Originally posted by Jordan Fujiwara.
The MBA degree was classically designed for engineers. Over time, it became more and more attractive to other backgrounds before becoming entrenched as fairly commonplace graduate degree. Before starting the program, Dan Gould was worried that this Corporate Residency MBA would just be another “Master’s of Commerce.”
“I didn’t have a BBA or BComm,” explains Dan (who, incidentally, has a Bachelor of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering from DalTech and Acadia). “I was worried that this program wouldn’t fit in well with my personal style.” However, now having experienced a good six months of school and two of work, Dan thinks if they couldn’t call our program an MBA, they could call it a ‘Master’s of Management.’ “It’s been really great, and has opened my eyes to new ways of thinking and doing.”
One of the things Dan particularly liked about the program were the simulations we engaged in. Personally, I can remember three of them (we probably did more). There was a computer-assisted ‘Climbing of Mount Everest’ we did in Organizational Behaviour, where you had to make choices as a team that affected your virtual team as it ascended the digital peak. We had a business structure simulation in one of our continual PPE (Personal and Professional Effectiveness) sessions, where we used real currency and were assigned to be workers, middle managers, executives or clients. Allowed to freely interact but guided by some rules (some of them strange, like workers had to remain in taped-off areas and wear no shoes) we explored the pitfalls and complexities of hierarchical organizations and time crunches. Third, and Dan’s favourite, was a weekend-long free-for-all: an unstructured simulation involving groups of 4 to 6, where we were either investment banks, major companies or organizations and were thrown into a fictional world where a major acquisition / ownership transfer was imminent.
“It was an intense game, and we all wanted to do well,” remembers Dan. “We got on the inside, in the best position. I kind of messed with everyone, but you know, nothing was personal in the end.” Dan recalls waking up at 6am on a Saturday to prepare a proposal… for his own classmates. “We all just got stuck in that role and situation; it really made you act in a different way, and it was interesting to see what you were capable of.” Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? I have to agree with Dan, it was an experience unlike any other I’ve had in my scholastic career. In fact, there’s enough to it that I might have to devote a whole blog to telling the full story. Otherwise I’d lose focus on Danny here, and you’ve all come to read his story today, so we’ll get back to it.
Okay: what, pray tell, does Mr. Gould do? For this 8-month residency, he is a Project Assistant in the Records and IT Department at the Nova Scotia Pension Agency (NSPA), which falls under the authority of the provincial government. “My background in engineering has helped a lot in terms of computer skills and design,” says Dan. “I work with Excel a lot.” Indeed he does. One of the things Dan is doing is designing a spreadsheet suite that will be used across the entire Agency. “Basically cheques come in, and journal ledgers for accounting come out,” explains Dan. That’s a succinct way of saying that he designed a system that automates a formerly tedious yet necessary process. “What’s really cool is that it’ll be a ‘legacy’ system, so they’ll still be using it long after I’m finished there,” he says. He is also documenting other business processes, preparing for and defining areas that need to be digitized in the future.
Like Cristina, Dan says he misses the rest of the class and the school life we shared prior to the residencies. “While I did miss working as well, I miss the pace of the program. It was a bit of culture shock entering this position because of that difference in pace. It did take me a while to ease in to it.” Dan still makes face time with those still working in Halifax by showing up for traditional Thursday lunches at Scotia Square or after-work drinks at the Triangle on Fridays. We hope to see him there this Friday; and we’ll see YOU next Thursday!