Our schedule for the week starts strong, there is no time or energy to waste.
Mondays start at 8.15am, when we arrive at the door we show our QR code (a systematic way of keeping track of COVID-19 free students). There are two ways of coming to IESE, either by bus – taking the 160 from Moncloa – or by car. At this point, many of us have agreed to carpool, both going to IESE and coming back. We say good morning to the staff members and go and take a seat in class. We start with our first class, Financial Accounting. Prof Miguel Duro encourages us to get a coffee, to help us keep up with the class. At 9.30am the class ends, and we move on to the meeting rooms upstairs for our team meetings. We are all divided into different groups of 6-7 people that work together as a team until the end of the year. After this, we have a short break until 11am. Then the second period starts, with Organizational Behaviour, where we analyze human behaviour within a company. At 12.15pm the class is over, and we go for lunch. At 2pm we are back for our last period, Marketing Management. Our day ends at 3:15pm, some go back home to study and others stay in the library.
Tuesday is usually easier, since we are already into the week. We start the day with Critical Business Thinking. During class, we discuss the case that we prepared the day before. In this class there is always a discussion, lead by Prof Jose Luis Illueca. After class, we go to teamwork, where we discuss the cases for the next day, plan the week, and get to know each other better. After the break we have our second period, Technology in Organizations with Dr Schneider. For lunch, there are various options: you can choose to eat at IESE’s restaurant, get a sandwich at the cafeteria or bring your own food. During lunchtime, you can usually take a break, get some fresh air, go to mass or spend some time at the library reviewing for the afternoon classes. If not, there is usually an event a week during lunch time, such as club meetings, revisions with teachers or webinars. After our break, we move to the final period. Once the day is over, some students will go to the library to prepare the cases while others will prepare case interviews for their job applications.
Wednesday is a busy day. The day starts with Financial Accounting as usual, today we discuss bonds and loans. After that we have group work, and in the second period, we analyse Amazon’s strategy in our Technology in Organizations class. After the class, we have a Start-up and Entrepreneurship Club meeting. We have a Skype call with the former CEO of Milanuncios.es. During this session, we get an in-depth understanding of the variables to take in to account when starting a web-based company. Today we have double afternoon period, Communications with Yago de la Cierva, where we discuss two types of speeches. We will have to practice and prepare our speeches for the following week on “Ethos” and “Storytelling”.
Thursday can be hard as we feel the weekend is close. We start with Critical Business Thinking where we discuss the case of Tennis Gava, a small enterprise in Barcelona that does not know what their next move will be, to buy the tennis club or continue to lease it. After group work, we go outside for some fresh air, and to discuss the cases with other classmates. At 11am we go back inside for Organizational Behaviour. At 3.15pm we are done for the day, because there are no cases to read for the next day.
Fridays are special days. On Fridays we only have activities with the Career Development Center. The CDC is designed to help students hunt for jobs, prepare your CV, cover letter, interviews and most importantly, help you decide what career path to take. We start at 9am with a CDC bootcamp. Here the CDC team explains to us what resources we have available for our job applications, tips for a successful job interview, and we analyse our CVs and cover letters. After lunch we go downstairs to the auditorium, were we have a session on Understanding the World with Prof Mike Rosenberg. This class is a geopolitical approach to the current world we live in. It is open for discussion, and Mike tells us the various topics we can choose to research during the course. Once we finish, we all meet outside to decide what is the plan for the weekend. Some will go to the mountains, other for a coffee and others for a beer.
The week is done, and it is time to recharge.
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