New Zealand Ski Holiday booked!

Now this is something to look forward to:

22 August: Finish exams at MBS

23 August: Fly to Sydney. Fly to Christchurch. Drive to Queenstown

23 - 29 August: Five days / six nights Skiing/Snowboarding on the slopes in New Zealand !!

29 August: Drive to Christchurch. Fly to Auckland. Fly to Los Angeles. Fly to New York (JFK). Taxi to Columbia. Check into a hotel. Sleep.

Consulting Internship Application Season Update #1

Presentations attended: LEK, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, Booz, McKinsey

Applications submitted: LEK, BCG

1st Round interviews: N/A

2nd Round interviews: N/A

Final Round interviews: N/A

Offers: N/A

'Shopping'

A common practice during the first week of any term at MBS is 'shopping' for classes. While we do have to apply for and enrol in electives classes several weeks prior to the start of term, we have the opportunity to sit in on additional classes during the first week, with a view to potentially changing our elective choices. As one can imagine, this can lead to a very busy week. In my case, I've attended classes this week in Business Strategy, Valuations & Financial Analysis, Economics & Public Policy, Business Law, Funds Management, and Managing Innovation. (The end result: I'm going to stick with Business Law and Product Management as my electives)

I've also been participating in various career planning workshops, and getting involved in the Melbourne University Entrepreneurs' Challenge with their Idea Generation workshop. On top of all that I've been organising my VISA and housing for New York, and booking a ski holiday to New Zealand.

Needless to say, by weeks end I was pretty exhausted. I'm taking it easy today, relaxing a bit, and psyching myself up for the annual MBS Ball tonight at Crown Casino. Business School is so cool !!

The MBA Experience

Martin Lloyd starts his MBA at the Said Business School at Oxford later in the year, and will be publishing his MBA experience at www.mba-experience.com. Right now there's heaps of information up on the site about the reasons to do an MBA, the applications process, and the financing options available. Seems some UK banks will lend you the tuition fees and tho-thirds of your pre-MBA salary in a deferred loan arrangement. Things aren't that easy here in Australia, although the Aust'n government does let you borrow the tuition fees using an interest-free loan (PELS) that you pay back through the income tax system upon graduation.

Anyway, I'll be watching his site with interest come September.

Winter Term @ MBS

Three days into Term 2 at Melbourne Business School, and it's clearly obvious that there's a different vibe around the place compared to last term.

- the international students have started to complain about the Melbourne winter,

- the second year students have pretty much disappeared and will be graduating next week, save for a handful who have just come back from their internships,

- everything's getting very serious on the career front with interview preparation and resume writing workshops a plenty, and

- we're all disallusioned by the news that ZERO job offers resulted from on-campus recruitment for the 2nd-year students, and only 10 of the 120 or so 2nd-years have indeed secured any form of full-time employment.

Not everything's grim though...

- around 50 of us are eagerly getting organised for our respective exchange experiences at international business schools later in the year,

- the 20 or so of us heading to the U.S. for exchange are very pleased to see that the Australian dollar is finally recovering from its undervaluation against the greenback (my personal target is $0.63 by August), and

- the Melbourne University Entrepreneurs' Challenge is hotting up, with workshops for idea generation and team building this week.

We're also about to start the applications process for summer internships at the local management consulting firms. I'm still in two minds about whether to do an internship as part of the MBA. Under the U.S. b-school system, MBA students typically do an internship over the Northern Hemisphere summer between the first and second years of their MBA. In Australia, with the 16-month MBA, the internship is conducted during what would be the student's fourth and final term. After completing the internship, they then return to the business school for the winter term to complete their final five subjects. The problem with this at MBS is that there are very few electives available during the winter term at MBS, since the majority of the students at the school at the time are 1st-year students working on their core curriculum. The lack of subject choices is counteracted by the convenient tax situation in that the internship is likely to be the only income earnt by the student over the entire financial year, and as such, one gets to keep around 80% of the money earnt, rather than the usual 50% for high-income earners...

Dial-a-meter to thwart parking fines

[the age 22.05.2002]

"Telstra yesterday announced a trial in which drivers will be able to use their mobile phones to dial parking meters and have parking costs charged to their telephone accounts. Trials in Melbourne will begin in about a month using electronic meters in La Trobe Street. Sydney trials, on meters near Bronte Beach, began yesterday and will last for three months."

Now this is a very clever idea. Finally, we'll be able to top up a parking meter without having to walk back to the car every couple of hours. Customers will probably be willing to pay a premium for this service, which is fantastic for councils, but will it make up for the reduction in parking fine revenues that they so desparately rely on?

Fact: my local council, the City of Port Phillip generates overs 40% of its revenues from parking fines.

Spotted on the Gold Coast

Hmm, seems someone had their camera out at The Clock Hotel in Surfers Paradise last week, while I was in town. Don't know how long the photos will be up on their website, so I've created a permanent link to the photo containing yours truly here. The other guys in the photo are mates from my MBA course.

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

One word: Awesome!!

Columbia Business School, circa November 2000

My original analysis of Columbia Business School after a brief visit in November 2000.

anthonyjhicks.com hits the road

I've been hassling Mr Hicks for years to take a break from that flush IT job in Sydney, and see the world. Looks like he's finally going to do it for real this time. Italy, France, the UK, and Singapore - should be a sensational trip.

Term 1 results

Also received my results for Term 1 of the Melbourne MBA - a couple of surprises, including an H1 for Marketing. I managed to scrape through with an 80% for Financial Accounting (the minimum cut-off for an H1), which I'm very happy about considering the troubles I had with the exam. My lowest score was 77% (H2A) for Organisations, and my best was 93% (H1) for Managerial Economics.

It all starts again next week. I picked up my reading packs for four subjects yesterday, including Business Strategy in which we do two HBS cases every week. Term 2 is also our first opportunity to venture into the Finance courses at MBS. We start with an introductory course called Valuation and Financial Analysis which uses the textbook Fundamentals of Corporate Finance by Ross et al. Then in Term 3 (when I'll be at Columbia) we can do up to five finance courses at once!

Living the Dream!!

I've been off the air for a week or so, traveling and partying with friends, but I'm back in Melbourne now getting organised for Term 2 which starts next week. Now here's the big news:

I've been accepted into Columbia Business School for an exchange term later in the year. Yes folks - I'm moving to New York, New York, USA !! Four months in Manhattan at one of the world's top business schools. I'm absolutely stoked.

My life is about to change in a very big way. Sure, I've travelled before, but I've never lived outside of Australia. Now I'll have the opportunity to study business and finance in the business capital of the world. Sure it'll be an expensive adventure, but it'll be worth every greenback, and who know's it may even turn into a job - I'll be there for the peak of the recruitment season.

My MBA is now 25% complete!!

Well, I did it. I've made it through the first term of the MBA. My Quantitative Analysis and Managerial Economics exams went really well, and I've been celebrating at various bars and parties for the past couple of days. More updates soon.

Four down, one to go !

Today is a Good Day

Things have turned around somewhat since my Financial Accounting exam yesterday morning. I picked up my results for my latest Marketing and Organisations assignments yesterday afternoon - H1 for both of them, which was pleasantly surprising. My Marketing exam this morning seemed fairly easy - the fact that two of the questions concerned the movie and airline industries definitely worked in my favour. And, when I arrived home this afternoon, I was pleased to find out that I've been allocated all my preferences for subject choices and class schedules for next term. So, overall, it's been a very good day.

Now, I have to get into quant mode for my final two exams - Quantitative Analysis and Managerial Economics.

BTW - here's the full list of subjects that I'll be doing in Term 2.

• Valuation & Financial Analysis
  
• Economics & Public Policy
  
• Business Strategy
  
• Business Law, and
  
• Product Management

Three down, two to go