I have to imagine sometime in my dad’s life, he looked at me and said – that boy is now a man. Frankly, I have no idea when that would be but a couple guesses come to mind – graduating some type of school (highschool, college, uh, uh grad school?) or a first girlfriend. Who knows – maybe getting married did the trick, but I’m certain there was a point.
Heck, even I realised when people called me sir and it wasn’t weird that maybe childhood was behind me.
Well, in the London Business School world that trip to maturity for our first year friends came today, the Finance One Exam (insert organ music here) .
Who knew a 5 foot X inch Italian professor with a PHD from Harvard could strike fear in the hearts of even the vainest, err, bravest student, but she does. Watching the first years study at every turn, cancel meetings or stare blankly during the meetings they did attend made it very clear – they are joining the fraternity. Those who survived. One of my study-group mates said that a 2006 gave her a beer at the end of the test and said, ‘Congratulations, you just graduated.”
When I think back to last year, the thing that I remember isn’t the finance or the marketing or the strategy, but surviving this test. Only had one panic attach during it, not too bad. Sadly, this exam was what I now refer to as the ‘good exam.’ Granted the MBA Programme office has restructured the offering, but with the finance one test – it’ll always be a beast.
Congrats first years – you’re women and men . So go get a job and stop eating all the food in the fridge – ah, yeah, now that it’s over get a little sleep and cut your hair! Enjoy it – there’s still a second one next term and sometime next spring – Management Accounting starts (more organ music please).
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