Now that my first month at Darden is finished and Q1 finals are only a couple of weeks away, I think it’s time to reflect a bit on what exactly has happened.  When I first began to write this post I began to write that “it seemed like much more time had lapsed than two months.”  The funny thing about that is only a month has gone by!  Life has been so busy and I have accomplished so much in such a short time that I still can’t believe only a month has passed.  This first month was full of social, academic, and recruiting events.

We started the term with a full week of career panels and discovery events intended to help us focus our career goals.  Most of my fellow students that I spoke with were in pretty much the same boat I was in:

I am pretty sure what I want to do after B-school, but there are so many possibilities that I don’t want to close the door on other opportunities too soon.

Meanwhile, the Career Development Center (CDC) wants to help us find our internships—a task that would be made much easier by us being decisive in our career paths.  That first week also comprised of some fun networking opportunities where we met our Learning Teams (LTs) (to learn about the purpose of LTs, see this link at Darden) and our sections and participated in some team-building activities.  My LT (#14) is comprised of some great people and we are getting along very well.  Besides me, two of us came from investment banking, one was an auditor, one was in management consulting, one was in marketing—we have two women, and two international students (from China and Singapore), which makes for a pretty diverse group.

Once classes started things began to get busy!  First of all, I absolutely LOVE the Darden case method.  I think that the case method keeps me more engaged in the learning process than any other classroom learning method I’ve been exposed to.  I tend to be someone who learns much better from doing rather than from being lectured or reading; I like to analyze situations and come up with solutions.  Since I’m also pretty confident in my decisions, the case method has been good because my wonderful classmates poke holes in them and help me realize where I’ve made unrealistic assumptions or failed to take certain things into account.  While this can at first be a bit harsh for some people, I thrive on it.  I look forward to improving my analytical skills and appreciate the feedback that I get.  I have also noticed that as my class section (GO SECTION D!) has grown in our relationship, everyone seems much more comfortable with and confident in asking for clarification from each other.  I also like that our professors take a little less of an active role in class to let us learn from each other, yet at the same time make sure that we don’t miss anything important.

We are in class from 8:00a – 1:10p every day, with a few short breaks in between.  After class is over for the day we attend various open briefings where recruiters come to share their companies with us.  While I am not attending briefings every day, I usually average five or six per week.  After that, I usually hole up in an empty room somewhere on campus where I catch up on networking and career research, try to squeeze in some Mandarin study, do some consulting work for Genia, and prepare the next day’s cases.  Come 6:30p, I’m off to meet my LT to go over the cases until around 9:00p when I drive home for story- and bed-time with my two-year old son, try to squeeze in a little time with my wife and finish my case prep.  Then I hit the sack and do it all over again the next morning.  Friday and Saturday evenings are almost always filled with social and extra-curricular activities (which I drag my wife and son to), which are great ways to meet new people and blow off a little bit of steam.  Although personal time is scarce—and I cherish my personal time—I am absolutely enjoying my time here at Darden.  Even though I was definitely forewarned, I never imagined I would be this busy, and yet I am having the time of my life.  I am learning so much, improving my technical and leadership skills, and I am meeting fascinating and wonderful people every day… I wouldn’t trade Darden for anything!