Thursday, December 18, 2008
Inspiration Steve Jobs!
Once you go MAC, you never go back!
Rent-a-dead-person!
MBA Diary
The warm-up
The GMAT test
Next stop was the GMAT test. I borrowed some training books from a former colleague and IMD MBA 2008. He got in, so I assumed that those books would be good enough for me as well! I took the entire Easter week off, went to my parents place in the other end of the country and locked myself up with the books. I worked and I worked, but no matter what I did I kept getting a score of 540 or 550 on the tests that came with the books. This is only slightly above the general average of 500 and way below the school average of 680.As the days passed my frustration rose, but the scores didn’t. Who were these Einsteins down there in Lausanne that could keep up such an average on such a hard test? I had always done well in these types of logical tests, but now I started seeing my MBA dreams disappear in the distance.I had already booked and paid the GMAT test in Berlin (Copenhagen was full) and the plane ticket down there, so I decided that I might as well go. If nothing else, then for the experience. The test went no better or worse than all the training tests, so I expected the same result. I remember seeing the result coming out of the printer and the attendant placing it in front of me.690!!! I was so relieved and so much back in the game!!Apparently the training tests had been calculating the scores way too low. I was laughing all the way down Kurfürstendamm as I went to find a place that served my favorite German dish, Spätzle. What a day!
The application
Preparation for next year... | November 08, 2008 |
Guest entry by Thorsten Boeck | |
Today's entry comes from Class of 2009 future MBA Thorsten Boeck (Denmark. We wish him good luck and welcome to the IMD family! Ever since I handed in my resignation four months ago the support from both managers and colleagues have been overwhelming: ’Well done!’, ’Give us a call, when you’re back’, ’I wish I could take a year off like that’ was the common response. Nevertheless, it was still with a weird and somewhat empty feeling that I last Friday afternoon powered down my computer, emptied my drawers and said goodbye to my colleagues of which many had become good friends. It had been 8 years in the only company I ever worked for as a professional; the company that ’found me’, ’grew me’ and sent me in orbit in the international business environment. But that Friday also marked the beginning of a new era. This was so far the most concrete evidence that the journey, which has been in the making for more than five years, is about to begin. Another very concrete evidence was meeting up with Sylvain and Henry in Singapore and with Richard in London during recent business trips. It only confirmed what I expected about the capacity of the people I will be in class with next year. Having spent my entire career within shipping I cannot wait to learn much more from Henry, who has been commanding ships in the Singaporean navy, from Paolo [Italian] who is making black holes at CERN in Geneva, from Simon [Swiss] who is writing news papers and from all the other people that are so different from me. I have gotten a fully furnished 3-room apartment in Lausanne, so I pretty much only expect to arrive with a couple of suitcases and my motorbike. Coming from flat Denmark with no hills high enough to officially qualify as a mountain I look forward to cruising the mountain ranges and the lakesides around Lausanne, albeit time obviously will be scarce. My Spanish girlfriend Susana will be staying in Copenhagen, but will be visiting as often as practically possible. I plan to celebrate Christmas with my family in Denmark and then move to Lausanne in time to attend the New Years party arranged by Albert [German] and the subsequent skiing trip arranged by Ruslana [Canadian/Ukranian]. I thus have some two months to read the books we have been given, apply for scholarships and get ready for the move. As time will be of the absolute essence during these first six months I am now eliminating or automating everything that unnecessarily consumes time. I am cancelling memberships, subscriptions and newsletters that are not vital, I move as much as possible from snail-mail to e-mail and the last bit that must be handled manually is being redirected to my parents. The aim is to hit Lausanne as a lean, mean ’time machine’. Every hour saved once the school starts will be worth the same as 10 hours today. Now I just hope that both my mother and I have set the bar high enough! Thorsten |
Monday, December 1, 2008
Inspiration Google!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
thorstenboeck.dk!
Monday, November 10, 2008
You have been blogged!!
I now have a blog! How about that?
WHY A BLOG?
So what happened? Did he grow soft in his old days? The answer to that is probably 'Yes'.
When I went to Indonesia back in 2003 I pretty much disappeared from the face of the planet from one day to the other and I resurfaced again two years later just as abruptly. I have been spending the last few months thinking about how I ensure that doesn't happen again when I move to Switzerland in a couple of months. I have in the past enjoyed following the life of friends overseas by reading mass mails and seeing the pictures they post. Once they returned home it felt like I had been there all the time, so we could just continue where we left off without having to catch up on a lot things first. By doing it in a blog the readers have the added benefit of deciding themselves whether they want to receive the news or not.
WHY IN ENGLISH?
Well, over time I have made friends with people from corners of the world where the Danish language is hard to distinguish from the gurgling of a sore throat. It is my hope that some of these friends also are interested in reading along. And as everybody speaks English, English it is!
HOW OFTEN?
That depends on two factors:
- Whether there is anything to write about?
- Whether there is time to write it?
In the next couple of months the former will likely be the restricting factor, but once in Lausanne the latter will without a doubt be setting the pace. Nevertheless, a commitment is required and I will therefore set the target at 1-2 relatively short entries per week.
SO WHAT IS IT THAT IS HAPPENING NEXT YEAR?
I am moving to Lausanne in Switzerland for a year to attend a 1-year MBA program at IMD. The program starts in January, ends in December and has a 3-week summer break in July. I will come back to the details of the program in a later entry.
WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW?
In short I stopped working two weeks ago and am now preparing for the year ahead. Much more about that later. I expect to move to Lausanne between Christmas and New Year.