It’s the end of June, and we are finalizing our summer plans and realizing we’ve hit the halfway mark in the program. Halfway: it is truly daunting to think about that and a good time for a checkpoint. As I reflect, I started remembering where I was this time last year. It was the beginning of summer with the pandemic in full swing. Accepted 2021 MBA candidates were anxiously waiting to end the year so they could come to beautiful Lausanne.
For all the 2022 IMD MBA candidates, here are a few things to get you ready for your upcoming year:
- Stop preparing! Make the most out of the last 6 months where you are! Hopefully restrictions are easing up where you live, and I encourage you to spend that time with your friends and family. The MBA program is truly busy and you’ll only have the odd 10 minutes to catchup with them. So eat, drink, and be in the moment.
- The thing you want to read, the language you want to improve, the random excursion you’ve always wanted to do, do it. Read that novel you wanted to finish (I suggest ‘The Culture Map’ by Erin Meyer). If you wanted to improve your French or German, now is the time (it does help). Have you wanted to try out skiing or kayaking? Just try it.
- Work on yourself. Leadership at IMD puts a large emphasis on understanding yourself and the things that hold you back. Whether that be meditating, going to the gym, or building a skill, anything that is helping you understand yourself or put yourself in a good state will make your year even better.
Now when I look back over the last 6 months, it’s impossible to write down all the things I’ve learned or gained in a blog. I asked a few friends about their main takeaways from the program so far, and I mixed it with my own learnings. The commonality throughout is:
- You’ll learn immensely from the interactions with your classmates and the courses/academics is just the cherry on the top.
- Personal growth is vital for leadership and is the core of this experience.
- Life is too short to defer your passion. Just yesterday we were all flying into an experience we couldn’t have imagined, and it is just that, an experience that is unimaginable.
We have less than 6 months in our program left, and there is still so much to do. When we get back from our July break, careers will be at the forefront of the priority list. The job search is going to be truly important, but I know that many of my classmates agree that spending more time with each other will be equally important. We’re truly excited about our Discovery Expedition (even if we don’t know where were going yet…) and we’ll get to apply our learnings and past experience within our International Consulting Projects. Overall, there is so much left, but making the most out of every minute is what will make this the best year of our lives.
