We Interrupt Our Regular Programming

… to bring you this special message.

I just got the funniest email from the Sauder School of Business, parts of it are reproduced below. It’s titled COMM 299 Winter Term 2 – Assignment #1‏. Homework in university over the winter break?! Hmm… it’s an online assignment/survey type that takes 40 minutes, so I didn’t mind too much. Then I read the rest of the email.

For the second term of your Comm 299 class you will be learning all about how to figure out what you want in a career and how to land your dream job. It is a very rewarding and powerful part of the course. […] Developed at the Harvard School of Business, you will receive much personal value from this assignment. See below for details.

Assignment #1: CareerLeader online assessment (5%)

STEPS:

1. Pay the MANDATORY $17.50 (taxes included) fee online at [URL]
2. Take the online assessment using the following details at [URL]
3. Print out the “Narrative Report” and bring it to class during week of Jan. 12-16 […]

* The system is setup to ensure that you can take the assessment immediately even if you do not pay before taking the assessment. We recommend you pay before beginning the assessment to avoid forgetting. But you must pay nevertheless no later than March 31 at noon. Failure to do so will result in your grades being withheld resulting in a “0” grade for the course. [emphasis added]

Wait what?! It’s a 5% assignment, that requires payment, and if we don’t pay we fail the course?! Such a bright outlook for the future of business schools. So apparently the cost is there because the class taking the assignment is very large. This is ALMOST as a good as paying $45 for a piece of paper with a password on it so I can do my econ labs online.

P.S. – Lack of updates due to exam season. I’ll be done on Tuesday and will be back with a TON of uber awesome posts =D

UPDATE: You know what? I did get some great insight from this CareerLeader survey. My professor is a huge fan of this assessment so I thought, hey, there must be some merit to it eh? Although the results weren’t what I expected, it did open my worldview to other possible career options to complement my law school journey after undergraduate years. COMM 299 is slowly becoming one of my most enjoyable classes this term. But come on Sauder, couldn’t you subsidize this?!

The Vultures Descend

Currently: burning the midnight oil in my bedroom, with five articles open on the New York Times.

Meltdown Monday

Blame it on the timing, or the economic downturn. Whatever the reason, the sale of Merrill Lynch for $50 billion to Bank of America and the collapse of Lehman Brothers caused Wall Street to experience the worst losses this Monday since 9/11. With all the drama surrounding the sell of the brokerage firm and the bankruptcy of the 4th largest investment bank in the US, I have to wonder, what does this any of this have to do with me?

I have to first admit that much of what I read on the topic are corporate mumbo-jumbo to my ears. “Subprime mortgages”? “Repo market”? Oh my! I have lots to learn, guess I’m right the right faculty, or am I?

New York Stock Exchange

The future isn’t looking bright for commerce students, to put it bluntly. And the party just started (tea and crumpets with AIG anyone?). These hotshot Wall Street firms are where many of us anticipate Sauder grads aspire to work in ten, twenty years’ time.  They are supposed to be the fast tracks to success, and along with it, wealth, power, 80 hour work weeks, and high blood pressure.

Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy, leaving with boxes

Seeing photos of suits leaving the office is ironic, and somewhat amusing. A few days ago they were ruthlessly playing the field with millions of dollars at stake for the clients, now they’re just like the rest of us – carrying belongings home in cardboard boxes. That white picket fenced house in Suburbia. The cottage in the Hamptons. What’s to become of them?

What’s to become of us?

I could be just getting absorbed into the O!M!G! HYPE!! … but look at the effect of the Dot-com bubble on the entire generation before ours. Even if we don’t go into careers in financial services, the lawyers, real estate agents, publishers, and accountants of our generation is nevertheless affected in this chain reaction.

We can’t ignore the present.

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