EMBA Survival

survival tip - prepare for financial accounting in advance

If you've never taken accounting, if you have the opportunity to read up on it in advance before you start your MBA, it will be time well spent.  I sure wish I had.  I studied Computer Science and Math in my undergraduate, and I've owned a few small businesses.  As such, I underestimated the learning curve.  It's not "rocket-surgery", as our O.B. prof says, but I feel a little behind.  Fortunately, my professor, Dr. Nelson, has optional Saturday review sessions.  She's great.  One of my teammates, Bob, went through the accounting portion of The MBA Survival Kit, and said it really helped him.  Gosh, I wish someone had told me to do that before I started the program.

financial accounting by candle light

Wednesday night was Chapter 4 of Financial Accounting at another excellent place to study, The Candlelight Cafe.  It's odd, reading well into a textbook prior to the first day of class.  Welcome to graduate school, I guess.  If you have a chance to brush up on accounting prior to entering an MBA program, I highly recommend it.  Accounting isn't all that hard, it's just weird.  You wouldn't think that arithmetic could be strange, but accountants seem to make it that way.  I'm sure I'll get used to it.  I've managed to stay away from it long enough; during my entrepreneurial stints, we  hired someone to take care of these sorts of details.  That's great if you can get away with it.