Finally touched base at St. Gallen…. and the very first day at the MBA class we had such a good time..

Our class comprises of about 35 people representing 15 nationalities… with people coming in from the US from one end and Japan from another… Russians, Indians, French, Italian....quite a fair representation I'd say!!!

Most people have credible work experience… and their resumes already look very very impressive!!! (wonder why they need an mba then ???) ;-)

Well the first week at the MBA HSG was the introduction week…

First day .. first impressions:

We gathered for breakfast at the cafeteria in the ground floor of the MBA office and introduced ourselves to fellow MBA students and reps from the MBA office… over donuts and sweet nothings that would tempt even Hansel and Gretel back to the witch's cottage ;)

Wolfgang, the new Exec. Director of the MBA program and the rest of the MBA team welcomed us to the class… The HSG MBA is quite new and they really need to work hard to push it onto the world stage in league with the best… and Wolfgang's very first slide made it very clear that St Gallen knows what it has to do..it said

"We will do everything in our power to facilitate your learning and help you have a great learning experience."

Now that's an impressive opening line anyway you look at it…! I'm impressed!!!

We were then addressed by the head of career services.. who gave us inputs about our overall incoming class profile and also our projected career profile..

Basically about 4 weeks ago we were sent a detailed questionnaire by the career services to gain a feel about our career aspirations as well as our target companies etc..

Which was then followed up by a class profile CV template.. the career services started working even before we got in!! good initiative..no wonder so many companies recruit at St Gallen…

We then went for a lunch to “Wok” ( http://www.wok-stgallen.ch/) - a popular Chinese restaurant at “Marketplatz” in the heart of the buzzing shopping district.. and just a stone’s throw away from the MBA office at Blumenbergplatz…
All of us had a very exquisite Chinese buffet meal with lots of wine… courtesy the MBA office.. these guys are so very nice (or is it the wine in my veins that makes me them appear nicer???) ;-)
The post lunch session had more people …Our German instructor, the Academic Director etc.. etc..
St Gallen organizes a German (or Italian/French) language beginner’s course for all of its students. This course (worth CHF 600) is conducted by Klubschule Migros (http://www.klubschule.ch/) is aimed to enhance the employability of the MBA students… that’s money well spent … what say???

Much more happened in the evening.. stay tuned!!!
Cheers!

Stuart