(New Blog design as another Insead blogger from my class has chosen my template + new title to reflect the fact that I am not a pre-fresher anymore)
It has been a week to remember. It was all going perfectly smoothly with the wood fires and quaint cosy cottage until we walked into Insead to sign up for the gym on Monday 4th Jan. As we walked past Camembert (the main desk), T accidentally glanced at the schedule for what is called the ‘Business Foundations Program’ – something Insead asked me to do but I refused for financial reasons (1500 euros to learn probability and frequency distributions – No, I thought). The starter course meant to prepare the less intellectually gifted for the year ahead, it was also a course for the engineers to become acquainted with a balance sheet and for the journalists to learn basic maths.
Over a coffee, barely a few minutes after we noticed the sign, the decision was made to enrol poor little me. Out through the window flew my expectations of having a ‘quiet week settling in’. The first class was going to start in 45 minutes and we swapped car keys and house keys so I could march in for my first session on basic excel. And that was how it all started.
Since then, I have felt like my brain has been kneaded, stretched and pounded with smatterings of financial accounting, a pinch of financial derivatives, and a generous helping of NPVs and discounted cashflows. My body feels like it has been whizzed off on a flying saucer for a 360 degree introduction to my life for the next year.
So far it has been: melodic alarm at 5am, pre-reading ahead of class, treacherous journey on ice and snowy roads through the forest at 8:30, class at 9am, break at 12 for lunch, back to class until 3pm followed by 5 hours of demanding course work (no, not the sort where you spend 3/4 of your time gossiping about Jude Law), back through the dark icy forest at 9pm in my un-snow prepared car and then some light pre-reading for the next day before my head hit the pillow. 5 days of this and today, on a Saturday I finally gave in and missed my first class only because I woke up at 8:20 rather than the usual 5am. Ok maybe I forgot to tell you that last night was a late one as we ended up in Le Shaker (local Insead hangout) and got home at 1am.
And that was not all. I, much like other Insead students, I foolishly believed that my challenging corporate finance career could prepare me for anything including 10 months of hard study. Much to my surprise the week has taken its toll both mentally and physically. The classes assume a basic level of knowledge, pre-preparation and reading and a sharp understanding of what the tutor says in class. There is not a moment to be spent on lingering thoughts such as my home in London, the cat or my next meal. The content of the course was far higher than basic level knowledge. There was no scope for even the most intellectually gifted on the Business Foundations course to take much for granted. And most important, you had to spend some time following up else the next day would seem cloudy with new terms and concepts.
Much though Insead has taken its pound of flesh from me, I am thankfully to T for pushing me to do this. There were good moments. Very interesting case studies, the joys of working in my very unusual group, a great way to break in to the year that lies ahead, an introduction to some of the professors, a feel for the campus and the brilliant subsidised restaurant, a bunch of fantastic friends (if i can call them that so soon), and the sheer exhaustion of having to work so hard followed by sweet sleep.
I cant help feeling that my first two weeks have been designed deliberately so I confront my deepest, darkest fears – trial balances and journal entries, driving in France on the ice in the dark at 1am, living by myself, Probability and financial derivatives, the dark forest around me, roundabouts especially icy roundabouts, emerging from my social shell to make new friends. The life I never prepared for. If this is what my year is about, bring it on I say!
