MBA REFLECTIONS: Ep 7

The Lagos Business School MBA program is known to be very rigorous. It is packed with a lot of complex sessions, tons of books to be read, meetings and sessions to be attended with colleagues, etc. It takes a well prepared mine, clearly laid out schedule and utmost consistency to excel at the program. With deadlines haunting you like a thief in the night, you have to buckle up and see to the completion of every single course work as at when due. This has been highlight of the entire program and it seems not to be coming to a conclusive end but rather; getting more intense. As a class, we are also trying to employ ways to improve the teaching experience by organizing extra tutorial sessions to attend to grey areas in the courses. This also includes picking out some of us who have been identified as vast in certain areas to teach and lecture the class. Considering the fact that the class pool as folks from various professional backgrounds and work of life, it is very easy to access different talents and strengths for this purpose. That gives us leverage to not only rely on the designated lecturers but also students amongst us to do the rough work.

The first of such tutorials was on data analytics. This was particularly noteworthy because everything about the data analytics course seemed very tedious, new and unrefined. Anyone with no good knowledge of numbers and the technicalities of how these data software applications would find it hard to understand the concepts in such a short time. Data analytics is really the business student’s quantum physics. The tutorial proved worthy as we asked questions, sought clarifications and got in touch with the intricacies of the course.

 In the backdrop of the career fair that happened last week, those of us that visited the McKinsey stand for a chit-chat with their company representatives got invited a company event. As Friday was free for me, I took it upon myself to grace the occasion. As someone who had very little experience interacting in the corporate space due to my career trajectory as an entrepreneur, I was keen on taking opportunities like this to test the waters of the corporate world. The event held at the iconic Sheraton Hotel so the reception was state of the art. The event started with some quick refreshments and general networking amongst the diverse industry professionals that graced the event. Quickly, we delved straight into introductions and subsequently listened to a presentation on the trajectory of oil and gas in the country as regards the energy sector. The speaker was one of McKinsey’s experts in the field and the depth of his presentation proved that point intensively. The presentation came at a time of massive disruptions to the energy sector in Nigeria. The session ended with an array of questions from the teeming audience. The questions were so technical, I was constantly reminded I was navigating it an unfamiliar territory. But all in all, a very good and exciting event and hopefully I get to attend many more as the days go by.

Thanks.