Archives for the Month of October 2006 on Christopher Mazzola's Online Journal
New York Times Article
Recently, I received an envelope in the mail, from my mother, containing an article from The New York Times. My mother, a succcessful businesswoman, has taken it upon herself to send me every article that she finds interesting and that she thinks may relate to my life as a business student. On most occassions, I quickly look over the articles she sends me, but this one really caught my attention.
The article, "You Can Complain, or You Can Make Money", by Ben Stein, explains that as a college student there are some important decisions one has to consider for him or herself. Choosing a major is one of these decisions. I think that by choosing Management as a major I have taken a step in the right direction. As far as getting a good job out of college goes, I have Management 250 to thank for that. This class has really helped me develop and shape some of the professional business skills I didn't even know I had. The resume building skills I learned in class will be very valuable in displaying myself as a worthy candidate to companies in the future.
Overall, the article was trying to convey the point that the business world is vastly expanding and the one should aspire to get a job working with a well-known, and successful company. As Warren Buffet once said, "You are better off being mediocre in a great business than being great in a mediocre business." So far, Management 250 has helped me do this by inspiring me to start considering my future in business.
United States of China
Late last semester, my friend Paul approached me and asked, "Hey, would you like to take Chinese 101 with me?" I had already taken seven years of Spanish so I was a bit reluctant to attempt to become trilingual. However, I decided learning Mandarin would be a great tool for business, and I signed up for the fall semester of 2006.
I was a bit nervous, initially, but after the first week of classes I was pretty confident that learning Mandarin would not be as difficult as I expected (or as hard as everyone told me it would be.) The second week went by and things began moving at a faster pace, but I still maintained a positive attitude that I would succeed. Fast forward to last week and my outlook has made a drastic turnaround. Chinese 101, as I had seen it five weeks prior, had become my hardest class of the semester. Between speaking Chinese and writing the endless amount of characters, I was beginning to regret my decision of enrolling in this class.
Today, I happened to read an article in The Wall Street Journal about how much of U.S. businesses China will own by 2015. The basic gist of the article was that Chinese culture will become more and more prevalent in the United States over the next ten years. Therefore, my decision to take Chinese 101 this semester may not have been such a bad idea after all. The way I see things, I am getting a head-start on my future business competition, and it will be an excellent skill to list on my resume.
Free Time at Case = Gold
The past few weeks I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed. Dividing my time between midterm exams and writing papers has made value the precious little time I have to relax. Even with a daily planner, I have found it a difficult task to allocate assignments well. I feel bombarded with schoolwork, and it has created a whole new meaning of the term "full-time student" for me.
This made me wonder, "Since when do business majors get so much work?" Freshman year seems like a distant time period to me. When there was actually time to socialize and hang out with a few friends to play some Gamecube. Last year, I had the opportunity of living in a suite with five roommates, who were mostly either BME's or electrical engineers. After class, they would often complain how much they despised three hour labs or how much work they had to finish, and I sat there content with my decision to study management. Sure, we management majors had homework, but it nowhere near compared with the workload of science majors. This year, however, taking a sick day off from class puts me in a nervous panic. In this situation, I often find myself thinking, "If I missed something important then it might be on the quiz tomorrow, or should be included in the paper due in three days, or on the test next week."
However, I know nothing will change, and I have to accept the fact that I am attending Case Western Reserve University, the school with the second greatest workload next to M.I.T. In that case, my girlfriend will also have to accept the fact that my daily planner has become the other love in my life.
My Mock Interview Experience
Apparently, I never published this entry, so here it is again:
The interview is one thing that most people have an irrational fear of. Well at least I do. As my mock interview approached, this week, I realized that I had no experience in this area. This would be my first interview, and even though it was not for a real position with a company, I still wanted to have a serious attitude about it. To make sure the interview would be a success, there were two points I focused on:
Preparation was key in preparing for my interview. I did not want to seem like a unpolished interviewee, so I decided to practice my introduction and responses to potential questions in front of a mirror. This helped me avoid any nervous fidgeting and hesitations while answering questions.
Confidence was another key factor in having a successful interview. I tried to leave a good impression with the interviewer by maintaining a positive attitude throughout the interview.
Overall, I would say everything went smoothly. The highlight occurred when the interviewer told me that had the interview was for a real management position with a company, he would have strongly considered me. Unfortunately, I did not walk away with a job that day, but I did walk away with a great experience.