"in-between" time

Our summer semester officially ended last Friday with our team consulting presentations - win! But really, I just handed in my corporate finance take home this morning and classes resume for me again tomorrow morning at 9am. So, on paper I had about 7 days off; in reality, I took about 3 days off this past weekend to go biking and beaching. We presented our consulting project to our classmates and one member of our client organization's staff last week, but this Friday we get to present our results to the entire organization. It's very exciting, and something that we hoped we'd get the opportunity to do.

Doing the consulting project was probably one of the highlights of my time in the Heller MBA program so far. I learned so much not only about the consulting process and working with a client, but I also gained incredibly important lessons from my teammates and mentors throughout the project. I learned how to prioritize; when to let go of an idea; how to create constructive conflict; how to apply course frameworks to real situations; and how to stay within the scope of a project when there are so many intriguing possibilities to branch off into.

Perhaps my reflections aren't quite complete on this subject yet, given that it's so fresh an experience; I remain intrigued in consulting as a potential career given my experience with my team this semester. I'm going to dig deep in the coming weeks to try to figure out what it is that I most want to pursue when I graduate as I get in position to begin the big job search. I know that I enjoy big-picture thinking, mission-related work, and using numbers to back up my big picture ideas. I like thinking about how to make organizations perform better and have higher impact.

What's the point of this post? Just to update, since I've been gone for so long, and to make the transition to the last semester of my MBA program. You'll get to read a lot about this "in-between" feeling as I search for a job. I'll be hovering in the space between student and professional; in fact, I can already feel the job search pressure starting to mount. I'll be planted between carefree learner enjoying the last months to soak up as much knowledge as possible and realistic individual who knows that very soon there will be bills to pay and no more loans coming in. So, stay tuned. It should be an interesting few months ahead!