I’d like to welcome all of the new students making their way to Imperial College from long and far. As a recent graduate, I can almost guarantee you two things will happen during the next year: 1) you will cram an enormous amount of information into your brain and 2) the time will fly, and before long you’ll be a recent graduate like me.
During my MBA, I was often asked to evaluate a business’ key resources. Many firms thrive because of their knowledge-based resources and focus on transferring this knowledge to others within the organization. Educational institutions like Imperial are the same in that knowledge is a central asset. However, I feel the knowledge transfer is lacking.
When I entered the Imperial MBA program last year, everything was new for me. New city. New flat. New school. New classmates. I realized that adapting to a new environment is part of the educational experience, however I fouind myself wishing I had known some of the basics before starting at Imperial. For instance, who knew that pants really meant underwear?
So, I decided to write a post for new students about what I wish I had known prior to Imperial, but didn’t. The following includes suggestions about preparing your London move, getting settled in, and starting classes. If you take even one small idea away from this list, a successful transfer of knowledge has taken place, and in theory the entire Imperial ecosystem should benefit.
Take photos of everything before leaving
When my wife and I moved to London from the US, each of us brought two large bags of clothes, and not much more. We left behind literally a room full of boxes. The problem with boxes is they all look the same, so we marked each box’s contents – for instance “Andy’s shirts”. This works well when you want to unpack things after moving home, but not so well when you live 2000 miles from home.
Undoubtedly during the term you will forget what you actually left behind, and find it impossible to have your parents send something to you. I unexpectedly went snowboarding this past winter and needed my snow pants. After an hour of searching, my dad found three pairs, and proceeded to send the first pair I had ever owned. Not overly helpful. Bottom line, snap photos as you pack your belongings for storage – they will surely come in handy in the future.
Explore
Imperial College is a labyrinth of connected buildings. It’s a little overwhelming at first, but don’t let that restrict you from exploring campus. Wifi works everywhere, so why only study in the (crowded) library? Find a “secret spot” away from everyone else. I’m writing right now in my favorite classroom in the Sherfield building. Find a quiet place away from everything and you’re productivity will skyrocket.
Same goes for London in general. Once school starts, life gets hectic and there’s little time for wandering. I’d suggest moving to the city a few weeks before term to get comfortable with your surroundings. This time will allow time to set up things like utilities and internet (takes forever in the UK), and discover places like Borough Market. A little tip for getting school clothes – people dress very well in London. Take a trip out to Bicester Village so you don’t look like a schmuck.
Start a contact list
You will meet an amazing variety of people at Imperial. The experience will benefit you for the rest of your life. The problem is, when you meet someone from another culture, they use names and phrases that are tough to remember. For me, a name like Olaolu is impossible to get right the first time. For you, Andrew might sound like your favorite soup back home.
To avoid the problem of looking like an idiot by forgetting where someone is from or if a mate is married, jot down a few key pieces of information after meeting them. I use GMAIL contacts. After a while these notes may eventually become irrelevant, in the beginning they will ensure you at least have something to mention during a conversation.
Students can contact anyone
Most students realize that a university education involves much more than going to classes. The people you meet will surely broaden your horizons and most likely become friends, business partners, and maybe even your spouse. In my opinion, the most successful students enjoy meeting new people. They don’t go home for lunch. They don’t lock themselves in the library.
What some students realize too late is that “student status” gives you a good shot at meeting anyone. For example, during my first few months at Imperial I sent emails to the coolest Venture Capitalists I could find in London, introducing myself as an Imperial College Student who wanted to connect. I’d estimate almost 80% got back to me within a day, and most resulted in a guest speaker. This would never happen if I was merely Andy Shannon. But because people identify with students trying to learn about an industry, you have a chance to meet truly extraordinary people. All it takes is a simple email.
Digitize everything
Have you heard that we’re in the “digital revolution”? You wouldn’t think so based on the amount of printed material students carry around every day. After 4 months at Imperial I realized all the books and printed notes I had accumulated would be too heavy/costly to ship back to the US. So I decided to digitize my life. Best decision I’ve made in a long time.
Instead of printing off case studies and slides, use Adobe Acrobat Pro to take notes on almost any PDF. In regards to books, I strongly advise students NOT TO BUY THEM the first day of class. For MBA at least, the vast majority of material is given in lecture slides, and books are never required. In general, don’t spend 50 quid on a book you might not use. Wait until it’s absolutely necessary.
Coordinate with classmates
It’s human nature to feel competitive about grades. Being the top of your class is quite a distinction and worth working toward. If you think the way to accomplish this goal is to study by yourself, YOU ARE WRONG. By forming a study group and even coordinating as a whole class, everyone involved is much better off.
It’s ridiculous how many menial tasks students duplicate throughout a year. I learned this first hand from my friend James. Instead of downloading each individual MBA document off Blackboard (easily 500 of them), he paid someone on Elance.com 20 quid to do it for him. In addition, he agreed to share all blackboard documents with any classmate who donated 5 pounds to a worthy cause. Genius. Same thing with calendars. Why would each person create their own class schedule when the same Google calendar can be shared with everyone? Step up and be a leader by coordinating tasks with others. It will pay off.
So, that’s my list of suggestions for incoming students. I hope it gives you a head start on previous years and helps add to the success I’m sure you’ll have at Imperial. If you’re a recent graduate, it would be great if you could share your advice in the comments section. It’s one of those pay-it-forward things J. To the new students, enjoy your time at Imperial, and good luck!
Photo via limassol
woow thank you so much for your advice, i am very sure it will come in handy
Thanks a lot. Olufunsho took your advise and shared your post with the class group.
Great to hear, hope it helps the class out!
wow! thanks Andrew!! that was soooooo helpful!
cheers mate
Not a problem Tolu, glad you enjoyed
Whilst
Andy is a convert to digitisation, I have to say I’m still pretty wedded to my
paper notes, and will keep the comfort of my lecture slides and annotations
close to hand for at least the short term.
If you take anything from this post it has to be the last point. Without the
help of 5 other classmates I’m almost certain I would not have done half as
much revision for exams. The revision group that we formed, provided a basis
for a number of discussion groups and case reviews throughout the year.
Every one of you coming into the class sees themselves as a leader in some way
shape or form. Heard of the phrase too many cooks?? … take this year to
explore different methods of interacting in a team. If you seek to take control
of every encounter you will simple rub people up the wrong way and create a
name for yourself.
Finally, the forming teams for coursework.
In almost every module you will have to submit a piece of
group course work.
Business School is not a popularity contest, If you build
your team based purely on your friends and who you want to go out and have a
beer with, it will to your detriment. Treat team working in the same manor with which
you treat business engagements. Focus on the skills sets that the person brings
to the team as well as how well you get on with them.
I recon that’s about my 10p worth for now, fear not I’ll
comment more as it comes to mind
Mark
Excellent points Mark, especially regarding forming teams. I hope for your sake your flat doesn’t flood like mine did this year, or all those paper notes are down the drain!
I’m not moving from very far, just from Oxford but still thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and consideration! I agree about books. They are so expensive and as I noticed from my sample lectures Imperial books and hand-outs are really good so I won’t buy any books unless necessary! And I have a question as well. Did you make much use of the gym and swimming pool? Is it worth enrolling?
Yulia (FT MBA 2011/2012)
Welcome to Imperial Emelyanova. I may see you at one of the pre-MBA meet-ups next week if I can make them. Yes, I did use the Ethos Gym a few times each week. It’s just on the east side of the school. Enrolling is a breeze (and free for students), all you have to do is sign up for a 10 minute gym introduction.
Thank you Andrew! This is a fantastic post for us!! Cheers
No problem Angelina, best of luck in the coming year!
I’d agree with eveything in Andys excellent post (as usual!) and to it from my experience I’d add the following 3 bits of advise:1: Do everything and then Something.In the first few moths try everything! Attend lectures, societies, talks and events on subjects that interest you but you may have very little knowledge of. And then after a few moths start to specialise and drill down into the areas and industries that most interest you. Start to make contacts and network in these areas- Do not leave looking for a job and needing to have a good network of contacts until the summer- if you do you’ll make your life a lot harder. 2: Pick you battlesDon’t spend ages trying to make your self expert on all the nitty gritty of every subject- especially ones that don’t relate to fields you want to work in. Make sure you know the general principle behind the big ideas but don’t spend valuable time trying to understand every set of accounts, ratio, stat/QM concept, pricing structure, etc etc 3: Get out there & ‘smell’ it!Once you have found an area of part of a profession that interest you – don’t just limit your exposure to some lecture theatres, go to some real events, talks, conference and get a feel for the real ‘smell’ of the industry- i.e get under the skin of it- you’ll only ever learn about 10% of what you need to know if an industry is right for you from the safety and comfort of a lecture theatre I’d agree with eveything in Andys excellent post (as usual!) and to it from my experience I’d add the following 3 bits of advise:
1: Do everything and then Something.
In the first few moths try everything! Attend lectures, societies, talks and events on subjects that interest you but you may have very little knowledge of. And then after a few moths start to specialise and drill down into the areas and industries that most interest you. Start to make contacts and network in these areas- Do not leave looking for a job and needing to have a good network of contacts until the summer- if you do you’ll make your life a lot harder.
2: Pick you battles
Don’t spend ages trying to make your self expert on all the nitty gritty of every subject- especially ones that don’t relate to fields you want to work in. Make sure you know the general principle behind the big ideas but don’t spend valuable time trying to understand every set of accounts, ratio, stat/QM concept, pricing structure, etc etc
3: Get out there & ‘smell’ it!
Once you have found an area of part of a profession that interest you – don’t just limit your exposure to some lecture theatres, go to some real events, talks, conference and get a feel for the real ‘smell’ of the industry- i.e get under the skin of it- you’ll only ever learn about 10% of what you need to know if an industry is right for you from the safety and comfort of a lecture theatre
I agree with everything in Andy’s excellent post (as usual!) and from my experience I’d add the following 3 tips:
1: Do everything and then Something.
In the first few moths try everything! Attend lectures, societies, talks and events on subjects that interest you but you may have very little knowledge of. And then after a few moths start to specialise and drill down into the areas and industries that most interest you. Start to make contacts and network in these areas- Do not leave looking for a job and needing to have a good network of contacts until the summer- if you do you’ll make your life a lot harder.
2: Pick you battles
Don’t spend ages trying to make your self expert on all the nitty gritty of every subject- especially ones that don’t relate to fields you want to work in. Make sure you know the general principle behind the big ideas but don’t spend valuable time trying to understand every set of accounts, ratio, stat/QM concept, pricing structure, etc etc
3: Get out there & ‘smell’ it!
Once you have found an area of part of a profession that interest you – don’t just limit your exposure to some lecture theatres, go to some real events, talks, conference and get a feel for the real ‘smell’ of the industry- i.e get under the skin of it- you’ll only ever learn about 10% of what you need to know if an industry is right for you from the safety and comfort of a lecture theatre
Thanks Andrew for the extremely informative post !
Just loved the concept of digitizing all study materials, I will be moving to London from Kolkata (India) and have already started taking note of your packing suggestions
Could you please share with us some tips on how to efficiently start our network base. A headsup of sorts – for example, how should someone like me with 6+ yrs of IT ERP (SAP) Solutioning & Business Development experience start approaching my target network group ……. considering the fact that post MBA I wish to enter the Management Consulting business function, preferably Strategy Consulting.
Thanks again for ur suggestions.
SUBHASIS TALUKDAR
FT MBA 2011/2012
Hey Subhasis, welcome to Imperial!
For me, I had a background with startups and wanted to get into early stage investing. So, I joined the PE Club and emailed literally all of the VCs in town to come to Imperial and speak. If I were you, I would do the same with consulting. I believe there is a consulting club at Imperial. So, join and run for a position. It’s a great CV builder. You will also need to do a final MBA thesis (just finished mine). Make sure to seek out firms you would like to work for after graduation.
Will had a good thought in his comment below – don’t look only within Imperial when forming a network. Check out what kind of Strategy Consulting events there are in London, and just start showing up. Maybe even look for potential internships and apply just to get your foot in the door.
Best of luck on the course and your search for the perfect role after!
The first term of the MBA is the most critical as it is very intense so finding your feet and getting the right work/life balance is very important. Here are a few pointers:
1. Books – Don’t feel you have to buy all the books for the core courses as they are not critical. I bought them all but only opened the accounting one as it had some useful practice exercises in the back. The only book I would recommend (for later in the course) if you are interested in investing/financing and company valuation is Rosenbaum and Pearl’s ‘Investment Banking’ book (available on Amazon for about £30) – really easy to follow and concise + provides downloadable financial models.
2. Core Course Reading – You will be given more material than you can possibly read in the first term. Most important are the case studies which you should prepare prior to lectures. Forming a small study group and discussing these cases before lectures is really beneficial. The remainder of the reading is down to personal preference – don’t feel you need to read it all as you should get the knowledge you need from the lectures. It provides good back up if you didn’t understand something or if you particularly want to learn more about a subject.
3. Exams – These come before and after Christmas. Again the best way to revise is to form a revision group and go through all the material you learned. I found this much more beneficial than sitting on my own reading notes that I may not have fully understood first time round!
4. Social – The mistake everyone makes in the first term is over studying and neglecting the social side of the MBA. Before you know it the MBA will be over and you will still be getting to know people in the class. So many times people said to me they wished they’d got more involved socially in the first term! Also I’d advise anyone who is moving to London with their partner to bring them along to any social gatherings as then they can meet other partners who are in similar situations. It’s a great chance for them to make new friends rather than be stuck in a city on their own where they may not know anybody.
I would like to
further on Andy’s great recommendations by stressing the importance of keeping
a comprehensive record of all the events you will attend this year both inside and outside
Imperial College.
There are plenty of
tools available online like Google Docs or Evernote to assist you in building
your own knowledge base where you can add content about the topic of the event,
speakers, new contacts…
As I write this lines
I have registered for the first guest speaker talk of the PE Club for this
academic year (probably the best speaker series in the Business School). A
quick search in my knowledge database tells me that I already met the speaker
during the Venture Capital elective a few months ago. I have the slides, notes,
and a list of contacts I made the same day. Now I can review the points I
highlighted during his last presentation and check any recent update of his
profile. Thus, I am now better prepared to get the most of his next talk.
Thanks a lot for the post Andy. I’m glad to see so much positive commentary from you all about Imperial Business School, and my feelings about the institution are generally very good too. But as a PhD student, and one who has (at least) 2 years left on the clock, I would like to add something about some of the challenges that present themselves, in particular for student societies.
The Business School does excellent degrees: the MBAs, the other Masters programmes, the PhDs. But not many people seem to know other students across degree programmes. I am one of the few in my PhD year who knows a decent number of MBA students for example. Sure, the school is full of diligent people who like to focus on their work, which is a good thing. But meeting people outside our immediate groups is always rewarding, and the best way to do this is by developing some of our student clubs and societies. That means doing this across the different degrees within the business school, but also across other departments at Imperial.
To do this we first need to hustle the societies we’re involved in to the top of the Business School agenda. There are going to be some changes in the line-up running the School this year, and that’s an opportunity to make sure clubs get proper backing. Because as much as in classes and workgroups, really good ideas happen obliquely: in the unexpected discussions, outside talks, and from the new networks that form in these extra-curricular settings.
So let’s get some proper resource committed to the things that develop not only the student experience but the network and renown of students at the School (and just in case you think it’s not worth it because you’ll only be here for a year, that means alumni too). Let’s make sure administration provides proper coordination so societies are kept up to date with each others’ news; let’s see lots of publicity in the School and across Imperial for society events; and let’s have academics brought in to involve their expertise (and contacts) in student societies.
Plenty of cross-over events with the City are also possible: having spoken at a conference organised by the London Accord and Gresham College last year, I know there are lots of opportunities to find speakers, and to get our students speaking opportunities of their own. We should also develop mentoring networks, such as in the private equity industry, to help propel our graduates in their careers.
We have an opportunity for reforms here, so the most important thing is this: I hope on arrival, you the new students will join us to make some exciting things happen.