RotmanMBA

November 19, 2007: Two interesting things happened to me this week. The first was the Corporate Connections Centre's (CCC) mock behavioural interview. The CCC helps prepare students for their future career path and how to get there. One of the tools they use is the behavioural interview, in which you are interviewed by a 2nd year student and asked behavioural type questions. All the while this is videotaped so that you can review the tape later to improve on your interviewing skills. I must admit that I didn't prepare for this interview as thoroughly as I should have, and the results showed. I didn't realize how important the behavioural part of interviews are.....but that's what this mock interview was for. To make us understand that we can't just prepare for the technical part of the interview and just try to "wing" the behavioural portion. In some ways, the behavioural interview might be even MORE important because it will help identify if the potential candidate is a good "fit" with that specific corporate culture. I have learned a lot from this experience.

The second interesting thing was hearing Mr. Patrick Lamarre, CEO of SNC-Lavalin Nuclear Inc.) speak on behalf of the ENRG Rotman Club. It was interesting to hear of his rise through the company (SNC-Lavalin is an engineering consulting company for those who don't know) and I had visions that maybe I would be able to do the same thing in the future. Because before I actually started at Rotman, I was thinking that my career would be in management for an engineering company. Basically leverage my technical skills with the managerial skills I will be learning from Rotman, and hopefully find an executive job in the future. However, when I got to Rotman, I got caught up in all the "Management Consulting, Finance, or BUST" hype that I honestly started thinking about trying for a career in consulting. However, once I heard that a career in consulting would mean a lot of time at the office (or at the client's office) and not much time being spent at home, I knew that there was no WAY I could balance a consulting job with family life. Not to say this would have been impossible, but a lot of sacrifices would have to be made. So after giving my head a shake (and also with some help from my wife), I finally decided that my original plan of becoming a CEO was probably more realistic than a career in consulting (as weird as that might sound....hahaha).

I know that Harvard and Stanford are both known as "CEO Factories" as they are two of the very best business schools in the world. However, I feel that since Rotman is now the top business school in Canada, we should work towards being known as Canada's "CEO Factory" (in addition to being the top finance school and one of the top management consulting schools in the country). Hopefully, I will be able to help Rotman in this regard in the future. 
-Andrew Ko, MBA Candidate 2009

I was born and raised in Mississauga, Ontario and did my undergraduate studies at the University of Waterloo, where I received a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I have worked at Honeywell Aerospace the past four years on projects such as the Airbus A380 and the Predator B unmanned aircraft. I decided to come to Rotman because of the potential that the Integrative Thinking curriculum has in helping to redefine the MBA degree for the modern world. My hobbies include taking care of my 10-month old son and trying to find time to sleep.

November 19, 2007: This past week, our team started the investment challenge, sponsored by the Rotman Asset Management Association. We drafted a policy statement regarding our investment objectives, and each one of us will cover a sector for the team. I asked to be in charge of pharmaceuticals and retail. This is because I think they're both very interesting industries, different from each other but at the same time I feel that I have some understanding of each of them. It is very difficult to decide which stocks are worth buying. I ended up spending a lot of time on financial analysis, but at the end of the day there are hundreds of analysts who can probably do it better than me, since that's what they do full-time. So I decided to concentrate on the strategic position of each company and its ability to ‘surprise' the market with future earnings that are higher than expected. Essentially, that is the engine for stock appreciation.

-Natty Yagudin, MBA Candidate 2009

I graduated with degrees in Finance and Journalism from the University of Massachusetts. After graduation, I traveled across the US as an IT Consultant, and later worked for Moody's in New York City as a systems analyst. I moved to Canada from the US two years ago, and I'm currently enrolled in the 2-year MBA program at Rotman. While IT consulting has provided me with many challenges, my intention is to explore new career opportunities and find a new direction in my career. I am excited about what the future will bring.