Rethinking LTW
Arundhati Sampath, Joseph Bou-Younes, Rebecca Nadel, Sameer Nayar, Sachin Padhye, MBA 2's
Issue date: 4/4/05 Section: Opinions
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There is tremendous potential in having a capstone event that condenses the past two years and prepares us for reentry into the workforce. Very few schools have a program of this kind; therefore, it is definitely a feather in RSB's cap to even conceive of such an event. However, many of the students were dissatisfied with their LTW experience and felt that a complete reevaluation is necessary. To be fair, an online feedback mechanism was provided, but in view of our opinion that a complete rethink is required, we thought submitting a comprehensive article addressing all aspects of the program would be appropriate.
At the outset, we would like to thank the alumni who took time out of their busy schedules and made it a point to be with the graduating students. The alumni interaction was highly appreciated, and their presence was an important and popular feature of LTW.
However, there were many other areas that need reevaluation to be more meaningful to the Class of 2006 and beyond, starting with the concept itself.
Concept & Content:
LTW could have been a module that prepared students for kick-starting a successful career, as well as evaluating their values, thinking about work-life balance trade-offs, and last, but not least, volunteering and giving back to society. Instead, we got a re-hash of MLP with a couple of corporate sales pitches and philanthropy mixed in.
Reflecting upon our business school experience:
To start with, we should be made to set goals during MLP that we then review during LTW. We could then reflect on our time here and what we accomplished vis-à-vis our goals, with enough time (5-6 weeks) to re-energize around certain aspects if we feel deficient.
Career jumpstart:
We could have interactive career panels with alumni to learn how to make an impact in our fields and achieve short- and long-term success. We should also develop an action plan for our first 90 days in our new organizations. We could review our courses compared to our upcoming jobs and think about the tools we gained that will help us succeed and to discuss the things that we actually use and those that we develop on the job.
At the outset, we would like to thank the alumni who took time out of their busy schedules and made it a point to be with the graduating students. The alumni interaction was highly appreciated, and their presence was an important and popular feature of LTW.
However, there were many other areas that need reevaluation to be more meaningful to the Class of 2006 and beyond, starting with the concept itself.
Concept & Content:
LTW could have been a module that prepared students for kick-starting a successful career, as well as evaluating their values, thinking about work-life balance trade-offs, and last, but not least, volunteering and giving back to society. Instead, we got a re-hash of MLP with a couple of corporate sales pitches and philanthropy mixed in.
Reflecting upon our business school experience:
To start with, we should be made to set goals during MLP that we then review during LTW. We could then reflect on our time here and what we accomplished vis-à-vis our goals, with enough time (5-6 weeks) to re-energize around certain aspects if we feel deficient.
Career jumpstart:
We could have interactive career panels with alumni to learn how to make an impact in our fields and achieve short- and long-term success. We should also develop an action plan for our first 90 days in our new organizations. We could review our courses compared to our upcoming jobs and think about the tools we gained that will help us succeed and to discuss the things that we actually use and those that we develop on the job.
