Ego Libre

After beautiful three months of summer holiday (yup I am in southern hemisphere I started going to daily classes again.
This time it’s Master of Trade and Diplomacy on Monash University. Basically it consists of core politics/economics and elective mostly from the department of Management. So far it seems to suit me better because my initial guess was right and a course with such a name obviously attracts people who are either already experienced in government and non-propfit organizations or simply students who are fed up with business. In both cases it is slightly different bunch than your usual MBA student (especially young one, I still have respect for proper MBAs)

And you know what? It has a tremendous impact on the educational aspect of the classes.

Basically as my electives I am taking the same classes that I would if I were enrolled in an MBA. There are even some MBAs in some of my classes, but majority of people are from different backgrounds. How is this relevant to my MBA bashing? Because I realize that the vibe in the classes is quite different.

My classes now are more relaxed, more open and actually it seems more inclined towards learning rather than showing off.

Most students in my MBA started their questions towards the professor in a manner such as: “In my professional experience…
“ or “In my company we do this…” That would sound might fine from a 40 year old executive, but when a guy whose experience is summer internship on his uncle wool processing plant, you start to get pissed.
Once you get to know your classmates a bit more, you will realize that some people are vastly exaggerating their experiences or even that they call on experiences of others as their own. They are simply trying to preserve an image in face of their classmates. And this actually prohibits learning.

I know I might be simplifying the issue a bit, but my brief experience tells me that when compared to the average, MBA students tend to brag more and are more stubborn students, which of course will reflect on the whole class experience. This goes mostly to the young and less experienced ones that maybe feel threatened by the proper MBA students and thus start pulling these stunts.

I did not realize it until now and I also understood what was bothering me about the atmosphere in the classes so much. So I will repeat what I said before. Do an MBA only when you are ready to do an MBA and pick one in which you barely fulfill the requirements. That was you can be sure that you will gain the most and be saved from all the BS you would have to endure otherwise.

Before starting my new course at Monash I wanted to finish all my readings left from previous courses I took. One of the last remaining books was Peter Gowan’s The Global Gamble. I just finished it today and I can’t simply pass over it, I need to share some thoughts here.

This book was published in 1999 and some of the articles precede it by couple of years. It is concerned with economic power of US and its imperial tendencies, war in Iraq I and about half of the book is about politico-economic aftermath of the 1989 revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe.

To those of you that know my political opinion on these events is obvious that the take on these events must be far from the mainstream accepted explanations. And it is. In fact, Gowan manages to describe the issues and struggle of the early 1990’s with such a precision and insight that I must say that I will never think about our post-revolutionary development in Czech Republic and other countries ever the same.

Maybe I was a sceptic before, but now I understand three things:

1) We got screwed and we are still paying for it.

3) The right-wing parties in countries like Czech Republic should be the one redeeming themselves now, not the Communists.

The last comment might seem extreme, pushing my opinions even more left then they have been before. Don’t be alarmed, but seriously after reading this book you will think twice about voting for your friendly right-wing ODS which in light of recent elections in Czech Republic and electing a “hero” of the privatization era as a president once again is an eye-opening experience.

But then again, maybe you won’t like Gowan’s fact heavy, a bit repetitive and leftist style as much as I did (or should I say tolerate it as much as I did), but I really recommend getting this book if you want to understand the world we STILL live in and what forces are shaping our future.

I know it has been a long time since I wrote my first part of this post, but hopefully you are still interested in what I have to say. So what is the second thing that I feel you should consider when deciding on whether (or where) to take your MBA and that is:Business school do not do what they preach. This was another issue that I had with my short-lived MBA studies. It’s beautiful to hear about proper management techniques, but some of your professors treat your or some of your fellow students in a way that no manager should. It is beautiful to hear about proper planning and organization skills, but nobody gives you the time nor opportunity to implement them in the actual studies. Or what about HR telling you how to create a stress-free environment, when you have to study four subject in ten weeks including exams and no-one gives a shit about your stress. And those few naive souls who try to object to it are being told off that they need to learn how to work under stressful situation and conditions.Anyone smells bullshit as much as I do?I mean seriously. These guys stand in front of you and teach you the theory how you should behave, but in reality act almost contrary. What is the take-out for you? That the gap between theory and practice is so big, that there is no way that all those fancy models can be implemented.So why teach them? Why not be honest about it? Why not say: “Once you get a middle-management job or above, your life will be stressful, you will work too much and you and your co-workers will hate each others guts.” I know I am exaggerating here, but it really bothered me. It bothered me because most of the people who graduate from a full-time MBA studies will see this kind of stress and workload as a norm and will not think twice about inflicting it on other people as well. “When I was doing my MBA I did not sleep more than 4 hours a day, so stop whining and get to your work.”This kind of logic simply bothers me and unfortunately with the advent of students who want to degree for the paper only and want to get to their flashy careers and corporate jets as soon as possible, this will get even worse.So second reason why not do an MBA: It is going to screw up your perception of fair amount of work and the stress levels and tolerance you create here will follow you throughout your career until you either break down, or smarten up.