Done with my MBA Core Classes!

Hi everyone! I’m done with my summer class which means I’m finished with the core classes for my MBA program and only have the electives to go! My program has six core classes, and then four electives so I’m already more than halfway done! I’m totally on track to graduate in May of 2019. Should I start the countdown now?

In case you’ve missed my previous posts or are new, feel free to check out my previous MBA posts here.

So where am I now? I finished my Negotiations class last week! It was a summer course and took about two months to finish. The class started on a Friday evening, then the following weekend (Saturday/Sunday), and then about four weeks after that the class was on a Friday evening and the Saturday/Sunday right after that. Then the final paper was due the Friday after (so last week Friday) and that was the end of that!

Having weekend classes was sort of rough, since I work full time. I ended up taking a few days off on the weeks when I had classes all weekend. That was the only way to survive! This class had a ton of reading and a ton of writing involved. However, I think it was one of the most useful classes I’ve ever taken.

In the class we were able to do a ton of practice scenarios. Most of them were one on one negotiations but some were two on two as well. The scenarios covered stuff such as salary negotiations, property sale negotiations, business contract negotiations, and so much more! (How many times can I say negotiations?)

I am tempted in rewriting and posting my final paper, as I did do it on blogging. Basically I did it on when brands reach out about posts but you want to negotiate payment. If that’s something you’re interested in, let me know!

In the class we read Getting to Yes: Negotiation Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton. I really enjoyed it actually once I got into it and realized how much I already knew. Overall I recommend it. I’ve already lent it to my coworker John who is interested in going into sales and I think he’ll really benefit from it. Especially if he focuses on the listening, paying attention, and concise thoughts sections. #SHADE

Negotiations is actually something we all do everyday. We got time to talk about each section and discuss with each other in the class. Everyone had either experiences negotiating as employees asking for a higher starting salary or raise, parenting, and so much more. Below are some scenarios we discussed as well as other class occurrences:

A child who didn’t want to go to bed. His parents thought he was just being difficult but it turned out he just wanted to spend more time with his dad after the latter returned from work. The solution – his dad is now the one to put him to bed so the child goes to bed at a reasonable hour AND gets to spend time with his dad!
A classmate who works in HR. She really opened my eyes on how much HR is meant to protect the company – NOT the employee. She spoke how managers were looking to offer a raise of $15,000 to an employee they were desperate to keep but she instead said they should ask her what she wanted in order to stay because “what if she doesn’t want that?” I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t want $15,000 but maybe that’s just me?
A classmate that was reading a parenting book and kept mixing it up with the assigned book for the class. Shows how important and relevant it is to so many!
A classmate who is a Project Manager. I actually want to be a Project Manager and hearing her concerns about what she feels she needs to be more effective was really insightful.
Many classmates who work for a company that completely pays for their school. Who knew there were companies that did that! All of my classes have had at least two people from that company as they completely pay for everything. I want to look up that company even though it would be too late for me since I’m nearly done.
Two of my group mates play guitar. They helped me restring my guitar and helped me figure out what’s wrong with it. Now I know what I need to get fixed!
We’re all in this together. All my classmates patiently listened to my insights just as I listened to theirs and we all tried to help each other. I had some concerns about my career so far and they were great at helping me decide on my next steps and tried to help them as well. A few even gave me great tips on what to look for. I know I’m being vague but I know there’s a few people from work that read my blog (the link is on my insta, it’s not hard for them to find even if I didn’t talk about it a ton) so I want to keep my decisions for the future private for now. I hope to share more on this soon once I have stuff in motion!

As for my grade? I got an A! The professor has put the grades for everything on Blackboard, our online classroom tool and I’ve gotten A’s in everything so that averaged out to an A for the class. Yes! Every paper, project, participation (which is usually NOT an A because I never talk if I can help it) was an A. Sooooo that means that my GPA right now is a 3.940 because I’ve only gotten one A-. I’m a perfectionist in recovery so I’m not going to lie, as much as I’m trying not to be upset about it, I’m quite disappointed in myself. My wonderful bestie Erin keeps telling me that it’s still a great achievement, as do the rest of my coworkers. Except John who says I partied too much (I’m writing this on a Saturday night in my PJs drinking tea so yup, that’s totally it). I agree that yes, it is, but I just know I could have done better and I’m so disappointed. Still, this is much better than undergrad when my GPA was something like 3.25 or something like that. So I’m trying to be okay with it and realize that I’ve worked hard and done well.

I think that’s all for now. I have a few weeks off before the start of the fall semester which I’m sure will be crazy as well. But I’ll talk about that next month. I think I’ve earned this little summer break!

Now I’m really curious, what’s the most useful class you’ve ever taken? Let me know please! And feel free to ask any questions you have on my MBA journey so far. I’m happy to answer them, and if I get enough of them I might do a Q&A post!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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