Editors Note: This business student story essay was selected from BrainTrack's Business Schools Scholarship for fall 2009. At the time of submittal this entrant was studying for an Associate Science of Transfer in Business and Bachelor's in Business at Mt. Hood Community College and Eastern Oregon University, both in Oregon, via online studies.
Wishes Had Known |
Program Likes/Dislikes |
Choosing Business
What do you wish you had known about selecting and entering your business school that would be helpful to others going into business?
I don't know if it was a matter of knowing but more of actually listening. I never really listened to my counselor early on with my associate's degree on what classes I needed to focus on. I also did not take school seriously. In doing so I have about 90 credits of excess courses or courses that did not apply to my degree choice. This has wasted time and money. I was younger then and had the mind set of going to school because it was expected. I am now in my early thirties and have new goals and priorities to realize I should have approached this in a different manner so long ago.
I guess one thing I wish I had known is the difference between the colleges and states. I live in Washington state but used to live in Oregon and attended community college there. I did not realize that when applying to Washington State University that the credits were calculated differently and the difference of terms vs semesters. This led me to look for other business programs that would utilize all my credits and classes.
What have you enjoyed most and least during your business degree program so far?
I have enjoyed the most the business law classes and the managerial accounting classes the most. They were definitely interesting and taught me so much more than I could have imagined. I am also enjoying a business simulation class but it has been challenging since the point of the class is to run a business with the knowledge that you are not going to do well. This has been hard for me since I do not like to do poorly on any task or project I am on. It will definitely will be helpful though when I take the follow up class of understanding what we did in simualation.
I have liked the accounting classes the least. I am fine with doing the math but remembering what is a credit vs debit, shareholders, assets, liabilities was hard. I really did not enjoy creating a ledger for the transaction. It was good to go through the class though as I have a greater understanding and respect for accountants but it also showed me that I would not want to pursue that field of business.
What led you to choose business as a career path?
I currently work at Daimler Trucks North America and have been very successful there. My department happens to be the production planning department. I have had the opportunity to work every different desk within that department. In doing so I began to see how the business worked and was very intrigued and challenged with the business of planning. It was interesting to learn and see how marketing and segments affect the planning.
Another interesting and helpful tool was knowing the change out quantities of a part as well as the warranty and production life of the part. These are only a couple of aspects to business but they have really shown me how they affect my department.
I have always needed to finish my associates degree and could never quite decide on a degree program. After the experience I had at Daimler I knew business was the way to go. I was able to understand the aspects of business and it was challenging and interesting to me. I am always learning, optimizing and analyzing our numbers and scorecard. I feel that I could be a good business analyst for any company. >
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