It’s 10 weeks into the school year, and we have five weeks remaining before the much deserved and long-awaited Christmas break. How are the SFU MBA students doing?
Some have excelled in their assignments, some have squeaked by and some… well… some are beginning to realize that a Masters degree in Business Administration is going to take a lot more hard work than expected. Maintaining a B+ average isn’t asking for a miracle, but no one said it was going to be easy. What should students do to survive the 20 deadlines in front of them, the long study hours and dreaded finals? In my opinion, students need to rely on each other to build their self-esteem, point out each other’s strengths and realize the best support that students have is from — no surprise, perhaps — the students around them.
No student should feel defeated or discouraged if they’re still unsure of where they want this MBA to take them, or if they didn’t achieve the mark they wanted to on an exam or assignment. Teachers, counselors and TAs may be the ones handing out the grades and the advice, but they don’t know the students as well as the students know the students. I was involved in a 3-way pep talk today with friends that I met in the program, and realized that I can identify important business skill sets that my friends have, that they may not be completely aware of.
These skills come so naturally to them that they’re taken for granted and don’t realize how crucial they are in today’s business world. Some of my skills were pointed out that I didn’t see as being that significant. However, to everyone’s surprise, we mapped out how and where each of these skills were crucial and which job role they could be tailored to.
It was very enlightening!
This made me realize that the best network that we have is each other. We are the support for each other to get through all the assignments and exams. We admire each other for many different reasons, and those reasons should be known to the individual.
If you, as a student, are still confused about career paths after talking to the counselors, or are still discouraged about assignments and tests, ask the friends you have in the program for a pep talk. I’ll bet they are more than willing to share what they see in you, because even though it may feel like no one is rooting for your success, you know soon find out that we all are.