An exercise in irony

My two last full days in the United States before leaving for India happen to coincide with the two nicest day of the week. Unfortunately I will not be spending them enjoying the weather, which is what I want to do. Nor will I be spending them sending out cover letters, which is what I need to do. I will be spending them working with my classmates on the Mod IV integrative exercise, which is what I am required to do.

 

The business school does a good job at selling the integrative exercise to applicants. It’s mentioned on the admission brochure and when I was here last year for the MBA Experience Weekend, a couple of students talked about it as a great way to integrate what you’ve learned in the classroom to a simulated real world assignment. Actually doing the assignment is a completely different story.

 

The first integrative exercise took place the first week of January. All first years returned from winter break three days earlier than the second years to work on a valuation case where we had to calculate a fair market share value for Dell and prepare a marketing strategy for the company. This second integrative exercise is less quantitative and centered on improving our leadership skills, we are to come up with a marketing campaign to sell the Kenan-Flagler MBA brand to potential employers.

 

As I sat at Koury Auditorum this morning listening to the presentation of what is expected from us over the next 48 hours, I felt myself getting angrier and angrier. There are things that are much more important to me right now than doing this exercise, namely packing for India and finding more companies to send cover letters to. Yet the school forces me to allocate my precious time to this integrative exercise.  And here is the kicker that I have been saving up until the very end of the post, the purpose of this second integrative exercise is to improve your leadership ability to help you succeed during your summer internship.

 

To borrow a line from Alanis Morissette “isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?”