As I enter week three of my journey on the Smurfit MBA Programme, I’ve only really had a chance in the past few days to stop, think and take stock of the MBA experience to date. The first few weeks were a bit of whirlwind, which began with our Foundation Week at the end of August. This ‘orientation’ type week is an excellent idea by the school and helps the students to become firmly settled in before the lectures start in earnest. As early as the end of Day 1 of Foundation Week, you could sense that most students had already gotten to know many others on the programme quite well and that any initial anxieties had been quickly eroded away! The core elements of Foundation Week taught us some valuable team building, report writing and presentation skills, all of which I feel will contribute significantly to our work on the MBA.
Now having completed the first two weeks of lectures, including our first assignment (and yes, most of us made the classic MBA-newbie mistake of spending far too long on that!), we are all well settled into our class and assignment teams. This year’s weekend class is relatively small, with only 20 students. However, this means we have already gotten to know each other quite well and hopefully we will form mutually beneficial close working relationships during the programme. Working in our assignment teams, most of us have mapped out the workload ahead for the semester, and there is a general realisation that we are only at the tip of the iceberg!
Looking forward to the adventure ahead!
Ciarán Reilly
EMBA Weekend Year 1