Archive for January, 2010
A Quick Guide to MBA-Friendly Web Links
Posted by: MBAStudent in Academic Survival on January 28th, 2010
Every MBA student can use a helping hand once in a while. Here are a few tried, tested and true links that can give you a leg up in SFU’s MBA program, whether you’re applying to join us, or your a current student at SFU in Vancouver. As a matter of fact, these links links are so universal, that even if you’re planing to study at LSB or Insead you’ll still want to keep them handy. Read the rest of this entry »
MBA Mentor in Residence – SFU’s Entrepreneurial Resource
Posted by: ryan-schmidt in Student Life on January 26th, 2010
It’s opportunities to meet business people like Jim Derbyshire, Mentor-in-Residence, that truly define the power and depth of the SFU community. Vancouver is often thought of as a small town, with few global career opportunities and a limited network to the outside world. Jim Derbyshire, hailing from the UK, and who has grown companies in the UK, New Zealand and Ottawa, Canada, would completely disagree. Jim is a Mentor-in-Residence for Simon Fraser University’s (Vancouver) Venture Connection Network. Throughout his nearly 35 year career, Jim has been a serial entrepreneur, Angel Investor, CEO, Mentor, and Consultant in several different industries and vocations. Jim has a very large global network and knowledge base which he is more than happy to share with the SFU students who attend his one-on-one advising sessions. Read more about my experience in an advising session with Jim: Read the rest of this entry »
MBA Class Project – Social Media in Information Systems
Posted by: Mike Underell in Student Life on January 24th, 2010
I’ve been asked to provide some commentary as to how this video was created, marketed and received. Oh, and I’m supposed to answer the ever-important question as to WHY I did all of this. Well, read on and you will get the answers to the questions you seek… Read the rest of this entry »
Introducing the School… in Mandarin!
Posted by: ryan-schmidt in MBA Experience, Student Life on January 23rd, 2010
As a part of the YouTube project for the Information Systems class, a team of SFU Graduate Business students from China in the Full-time MBA program created a short video introducing the Segal Gradudate School of Business. Spoken in Mandarin with English subtitles.
Read the rest of this entry »
MBA Student Profile – Lindsay Angelo, MPID, Vancouver 2010 Olympics
Posted by: Lindsay Angelo in MBA Experience on January 22nd, 2010
This post will serve as the root page for what is an ongoing and exciting profile story of recent SFU MBA graduate, Lindsay Angelo. Through a combination of both interviews and first person accounts, A Few Good Minds will track the burgeoning career of this recent MBA Grad. At the bottom of this post are the links with descriptions for different parts of her story and her career adventure thus far after finishing her MBA coursework in August 2008. There is also a link describing the lead-up to her enrollment at SFU in Vancouver after receiving an undergrad from George Mason University in the USA.
Each link will bring you to a separate post on each of the two rotations Lindsay has completed at BC Hydro thus far, as well as a third link describing her Vancouver Olympic Secondment position. Read the rest of this entry »
Annual SFU Graduate Business Boat Cruise:
“Enjoy the Journey”
“Enjoy the Journey”
Posted by: ryan-schmidt in Student Life on January 21st, 2010
An SFU MBA student raises his hand as the journey begins
Every spring, after the rain subsides from the Vancouver skyline, and the city shows its true beauty, the MBA class sets out on a different kind of journey – A cruise of the Vancouver harbour.
For this post I have collected a number of pictures taken during this gorgeous June evening, aboard the incredible 90 foot “Carousel II”. Joined by our peers in all of SFU’s MBA Programs, this fun filled evening of dinner, drinks, dancing, and sunset gazing was definitely a highlight. Check out the pics and commentary here: Read the rest of this entry »
Master of Technology Semester in Review: Leadership
Posted by: Dave Reichert in MBA Experience on January 20th, 2010
Leading by learning how to work together
– Homer Simpson
It’s a brand new semester here at SFU’s Segal Business School, which means it’s time for me to write about my impressions of last semester in the brief period of time I have before it gets pushed out of my brain.
The beginning of the school year can be a frightening time for new students, and business school is no exception. Coming into the part-time Management of Technology/Biotechnology (MOT) MBA program I knew that the majority of people in my class would have more work experience than the average MBA class and, as one of the younger students in the class, I would be at a bit of a disadvantage in this area. I was feeling a little intimidated, especially when I heard what some of the more experienced students had accomplished. Fortunately for me, our first course was an intensive three-day leadership course with Gary Wagenheim as our instructor. Read the rest of this entry »
MBA Speaker Series: The CMC Presents Brian Josling: Common Sense Refined
Posted by: ryan-schmidt in MBA Experience on January 19th, 2010
An "A Few Good Minds" Rendering of Brian's Presentation
“Common sense refined” is Brian Josling’s tag line, and the moment Brian started speaking it was clear that he has a large amount of “street” experience for our hopeful MBA’s to learn from. Brian did a speaking tour here at Segal; he began by speaking to the Management of Technology MBA’s, and moved on to the Full Time MBA class. The average age of this class is about 26, and most everyone has fewer than five years of work experience. The program only takes a year, which in Brian’s words “will seem like it was 3 weeks long”. His talk was one in a series of seminars organized by the SFU Graduate Business program’s Career Management Centre (CMC). The CMC’s main goal is to prepare the graduate business students at Segal for the world after the MBA. Brian’s talk was about as congruent with this goal as it comes, for a brief summary click here: Read the rest of this entry »
Two Great Tools for MBA Job Seekers
Posted by: MBAStudent in Academic Survival on January 18th, 2010
Have you ever wondered how some folks manage to keep on top of so much current news and so many blogs? Google Reader is a handy tool that’s a real time saver, and probably the way they do it. As a full-time MBA student in the one-year program, with nearly 30 hours of class time each week, it’s a welcome time saver. Read the rest of this entry »
What to Expect?
Posted by: Mike Underell in MBA Experience, Student Life on January 17th, 2010
Michael Underell (MBA, ’10) is telling it like it is! This MBA alumnus with an (un)healthy obsession for YouTube and all things “VLOG” is prepping students for what they can expect here at Segal. This is just the beginning though! Be sure to check back regularly to see what Mike is getting up to. He’ll be interviewing fellow students, professors, staff, and even the Dean. Mike’s witty, easygoing style is fun to watch and highly entertaining. Don’t miss this “AFewGoodMinds” favorite!
You can also take a look at Mike’s Posts on his author archive page.
What is the Best GMAT Review Book?
Posted by: ryan-schmidt in Tips on January 16th, 2010
The length of this post in no way reflects the amount of research put into the topic. For the past week I’ve made it my quest to seek out the best GMAT prep book that exists. As you know, if you want to attend any business school, you will need to take the GMAT (SFU’s Graduate Business Diploma course is one exception). Your GMAT score is an important factor in determining how likely you are to be admitted into the graduate business program of your choice.
There are many GMAT prep books and study guides currently available to help you prepare for the test. Make sure you check out the other posts in our “Tips for Applying” section for other GMAT tips and lots of ideas to help you with your application to SFU’s Graduate Business programs, or any other MBA program out there including application tuning, essay writing, references, and interviewing. We here at A Few Good Minds think that our advice is pretty universal.
In the end, I couldn’t choose just one GMAT prep book, so I took a poll and found the top 3. Check them out here: Read the rest of this entry »
SFU Grad Business Goes Snow Tubing on Cypress (A Quick Post)
Posted by: Vana in Student Life on January 15th, 2010
After a hectic week of papers and midterms (a negotiation essay followed by a paper and midterm for our Cross Cultural Management class) the MBA’s headed to the local Vancouver slopes for some old fashioned tubing fun! This event (like most GBSA events organized by Social coordinator extraordinaire, Audrey) was open to students from every MBA class. These open events are great because quite a few of the students in the two Finance streams as well as the Master of Technology (Masters of Business with a focus on Tech) stream attended (for more info on these programs visit SFU’s Graduate Business Programs) homepage. Who knows, the people from other programs could be future business partners. Read the rest of this entry »
GMAT Tips – Best Practices for Test Day (CAT Part 3)
Posted by: ryan-schmidt in Tips on January 12th, 2010
Now that you’re well versed on the ins and outs of the computer adaptive exam, and you’ve read Dave’s (SFU MBA ’11) harrowing GMAT tale, the only thing left with regard to the Computer Adaptive Test is a condensed list of best practices. This advice is specific to the strategies that you can use on test day. For tips and advice around studying, the best prep books, locating online practice tests, etc, be sure to take a look at our more general GMAT area. Also, this post gives more functional advice for test-day, which will always lessen stress levels. That said, sometimes it’s necessary to dig deep and find some mental focus to get through tough tests. The post on beating MBA Stress might be a good one to read for some tips on how to relax before the test. Read the rest of this entry »
GMAT Tips – How the GMAT Computer Adaptive Test Works (CAT Part 2)
Posted by: ryan-schmidt in Tips on January 11th, 2010
Unfortunately, the test centre's computer likely won't be this nice...
This is the second part of a three part series on the CAT. This post goes into technical detail about the inner workings of the unique test. The other two parts include a description of the Computer Adaptive Test Experience and a section about tips and tricks to help you feel comfortable with the Computer Adaptive Test. My sources include the GMAC website, as well as several SFU MBA students who scored an average 727.5 between the eight of them. This group also wrote up an article on the best GMAT Study and Prep Guides.
The CAT format for the GMAT exam is still relatively new, which means that many potential GMAT test takers still don’t know that the entire GMAT exam is done on a computer. The brains at GMAC have done this in order to create a test which has both increased accuracy and validity over a traditional pencil and paper exam. This makes university admissions departments rely very heavily on the GMAT, maybe moreso than they should. One nice thing about SFU’s Grad Business admissions team is that they look at the entire student and not just at their GMAT score. Lets start by making a list of the more unknown CAT facts. Read the rest of this entry »
GMAT Tips – The Computer Adaptive Test Experience (CAT Part 1)
Posted by: Dave Reichert in Tips on January 10th, 2010
So you’ve decided to write the GMAT. Now what? Congratulations, because you’re in the right place. This is a step-by-step guide detailing everything you need to know to successfully take the first step on your path to your MBA.
The first thing you’re going to have to do is visit the GMAT website and use their registration system to make an appointment to write the exam at a testing centre near you. The second thing you’re going to have to do is pay for it: $250 USD. The third thing you have to do is by far the most difficult: show up at the testing centre and actually write the exam. Read the rest of this entry »