End of Year Evaluation

I decided that I would end my posts about my first year of MBA school with two posts. This one about a personal evaluation of how I did and a following post about things for people to keep in mind when applying and participating in a MBA program.

Overall, I am happy with the progress that I have made. The wealth of tools that one learns in first year is overwhelming. I can honestly say that I have a solid foundation for financial modeling, analyzing financial statements, evaluating operations, defining business strategy, and market research. I have participated or am participating in two great Merage experiences that complement my learning (the Venture Capital Investment Competition and the Polaris Competition). I am also on the board of Merage's Entrepreneur's Association. My only regret is that I did not take a major leadership position within the school. This regret was more a product of circumstance as early in the school year I was asked to lead a major new initiative for Merage's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which motivated me to not to commit to other opportunities, only to later discover that the center did not have a unified vision of the initiative causing it to be put on hold (I am definitely not meant to work within a bureaucracy).

There are still things that I want to work on. When I came to school one of my resolutions was to become more high energy. Unfortunately, I still find myself in a meeting listening and analyzing every word that a speaker says; quietly sitting there thinking about the spoken ideas, often for 10-20 seconds after the speaker finishes speaking. It is funny how hard it is to break old habits. All I would need to do is remember to immediately say something positive when the speaker stops speaking, then I could continue with my comfortable analysis. Those few words recognizing the speaker can completely improve the dynamics of the meeting.

The second area to work on is more complimenting. As a ruthless analyzer, I have overcome my unmalicious instinct to immediately criticize by offering one or two compliments before engaging in the discussions. I still think I need to be more positive recognizing general good work. It is tough because I was raised to think a high quality of work was expected; you just did it. Thus, I don't even think to recognize good work because it was expected. I completely recognize that this line of thinking is definitely not they way to improve morale on a team, so I have been constantly reminding myself to offer positive comments. It's improving, but it can definitely improve some more. At least, people never have to doubt that my compliments are not genuine.
At the end of year one, I developed a broad range of skills that would benefit many of the companies with whom I have worked. I have identified areas to work on during my internship and next year. It is tough putting your career on hold for two years to go back to school, but I believe the development I have made over the past year is worth it.