Poetry Slam

It is late at night and I am really tired
I am not showing up for work I am gonna get fired
Professor would ask if that is the best way to manage
Don’t you think you are creating even more damage?


This poem needs someone to edit
Whatever the case I am still getting the extra credit
I tried the eggs or Lego work
And I ended up going berserk
I was thinking maybe the jell-o
But still no luck, hell-o


And at the end what can I say
It is almost over at the end of the day
Now the final is coming and I need to get an A
I am too lazy to study so I am just gonna pray.

Blog about the Blog

Yes, it is almost end of the course and it is time to do some evaluating.

This has definitely been an interesting and original way to teach, not just in the classroom but outside of it as well.

When the concept was introduced to us at the beginning of the semester I wasn't sure what to expect from blogging and how time consuming or difficult would it be.

After few months of doing this I can say a few things about how I feel about blogging and what was beneficial to me as well as what I think could change in the future.

The good things:

-It was helpful, interesting and very beneficial to read our first (and following) assignment and to see how would students present themselves and how creative they can be in their web presentation.

-It was a good and less stressful way of earning 20 point towards our final grade and I would always do this rather than putting more weight on the tests (especially after the scores that I got)

-Writing blog assignments made me think through about what happened during class activities and one particular that stuck in my head as most influential was one about decision making

-It was a great way to learn how different peoples' opinions can be but at the sam time see that a lot of us face same problems (procrastination, juggling school and work...)

-Your blogs were helpful source for those who have interest in the subject matter

As and idea I think it is good however I am not sure results were what you were hoping for, at least for me.

Things to think about:

-Posting comments was a pain in the neck not because of reading blogs rather because 90 percent of the time I didn't have nothing to say and if I did it wouldn't be appropriate to someone I barely even know (one example is the vision assignment)

-I didn't find it to be all that engaging and I don't feel that it helped me communicate better with anyone in the class and I don't think I will continue to use it but who knows?

MY OPINION- It should definitely stay a part of the course because it is refreshing and helps with the grade without being to demanding. I would like to see comments not being mandatory, however I understand that you need some kind of proof student, at least, visited other blogs. Another suggestion that you should have more interactions with students by posting comments that will give some feedback and opinions and also make the feel more connected and engaged.

I will also use this opportunity to say class activities were a great, fun and interesting way of learning a lot about management  however they were not that helpful in preparing us for the tests and scoring better on them. 

Thank you.

extra pickles= 7 points

Extra Credit (pickle) Assignment

I haven't been in McDonald since this summer and if there wasn't for this assignment it would probably be a while before I would walk in to get some food there. But extra 7 points is more important than my taste buds and since I didn't study hard enough for 2nd test I felt this was a fair price to pay.

So after Monday's class on my way back home I made a stop at my neighborhood Mcdonald's. It was around 9pm and there was only one person ahead of me in the line.  When I was asked what can they get for me I said that as strange as it may seem I need one small fries without any salt and the person taking my order immediately responded that isn't a problem  because he personally cleaned the heater where fries were sitting and that the ones he fried had no salt in them. I wasn't sure if I could believe him but I knew I can only test what he was saying when I taste the fries. I made sure he understands that I need the receipt that will say NO SALT and he said that is not a problem. I went ahead and told him that I would also like a hamburger with exactly 4 pickles on it and that i need the receipt as proof of it. His initial response is that he cannot modify ticket to have 4 pickles and that he adjusted it to say extra pickles. Knowing that this won't be enough I asked him if he can modify it so it shows pickles 4 times and he had no problems with doing that. From the moment I placed my order it took around 2 minutes for me to get my food due to the fact that there were some orders coming from drive-through. Counter person was the one that filled the bag with small fries and another coworker prepared the burger with 4 pickles on, before that was done he asked the counter person something in spanish and the response was QUATRO which my limited knowledge of spanish tells me means four so I would assume that the question was regarding my special and unusual order and number of pickles on the burger.

As far as the way I was being treated I can say that the best description of the response of the counter person is that he was trying to help and he wanted to get it done quick without any fake smiles and cursing in foreign language which was a pleasant surprise for me since I expected more questions and rolling of the eyes or comments between coworkers about this weird order. Besides from the counter person there was one more worker taking other for the drive through and 2 more people that were preparing the food and they all seamed focused on their own jobs and responsibilities.

Also what I need to say is that besides efficiency my order was correct and fries didn't have a grain of salt on them and I even went that far to examine a few of them and couldn't find it but just by eating them it was obvious that they were salt free, unfortunately not fat free. Hamburger had 4 pickles and all that that required was one sentence from counter person to the food prep guy. The only thing that I noticed was that in this specific situation is what could improve efficiency would be a button on the computer that would allow the ticket to be modified with the number since that would mean that no communication would be needed between counter and food prep person since the ticket itself would be clear enough. 

In conclusion 7 extra point=no salt+4 pickles+2 dollars, not a bad deal.

My DisC

I was late for the class and had to do this test when I came back to my house an miss-out on the comparison with others.

Before I started I had a pretty good feeling that I will be D type and once I was finished it turned out I was D high C. In terms of the expectations the test proved them right because certain traits that are characteristic for D type can be accurately used to describe me. I have heard from others that they find me to be a figure of authority and someone that can lead and get others going, using force and power if necessary.  On the other hand I am not the dictator type and I am more than open to hearing other people's opinion when trying to find the best possible solution for solving problems and I am always open to accept the opinion of majority even when I disagree with it if I feel that my arguments were not clear and strong enough.

According to professor D high C is a great combination because it includes strong personality focused on overcoming obstacles combined with creative thinking and analytical skills so, at least on paper, I am great:)

When it comes to whether it is good and useful to know personality types there is no doubt in my mind that if the assumptions and results of theses tests are accurate they can be a valuable asset to managers. Reason for this is that instead of making others adjust to environment, manager can try to create work space and atmosphere that will be sculpted to drain the best from individuals focusing on their strong points and qualities.

Also in personal interactions knowing your other people's personalities is very helpful and is essential part of what is know popularly known as emotional intelligence. Emotionally intelligent people will know how to correctly interpret persons reactions and to adjust ones approach to better motivate and involve others in achieving mutual goals.

When I grow up I would like to become...

I was thinking about this as a kid and to this day I am still not sure.
I am not sure what I would like to become but there are few things I would like to achieve in the coming years.
First and foremost,this summer when I graduate, I would like to find a job in a investment bank or some other respectable financial institution.
I would like to start making over $100, 000 per year in the next 5 years.
I would like to visit all seven continents in the next 10 years.
So my plan of action for landing a job offer is in phase 2 right now. Phase 1 was applying through Baruch's Starr Search web-site. Since nothing came out of that my next step is posting my resume on different job-search websites and also contacting my friends that already work for wall-street companies for advice as well as employee referrals which could help me get interviews with companies. If this doesn't work and I see that there are no offers coming my way I will start applying for internships since that is one of the ways of securing a job once the internship is over.
My goal #2 is closely realted to goal#1 since working in finance industry will enable me to either make such money through salary, investing or both.
As for the third goal, it is also related to my first goal in a sense that I plan on taking my family everywhere I go and I am sure it will be expensive so without making decent ammount of money it won't be feasible.

Democracy can be annoying...

...and our class decision making proved it.
The reason for this kind of assumption is based on my personal experience.
Don't get me wrong, I believe we did accomplish a lot but not all that we could and the process of reaching to the final agreement was painful and poorly organized which probably arose from the fact that there were no set rules as who is to direct the whole process and who's opinion is to have more impact.
In terms of how I handled this conflict situation I can say it was a mix of different approaches. At the begging I looked at what was happening and started collaborating with others in order to hear their opinions and try to come up with the best solution. Pretty fast we came up with two proposals that all of us agreed. The third proposal was a cause of many different opinions about how should we deal with multiple choice questions and essay questions. It seamed like the most beneficial way of resolving such situation of conflict with many different opinions. This problem only became more evident when I heard the different opinions not only within the group I was discussing it but when most of the class got engaged in the discussion and when it became obvious that there are few issues that we will never reach a 100 % consensus.
Faced with this situations and with time running out I used compromise and accommodation when it came to voting. I accommodated the will of the majority and compromised so that decision is made on time.
To put it into perspective I felt that the essay part needed to be changed in a way that we should be given 3 or more questions and given the opportunity to chose one. This, in my opinion, is far better than only being limited to one question and if your knowledge on one module is weaker the chances are greater you will find one questions within the three that you would feel more confident about and that you can answer appropriately, which is not the case payed little attention to a one or two modules.
Only thing I should have done differently is to try to be more assertive and patient with the fact that people have different insight in how to solve problems, however when you are facing time constraint and more than one person who strongly opposes your argument you can only choose go with majority vote and regret that they were not open-minded enough to listen to an opinion that benefits all.

Eggs-cellent Way to Plan

Let's see, how would I evaluate our group work that ended in failure of achieving our assigned objective. Suprisingly enough I think that we worked well as agroup and I think that ,regardless of the fact that our poor egg broke, we did a good job.


Step 1: Our goals and objectives were already defined by the professor so no work was needed on our side.

Step 2: Some resources were given to us (egg, straws, tape) others we had to explore as we progressed since we had no way of knowing each others skills knowledge...

Step 3: This part of the process we spent most time on, I feel for the good reason since each of us had an idea what would be the best way to develop contraption that would keep the egg safe from braking. All of us had time to explain how would his idea look and work while others were able to ask questions and point out possible problems with execution. After all of us have spoken we decided upon one idea that , all of us felt, would work and would be easiest to and fastest to construct.

Step 4: After deciding on which of the alternatives we would follow, we started delegating responsibilities based upon what each of us felt most comfortable with .We all participated in construction of the contraption.

Step 5: With limited time left, we started on putting our idea into reality and things were not as easy to perform as we originally planed.
We had problem with putting the straws in shape (triangle) that would be firm and flexible at the same time and hence more likely to protect the egg. Also we had a problem of placing as many triangle-shaped straws together so they don't interfere with one another and hold their original shape.
We understood that the contraption will not look the same and nowhere as pretty as we originally planned but we decided since there is no time to build anything new we would continue with the initial plan because any contraption is better than no contraption.

As mentioned earlier our egg broke and we could not be happy because of that, however the level of team spirit, involvement of team members, respect for different opinion, democracy in deciding as well as overall enthusiasm, all these made this group project a pleasurable experience and made me feel satisfied with the way we approached the problem.
Only thing that I feel we needed was more time so I guess in the next project maybe we should dedicate difference time periods for different steps, however since problems are not always the same and since different steps might be more important, especially planning I still feel that overall we did a good job.