There are quite a few things that one needs to consider when one prepares to embark on a B-school journey. It's usually a 12-month to 24 month period of intense activity. The activities furthermore are varied and have different impacts on your life and career at the end of your education (experience ;-) ). Anyway, here are a few thoughts that I have been mulling over..
Your major / specialization
This forms a crucial part of what you will be doing in your time at the school. It's best that you are aware of the various options and the opportunities / career paths that it provides. It also determines your experience at the B-school. For e.g. a major in Consulting would also demand that you attend workshops / activities specific to the specialization. It determines the networking that you would try and put in place during your time at B-school apart from garnering as much information as possible from your professors and recruiters during career fairs etc.
Suggestions:
Read about each of the specialization your B-School provides.
Typically, your college would also provide you access to the various groups that are related to that specialization mentioning the various activities that they usually indulge in.
Vault Guides: Read about the career opportunities and the nuances of each type of career from these amazing guides. Don't forget to check out the companies who would think of hiring you and the life within that company as well. Your school would typically provide you a special code to access these guides (else you have to pay to access them legally)
Revamp your resume
The Career Management Centre (or equivalent) of your b-school is your sanctum-sanctorum for your career after your education. So, make sure you contact them ahead of time. They would need your latest resume and an idea of what you want to do after your education. So, make sure you reformat your resume to their specifications. Furthermore, also read up as to what all they want and be prepared with the necessary information.
For e.g. I have been a techie and have ~36 months of technical experience. Now, I have to formulate it with a business flare and furthermore, implement some very important tips I recently read
- Use active language
- Give specifics and activities you did than a general outline of what you did
Your IT infrastructure - Hardware
Every B-school today demands that you have a laptop and required paraphernalia which will aid your education. Now, the hardware part of it one part of it. Rahul Gaitonde has an interesting piece on the various hardware devices which would render themselves useful during your period @ a B-school and beyond here. I have a few additional information.
For the Mac enthusiasts: If you are a Mac hardware enthusiast like me, you would often find yourselves at ends with what the IT department of your B-school would usually provide you aid with. If you are not capable of solving problems yourself (with/without the aid of the net), then as much as possible, be in line with what the B-school suggests you do.
Operating System: Typically all B-schools suggest that you have a Windows version (2000/XP/Visa) as your main Operating System. Before I say what I say next, let me say that I work on both Windows machines (at work) and Linux (as an enthusiast) and OS X (as an owner of Mac hardware). If you don't understand how to get things done on your own, please install a copy of Windows visa Bootcamp.
The IT department usually have valid reasons to suggest this. Apart from the support deal they would have with the bulk-deal vendor on-campus, there may be OS specific software required as part of your course that you _have_ to run. So, unless you want to depend on the computer lab machines, install the required OS (or at least have virtualization software).
Now, for all practical purposes, you can run Windows under OS X using Virtualization software like Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion 2.0, without any serious conflicts. Else you always have the option of running Windows under Bootcamp. (I personally use Parallels as I have a license for it, but have heard some really rave reviews about VM Ware Fusion as well). My suggestion - try all 3 and use the one you are most comfortable with!!
Software: There are some more aspects I would like to discuss specific to software packages which will make your life a bit easier while going through the B-school. Please find the post soon as Part 2 of this series.
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