Hindsight

Mike Madarasz

It’s hard to believe I’ve been in school for five years already. Nonetheless, in less than two months I’ll be graduating for good. Looking back on my college career as a whole, I can point to several things that I am glad I took part in and several that I wish I had.

-One thing I wish I had done was study abroad. During my first few years of school, I had never had any desire to go overseas. Plus, as a student athlete it was difficult to miss an entire semester to begin with. Knowing what I do now, I wish I had had the chance to spend a semester in Europe. I’ve yet to hear of one negative experience of a semester abroad.
Binghamton International Programs: http://www2.binghamton.edu/oip/

-One experience I am grateful for is my experience as an intern. I can’t say enough about how important this was. Obviously, it’s great experience in a professional environment and a chance to build valuable relationships. Aside from that, it confirmed the fact that I wanted to continue to pursue a career in that particular field. I would definitely encourage anyone else to do the same.

-I’m also grateful for having the opportunity to play a varsity sport during my four years as an undergraduate. There’s a lot to be said for the experience aside from the fact that it gave me the chance to continue to play a sport that I love. Being a student athlete forces you to be extremely conscientious and motivated, among other things. In addition, it can only help when searching for a job.

Ernst and Young

John Minami

This past week, I attended TWO events held by Ernst and Young (EY). Now, the purpose of these events weren't to offer jobs or internships (unfortunately), but rather to just show Binghamton students what EY is really about. And you know what? I really liked what EY was about.

The first event was EY Invasion Day. It was held in the Old Union Hall with about maybe 70 to 80 students. We sat at different tables and each table had a couple of employees. This was a great opportunity to talk with them on a personal level and really get to know everyday EY employees. Those guys were great. I was able to talk with them as if they were my friends. The conversation came really easily. I had expected them to be intimidating and overwhelming, but I found out they seemed more like college students... with jobs.

The rest of EY invasion day consisted of a panel of executvies who we could question about anything and a "murder mystery". The "murder mystery" was a bit embarassing at times, but it was actually pretty fun. It gave us a way to connect with the employees at our tables. Overall the experience helped me to see what Ernst and Young is and what they stand for as a company.

My second experience with EY was the "Ernst and Young Launch", which is a program run by EY where employees just give Freshmen and Sophomores tips and advice about their futures, especially if those futures lead to EY. It was a smaller group than in EY invasion day but in some ways it was better. We ended up having more of a large group discussion sort of experience rather than a Q and A.

I had never given EY much thought before these two experiences but now I'm learning towards them as possible future employers. They showed me exactly how much they care about their current employees and possible future employees, and I really like that about them. I felt a genuine warmth and happiness radiating from the employees and I know that EY would be a great place to work at. Hopefully I can find a position with them one day.

P.S. Did you know the average GPA of an EY employee is 3.3? This gave me so much hope in finding a job!

Binghamton, NY

Shavonna Hinton

My intentions for last week’s blog post were not to boast and brag about how awesome and great I think upstate New York is.  In actuality, I was setting up a comparison of sorts to what I intend to blog about this week.  First, I feel a back story is in order.

When I first started looking at colleges, Binghamton wasn’t on my list.  I’d never even heard of it.  I had my mind set (like many other college seeking students) that I was going to go to a big name school.  It wasn’t until my dad told me about this well ranked business program that one of the SUNY’s had that I decided to look into Bing.

As I perused the college websites, the reviews I found were less than stellar.  I read things like, “the campus looks like trash “and “WalMart is the social hotspot every day of the week.  Nightlife sucks.” Needless to say, after reading several more downtrodden reviews I was not looking forward to visiting Bing.

Fast forward to now and I can say I have not a single regret in deciding to come here.  Binghamton went from being not on my list to my top choice.  I love the campus, it’s a manageable size, despite the fact that Mountainview has a killer hill and Newing is literally on the edge of campus.  While it may not be the most aesthetically pleasing place on Earth, it’s nice to know that people care enough to continually renovate and make the campus look more modern rather than old and boring.  WalMart is the social hotspot but who cares?  I’m sure everyone remembers the first time they took the bus to WalMart, it’s part of the initiation into the Bing process.

To most of America, Binghamton, NY is the most depressed city in the country, the home of the 40-Million-Dollar-Hurricane-Katrina-of- the-North-Flood and the second fattest city in the nation.  But to me, Binghamton is none of these things.  It’s not about what the city has or doesn’t have and labels are just labels.  The relationships you foster and the memories you make will far outlast and outnumber any negative stigma the rest of the country can give this town.  Binghamton isn’t a statistic, it’s been my home for the past 8 months and I’m proud to live here.

21st Century MBA

Mike Madarasz

As I wrapped up a group paper this week I realized that I don’t personally know two members of my group and this was the fourth assignment we had done together.  The work was divided up via e-mail and the assignment completed via a Google Doc.  Therefore, I could not pick two of my group members out of a lineup if I had to.  This has become pretty standard in the year 2012.  Obviously for certain types of projects group meetings are required but for many others the work can be completed entirely online without ever having to meet in person. 

The MBA program in particular is very heavy on group work and I cannot imagine trying to complete all of it even 20 years ago.  Obviously group meetings would be required at least a couple of times to complete assignments.  Not to mention it would be much more difficult to coordinate these meetings and communicate as a group without e-mail or cell phones.  In addition, the collaboration would require much more than a simple cut and paste.  On top of all of that, producing a report wasn’t as simple as typing it up on Microsoft Word.  I can only imagine how much more time these types of projects must have taken.

The other implication of this is that technology has taken some of the face to face interaction out of the MBA program.  There is something to be said for the chance to improve one’s ability to work in groups and communication skills in grad school.  Some say that this is an important component of an MBA.  I personally do not feel like I am missing out on that element of my education and would much rather have the convenience of 21^st century technology.  Along those lines, the future of business lies in the hand’s of this technology and it is just as beneficial to become comfortable with it now. 

Upstate Pride

Shavonna Hinton

Being from upstate New York but attending a school that basically feels like you’re in the middle of Long Island has become somewhat of a badge of honor at Binghamton.  I’ve been told that I have a southern accent.  I’m constantly being mocked for the way I pronounce things and the funny upstate quirks that I’ve developed.  But what is most annoying and gratifying at the same time is when people ask me, “What is there to do “up there”? It must be so boring.

Well contrary to popular belief I can say with 100% assurance, there are things to do in upstate New York.  No, I don’t live in the sticks or the boonies or in a cornfield out in the middle of nowhere.  In fact, my neighborhood looks just like any other typical suburb in America.  I spend my summer days at Seabreeze Amusement Park (home to one of the oldest roller coasters in the world), going to the National Museum of Play, which is also home to the National Toy Hall of Fame, and the  International Center for the History of Electronic Games.  Sure these places might not be as cool as the Statue of Liberty or Times Square, but they make upstate New York not so “boring”.

Even though New York City might be one of the most diverse and metropolitan areas in the world it’s not like upstate New York is just Patriotville, USA.  I live just a few hours from Canada which is pretty awesome in its own merit considering I can go to Toronto or Quebec for a weekend road trip whenever I please.

I never realized how much upstate pride I had until coming to Binghamton.  I guess it’s because living where I do, I never appreciated all the cool places and perks that can be found up north.  I can get to virtually any place within a 20 mile radius of my home in less than 30 minutes—no three hour traffic jams for me!  No subway rides just to commute to school, I just hop on the trusty old school bus.

All in all upstate New York is just as cool, fun and awesome as living in the city or out on Long Island is. I guess it’s just all about perspective.

Until next time…keep it classy

What I Learned in Boating School Is...

John Minami

I used to love Spongebob when I was a kid. Heck, if I had Nickelodeon on my TV, I would still be watching it. Over the countless episodes (and re-runs) I have seen, there is one that comes to mind when I think about school. In this certain episode, Spongebob, the main character of the show who happens to live in a pineapple under the sea, has failed another test for his boating license (in the show, characters drive boats instead of cars because they live underwater). Mrs. Puffs, his boating instructor, is tired of his constant failure and tells him she'll pass him if he can write a 10-sentence essay about what he learned in boating school. The whole episode revolves around Mrs. Puffs trying to get Spongebob to write the essay, but he is unable to figure out what he learned in boating school. 

I sort of felt like Spongebob throughout my high school years. Sure I had learned a lot in my high school classes, but what had I actually learned? I learned about about how to find the area of a triangle and how America was founded, but honestly, those things didn't matter much to me. And I don't think they mattered much to anyone else. They were just things you had to remember and prove you could remember them in the form of a test, just so you could get a number on a sheet of paper telling you how smart you were. I didn't really consider myself to have "learned" anything in high school, or at least "learned" anything significant.

But when I had gotten to college, everything changed. I was suddenly learning useful things that I could actually use in life. Sure there are still a few things that I believe I will never use again (like the importance of Vietnamese culture in modern day Vietnam), but it's still definitely a lot better than in high school where I felt as if I wasn't learning anything useful.Yesterday, I was sitting in my statistics class when the teacher showed us a very interesting problem. We were supposed to figure out the actual percentage of a person having breast cancer after testing positive for it, considering the amount of people in a population that have breast cancer and the chances of having a false positive on a breast cancer exam. The results were ridiculous: if a woman tests positive for breast cancer, there is still only an 0.8 percent chance of her having breast cancer. We learned to use statiscal magic to prove this, and I believe this is definitely something that could be useful in life.

"MBAs Wanted"

Mike Madarasz

I’m currently in the market for employment following graduation.  I’ve been fortunate enough to come across these “promising” opportunities for MBA’s during my search: 

-Binghamton University has listings for a Full Time Art History Professor at Monroe Community College, a Dental Receptionist and an Elementary School Principal in Rochester.

-A “Sales Associate/Photographer” in Eureka, Missouri

-Entry level sales position where I can apparently make up to $350,000 a year

-A job selling life insurance in Hawaii

-A “Management Training Program” where the requirements are a valid drivers license with no more than 2 moving violations in the last three years, no DUI/DWI arrests in “the last 5 years” and “must be willing to accept $10.00/hour compensation”.  DWIs from 2006 are frowned upon, but apparently not a deal breaker.

-Another “Management Training Program” with Waste Management that requires you to “Ride along with Waste Management drivers on existing routes” in New Jersey.  I have a feeling the New Jersey branch has their hands full…

Who says finding an entry level job is difficult?

Sick Days

John Minami

When I was in high school, I loved sick days.  Sure, all of the coughing and fevers may have sucked but at least I was able to stay home and not go to school.  It was high school. Who cared if I missed a day of classes?  It wasn't anything that I couldn't make up the next day.  But college is a lot different.

I didn't take a sick day today, but because my first class didn't start until 4:30PM I was able to lie in bed all day.  It was a pretty miserable experience.  First of all, I didn't have any cold medicine.  At home, my parents would always keep a medicine cabinet full of various pills and syrups to make me feel better. However, in college, I had to devote more of my financials towards textbooks and food.  So I decided to just "man up" and simply rest today.

The second bad part about being sick in college is that I didn't have any parents to take care of me.  I didn't have a mom to make me soup and bring me extra blankets.  I didn't have grandparents to cook me warm food.  I had to make do with heating up some soup and drinking some juice.

And the final bad part would be that I didn't really get to get any work done.  The workload in college is significantly higher than the load in high school, so I sort of regretted not getting anything done today.

That is, of course, except for writing this. 

Crunch Time?

Shavonna Hinton

So we’re a third of the way into the semester now and signs of summertime are popping up all around us.  Even if Binghamton may have extremely bipolar weather, the sunny days we’ve been experiencing certainly outnumber the cold ones.  Along with this summertime feeling brings the realization that in a mere two months school will be over until August.  While this brings joy and excitement, for me, it also caused me to wonder, Now What?  Once school lets out, I’ll have three and half months with nothing to do.  How in the world am I going to fill this time up with something productive?

This is an issue that everyone faces and for every college student it’s a little different.  For a college senior, they’re hit with the notion that their lives are about to change drastically.  Some may go on to grad school others may go out into the workforce.  Juniors in college might begin to realize that they’ve only got 2 semesters to finally get that 3.8 they’ve been striving for or they might be working hard to nail down that internship for the summer.  But when it comes to college sophomores and freshman I feel as if there’s a huge gap.  It’s almost as if we’ve become complacent with how our lives are.

In high school, more specifically senior year, everyone makes that big push to beef up their resumes and get involved in everything they can.  Many students actively seek jobs and for the most part I’d say were very productive in society.  Then after a year of hard work and productivity it all just seems to stop. Many of the freshmen and some sophomores I know make very little effort to further themselves in college at an early age.  Whereas in high school everyone was racking up volunteer hours and joining clubs left and right, it seems like now everyone would rather go to The Rat or Paradigm on a Thursday night.

Now I’m not saying having fun is a bad thing, I’m just saying instead of spending $8 for a long island iced tea, it might be a better use of time and money to go to a SIFE, SEAC or Haitian Student Union meeting. Not only will you get to meet other students at Bing (while sober), but you’ll also be racking up activities to put on your resume.  As for internships, often I’ve heard people say there’s nothing out there for freshman and sophomores.  I say make up your own.  Ask around and see if there is a need of some sort in your hometown.  Figure out how to solve it.  Any experience is good experience.  The earlier you start, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

Until Next Time…Keep it Classy.

Business Etiquette

John Minami

Most of us SOM students know what this is.  And just in case there are some who don't know what it is, every single one of us is put through a grueling semester of CQS 111.  Judging by the lack of interest and enthusiasm for the class, a lot of SOM students probably already have a general sense of how people should be treated, not only personally, but professionally.  A lot of my friends, myself included, found the class really repetitive and it felt more like a nagging mother, than a "real" college class.  It wasn't until Thursday afternoon that I found out the importance of teaching and solidifying the rules of business etiquette.

For the past couple of days, my mother's company has been looking for part-time workers.  I've been asking a lot of friends if they were interested, and I found a few who were.  Among those few was more of a "friend of a friend" than a "friend".  But anyways, my friend asked me as a favor to get him a job, so I told myself "why not?".

The person answered the question of "why not?" when he didn't show up to a meeting with my mother and then proceeded to make her wait an hour until finally he told my FRIEND to tell ME to tell my mother that he wasn't interested in the job.  If I had heard about this happening to someone else, I would have shaken my head at the un-professionalism and disrespect but because this was a personal matter, I felt utter outrage.  Not to mention, the embarrassment I felt for referring him to my own mother.

Business etiquette is really important.  In the future, I will never share any job opportunities with that person ever again.  I also honestly doubt that he will ever find a job with the low level of respect he seems to hold for future employers.  I can't believe I'm going to say this, but... CQS 111 might actually be a useful class.  Even if it's to only educate the few barbarians who can't bother to at least make a phone call to waiting employers.

Certified Public Losers

Mike Madarasz

I have three roommates, all of whom are accounting majors and are in the process of becoming Certified Public Accountants.  I have to thank these gentlemen for confirming that I chose the right degree to pursue.  I originally chose Business Administration because I thought accounting was too tedious and quite honestly, too boring.  I couldn’t see myself pouring over spreadsheets and expense reports all day every day.  Now, based on my roommates, I know I was right.  I honestly get nauseas listening to them talk about it day in and day out.  

On the other side of that, they all have jobs waiting for them after graduation while I am still trying to catch a break in that department.  They will also probably be a little better compensated for their first jobs than I will.  There definitely seems to be more job security in the field of accounting and that’s hard to argue.  This is all fine with me.  I would rather look harder now and spend some time cutting my teeth at a job I enjoy than take the security of a job that I don’t. 

The real kicker in this whole debate is the CPA exam.  I have witnessed firsthand just how miserable this test can make people.  The series of four tests requires hours of studying a day for weeks at a time and that doesn’t even guarantee a passing grade.  To put it in perspective for myself, when I think about taking the GMAT three additional times, I cringe.  It’s not something I would ever want to do and I am extremely thankful there is not a comparable test in the field of marketing. 

I’m sure my three roommates are all going to be awesome accountants but that is not a job I am jealous of.  I look forward to them doing my taxes in the future. 

WANTED: Class Participants

Shavonna Hinton

Over the course of my academic journey, I’ve always found that I’ve usually been one of the more vocal kids in class.  I was never afraid to raise my hand and answer a question or add commentary to a class discussion.  Recently, I’ve found myself speaking up even more than usual in many classes, and while this is beneficial to me, it’s also become a source of annoyance.  The reason why I speak up more and more is because it seems like less and less people are willing to offer up an opinion, leaving the class discussion to become very boring very quickly.

I’m not sure when exactly this shift to silence occurred but I do have a few theories as to why.  Being a freshman in a school like Binghamton can be intimidating at times.  Certainly it’s no Ivy League, but many of the students who go here are all still very intelligent, most of which were in the top 20% of their high school class.  Some student’s may have even been valedictorians.  However, I just don’t understand why in a room full of intelligent people, very few actually offer up opinions on anything.  I would expect that since there are so many bright students in the class, the conversations held would actually have some depth and meaning to them. Instead what I’ve observed is quite the opposite.

 

In a class of thirty something students, I was one of only five people to speak up.  What was even more annoying was that during the discussions that were held, there was usually only two people who dominated the conversation and very little if anything was added to the conversation as a whole.  Instead of providing insightful bits of commentary, the points they made were just frivolous complaints or ego filled counterarguments to the points that the other person made.

Obviously, there’s always going to be the people who feel the need to talk a bunch and there’s also going to be the people who don’t care or feel the need to say anything at all.  As for the people who lie somewhere in the middle, it’s my hope and wish that they might speak up more.  Just offer up a two or three sentence statement and it just makes the class seem more interactive.  If entertainment isn’t your concern think of it this way, if you can just say something insightful enough to get your professor to remember your name, that might be the difference between a B+ and an A in that class.

Until next time, keep it classy.