Summer Prep Work

Merage has been hard at work preparing for the class of 2008. I recently received a letter introducing the Career Services Department. It suggested that our search for our new career begins before we start school. It gave us links to research, suggested we start talking with people who are in fields that interest us, and asked that we take the Career Leader test.

Career Leader is essentially an interest test designed to give us some direction about what careers may make us happy. Now, I am a veteran of numerous personality/aptitude campaigns and I have the reports to prove it. Career Leader indicated that I have three strong interests in Application of Technology, Creative Production, and Enterprise Control. It also identified five career paths that would most interest me: Entrepreneurship; General Management; Management of New Product Development; Research and Development Management; and Venture Capital. Interestingly it found I had a low interest in an area that I really enjoy: Strategic Planning and Business Development.

There is some good information about the career fields, so I am better for participating in the test. I do think that it is only half of the equation. While it is great to know what you like, you need to have the necessary attributes to do the job. I do not subscribe to the school of thought that believes you will learn the attributes necessary to make one successful in that field (especially when as an MBA you are expected to perform at a high level). I think if this test was combined with an aptitude test, like Myers-Briggs or Insight Color Wheel, it would be more valuable to a new student.

Other good news is that final details about Merage's Laptop Program is being finalized. For those who do not know, Merage has the longest continuously running MBA laptop program in the United States (probably in Canada as well). Technology is a foundation of the MBA program (As you can see from my Career Leader results, now you know why I was drawn here). Every student is advised to buy a recommended laptop before the start of class and the school offers a $500 tuition credit as incentive. As they have been doing this for a long time, the computing department secured a banger of a deal from Dell. If we wait until September 5th to put in an order, we can get the new Intel Core 2 Duo to power the laptop. My current laptop was purchased when I began practicing law back in 2002, so I am excited to upgrade. So far this laptop program looks to be executed at a high level; their experience shows in this area.

3 more weeks until we start moving west!