Swiss-style Fall Forum And Recent Travels

Many wonderful things have happened over here since that last time I posted. While all of you were busily networking to land jobs and internships at Fall Forum 2008, Trevor and I were doing a little networking of our own. That's right, UZH also has a fall forum (of sorts) that they put on. How does it compare you say? Well, to be honest, it doesn't. At this Fall forum, there were four(!) firms - Ernst & Young, IBM, Credit Suisse, and McKinsey&Co.

Now, all of these firms are very well known and very respectable. but I.M.O. this was not a very good networking opportunity. There were not very many options for students and the company representatives were only moderately interested in meeting us/helping us navigate the application process. So, to those of you reading this, be thankful for the BCC and all of their efforts with companies and recruiters. Also, be thankful for the great reputation of our school and our MBA program. I know I am and I will be even more-so when I get back in the States and I start looking for a J O B.

Also, last week it snowed! It was heavy, and it did not last for more than a day, but it was my first snow in Europe. Locals say this is a regular occurrence, and that it is not expected to stick until January. It's hard to think that it was 20 degrees Celsius (~70 F) just a few weeks ago.

As if that weren't enough, we are traveling almost every weekend to a new country to see the sights and experience a new culture. So far we have visited Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France.







As such, my perspectives are being constantly adjusted in ways both big and small. From environmental policy, to work/life balance, to career interests, to social norms, I am beginning to think about issues from a more global perspective. The biggest change of all is the realization that Europe has a very different pace of life from the US. Everybody knows this back home, but experiencing it first-hand is something entirely different. Christine (the wife) and I have been talking and we both agree that we could easily live and work in Europe at some time in the near future. Of course, the biggest problem, besides finding a job over here, is getting a company to sponsor us and move our important stuff! ...I can only imagine what that would cost if we paid for it ourselves.... So, in the case that we do not get back over here for a while, we will have to visit as many countries on our list as possible - places like Croatia, Hungary, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and possibly Morocco. The UK and most of Eastern Europe will have to wait until we return. I know it will be tough to go on without me, but I'm sure they'll find a way.

Classes at University of Zurich

Seeing as I am STUDYING abroad, I guess it would be good to talk about my classes, huh? Well, this term I am taking:

Advanced Corporate Finance
Financial Risk Management
Microfinance
Enviornmental Finance
Financial Markets and Institutions

Sounds like a lot of finance, right? Well, it is! The reason for that is because The University of Zurich's (UZH) Swiss Banking Institute is focused mainly on banking. So, if you are contemplating attending UZH via our exchange program but are interested in studying marketing, IT, operations, HR, or some other aspect of business, look elsewhere. However, if you are thinking about studying finance from a practitioner's or manager's perspective, this school is an excellent choice. It will give you the tools to engineer financial products, manage portfolios and understand economically why you should do one thing over another. ...Of course, acquiring these super powers while you are here implies that you put the effort in to learn the material.

The last thing I'll say about classes here is that I'm told they can arrange it so that you can take classes from *any* masters program in Switzerland! So if you wanted to study at, say, IMD in Lausanne (ranked 14th of all MBA programs in the world by Financial Times), I'm told they can arrange that! However, you should check that assertion before you act on it.

Grüezi from Zurich, Switzerland

Friends, Students, Future leaders of the World,

Welcome to my little corner of the MBA Exchange blog!
From here I will try to keep you up to date on my classes at the University of Zurich, my travels in and around Switzerland, and other random thoughts about living in a foreign country where I don't speak any of the four national languages. Please forgive me if the spelling or grammar is a bit off, but I'm trying to juggle this "bloglet" with many other international pursuits and I don't intend wasting time looking for that one errant apostrophe that should be before the 's' as apposed to after it. There are more important things to do. So, with the intro out of the way, let's get down to business (ooouuuuu, bad pun).

My wife, Christine, and I have been in the country for about the past 4 weeks and are finally getting settled. It seems everything takes longer than one would expect - even in efficient Switzerland. Not speaking the predominant language in this region of Switzerland (i.e. German) makes even a trip to the grocery store tiring, to say nothing of the immigration office, the international students office or the bank! That being said, things here are amazing! People are friendly, the city in wonderfully clean and organized, and the sights are spectacular! I could go on forever, but I'm sure the first-years have studying to do (right, right???) and the second-years have jobs to look for (assuming the economy stay afloat long enough for us to get them), so I'll skip over the past 4 weeks travels and get right to this past weekend.

We started out in Sazlburg, Austria in the Alps. Salzburg is famous for salt, Mozart, physicists, and the oldest restaurant (circa 803AD) and biggest fortress in all of Europe.
Our accommodations were a hostel embedded within a 15th century castle overlooking the city (!) and our activities were all of the regular tourist stuff - churches, old buildings, open-air markets, fortresses, etc. Overall impression, very cool city with lots of history. Worth a day trip if you're ever in the area.

After Salzburg, we were off to Munchen, or Munich as we call it, for Oktoberfest. Upon arrival, we had ~36 hours to see the sights. So, obviously we went straight for the beer. After a quick stop at the famous Hofbrauhaus we were off to Oktoberfest. While not entirely what we expected, it was an amazing experience and we would happily return (though next time lederhosen and dirndls are required!). We like to say that Oktoberfest is was 50% county fair, 50% drunken German frat party and 100% fun!
For those that have not been before, Oktoberfest is located about 15 minutes walk from the center of town. As we were walking towards the festival, we saw a TON of families with small kids headed in the opposite direction. This surprised me, as I assumed the only thing to do at Oktoberfest was to drink and sing...and drink. I know that Europe is more liberal when it comes to alcohol, but surely not even they would subject a small child to a 1 liter alcoholic beverage half to 3/4 the size of their body! However, as we entered the grounds, it all became clear. Around the outside of the festival grounds are an endless array of carnival rides, games, and food stands selling everything from souvenir cookies the size of your chest, to candied nuts, to sausages, to shots of booze. We quickly moved past all of this and started tent-hopping looking for a seat. After about an hour of being shot down (it was 3:30pm when we started), we found a table with locals that spoke passable English - thank goodness. We spent the remainder of the evening at this table drinking BIG beers, eating BIG pretzels, and rubbing shoulders with BIG Germans actively engaged in singing and dancing in celebration of King Ludwig's marriage.

To all of my classmates that were in Europe, but that missed Oktoberfest in pursuit of something else: your loss. To future exchange students: make every effort to attend Oktoberfest if you are studying in Europe. You'll make wonderful friends at a party you won't soon forget.

Next week, Paris and the free museums (1st Sunday of every month). Stay tuned....