We had heard that the 2nd term of the one year course – Hillary Term – was the hardest. Looking back, it was tough enough, but there were a few weeks in Trinity were I didn’t get much sleep. With fewer exams, more marks came from more assignments, often with group work, and a lot of large pieces of work became due towards the end of term.

I wrote earlier about the bidding process for electives. I particularly enjoyed the courses in Private Equity, Corporate Valuation and Real Estate – which all combine lecturing staff and external practitioner classes which we all enjoy a lot.

In May a large contingent of MBAs made the trip to HEC in Paris for one of the highlights of the course – MBATS – a mini Olympics for MBAs. A few of us decided to take a minibus down ourselves, stopping to pick up some essential supplies at a supermarket. I was amazed quite how many boxes of beer and wine would fit into an already full minibus. After that lengthy stop for liquid refreshments, we had to head straight for the opening ceremony and Salsa competition so that one of our star dancers could get to the dancefloor in time. A map might have made it easier! The SBS team put in great performances, winning many medals, and everyone had a fantastic trip.

Other highlights for me included the Oxbridge sports day, where SBS and the Judge school battle for sporting supremacy. We sadly lost in the rugby games, losing a few players to injury, but pulled off good performances in the cricket and indoor sports. The very same day was the end of the main rowing regatta of term – summer eights. Thousands of people line the banks of the river to watch the college teams chase each other in the hope of getting a ‘bump’ – this is an Oxford tradition which is not to be missed.
During the term, plans for summer loom larger and larger. For a long time four of us had been planning to do an SCP with a small investment firm in London. Sadly, they decided late in the term that they wouldn’t be able to manage our project and we were left to find other plans. I decided to take a couple of elective courses which I hadn’t been able to bid on during the normal term. This allows MBA students to join the Executive MBA students and to cover an entire course in one week. My top picks, Capital Raising and Negotiations, happened to be on in the same week. They’re both very interesting, with a mix of theory and practical work crammed in.
Choosing these electives also means that I have plenty of time now to look for work. However, there is still time for some fun too; just this week I went to a day of the women’s Ashes cricket and last week rowed up the river to a famous Oxford pub.

The normal hustle and noise of the MBA in SBS and of thousands of students in town has now been replaced with quiet and with thousands of tourists in town. Many of my classmates having gone off to work on SCPs or to go home and there is a brief interlude between the summer elective sessions too, so there are just a hardy few left working on remote projects, job hunts, various theses and remaining assignments.
It seems strange to say that my summer MBA commitments were taken care of in just one very tough week, with just a few assignments left. Everyone needs to come back for the Capstone course in September, but basically 95% of the course is over, and I look back now and say that in 9 months we certainly cover a lot. Not quite sure how I would fill the time it the course was 2 years long though.
It has been a great privilege to have been studying here this year. The course, my colleagues here and the Oxford University life have been an absolute pleasure. To take a year off work and witness from a relatively safe distance the financial implosion and economic fallout has been fascinating. The flip side of this, of course, is that MBAs no longer find it so easy to get the roles they used to.
My view there is that the good, hard-working, people will get the benefit from the breadth of knowledge and the network that they have paid for. It might take them a while to recoup the financial cost (though that is only one way of measuring it), but an MBA will give you skills that last a long time and either get you into positions you could not otherwise obtain, or will make you better in your current career. On the other hand those who don’t work so hard will not get quite as much benefit.

Anyway, we have started to see a few of the incoming class looking around and getting ready to return in September. Good luck to them; and to you if you are still applying or deciding.

Weeks 9 and 10 were a bit of a blur of exams and assignments and showing my New Zealand relatives around the beautiful city of Oxford.  There really are some stunning, ancient, colleges and scenery here.

Things got shifted around a little bit to make room for the Skoll Forum at the end of 10th week and then Boat Race that Sunday.  Though exams aren’t perhaps the best way of spending a morning, at least you know that the results come down to individual preparation and performance.  Plus I don’t mind getting dressed up in the traditional gear and carnation.

As with last term it was just MBAs sitting exams, in a hall about 30 minutes walk from the School.  Most of the University’s students only have exams at the end of the Trinity (summer) term and there tends to be a lot of celebrating to go with that.  We now know which electives we have and so whether we have any exams at all next term – I’m kind of glad to say I have one and so won’t miss out on the mass dressing up or the traditional post-exam celebrations.  It seems like University officialdom get a bit nervous when they see people having exams  – I think they’re expecting the sort of behaviour that they see from the undergraduates in the summer, which involves water, flour, buckets and champagne  My college even sent out instructions on where to find the buckets.  So far, though, we’ve been tame in comparison

A big contingent of current and former MBAs met up in London to watch the Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge last Sunday.  These two universities have been fierce rivals for centuries, and this was the 155th annual race between the two.  With 4 MBAs on board the first team boat, it was great to be able to cheer them on, to see Oxford take control of the race in the second half before winning fairly comfortably, and to put a bit of a dent in the social budget for the year.   We also got to look out for ourselves in the TV coverage, since a few spots had been filmed at the school as the team prepared for the race.

All that remains now is our Entrepreneurship Project business plan which is due in just before the start of Trinity Term.  Each team gave a brief presentation on their plan to some VCs before the exams hoping for some useful feedback, though since there were no marks riding on it and since our team aren’t after extra funding, the main benefit we got was using it as a milestone, getting us to focus our ideas.  

The School is quite quiet now, which is great because a) I can get some work done and b) it means people are making the most of their time to go off and see the country or do something else interesting.  Lots of people have gone off on “Treks” this break.  These are student-organised trips to various part so of the world to meet local businesses, universities, NGOs etc.  If it wasn’t for that fact that the sun is shining right now in Oxford when I am in the library I could get jealous of those people in Shanghai, California (2 groups decided that was a good place to visit) and other exciting places.  Don’t even get me started on my EP colleague emailing his ideas from a Malaysian beach.  Anyway, next week my fiancé and I are off to Malta for a week of relaxation, and I cannot wait.

I’m really looking forward to being able to go to a few more of the broader University speakers/events than I’ve made this term.  Some of us had lunch with the Dean of the school this week, and it was quite embarrassing to say that I’d been too busy to see Romano Prodi speak, or to go to a talk from a group of central bankers.  Also next term there will be cricket to watch, punting to attempt, barbeques and amazing college balls to go to and rowing to do when it’s not freezing cold (and certainly not snowing).

There may even be good news on the job front, but not holding my breath waiting for that one.  Clearly this year is a tough time for job seekers, and especially for those who wanted to get an MBA to move into, or back to, financial services.  Whilst it seems like a lot of the traditionally larger MBA recruiters have been quiet this year, there are still jobs out there, at least judging by the FT jobs pullout each Thursday.

Last night we finished our Trading Game for the term.  We had about 50 players, from staff and students.  Clearly people invest differently in a competition, but to give you an idea of how hard it is to make even virtual money right now, only 5 players made money over the 6 weeks and the results ranged from +37% to -55%! 

To round out a story on our Trinity term electives from my previous blog:  I got all 6.  It’s not that easy to decide how much to bid, so for anyone who is reading this next year, I bid:  Private Equity (35, full), Corporate Valuation (26, full), M&A + Restructuring (28, full), Real Estate (15), Managing High Growth Companies (14), Taxation & Business Strategy (2).

Interestingly, there are no exams for my chosen electives, which makes the in-term assignments even more important to the overall mark.  Because of this, and despite the group arrangements not yet being announced, people are keen and have been sorting out attractive groups well in advance.  When your marks (and sanity and enjoyment) depend on who you work with this is fairly rational, but it does mean you don’t get to work with new people very often and might end up in groups with the same people across several courses.

I saw a comment on the blog last time about the admission process.  There is quite a lot of info in the brochure plus you can ask questions on the facebook group, or ask one of the bloggers here, or call up the admissions team.  No doubt they’re flat out right now, but they were really helpful when I was applying.

Also, since I’m on the subject of admissions now, if I was going through the process again, I would aim for the earliest round I could, be really clear about why I wanted to spend time and money on an MBA, and I wouldn’t get concerned with data or comments you see on blogs/forums on how hard it is to get in, or whether there are percentage differences in success rates, or whether interviewees have a certain %age likelihood of being admitted etc.  Being a data-hungry kind of person, I admit I didn’t follow this bit of advice, but frankly knowing it doesn’t help.  All good programs are selective and the rational strategy is to prepare the best application you can, so it is just something you have to live with.

With three other MBA students I spent the end of last week competing in the San Diego State University Sports MBA case competition.  We had 24 hours to come up with some fairly detailed marketing plans for an NGO (Malaria No More) that wanted to use the World Cup in South Africa next year as the theme a campaign to get mosquito nets out to all vulnerable communities by the end of 2010.

As with the other competitions I have done it was hard work, but we really got stuck into it, gave a decent presentation and hopefully gave the judges some useful ideas.  We also got to have some fun in the sun and socialise with teams from other top schools which was great.  If anyone from next year’s class reading this is interested in sports business, this case is a must.  We came second – see if you can beat that.

On academic matters, the results of last term’s exams finally came out.  Some good exams scores got me a couple of distinctions and a spot on the Dean’s list – quite a surprise given that I hadn’t nailed most of the coursework during the term, but absolute deserving of a beer or two.

We’ve also just had to put our bids in for next term’s electives.  Since not everyone can fit into all the classes, we are given 120 points to ‘bid’ on 6 electives out of a list of about 30.  If a course is over-subscribed then only those with the highest bids get in.  In the run-up to the bidding deadline everyone was trying to find out which courses were popular but it’s a bit like a big blind Dutch auction.  My bids ranged from 2 to 35 points and not sure yet how my bids have done.

This term’s courses continue at speed now, and there are loads of assignments to be done over the next 4 weeks.  At some point this week I need to get out and study the operations of a business – our group are looking at a local sandwich shop – checking on processes, prices, staffing etc for our big Operations Management assignment.  The other constant feeling is that we need to do more on our EP…perhaps this weekend’s task.

We’ve also had the usual bevy of great speakers – two relating to cases we are studying for Operations and Global Strategy, plus Julie Meyer and James Caan on the VC front.  James Caan was half an hour late but still had 200+ people laughing at his jokes.

Lastly, rowing again.  Torpids is the competition during Hilary Term where crews race to catch the crew that started 10m in front of them.  When they do ‘bump’ they pull out of that race but start in front of the ‘bumped’ crew for the next day’s race.  So far we’ve rowed twice and been bumped once so lots of work to do tomorrow when I’m missing a talk by a British government minister to row. Hope they don’t mind.

When some of the theory can seem quite abstract or academic, the use of practical case study teaching has given me something more tangible to relate to.  In Global Strategy for example, we’ve looked at both Google operating in China and the merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler.  In Operations Management we of course looked at Toyota and in Developing Effective Managers we’ve all taken a personality profile.

Last time I wrote we were on the verge of exams, getting dressed up in the traditional sub-fusc finery to sit six papers from the first term of the Oxford MBA.  After the celebrations of exams ending, most of the year went off for the vacation, either back to their families round the world or off to some new holiday destination.  My immediate family is here in the UK, and it was great to be with them for the first time in 4 years.  Christmas in shorts and sunglasses in Sydney had a lot of plus points, but proximity to loved ones was not one of them. 

After Christmas we took a quick break in Dubai – surely the world centre for building tall buildings, huge roads, expensive four wheel drive cars and massive shopping malls.  Basically 24-hour a day construction activity.  The finishing touches are being applied to the USD 20 billion Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower) which, though the final height is still a secret, will be something like 700 metres, not far off two Empire State Buildings on top of one another.  At some point, the low oil price and worldwide slowdown will impact there, but it wasn’t obvious yet.

The 2nd term at Oxford is called Hilary, apparently after St Hilary of Poitier, of whom, I can assure you, no one has ever heard.  For us MBA students, things kicked off with a series of lectures on the practicalities of starting a business and writing a robust business plan, since we will spend a lot of time this term working on our Entrepreneurial Projects (EPs).  I was very glad to hear the experts declaring that you needed a decent finance person to help with the credibility.  A large chunk of the audience was also pleased to hear you ought to have a woman in the team, since they tend to see problems a bit more clearly than the guys.
During the last couple of weeks of Michaelmas term the workload started to get quite heavy.  I thought that might be the case at the end of this term as well.  I hadn’t expected to be working until 2 or 3 in the morning in the first week!  The internal strategic case study competition and the internal venture capital investment competition were too tempting and together with the EP and trying to get a good start on the term’s reading, meant that there have been a few late night sessions already.

The two competitions, the winners of which go through to second round competitions at IESE in Barcelona and LBS respectively, were great experiences.  As someone who wants to work in the VC/investment world, it was particularly useful to see a little of what the job entails and then to get feedback from former MBAs working in the field.  Working under time pressure, with limited information, and the pressure of other teams and the judges – the teams really get stuck in and put lots of effort into applying their learning and their skills.

Since my team came second in both competitions and don’t progress to the external rounds I won’t get to see how other schools perform.  All is not lost however, since I am also in a team planning to go to a competition in San Diego later in February, which would be fantastic even if it wasn’t 20 degrees warmer there than in Oxford!

To round out the picture of what my first two weeks of term have included – sadly no rowing on the river so far; a couple of touch rugby sessions; the launch of the Saïd Business School Trading Game; found a venue for our wedding, had a formal Burns Night dinner in college (complete with bagpipes, haggis and poetry), and tonight off to the Royal Albert Hall to see Cirque du Soleil (the subject of a great case study in Strategy last term.)  No wonder it feels like the time goes quickly.

Back on the MBA front, the past couple of weeks have seen quite a lot of activity related to the Entrepreneurship Project (EP) which starts formally in January.  Teams of 5 MBAs come up with a business idea, research and develop a business plan, present to some angel investors and potentially turn the idea into a business.  If anything I would say that so far the MBA class is even better at this than at the academic stuff, and there are some great ideas coming up.  I am really interested in helping get great new businesses off the ground, and though I missed out on getting on the Venture Fund panel, there will be plenty of other opportunities to sharpen my entrepreneurial skills.

We had a final round of lectures for the Michaelmas term last week and so said goodbye to Finance 1, Managerial Economics, Decision Science, Strategy 1, Financial Reporting and Marketing.  Next term’s electives have been picked, lectures start again in a month and it feels like we are really rushing headlong through the year.

Tomorrow afternoon is the first exam and I must admit I am quite looking forward to getting dressed up in the traditional white shirt, dark suit and Oxford gown complete with carnation.  Rumour has it that we also need a sword and quill pen, but I suspect that’s optional (just joking).  Perhaps it’s because I feel fairly happy with the first couple of exams but I still have to keep kicking myself into action on the revision front.  Had a good day today, and looking forward to the after-exam celebrations, but since I am lucky enough to be here I ought to keep pushing.  Anyway, I will this blog off my task list and with no more excuses it’s back to the books now.

I moved back from Australia to Oxford and arrived a few weeks prior to the start of term.  [In Oxford this is Michaelmas Term].  My fiancé and I found a flat to rent which was nice and fairly close to the business school.  Just prior to the start of the academic year is a busy time for letting agents and it doesn’t hurt to start early if you’re not after college accommodation.

After a couple of weeks we took delivery of a truckload of our possessions last seen 4 months earlier in Sydney and were finally able to put the suitcases away.  Fairly quickly we started to meet the other new arrivals and it didn’t take too long before I had tried several of Oxford’s fine pubs and met a lot of new people.  I have been really impressed by the breadth of our intake, and really notice the number of countries represented – later I heard 49 countries were represented in the 230 odd students.  Fewer than 10 of those are British.

Before the course we had ‘week minus 1’, for inductions, and careers seminars for those interested in the finance arena – still a very popular area despite recent events.  The School and the outgoing alums put on events like a treasure hunt and boat trip on the Thames to get people introduced and help people work out how things work and where they are.
The colleges (of which more later) run their own induction processes in Week 0, and there I got to meet some amazing people from physics, medicine, maths, humanities, languages etc.  Compared to MBAs, these are the real academics, typically a few years younger than the average MBA maybe even smarter.
The course started in earnest in Week 1.  There are six core courses this term.  Assessment is by exam and coursework produced in groups and individually. As I write its week 6, and the workload is building as assignments start to bunch up and we start to think about exams and longer term projects.  Basically though, despite some nerves, everyone’s smart enough and some organisation and effort will see us all through to the end of the exams in 10th week – hopefully.

Being organised is critical if you want to get the most out of the MBA – keeping up with the reading, doing assignments, going to outside lectures, recruiting and networking events, socialising, college activities, sports, family life – they are all possible, but not easy.  But then this is an MBA and this is Oxford – if it was easy it would be a waste of time, and if you want to get the most out of things you need to put the work in.
I’m a chartered accountant with quite a bit of finance experience, and so for me the finance and accounting classes are a refresher, but the lecturers are good enough to make it interesting.  Marketing and strategy on the other hand are pretty new to me, and I’m really enjoying them in particular.

One thing that Oxford gives you is massive opportunity to have a life outside the academic MBA course.  In the past month or so I’ve been to a talk from the former head of Intel, listened to a film producer talk about her documentary filmed by USMC in Iraq, had dinner with a hedge fund manager, been to a college bop (party) dressed as a local pub, had dinner with some Olympic rowers, introduced the School’s non-Brits to Guy Fawkes night fireworks, had three School trips to London, and heard a speech from Paddy Ashdown, the former international representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  One night this week I might just about be able to run from a talk by the head of the FSA, Hector Sants at the School to one by Shimon Peres, the president of Israel, at Balliol College.

-College Life

One quirk of the Oxford University system is the colleges.  Every student is a member of a college.  For undergraduates and a lot of graduate students, colleges provide accommodation, food and can be the main teaching route.  For the MBAs all the teaching comes from the School, but the accommodation can still be an important factor.

My college is Exeter –one of the oldest in Oxford.  It’s not big, but it’s in the centre of town and is stunning; the fellows’ garden and the chapel in particular blew me away. It is the college Tolkien came to as an undergraduate, as did Philip Pullman and Roger Banister, and this year there are five MBA students. 

On the Saturday of 1st week we joined all other freshers in going through the Matriculation ceremony – the formal entry into Oxford as a student – dressed in our unusual finery – known as sub fusc.
One piece of advice I give to potential applicants (and this year’s class if they’re reading) would be to aim to get involved in college life as well as in the MBA.  There are lots of good universities around, but Oxford’s colleges are its bedrock and you won’t get what they give in many schools.  Even with the MBA load, I still just about find time to join my rowing crew 6 times a week as we get ready for the end of term novice crew regatta.

 I’ve been to a few formal dinners in Exeter’s magnificent hall and I can’t wait for some warm weather and croquet on the lawn of Fellows Quad.  It’s going to be a good year.