The mock interviews are a great experience. They mimic the real interview experience in every way. The interviews become available on eRecruiting (the school’s internal interview scheduler); you apply and receive an invitation. You’re offered a choice of interview times at the MBA Career Center. The actual interview is conducted with an actual employer; typically an alum or HR representative from local companies. My interviews lasted 30 minutes with 15 minutes for feedback. The interviewers are typically very experienced and offer great constructive feedback.

During the interview prep we heard a lot about the S.T.A.R. response framework. When responding to behavioral questions such as “tell me about a time when you…” we were told to first describe the situation, followed by the task, then the action we took, and the result.

The heaviest week of interviewing is behind us now. Most Nielsen Center students, by this point, have interviewed with at least seven individual companies. Companies typically offer second round interviews either by phone or in person. This year Amway, General Mills and dunnhumby are flying second round applicants to their headquarters for face-to-face interviews.  Truthfully, it’s a stressful time. It’s a time rife with good news, bad news, excitement and disappointment.  But it’s reassuring that there are more great internships than there are students. We will all wind up having wonderful summer experiences.

In our first week of class the second year students presented their internship experiences. During the summer of 2011 the students traveled to all corners of the country to take up three-month intern assignments with companies including: General Mills, Johnson and Johnson, Henkel, Procter and Gamble, MeadWestvaco, Colgate-Palmolive and Capital One. The project assignments ranged from global positioning to new product launches and targeting niche consumer markets. It was a great opportunity for us first-year students to gain perspective on the internship recruiting process, which began on October 12^th.  All of the second-year students also host a Lunch ‘n Learn Q&A session during the first part of the fall semester that serves as a more informal discussion about their company experiences.

1st year Nielsen Center students attend 2nd year internship lunch and learns

Additional Lunch ‘n Learn activities occur for students to connect with industry leaders and companies. Thus far we’ve heard from GfK Custom Research, Burke, and Gongos Research, all leading marketing research suppliers. These lunch and learn sessions are hosted by the guest company and cover an array of methodologies and trends utilized by the company.

Company visits are the third component of our industry connection activities to date. In the third week of school we traveled by bus to Kraft Foods’ Headquarter Offices in Northfield, IL. We were accompanied by Nielsen Center Alums Sarah Becker, Class of 2002, and Katie Metzinger, Class of 2010, who both work for Kraft Foods’ Oscar Mayer Division. In Northfield, we received a company overview presentation, toured their facilities, sat through a consumer insights presentation and even feasted on a three-course meal prepared in Kraft’s kitchen lab.

Overall, the Nielsen Center has demonstrated wonderful industry connections. Our students have worked for and visited many of the leading marketing research departments in the country. Other planned trips include the Chicago offices of the McDonald’s Corporation and McKinsey & Company.

After coffee we were shuffled into the Plenary Room to begin our MBA Experience Orientation. From this point forward the experience was on full throttle. The next two weeks were jam packed with networking sessions, team building activities, social outings, career management coaching and introductions to staff and faculty. The highlight for me was the team-building exercises which included blind-folded truck building, trust falls and a silent minesweeper activity. Throughout the week the camaraderie was amazing. Classmates were eager to explore each other’s backgrounds and make personal connections.

By the end of the week everyone was exhausted; as if we had just run a team marathon. Little did we know the race had just begun.

During orientation Joe Ypma, the Graduate Business Association’s (GBA) President, described the first year experience as a marathon, not a sprint. After experiencing two weeks as a first year, I describe the experience as drinking from a fire hydrant. Cherie Leonard, a Nielsen Center 2nd year student, described the first year more artistically. No matter what analogy you draw the experience is intense.

I attended an mock interview today and was asked to “describe a time when you were juggling multiple projects”.

This is a softball question for all first year students. Here is a list of things first year Nielsen Center Students juggled in the first three weeks of school:

• First day of graduate level classes
• Readings
• Integrated Company Analysis group projects
• Employer information sessions
• Student organization welcome meetings
• Second year lunch and learns
• Field trips
• Evening outings

We, first year Nielsen Center students quickly came to two important realizations 1) Our salvation lies in Google Calendar. From orientation alone we had four full pages of important events that included interview dates, group work due dates and information sessions. 2) If second year students survived, so can we. The second years have been wonderful stewards throughout the process offering survival tips, encouragement and career advice.

It’s been a wild ride these first couple weeks and I’m sure the semester will have many more ups and downs.

Although I’m no longer a student in the Nielsen Center (I graduated this past May, 2011)… I thought I could provide a valuable perspective for any prospective students.

The title of this post, as many of you know, is from a Dr. Seuss book. The first time I read it was after it was given to me as a graduation gift this past Spring. And like me, the experience you could (or potentially will) have at the University of Wisconsin MBA, and more specifically the Nielsen Center for Marketing Research will take you places. And when I say this I mean both physically and mentally.

I’ll start with “mentally” because, after all, you are considering going back to school. The curriculum will challenge you at a level that is hard to grasp as a prospective student. I remember being in your shoes as a prospective student. I observed an accounting course during my visitation. It seemed challenging, but manageable. Once I was a student, it was much more than simply accounting. It was balancing the other 6 courses, the internship search, a social life, your non-Wisconsin friends, and for some a family. It’s not a task for the faint of heart! But I assure you it’s one of the most rewarding and gratifying experiences you can have if you’re successful. And if you are admitted, I assure you that the powers that be see your potential to be successful. And once you’re here, you’ll have the experience of a lifetime.

That brings me to the “physical” places you will go. First, the most obvious place is Madison. If you haven’t been here for a visit… you’re missing out. For those of you that have visited, you already have a glimpe into my opinion that it is the best city in the country! Keep in mind, I’m a Michigan boy – born and raised here, and excited to now be back after graduation. But Madison is hands-down the best city I’ve lived in. It is the perfect combination of campus camaraderie, vibrant city, and vacation destination. On top of that, it’s on an isthmus! (For those of you not familiar… it’s the small piece of land between two lakes). You will no doubt go to some great restaurants (like Dotty’s, Brickhouse BBQ, Old Fashioned… and countless more), check out the student Unions (I purchased a lifelong membership, so maybe you’ll even see me there), some awesome bars (like State Street Brats, Vickery’s, The Red Shed… just to name a few), some great sporting events (football, hockey, and basketball games are a good start), and maybe if you’re lucky like me you’ll have 2 (thats right, 1 per year) snow days. There will be opportunities to jump in a frozen lake (for charity) and play golf (to meet potential employers). You’ll go to classes, presentations, club meetings, conferences, case studies, and so many other life changing places… limited only by your own time management and interests. But you’ll also have the opportunity to travel the world. Just speaking for myself, I went with classmates to 3 different countries: South Africa, Germany, and Denmark. During my tenure, other students also went to Brazil, Argentina, China, Hong Kong, Turkey, Vietnam, UAE… and that’s not mentioning several international trips my classmates went on that weren’t for course credits!!

Hopefully it is evident how passionate I am about my experience at the University of Wisconsin’s MBA program. And in particular, the Nielsen Center for Marketing Research. It has prepared me for what I anticipate will be a very rewarding – and even more so – a very fulfilling career at Gongos Research. And I’m confident the Nielsen Center has done the same for my classmates… whether they went supplier or client side. Or to big or small firms.

The readers of this blog are going to have a wide variety of backgrounds, experiences, motivations, and goals. But if you have a desire to be a leader in the marketing research industry, then this is the place for you.

So good luck with any next steps… be it taking the GMAT, applying to UW, or moving to Madison. I wish you the best of luck and great success in the future. I know you will go places… great places!!!

On Wisconsin!

David Shepherd, class of 2011

Different students also presented to our board members about an array of topics: decision making process, our center’s field trip, a competitive analysis project that is being led by one of our first year students and second year’s internship experience.

Board meetings are a great opportunity to interact with the leaders of our industry, successful professionals that are from the supplier and client side. So you can imagine how broad their perspective is.

Thank you all for a great experience and I am looking forward to the Fall’s meeting!

Soledad

I encourage you to get involved in extracurricular activities to pursue your passions and enhance the MBA experience beyond the classroom!  The opportunities are rewarding and fun.

On Wisconsin!

Cherie Leonard

Net Impact - March 2011 Cases & Beers Discussion

There were a few perks that came along with choosing to explore Turkey as part of my UW-Madison MBA experience. First of all, I was traveling with other classmates. This allowed all of us to make connections with other people from other centers we may not have otherwise taken the time to get to know. Second, I had the opportunity to attend several company visits. It was amazing to learn how these companies (some quite familiar to us) operated in a different country. Third, we had a fantastic tour guide that managed to sneak in special visits (an impromptu visit to an olive oil factory), taught us some basic Turkish (tough language), and overall made the trip around the countryside fairly stress-free. I’m not sure I would have seen half the places I did if I had just gone on my own.

The MBA Global Trip is a 2-credit class, so of course there is a deliverable- we collectively produced our own Turkey blog: http://wisconsin2011turkey.wordpress.com. The blog goes into much more detail about all aspects and activities of the trip and includes some great photos. Check it out!

-Heidi

Later that evening several Amway employees joined us out for dinner at The B.O.B. We were all very impressed by the Amway employees’ generosity and enthusiasm. The field trip was a great opportunity to get away from Grainger, bond with other students in the center and learn from Amway employees about what it’s like to work in marketing research for a leading consumer products company.

~Katie

The A.C. Nielsen Center at The B.O.B.

Quantitative Models course builds upon the Introduction to Marketing Research class from the fall semester and focuses on building decision models using survey data and syndicated data available from suppliers such as A.C. Nielsen.

Qualitatively-Based Marketing Insights course introduces various qualitative methods such as in-depth interviewing, ethnography, ZMET, and other techniques.

The best part of both courses in my opinion is applying what we learn through group projects. For Quant, we are assigned a product category and a brand. By building regression models using syndicated data and understanding the market through netnography, we analyze the data to develop marketing insights for our brand.

For Qual, we are conducting a semester-long group project. The project involves selecting a ‘consumption community’ and gathering insights about what drives this community using various techniques we learn in class.

In both situations, I’ve come to appreciate that the best learning happens by doing, understanding challenges, and working to resolve them. Practice leads to a better mastery of research techniques and ability to elicit actionable insights. What better place to practice than at graduate school?