Recently in MBA Category
I can't believe that I'm already registered for my first 2 classes at Bellevue University. The staff at the University were very quick. My financial aid was worked out in less than 24 hours and my admissions advisor registered me for my first two classes this morning. The great thing is that this university is the least expensive one I've seen. It has a good reputation too. I'm all set to start on March 10th. Oh, I still have to buy those expensive books. I almost forgot. I'd better do that today before I fly off to Seattle to see Nancy.
I will have one pretty easy class and one hard one. The Survey of Business Functions won't be hard because I've taken so many business classes, when I got my bachelor's and at FIDM for my apparel manufacturing management degree. The other class is accounting. Yuck. It's not as easy as it seems. Last summer I suffered through an accounting course for a month before I had to quit due to my long working hours and 3 hour commute. I had no time to even sleep. This time it'll be easier though because I'm all set up at home, the local library is one block away, and there's a business center with computer and internet in my building just in case I have computer issues with my own laptop.
It's a good thing I took 2 weeks' vacation from work to work out school. That way I won't be running around wildly unprepared the first few weeks. That would be terrible.
Alright, off to pack and to send my baby Valentin off to the kennel.
Wednesday, February 13th was the day of our County tsunami exercise, where all emergency management professionals and first responders simulated our response to a tsunami hitting the coast of L.A. County. I was so busy that day that I didn't check my phone message. I wish I'd checked my messages that day. At any rate, I finally checked them on Thursday and was so happy. Bellevue University called me and told me that I'd been accepted into their Master of Business Administration program, starting on March 8th. They have a very good marketing concentration in their MBA program, better than other schools. Actually, the other schools I applied to don't even have that concentration, not even Thunderbird.
I'm so happy. If I can get my financial aid worked out quickly, I can start the program. And I might even be able to quit my job! Even better. Yahoo!! This is great.
It's hard to believe that January is nearing its end. I've hardly gotten used to the idea of this year being 2008.
My plans for this year are to find other sources of income. The environment in which I work is so terrible, quite hostile, really. As Anne Maria, my only friend at work says, "Everyone hates each other here." They all turn on each other, too. I don't say anything to anyone anymore because nobody can be trusted. The building is also super cold and dark. We have to wear coats or jackets and bring in space heaters. It's a bunker with no natural light or fresh air. When inside, you can't tell if it's day or night, summer or winter. We sneeze a lot inside. It's definitely an unhealthy environment in every sense of the term.
My supervisor is not only untalented and uneducated but she's also uncommunicative. My first day at work she sat at her desk all day long typing away, sending e-mails. Nearly 7 months later nothing has changed. Not once has she sat down to explain things, introduce us to anyone, or explain what she's working on. It's embarrassing going to meetings or workshops because she ignores us and never introduces us or shows us around. It's like she doesn't want anyone to know us. She must be very insecure. She's secretive about everything she does. We're the last to know anything that's going on in our unit. She send e-mails here and there and cc:'s everyone and their mother. She only talks to us to ask if we could answer an e-mail.
She calls herself the PIO (Public Information Officer) and is very proud of that title. Unfortunately, she has no clue what to do. She's had 3 interviews since I've worked with her and the interviews were just generic pieces, nothing timely. Normally, a PIO would send out press releases on a regular basis and take advantage of issues in the news to make a nexus to something that our organization deals with. That hasn't happened once. The Department of Public Health sends out 2 press releases a day. My supervisor doesn't even send out 2 a month. Nobody knows what our office does because the PIO doesn't tell anyone. I guess what's also very frustrating is that the Administrator - who recruited me because he'd worked with me in the past at another organization - has refused to work on changing the situation.
Recently, Anne Maria and I found out that our supervisor only has an AA degree and no media experience. Anne Maria was a radio, TV and newspaper journalist. Both Anne Maria and I have higher degrees than the school marm. I busted my hump for mine. I'm perplexed, considering that the Administrator has always told me that a bachelor's degree isn't worth much, only a master's is worth anything. So, after having taken a year off to attend fashion design school with the intention of getting an MBA right afterwards, I am pretty ticked off to be forced to work for someone who couldn't be bothered to earn a bachelor's degree in her 32 years with the County, an organization that reimburses college tuition. She was rewarded anyway with a promotion. She epitomizes the Peter Principle. She's definitely someone who was promoted to her level of incompetence.
My coworker and I, both unfortunate enough to have started working at the same time for the same incompetent person, realized very quickly that our new employment situation was a joke. We were both looking for other jobs by the 2nd month, maybe sooner. I kept trying to be optimistic, thinking that things would change. Now I realize that I'm the one who has to change. Change jobs, that is.
I guess this is a good catalyst for me to start my MBA and my fashion business at the same time. I have planned to do so but put it off because of this new job. Dumb idea. The good think is that I can qualify for up to $135,000 in student loans for an MBA. That could cover living expenses and start-up business costs. My father told me, "But you'll have to pay it back." My answer was, "Yeah. So what? It gets me where I want to go." I applied to a few schools, two that are online and one that's a one-year program specializing in global management: Thunderbird. I think that the online schools are good. They both have long histories of brick-and-mortar campuses. The reason why online would be best for me is that I could travel whenever and wherever I like without missing classes. I could go start my business in Argentina and still take classes. Although I know that Thunderbird would be a great experience, I have read that entrepreneurs usually do better attending smaller or less prestigious schools. That makes sense, considering that Ivy League graduates usually get recruited by large firms and their careers are set. So, being an entrepreneurial type, I'll probably be better off attending a smaller school. At the same time, the less famous schools still have good reputations and produce competent graduates. Finally, the cost is so much lower, which would allow me to take out loans for living expenses and be able to stop working for other organizations long enough to start up my business and start earning some profits.
I'm more and more certain that I should start in March of this year, about 6 weeks away.
Stay tuned.
