Kelley School of Business at Indianapolis

Oct 24, 2007

Whew!
Posted by

Jennifer

What a whirlwind....

My last post was so long ago, I barely remember anything that I had said.

This semester I am taking Statistics, Macroeconomics, Business Law and Speech. This semester is so so different from any other semester I have been through. And, I'm not sure why. All I can figure out is that each of my teachers have entirely different teaching styles as well as test styles. I would have to say that knowing a teacher's test style is one of the single most important things to figure out, and as early as possible. (Or, your grade could suffer).

Some teachers give study guides, some offer an in-class review, some courses have university supported tutoring, while others offer zilch. So what's the best tactic when your teacher expects you to know all without any aid? Well, if I could answer that, I would be getting all A+++'s.....

But, a few recomendations for better test grades would be:

Go to class! ( I know this sounds boring, but listening to lecture helps you retain the information better than reading alone. And, sometimes teachers will even "hint" that a certain topic would be "a good test question".)
Take awesome notes! (Again, this may be a little geeky, but writing everyting down the teacher says can really help you out when you're studying!)
If you miss class, email your teacher! (Let them know you will be missing class and see if there's any way you can meet for office hours to cover missed class. Or, if office hours are not available, ask a friend for notes. Many times have I scanned notes for friends (and vice-versa) when class must be missed)
Make a friend in each class! (Okay, I know this sounds like some Mr. Roger's Neighborhood cliche, but it helps, trust me! Find someone you know (or introduce yourself if you don't know them) and get their email. Find out which way is easiest to get ahold of them ... Oncourse, Webmail, etc. If you don't understand, you can ask your friend. What are the chances that both of you will misunderstand the same subject? Or, maybe both of you can figure it out together. This also helps when you need help on homework or notes from a previous class)
Study in small sittings... (I would guess after 15-20 minutes of hardcore studying, your brain gets zapped.... Stop, take a break, get a snack (lower sugar, high protein), whatever you need to do to refresh yourself. I like to switch between subjects and then go back. This makes sure I don't get frustrated or "space off" the subject at hand.
Do your homework and review it! (Again, a little of a cliche, but teachers aren't handing out homework because they have nothing better to do..... Homework is supposed to re-enforce topics covered in class. When test time comes around, get out your homework and see if you can still answer the quesitons)
Get a tutor or a studygroup! (If you absolutely cannot study by yourself (or have trouble staying on task) join a study group. If you bring a few people together who are in the same class, chances are at least one person there can figure out the problem for the test and then can explain it to you! Or, if you cannot find anyone who wants to join your group (chances are you can!) go to a tutor. The tutor should know the subject matter well and can help explain anything you may not understand. Hint: Don't wait until the night before the exam to find help. If you know you are struggling, seek help ASAP!)

Well, I hope I have helped! Now, I'm going to take my own advice and go study!

Permalink - 3:49 PM | Jennifer |

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Kelley Indianapolis Wins!
Posted by

Professor Carow

What a great event. Our Kelley Indianapolis students were one of eight teams competing in the annual Kelley - Krannert case competition. The competition this year was hosted by Krannert. Four teams are from Indiana University Kelley School of Business with one of the teams coming from Indianapolis. Four teams are also from Purdue University's Krannert School of Business.

The winning Kelley team members -- Andrew Starks, Paul Hwang, Charlene Gonzalez and Andrew Heckman -- shared a $1,200 prize.

The competition is an annual competition between Kelley and Krannert. Our Indianapolis teams have consistently placed very well, frequently being in the top three over the past several years, but this is the first win by the Kelley Indianapolis students. We are extremely proud of their accomplishments.

As commented to me by Tim Bennett, who attended the competition with our students, "Our team’s PowerPoint and overall presentation demonstrated their clear understanding of the case, excellent analysis and evaluation skills, and ability to think critically and quickly process the facts during the Q&A."

The teams present to a group of business leaders, so this is more than an academic exercise. IN prior competitions, I have seen some of the business leaders ask the students to set up an interview with the company. The competition is know to bring real case problems to life.

Please join me in congratulating Andres, Paul, Charlene and Andrew. For a copy of the press release, please click on the link http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/6627.html?emailID=6627

Permalink - 1:54 PM | Professor Carow |

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Oct 22, 2007

Making the Case for Kelley Indianapolis
Posted by

On Friday, October 12^th, I hopped in the car and headed up to West Lafayette to observe 4 of our Honors students (from left-to-right) – Paul Hwang, Charlenne Gonzalez, Andrew Starks, and Drew Heckman - compete in the annual Kelley-Krannert case competition.

Every Fall semester for the past 9 years, 4 groups of undergraduate students representing IU’s Kelley School of Business (3 from Bloomington and 1 from Indianapolis) and 4 from Purdue’s Krannert School of Management, face off in a weekend case competition. For those who are unfamiliar with how a case competition works, here was the set-up:

The groups arrived and had lunch together, and heard a few words from Krannert’s Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research, Diane Denis.
The students received the case around 2pm and headed back to their hotels.

About the case: This year’s case centered on the $1.75 billion acquisition of IBM's PC division by Lenovo, China's largest PC maker, which was announced in December 2004. At the heart of the case was how Lenovo should proceed in developing and executing a marketing/branding strategy for its ThinkPad and Lenovo 3000 computer lines. Read the full case here.
They spent the next 12-18 hours sequestered in a hotel room - with a month’s worth of Red Bull and water - analyzing the case and putting together a PowerPoint presentation.
The next day the 4 Kelley teams and the 4 Krannert teams were divided into separate classrooms in Purdue’s beautiful new Rawls Hall. Each group gave a 20 minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of tough Q&A from a panel of judges with extensive experience in business and industry.
The top 3 teams were selected to present again in the final round of competition in front of the combined panel of judges, advisors and fellow students.

Not only did the Kelley Indianapolis team make the finals for the first time, they beat the two other Purdue teams which reached the finals and won the entire competition (along with the $1,200 1^st place prize). And I’m telling you, even as an impartial observer, they were the clear winners. Their analysis was thorough, their presentation was remarkably polished, and their ability to focus in on the critical points of the case and present a cohesive action plan for the company in question was unmatched. The judges were equally impressed, keeping the team for over an hour after the completion had ended to dissect their strategy and congratulate them on their performance.

Check out their presentation (PowerPoint 2007)

They pulled off the victory without any previous case competition experience, though they all agreed that they were able to draw heavily from their Honors I-Core experience. I wish I could claim some of the credit for their success, but all the credit goes directly to the students. They were, in a word, awesome.

Permalink - 3:02 PM | JR |

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Oct 12, 2007

Colts/ NFL Kickoff Pre-game Show: My Experience as a "Talent Escort"
Posted by

Casey

Last month I got the chance to be a “talent escort” for John Mellencamp’s band for the Colts/ NFL Kick-off pre-game event. “How did I get this awesome opportunity?” you might ask. Well, since I work in the administration building here on campus, sometimes the external relations office down the hall from me receives phone calls in regards to needing volunteers for events around the community. Well, my friend who works in that office got the call from the entertainment company that was in charge of the “talent” for the NFL Kick-off game. The company needed a few extra people to be “talent escorts” and so I volunteered that Wednesday and Thursday of the Colts vs. Saints game. The talent for the pre-game show was: John Mellencamp, Keyshia Cole, and the National Guard Honor Band. Basically, as a talent escort, my responsibilities were to keep track of John Mellencamp’s band, get them anything they needed, escort them from their dressing rooms to the field, and then escort them off of the field once they were done performing. All the talent escorts got to wear these headsets and it got incredibly hectic the day of the game. A couple times we couldn’t find certain “talent” (some were late to the rehearsals which was NOT good).

Since the pre-game show was being aired live, it was necessary to have numerous rehearsals. So, we went through the run down of the show which took all of five or ten minutes during the real airing of the show but took close to an hour each rehearsal. First, John Mellencamp performed “Small Town” and then the Honor Guard game out with the American flag, and then Keyshia Cole sang the National Anthem. My job was to get the band out onto the field, escort them to the stage (which volunteers put together in less than two minutes during the commercial break), and then escort the band off of the field after they were done performing. We went through this rehearsal two or three times the day before the game. This meant that I got to be on the RCA dome field the day before and the day of the game! Inside the dome, on the field, the day before the game was so incredibly peaceful. There were only a handful of us out on the field watching Mellencamp’s band practice. It was such an incredibly surreal experience. The field was just so tranquil- partly because once you go through the revolving doors to get onto the field, the air is pressurized differently. It was just so quiet-- kind of like the calm before the storm because we all knew the next day the dome would be packed with 60,000 screaming fans. This sounds crazy but there was an almost sanctuary-like feeling to the dome the day before the game. I was actually lying on the 30 yard line where my main man, Marlin Jackson, would be intercepting a pass.. and in the endzone where Reggie Wayne would receive a pass from Peyton Manning and get a touchdown. The field has tons of tiny pieces of rubber tires on it for traction or whatever the other scientific purposes might be. I was wearing flip flops and I got the bits and pieces of the tires all in between my toes.

The next day (game day) we went through the rehearsal a couple more times. I was walking back to the talent escort’s “office” for some badges or something and I saw Coach Dungy walking with his son. I was too stunned to really say anything but my friend just said, “Good luck tonight, coach!” And then a few minutes later I walked out onto the field and got to see the players practicing. I got to see THE one and only Peyton Manning. [Make sure to see the pictures below!!] Okay so then, the real performance time came up. I had to have the band inside the dome at a certain time. Every minute was accounted for on our schedules for the 10 or 15 minute pre-game performance. So, I escorted the band members out onto the field and then to the stage. I got to stand behind the stage as they were performing and wait for them to be done in order to walk them back from the field to their dressing rooms.

My best friend helped out with this too and she was in charge of the Honor Guard. It just so happened that the guard members had two extra tickets so we got to go to the game, too! The whole experience was so crazy-- just being on the field with 60,000 people screaming was incredible. I really had so much fun, which is such an understatement. I learned so much about big-time event planning events, TV productions, and myself. The company in charge of this production is also in charge of the MTV Video Music Awards, Emmy’s, European Music Awards, and other big time events. Helping with this event helped me because in addition to getting a Bachelor’s degree, I am also pursuing an Events Management certificate. In order to obtain my certificate I have to do an internship. I’m seriously considering looking into whether or not I could get an internship or even a full-time position with this company so that I could do big time events like this all the time. If anyone is considering going into event management I highly recommend it. It’s a fast growing industry and can be very thrilling depending on which events you choose to do.

Permalink - 11:33 PM | Casey |

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Oct 10, 2007

Networking
Posted by

Peter

Networking is one of the most important life skills that one can learn at a young age. Many of my business professors in college have talked about how important networking is, but it seems that it is still overlooked.Throughout my life I have always tried to represent myself in the best manor possible whenever meeting anyone new, but I never realized how important knowing people can be until recently. I am slowly starting to look for jobs and it has been shocking to talk with people and hear them say, Oh you are looking to work there, I know the owner, or I know so and so. I started to realize just how important this was last year when I was looking for an internship. All three places I interviewed at knew someone that I knew through school or soccer. My advice to everyone is simple, never take anyone for granted, every opportunity that you get to meet someone new can open new doors in your life. This is especially true in smaller cities such as Indianapolis. Many businesses owners know each other and if you work hard and prepare yourself right your name can get spread like wildfire.

Permalink - 11:18 PM | Peter |

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Vault's Online Career Library is finally here...and free!
Posted by

Kelley Indianapolis students now have full (and free) access to Vault's extensive, amazing, incredible, magnificient collection of career and industry research tools. Think I might be exaggerating how much quality information you can find? Check out what's available with just a few clicks through the IUPUI website:

Career Profiles

Read about job descriptions, job titles, Uppers & Downers and Personality Matches & Misses for 53 careers including Management Consultant, Human Resources Assistant, Investment Banker and Accountant, just to name a few.

Not so interested in traditional business fields? Not a problem. Check out what I do (Career Counselor), your instructors do (College Professor) or something out the blue (Chef, Art Dealer, Freelance Writer, etc.).

Industry Research

Like your major but not sure exactly what you want to do? Vault’s industry research section identifies the most common careers/positions in 40 top industries. For the business-minded, these include Accounting, Advertising, Financial Services, Human Resources, Supply Chain Management and many more.

Vault Guides

The Vault Guides are the real treasure. You’ve probably see them before in any number of bookstores – Borders, Barnes & Noble, or my personal favorite Half-Priced Books (love that store!). They have bright covers, range from 125-500 pages and cost around $30 - only now they are free (if you are an IUPUI student, that is).

The 90+ guides are divided into 5 categories:

1) Interview/Resume Guides: Case Interviews, Finance Interviews & more

2) Career Topic Guides: Top Internships, Schmoozing, International Careers & more

3) Industry Career Guides: Accounting, Capitol Hill, Consulting, Environmental Careers, HR, Investments, Marketing, Real Estate, Venture Capital & more (33 in total)

4) Industry Employer Guides: Profiles of the top employers in 22 industries.

5) Employer Profiles: In-depth profiles of 30 top companies.

The most important part of the job search is research – and there is no close second. While the Career Placement Office is a great place to start, it’s certainly not your only source for information. We are an excellent resource, of course, but we are not human encyclopedias. I can’t list the top employers in every field or adequately explain, in the amount detail you’d probably like, every one of the career paths you can take as an HR major. But I can point you in the direction of some valuable resources so that you don’t have to spend countless hours searching through the vast Google universe – and Vault is at the top of my recommendation list.

Directions on accessing Vault via the IUPUI Library:

1) Go to www.ulib.iupui.edu

2) Select Research – Find Articles – Article Databases A-Z

3) Click ‘V’ and link to the Vault Online Career Library

4) Explore the site

Permalink - 3:42 PM | JR |

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