Back to the Toronto Routine!

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 1^st 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. :-)

Reflections on Spain

Well here I am, back in Canada after my semester abroad in Spain. So I thought I’d use this blog entry to write about some interesting things I noticed during my time over there:

I lived in the neighbourhood called Salamanca. This is the richest neighbourhood within the city (before you jump to conclusions about me, I lived there because my school was there, not because I am a spoiled fancy boy or anything!). As a result, I’d become accustomed to being surrounded by people dressed impeccably well. All the time. I remember one day I needed to go to the grocery store quickly to pick up some milk. It was a 5 minute trip and for such a trip in the past (in Canada), that meant a hoodie and flip flops. But now, I thought “wait a minute…I’m going to look like a bum compared to everyone else. I can’t have that! Better put on something nice.” My oh my had I become “pija”! (spanish for “posh”) I NEVER thought that would happen to me but there it was…

Cheeses and meats are MUCH cheaper in Europe than in North America. For example, a mozzarella ball in Spain: 55 cents. Here, $8.  Very unfortunate state of affairs here. I ate very, very well in Spain. 

Breakfast cereals in Spain are a bit different too. Here and in Spain, the “healthy” cereals are basically the same- Corn Flakes, Special K (although the Special K in Spain is SO much better than ours!! I love it so much I brought some home with me haha), etc. Our sweet cereals in North America have a pretty big range- honey, chocolate, cinnamon, frosted, fruit flavours (i.e. fruit loops), other (such as French toast crunch). However in Spain for some reason, sweet cereals are: honey, chocolate or frosted flakes. That is all. I can’t believe things like Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Sugar Crisp wouldn't sell in Spain. I wonder what the business reason is behind such a lack of variety?

One of the big reasons why I love Spain is how chilled out people are. For example, if I tell you I will do something, you can trust that it WILL get done, without a need to create a formal agreement stipulating every minute term or condition, etc. I noticed this on day one dealing with my landlord and found myself becoming this way as well by the time I left Spain. I really like the idea of being able to actually trust people’s word and not worrying that you are going to get screwed somehow.

Madrid has one of the best Metros in the world (in fact, that statement is part of their slogan).However until I lived here I never realized how crazy interchange stations were (that is, at a station, you switch from one line to another). The lines at every station are SO FAR apart!! It’s nuts. If you need to change lines, that instantly adds 5-7 minutes to your journey in walking from one train all the way to another. Also, most metros in the world have timers at each station telling you when the next train is due in the station. In Toronto, if it says “3 minutes” it always feels closer to 1. In Madrid, “3 minutes” really is 3 minutes. So prepare to wait!  That being said, Madrid’s metro is still pretty freaking awesome. I enjoyed riding it (and have the metro chime as my ring tone now!).

Pretty much everyone that knows me knows my time in Spain was probably the happiest 4 months of my entire life. I absolutely loved it there and sincerely hope I have a chance to return one day. But first, I have an MBA to finish in Toronto!!

Dear prospective employer, here is a great example of “managing ambiguity” and “overcoming challenges”

As some of you many know, 2 of my biggest passions in life are consumer electronics and athletics. So companies in those 2 spheres are at the top of my list for places I’d like to work once I finish my MBA. That is also a big reason why I chose to go on exchange in the fall rather than the spring: most of those companies do not recruit in the fall so I wouldn’t miss out on them by not being at Rotman in the fall.

However late last month I was surprised to learn that Nike- one of my target companies- was coming to Rotman in October and I wasn’t there! This is the story of my experience managing this job application process from afar. It’s a long but good story so get ready to read!!

My first challenge was twofold:

A. How do I get top of mind at Nike without physically being present?

B. How do I create a good application for the marketing job Nike was hiring for?

--Managing Part A--

One of the members of the Rotman class of 2012 interned at Nike in the summer of 2011. Given I was always interested in learning more about what it’s like to work at Nike (with the idea to maybe work there), I had spoken with her a year ago about my interest in the company. She began working full-time there after graduation and was luckily part of the recruiting process for Nike’s on-campus visit this time around. I tried connecting with her on the side, to get some additional info about the role which I might have missed in the Rotman on-campus visit. And having met her previously, gone to the same Rotman events with her, etc, it wasn’t like I was some random stranger out of the blue either. So this helped me get as top-of-mind with Nike as I could given I was in Madrid and Nike was visiting Rotman in Toronto.  

Nike also has a very specific and unique culture that involves wearing “Nike-appropriate” clothing. After discussing how to be top-of-mind with my career adviser   I decided I send over a picture of me in such clothing so that they have an idea if I look the part sufficiently for Nike- especially important given I couldn’t be gauged in-person at the recruitment event in Toronto. I don’t know if the email with a photo of me was ever seen but I was happy I sent it so that the Rotman Alum who works at Nike if necessary, could pass who “Mike Moses” physically is on to the Nike HR team even though I wasn’t physically at the Nike recruitment event at Rotman.

--Managing Part B--

I was also lucky because one of my friends interned at Nike this summer and is living in Europe this fall as well. Same time zone made things MUCH easier. So in talking to her I got a sense of what sorts of things Nike values, how to communicate to them, etc.

Of course, after writing my cover letter, I sent it over to my career centre adviser for feedback and input to ensure it all looked good.

So with that, I sent over my application. I never like to “count my chickens before they’ve hatched” though, so I decided to move on with my life once my submission was in. This meant among other things, that since we had a week off school in mid-october, I decided I’d use that time to visit Portugal for the first time.

Little did I know that TWO DAYS before I was to leave, I found out I got shortlisted for Nike!! They wanted to interview me! Except they wanted to interview me in literally the middle of my Portugal trip!! AHHHHH

Mike’s Euro Adventure Part II: Madrid

Hello Guys!

After a short visit back to Canada, I am back in Europe, this time, Madrid for a semester on exchange at the Instituto de Empresa (http://www.ie.edu/business-school/degrees/international-mba). Everything so far has been totally amazing. Some observations since I arrived:

·         IE and my flat are located in the wealthiest part of Madrid. It is the Madrid equivalent of 5^th Avenue in NYC or Yorkville in Toronto. The neighbourhood looks pretty much the same as Yorkville except in Spanish instead of english.

·         When I arrived, I needed to buy various things for my flat and school supplies, etc. Spain has a store called El Corte Ingles which is the exact same as the Bay in Canada so you can get pretty much whatever you need. But for cheap stuff, I was curious to know if something like our Dollar Stores exist here. Instead of dollar stores, Madrileños call them Chinese Stores because it is always chinese people that run them. I thought that was hilarious.

·         After getting killed on cost of living challenges in London, it is so refreshing to be in Madrid where:

o   I am on the Euro, not the Pound and therefore have a much better exchange rate

o   Things are priced pretty much the exact same as what they would be in Canada, or cost even less. Huray!

·         The weather is unbelievable. Hot and sunny every single day! I am totally loving it.

·         Because I learned spanish from those who speak castellano (that is spain spanish-speakers), I can actually understand the spanish people are talking here, which is pretty great.

·         The food here is also fantastic.

The last 2 days we had our exchange student orientation, so I got to meet my exchange peers. Because we are all focusing in different specializations, it is unlikely many of us will be in the same classes but it was cool to meet everyone. What was especially nice was to see ACTUAL diversity in the exchange student class. Like, no one country or region dominates the exchange student body.

That's about it for now, I think. More to come! 

To those looking to do exchange here at Rotman…

Prior to the start of our 1st semester we of course had orientation camp which everyone was invited to- including all of the exchange students. So this was a great way for everyone to get to know each other and our school. However this semester with no camp, I was wondering, “how do the international exchange students here know us non-exchange students and all the fun and exciting stuff we have going on?” Turns out they didn’t.

To my surprise, we have no one in the student body who helps integrate the exchange students into Rotman and Toronto. Nor were there any events to this end either. I love helping out newbies to Canada and making sure they have an awesome time here so I figured I’d just take this responsibility on myself!

This semester we have apprx 8 students here from all over the world. I met one of them the other day and here are some things she told me:
-“Besides the people in our classes and the other people on exchange we haven’t met any of the other Rotman students”
-“It seems like all you guys ever do is study”
-“You have a club for Asian students and another club for sports fans?”
I was shocked….SHOCKED! For those who have read my blog, you can probably appreciate the above perceptions couldn’t be farther from the truth.

So the big lesson here is our school has a loooooooooooooooooong way to go in integrating exchange students into the Rotman community. Apparently other schools do an even worse job than us too. That is bad. If students go back to their home institution feeling like Rotman sucks, how could we ever hope to improve our relationship with those other institutions? So, I am trying to fix this, getting our exchange students connected to our facebook community, events eblasts, etc so they know more about what’s going on and can get involved and have some fun. When they get back home, I want them to tell their friends: “ROTMAN AND TORONTO ARE AWESOME!!!!” I know the 1st semester exchange people thought so and sincerely hope the above is a 1st step to getting our current and future exchange students feeling the same way.