It was a rough week! There were two fireside chats on Thursday and a presentation. I learned about banking during breakfast and consulting at lunch and dinner. We had a last LEAD class session on Ethics which was OK. Everybody seemed to be a little tired and ready to move on with our post-LEAD lives.
Marketing class was awesome this week! We were discussing pricing strategies, and the professor used an auction to exemplify price discrimination. We had silent auctions within groups of four for Vosges exotic chocolate bars. We didn’t know what other people would bid or who we were bidding against. Some groups didn’t want the chocolate, for whatever reason, and got the bar for 50 cents. Other groups valued the chocolate very much and paid over 10 dollars for it. We all paid different prices for an identical product based on what we valued it individually. It was an interesting concept, further solidified by the real world example. We really won the chocolate and we really had to pay our bid. (I won a Naga bar made with milk chocolate, coconut, and indian curry. It was excellent!)
I went to the Entrepreneurship Conference on Friday which was OK. I think I may have been too tired to truly appreciate the panelists, though I did appreciate the session on managing change in an organization. I also attended the Management Consulting Group’s Career Forum yesterday. All of the big consulting companies were there giving panel discussions about a day in the life of a consultant, case interviews, and switching careers. It was pretty interesting, but I think I get a better feel (and more questions answered) at the smaller dinners and presentations.
We had a mixer with minority Kellogg students last night which was somewhat disappointing. Surprisingly, there were more GSB students than Kellogg students. I’d planned on attending the Belgian Halloween Party, but after the past week, I was exhausted and wanted more than anything to take a nap. Which I did for about 7 hours.
I was disciplined enough to get up early this morning and do my requisite four loads of laundry. I took a nap and then went grocery shopping, the first time I’ve been to the store in about three weeks. I read my marketing case over dinner and am treating myself by watching a couple of hours of TV. I’m looking forward to the Thanksgiving break for a breather and to get myself together before Finals. It is amazing how quickly the time has passed!