wife and lovers, how business ethics should not be at the expense of other human beings. it was like a graduation speech, yet we are not yet graduates. i appreciate that class by professor Gallegos. I think that will be something sort of a guidebook for me. There is too much angst in my life, within and outside the mba arena. i guess there is still hope.
ashton kutcher, in 'a lot like love' was advised by his deaf-mute brother... Oliver, this is your life. It doesn't wait for you to get back on your feet.

and so with my nostalgia i continue to write on this blog. i'm actually done with the report this blog was initially for, but it seems my life is now connected with it. including my laziness. and so my blogging continues... to infinity and beyond!

financial management 2

in three days we will have our exam in financial management 2 (FM2). this will be a make or break exam for some of the guys and gals who already got a 2 unit failure here at AIM. fm2 is the hurdle to get into 2nd year. the thing is, there is no wash grades for it. and given that there are three teachers for it, its kinda hazy from corporate finance to derivatives and instruments, to risk management. i seriously hope that AIM look into the delivery of their 16 month program. the only people who would probably pass fm2 would be those who have functional knowledge of finance. as to passing, i could only hope.