The first term is over and my head is still spinning. My friends and my family tell me to chill, but it is not easy to go from 1000 to 10 in just a couple of days.

As I am trying to enjoy the first 4 days away from the MBA since the beginning of the program, I am starting to realize what have been my last 2 months.

It is difficult to express and summarize all sensations and emotions that I have felt, but if I play a word association game regarding the MBA, the words would be something like Intense, Challenging and sometimes Overwhelming!

I have to admit that before joining the program, when I spoke with MBA graduates, all of them advised me regarding the heavy workload of a MBA program, but I always gave them a discount. I always though they were exaggerating and that with my experience I wouldn't feel the same. I was so wrong!

It has been an extraordinary experience involving much more than developing my business skills. The challenge of working in a flat hierarchy with others MBA students with different backgrounds, different cultures and different mindsets is the ultimate leadership preparation and I am loving it.

Each student has his own personal improvements roadmap and mine it's very ambitious, but I feel that I am in the right place at the right time and in the right program to achieve it.

The 2nd term, which is considered the most difficult in MBA’s programs, will start next Wednesday and the complete absence of free time with a roller-coaster of experiences will be my daily life, but I am really confident that when the term is over and I look back, I will feel the same rewarding sensation that I am feeling today!

"Welcome to a life changing experience" advised Belen, The Lisbon MBA's executive director. Little did we know then the extent of the concept, as we happily nodded with the exciting perspective.

Today we understand better, although not fully yet. A "lifetime" has passed in a month and we are now fully immersed, and sure enough... change has begun! Our ideas are provoked, our calendar is crammed, our mental elasticity is stretched in every direction and our emotional intelligence is given a thorough test and upgrade.

Our team's diverse background is true motivation and a source for challenging our predefined assumptions and beliefs. This is without a doubt a valuable asset of our school - we learn through academic core subjects and also from the cultural differences in class coming from Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, US, Belgium, Poland, India and Portugal.

Bring on Finance, Ops, Strategy, Accounting, Boston and MIT, internships and international labs, Friday Forums and personal limits pushing, elective courses, exams, mid-terms and cases after cases... and certainly, bring on the student sharing sessions, social Sundays, cold beer chats and new friends!

By now we're sitting tight, seat belts fastened, books and minds open and already savoring an incredible ride... a life changing incredible ride!

That's how I fell today, because a new course of The Lisbon MBA has started...
It's strange because I finished my program only less than 2 weeks and I fell nostalgic about the incredible journey that the new students are about to begin.
The best of everything for them and for the program and thank you for one of the best years of my life.

As my colleagues have said in previous posts, we are only a few weeks away from the end of the 2010 edition of the Lisbon MBA - it's hard to believe how it all went so quickly! As we approach graduation, we are all fully focused on our careers post-MBA. Landing that dream job opportunity is now the main priority... There is a lot of interaction with our Career Management Center, interviews being scheduled, coaching for different aspects of handling this transition phase, and some stress as well, as would be expected.

This brings me back to a point already covered by Nuno and André in their posts, but that is important to stress: the importance of our summer internship. The internship is a golden opportunity for doing our dream jobs and showcasing our talent at it for 2 months, making valuable contacts in the industry and company of our choice, and leaving our mark through our project deliverables. Not surprisingly, many of us are visiting our summer employers again, now discussing full-time opportunities. It's the internship seed bearing fruit... And it makes a huge difference in this wintry economic climate.

Now that we are ready to give way to the Lisbon MBA class of 2011, I look forward to come back to this blog as a nostalgic alumnus and read posts by the 2011 cohort! Prepare yourselves for a fun and challenging year...

It's truth... The 4th term is over and is only missing the 5th one...
I'm already feeling that I would miss this spirit... This has been a fantastic year.
Since my last post, I had the possibility of being 3 amazing weeks in Boston studying in MIT Sloan. What I can tell about these weeks, is that they were very hard weeks in terms of workload, but very intense weeks of having fun with my colleagues. The classes were amazing, the professors outstanding and Boston lovely...
Afterwards, I went for my summer internship in São Paulo, Brazil, where I worked 7 weeks at Kemin applying some of the knowledge acquired during the first terms of the program, because I choose to stress my self in this internship: I'm from Finance and I did my internship in Strategy and Marketing! I asked for help to some of the teachers and all of them were willing to help me, it was very nice!
Now the electives courses are being very challenging, but the workload has been almost the same, but now I have to split my time to find my job after the MBA.
Wish me luck!!!

Last Wednesday I gave the final presentation of my summer internship at a Portuguese company called Critical Software. The internship was about business development for the Aeronautics, Space and Defence department, and comprehended strategy definition, marketing analysis and technical guidelines creation for an emergent software system in the logistics branch. The whole experience was tremendously gratifying because it allowed me to explore a wide set of business concepts learned throughout the MBA, with some depth. In general, I felt confident and well prepared for the assignment.
I had the luck of finding a great team that gave me the freedom and trust to prove my worth within these 2 months. The output was a business plan and a new product definition, which together allowed me to get creative and thus exercise some of my favorite skills.

In summary, it was one of the most valuable experiences so far in the MBA and I am sincerely grateful for that.

My MIT experience started in the wrong foot, since I got sick when I arrived, and it took some time to finally get fit and join the classes. But once I was able to attend school, I remarked that the courses were lectured by most renowned professors, who approached classes with an open, moderating posture, generating 2-sided abundant in-depth discussions, which took us far in the topics analysis. The topics included strategy, innovation, ethics and law. I liked innovation a lot because of my inclination for software development, but I was especially surprised with ethics and law. The debate-based approach triggered a sudden interest for these social sciences, so far undiscovered. All of the courses were intensive and required a lot of preparation, but were at the same time rewarding in terms of the interaction and learning. In the end, we still found some time to play soccer and go out at night. Next time you’ll go to Boston, try the fancy environment of the Liberty Hotel or go dance at the Rumors. But don’t take a cab there – use the school bus…

Three terms are already behind us. As we send our last exam through e-mail, we realize that we reached a turning point in our MBA.

For the first time, every single one of us will become a true international student. No comfort zone, no strings attached, no rules(?).

Will it be a reboot on the MBA or will it be an extension of Católica? It's in our hands not to squander this opportunity, and to make sure that every second of free time becomes an unforgettable experience.

No regrets!
Motivation!
Watch out Boston, here we come!

Cheers.