If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.
Bill Gates

There has been some comments about workload on this first quarter (angel angie: Time to celebrate success, World Sojourner: Why are they so awake?, karlitos: a note on workload). Is it really intense? Nerve-wrecking? Or a walk in the sun? (In London Business School, a walk in the rain maybe)…

From the quote above, you can infer my opinion, pretty in line with the Angel blogger: “If you had a tough job before the MBA, the MBA is a vacation.” It does not mean it is easy, and it requires a lot of time, but just going through the MBA is quite light, very light if you come from a tough engineering school like karlitos and I do.

However, it all depends on your context and what are the extra things you want to do above that minimum.

Autum Quarter is NOT tough if…

• You are a ticket-puncher. “I just want my degree”, then it is a 2-year holiday. I would say it is also a waste of money and time, but we are all grown ups. In my opinion, this is a minority of the MBA population.

However, the quarter becomes a little bit trickier when you add the extras. Analogy: The MBA is like a car, basic model is affordable, but the more equipment, the more expensive the price tag. Examples on how to increase the toughness of the quarter:

• “I want to be president of clubs X, Y and Z”
• “I am trying to save money while living in London the MBA life”
• “I want to do a radical career change”
• “I am starting a new venture”
• “I want to figure out what to do with the rest of my life”
• “I blog” (Ok, this is a minor one)
• “I am looking for a partner among fellow MBAers”
• “I want to be the social king/queen”
• “Party is my new name”
• “My study group is a continuous challenge”
• “I want to be in the top 10% of the class”
• “I want to travel every single WE” (this one is very demanding, trust me!)
• “I want to allocate a reasonable amount of time to my loved ones”
• “I want to lose all those kilos I gained in my high paying sedentary work!”
• “I want zillions of offers for the summer”
• …

You get the idea, right? Going back to the ultimate philosphy guru (F.G.), ‘Life is like a box of chocolates’. Or more appropiately, the MBA is like a box of chocolates… We were taught this one during orientation week, and I loved the analogy: There are so many thrilling things to do at the MBA that it can be a little bit too much. Like the chocolate box, if you try to do all at the same time, you will end up sick!

Making clear choices (lesson #1 in Strategy class) is a prerequisite for success also in the MBA years.
Going back to the toughness of the quarter, it all depends on how many hours one chooses to allocate, and the goals oneself has.

And this is the beauty of it all: It is all about choice, choice and choice.

Never forget, dear reader, that all MBAers choose to be in this situation. One really needs to want to be here to be an MBAer (admissions filters out non-motivated people with great accuracy). And the door is always open to leave. We are all adults here, so…

…next time you hear or read a MBAer complain about the worload, keep in mind he/she has a lot on her hands, extreme workload, little sleep, etc… But it is his/her choice to have too much! And doing MBA stuff is as delicious as chocolate!