Education

GMAT Done!

February 17, 2012 – 8:42 pm

This morning I effectively slayed the GMAT dragon, but not without hours, and hours, and hours of studying. And yes, I know that was probably not the proper sentence structure, but this is a blog.

And no, I have no plans of telling you what I am going to say, then say it, then tell you what I just said. You probably don’t care.

In fact, no matter what I say, my guess is that you will probably be unconvinced. Most likely because I am using weak assumptions and my keywords are inadequately defined.

Also, I may never ever have to remember again how to find the volume of a cone or how to combine cube roots, but I will never lose sight of what is possible when I put my mind on something.

That said, the test was not a complete with test of memory. I spent a lot of time critically assessing arguments within only a few seconds. As a marketer, this is skill highly relevant as I converse daily with clients who have a lot of ideas, some sound, but some based on terrible assumptions, over generalizations and lots of anecdotal research.

In conclusion, although I learned a lot, I am glad the test and endless nights of studying are over. Good luck to any one taking the test in the future.  Study hard and often. If you are looking for resources less than $2,000, I recommend reviewing BeattheGMAT.com and buying the math videos on GMATprepnow.com. And lastly, with a shameless plug for my consulting business, if you want to support my education financially and need a website or mobile optimized site, visit alecoleint.com.

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Business Work

Create a Slidedeck of Relevant Theories, Research, and Principles

February 13, 2012 – 10:12 pm

Ironically because of an article I read early in 2011, I decided it would be a beneficial for me start reading more books, as opposed to reading much shorter online articles.

The shift was made because of my belief that any piece of information that I could in the future easily recall and weave into discussion needed to be digested for longer than four minutes of my time.

And while I have found this to be quite true, I have found that books also happen to be jammed packed with references to other bits and peices of information that can at times be overwhelming. To combat this, I started a new Google presentation document of marketing prinicples and ideas that I have read about, studied, and think could be useful to me in the future.

I thought that my idea of archiving this information was unique, until I heard in a podcast by marketing speaker and author Mitch Joel this morning that he has a slide deck of over 10,000 slides. At which point I decided that it was indeed a damn good idea for every new college graduate or lifelong learner. The only thing I regret about it, is that I wish I would have started this earlier in my career.

And please, unless you are my employer or have $20,000 (I am trying to finance grad school), I sorry but I am not going to share my deck. That wouldn’t be the point anyway. My deck represents things I have found to be relevant to me. Your deck, depending on what you like and want to achieve, should look completely different even if we read the same material.

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Business Education

Studying for the GMAT and #OWS

December 11, 2011 – 8:09 pm

Over the past 20 days, I’m estimating I’ve spent close to 75 hours studying for the GMAT. I’m not trying to brag, but really, my knowledge of quadratic formulas and figuring out how many different combinations there are for four out of ten people to be appointed to a committee needed some brushing up.

To make the time for this activity, I’ve had to let go of a few normal activities, most notably watching television. In some ways this has been a blessing, but in other ways I have often found myself irritable, grumpy and tired of doing math problems that seem to have little or no relevance except for the fact that someone, somewhere with a higher salary than mine thinks this will be a clear indicator of whether or not I will be successful in an MBA program.

Now that is off my chest, I have had to really motivate myself to keep going. One of the largest motivators for me, beyond my family, has been the occupy wall street (#ows) movement.

Sounds odd right? But I have been reflecting upon what it must mean to be a part of that movement and what they are fighting for. To me, and I think it might be different for everyone involved, but I think this movement is about the inability for a regular guy to work a regular job, such that he can afford to raise two kids.

In applauding their efforts, I wish some of them would realize, as I have, that education is the key to change. Take all of the time spent protesting and spend it on studying innovation and new job skills. The results of such actions would be amazing.

And to that end, I am going to keep truckin’ with the 60-day GMAT study guide and hopefully prove that I am worthy of the highest level of education Minnesota has to offer.

20 down, 40 more to go.

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