Tyler Yoder
MBA’19

Year 1 is in the books and your mind has finally decompressed during your brief summer break. You said your goodbyes to classmates-now some of your closest friends-and finally re-enter the world of the employed, at least for the summer. By this point, you’re used to being flung into the unknown. How different could a new internship really be?

I walked through the doors for Day 1 at 3M and felt a healthy balance of confidence and anxiety. I had binders full of frameworks and several consulting projects under my belt. I had also fallen on my face several times-oh, that Effective Communication class-and knew that I still had a long way to go.

If the focus of MBA classes is equipping, the internship is the proving ground where the rubber meets the road. No more case studies. No more templates or projects nicely queued up. This is the real world with ambiguous projects and real opportunities to serve your clients and business partners.

One month into my internship, I decided to take a step back and ask myself, “If you could talk to your pre-internship self, what advice would you give?”

Here is my answer—my Top 5 by Internship Week 5. (more…)

Mike Strus
MBA’19

Last exam completed, the first year done… now what? The answer to this is straightforward – celebrate!  While this is probably the most obvious answer, the bigger question came next-how was I going to spend my few weeks before my internship started?  I wanted to make the most of it because my next break lasting this long might not come until retirement.

Catching up
The time commitment required to succeed during my first year at the Kelley MBA program-at times-was quite overwhelming.  I made sure to prioritize school which led to some extracurriculars being put on the backburner. Catching up, for me, took on various forms:

• Family, Friends, and Former Colleagues – Balancing school with keeping in touch with family, friends, and former colleagues was a difficult task for me.  I wanted to make sure I caught up and connected with those important to me.  Building a network of supporters is great but maintaining these relationships is paramount. (more…)

Last Valentine’s Day, I received something I had been wanting for years… the go-ahead from my wife to get a puppy. The excitement of finding the right breed and reserving the pick of a future litter came with some reservations. I would soon be starting my first year at Kelley and had no idea what life would be like with a postgraduate pup. Now, I can look back on my first year at Kelley and provide the following guidance on bringing a dog to Bloomington:

Outsource the walking
Our new dog’s first month in Bloomington was right in the middle of finals and internship recruiting season, and it was difficult to get home regularly for walks. I suggest utilizing one of the many dog-walking services in Bloomington. Rover and Wag! are smartphone apps which allowed us to quickly and easily get a trustworthy dog walker (ours ended up being an IU student herself). Daycare is also available near campus. We take Grizzly to BloomingPaws a few times a week to get his puppy energy out and to allow for extended time on campus for classes and meetings. The costs for these services range from $10-$15 for a walker and only a few bucks more for a full day at daycare. The cost is well worth the freedom and peace of mind. (more…)

Rebecca Cook Executive Director

I’ve been the Executive Director of the Kelley School of Business’ MBA program for the past 18 months, and I’m thrilled for this opportunity. Since my graduation from the MBA program in 1996, I worked in investment management for about 14 years at a variety of sell-side and buy-side firms. I came back to Kelley in late 2009 and worked in Graduate Career Services for the seven years prior to my current role. I am grateful to Kelley for how it shaped my career and provided me the skills and networks to excel, and it’s been awesome to be back working here.

The past 18 months have been an exciting time of investment and change in the program. This fall we welcomed 204 new students with the highest average GMAT and GPA scores we’ve ever had. Of course, as always, we admit students based not only on their strong GMAT scores and high GPAs but also on their interpersonal skills and their projected employability. Our students are exceptionally talented and it is a great honor to work with them. I hope you get the chance to meet them—and of course, I hope that you look for opportunities to hire them! If you have any opportunities (internship or full-time), please email Nina Camfield at ecamfiel@indiana.edu.
(more…)

As an executive coach, I’m in the business of personal development and growth-helping others achieve their goals and aspirations through positive yet challenging techniques. It is an amazing experience to watch someone grow along their own developmental axis, pushing their “learning edge” in ways that they may not have believed possible before.

What I notice in successful clients are three mindsets that are critical for anyone seeking personal growth: intentionality, presence, and perspective.

Intentionality
Personal development requires intentionality. You must be intentional in your desire to grow, and specific enough in your goals to know where you should focus your limited growth energy. While there are always chance opportunities for personal growth, the lack of intentionality hinders progress because you can’t really understand your progress towards a known goal. When I work with clients who believe in the power of intentionality it allows us to focus on clear visioning of a desired state, followed by goal creation and pathway mapping. All of these are critical tools for personal development and, interestingly, the same steps that positive psychologists use to study hope. Intentionality helps hope come to life.  (more…)