Welcome MBA Class of 2013

Six weeks ago I arrived in Vancouver after 26 hours of travel and an incredibly busy lead up to my departure from New Zealand.  I was alone in what for me is a big city, I didn’t know anyone, I still wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself in to and I had nowhere to live.  For a brief moment or two my resolve around what I’d come here to achieve waivered and the wall of challenges in front of me seemed insurmountable.

Today I live in an amazing flat just 10 minutes walk from Sauder with some very cool flat mates.  All the simple but unavoidable items like bank accounts, a cell phone, finding my way around, getting a bus pass, furnishing my room and locating my first class have long since been taken care of leaving me plenty of time to start exploring before school started.  Since then I’ve been rock-climbing in Squamish more times than I can remember, bet some locals up the Grouse Grind, visited Vancouver Island and the Greater Vancouver Zoo, taken some truly beautiful trail runs through Pacific Spirit Regional Park, experienced Wreck Beach, explored downtown and met some incredible people many of whom I’m already sure will become lifelong friends.

Without a doubt the Sauder MBA attracts an intelligent group of candidates, but what strikes me the most about my cohort is that everyone is down to earth and extremely accepting over everyone around them.  I’ve yet to have a conversation with one of my classmates where I haven’t walked away feeling excited about the next time I get a chance to engage with them for a general chat or as part of a class exercise.  And I don’t think I got lucky with my class either.  I think this type of person is indicative of the type of people attracted to the Sauder MBA, to Vancouver, to British Columbia and the type of person that the recruitment team looks for.

I was quite nervous about entering into an MBA for one reason only.  I wasn’t worried about my ability to cope with the workload or about moving to a new country. Nor did not knowing anyone or keeping pace with my class mates bother me.  I was nervous because I had an idea that everyone going to business school knew exactly what they wanted to do with their lives while I still had no idea.  Let me say this: Nothing could be further from the truth.  When we were asked earlier today how many people had a good idea of what they wanted to do after they graduated less than a handful of people raised their hand.  This was in a room with over 100 MBA students in it.  The message is clear; if you have an idea or know what you want to do that’s great and you’ll perhaps suffer a little less stress throughout this experience than the rest of us.  But many people come back to graduate level education because that want a change in their current careers, possibly their lives, but they’re not really sure what it is they want to do next.  So if that sounds like you, don’t worry, you’ll find good company here.

Many of my classmates echo my thoughts when I say that the further I get into my time here the more excited I get about it.  Sauder has made it very clear that our success is their success and they’ll go out of their way to help us in that.  In fact I’m still learning new methods that they’ve put in place to help make sure that happens.  From a huge renovation with state of the art facilities, world class faculty and support staff to an all you can consume career coaching center and numerous job search treks.  In some ways it feels like you’d have to try quite hard to fail here!  There are so many opportunities to explore and take advantage of it can be difficult to keep track of it all.  Fortunately everyone here is aware of that so they’re fantastic at getting you timely information without overloading you and even send out little reminders before key dates.

There are many things I’d like to say to my classmates but I’ll pick just one. I DO NOT wish you good luck.  Many years ago as I was standing outside an exam room waiting to sit a chemistry final my teacher came around.  As he started handing out red bulls and chocolate bars I expected him to wish each of us good luck but instead he said “I’m not going to wish you good luck, you’ll get the mark that you deserve.” In academics and business I don’t think there is any such thing as long term luck.  So apply yourself, work hard, ask for help when you need it, give it when it is asked for and I wish you the marks and the success that you deserve.