I am living in Toronto again after 8 months away and it was
a pretty weird feeling at first. After living exceedingly well abroad it was
definitely a bit of an adjustment coming back. Although Rotman being Rotman, I
got right back into the thick of things! Between:
-Class
-My involvement in the Rotman Marketing Association and Rotman
Entertainment and Media Association
-Helping 1st years with job applications/interview prep
-Keeping up with networking for my own job search
My life has been pretty busy.
While I was gone, I was pretty removed from everything my friends
were doing on this side of the atlantic. But coming back, everyone has been
awesome getting me right back into the fold, like I never left. I am lucky to
have awesome friends and classmates! If I could have taken my classmates with
me during my time in Madrid, life would have been ever better over there!
For those looking to go on exchange, some important things
to consider:
-Before you pick which semester you want to go abroad,
consider when recruitment is for the jobs you are interested in. For example,
if consulting is your thing, recruitment happens almost entirely in the fall.
So you’d want to be at Rotman for that. So obviously then go on exchange in the
winter.
-Everyone that goes on exchange gets a scholarship that
essentially covers the cost of your flight. So no worries on that front!
-If you plan to get involved on the exec of a club, I
strongly recommend you DO NOT go on exchange AT ALL. More on that below.
It is really challenging coordinating things across time
zones and because the Rotman administrators (and any execs in the business
community you hope to work with to visit Rotman or whatever) get so much email
daily, dealing with them is faster and easier face-to-face/by phone.
That’s not to say it is impossible to manage club stuff
abroad (I managed club stuff abroad after all) but you have to be committed- which might be a challenge for some people when you are
living it up on exchange in another part of the world. :-)
