One old fav

It's this time of the year again when some people choose to remember, some choose to forget.. Listening to one of my old favourites Careless Whisper, which is actually four years older than me. Missing Beijing...

happy new (tough) year

The end of one challenging week.

CSA meetings on Monday with committee and also the lady in charge of Internal Communications. Had a relaxing time reading FT in Lanchester Hall Reception. Went to Social Club for some oriental food, always a bit homesick at this particular time of year - Christmas and New Year... Worked with my lovely Team L'aesthetic girls until 2am, designed floor plan for a concept hair salon for men, offering pampering full-service salon experience with makeover and personal styling consultancy. Wanting to do a graphic design course over summer.

Tuesday and Wednesday were again packed with lecture slots and L'Oreal Brandstorm teamwork. Stayed in School of Management till late again... We could literally grab some pillows/duvet and spend the night in a syndicate room so that we didn't have to walk all the way back to Lanchester... Augusto my lovely flatmate is way too kind to help me with Tesco delivery once again. : )

The clock is ticking, girls!!

Finally finished Brandstorm salon experiment pre-case study, sent off before deadline. It was such a steep learning curve. Hugh was really nice - he went through the case with us and offered some great ideas and suggestions! Anyway it's done. Now time to write about the launch campaign of Lady Gaga in 2008, which seems like a long, long time ago. Looking through some of her semi-vintage videos while doing research for my Integrated Marketing Communications individual assignment, Michelle was so carried away by the impeccable creativity and the passion delivered by the music videos...

"Oh oh oh oh oh, oh oooohhh... poker face..." Yep, dancing the night away was what she ended up doing...

Impressed by her exam marks so far this year. I was very fortunate since I joined Cranfield for Masters. However difficult this year may be, I'm sure all the effort will be paid off eventually. IMC deadline, done. Friday 4pm. Finance exam revision starts. But then again, it's Friday night...

Cooked Thai chicken curry, second attempt in baking a chocolate cake following a foolproof recipe...with the help from a master chef from Le Cordon Bleu. Love cooking and cleaning. Should really try to make more time doing things that make me happy and relaxed.




Weekend well-spent in SOM again. There's no heating in the syndicate rooms. Coffee machines saved lives!

Grabbed a Groupon deal today. : ) Happy!! Just did some pre-reading for tomorrow's session on Sales, Key Account Management and B2B Marketing.

Back to finance revision now. Fingers crossed for questions on investment appraisals, balance sheet, cash flow forecast, break-even point, financial ratios and no budgeting or variance control!

Why Cranfield

Recently I have been contacted by a few prospective students who ask the question: why should I apply to Cranfield School of Management for a Masters? So here we go...

Firstly, the School is highly ranked in the major league tables. It is one of an elite group of business schools worldwide to have triple accreditations - EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System), AACSB (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) and AMBA (The Association of MBAs).

As you look through the timetable, you will see the various codes we have for each module, for example, MSP – Marketing Strategy and Planning, MBC – Managing Brands and Customer Equity, IMC – Integrated Marketing Communications etc. Deadlines are highlighted in the bottom row. Students are divided into two streams, Yellow and Purple, so that a smaller class size is ensured. From time to time, we also have Joint Sessions for both streams. I did PPE for my Bachelor, Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Warwick University, and I was so glad that they were convinced and gave me an offer. ^_^ I haven’t done a lot of marketing before, so I found the course a bit challenging when I first started.

For me and my colleagues here, Cranfield is far more practical than theoretical compared with the other leading business schools in the UK. The professors here are great as most of them come from the industry, they’re also distinguished academics with research excellence, which means that they teach us stuff with reference to their industry experiences working with leading companies, which is incredible. This will also prove helpful when we choose our thesis topics/in-company projects. You can always find ways to focus on the particular area in marketing that interests you, in your thesis. We also have written assignments for which we’re allowed to choose our own companies of interests. Perhaps during those assignments, you can research further into other contexts. There is freedom within the set frameworks, basically.

You may be concerned with job prospects beyond Cranfield. There is a powerful network called the CMA (Cranfield Management Association) which is the alumni body of the School of Management. Joining the CMA allows you to search for profiles of all the registered alumni and find out what they ended up doing in what areas, with which companies, etc.

The Careers Development Centre offers brilliant services to students. Even before you come to Cranfield to start your course, you will be invited to attend webinar to work on your professional CV which is included in a Yearbook for the Class of your year. It helps enormously in identifying what I really want to do, what the most impressive work experiences I have had before, and to present my strongest points in the best possible way. Dunnhumby, for example, selected some of us from the Marketing class to be their potential candidates and came to give us talks on the application procedures. I think you have a great advantage of being a Cranfield student, as those who need to know the name of Cranfield (the executives, the HRs), know it. Visiting Professors of Cranfield are experts in their specialised areas, which is again value-adding as we gain some much insight and innovative ideas directly from the industry leaders.

If you want to find out about who are currently on the course, I suggest the following link, which you might have come across already:

http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/p14181/Knowledge/Career-Development-Service/Search-Online-CVs

where you will find a terrible picture of me along with my CV – one of my worst smiles! :P

I remember when I first came to study overseas all the way from China in 2005, I was all alone and found everything here in England incredibly amazing yet challenging. The lovely experience and the bubble life here will fill you in so that you always have something to work on, until a time when you don’t have time to think about anything else… At least for me, this was the case. And the learning curve was so steep and I am confident that I know my stuff much better now, because I have always been working under pressure and meeting deadlines, or preparing for presentations and exams. It was invaluable experience for me, honestly.

Five years on, the learning experience here in the UK is brilliant. Especially with the one year master programme, you get to learn so much within just one intense year packed with classes, discussions, teamwork, more teamwork, presentations and more presentations. Yet you will still find yourself in different kitchen parties every weekend, socializing with your cohort, learning about 20+ different cultures which you otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to learn about. I’m going to stop here and work on L'Oreal Brandstorm pre-case study now... Have team meeting in a bit.

Thanks for your interest in Cranfield, and best of luck with your application! Feel free to get in touch if you have any other questions. I'll probably comment on accommodation next week.

PSW, gone for good?

Here's the first issue of Entropy in PDF, where the article originally appeared in.

Earlier on, the coalition government outlined several immigration policy changes with Tiers 1 and 2 points-based system, imposing annual limits to the number of work permits being issued in order to “get immigration down to sustainable levels”, effective from April 2011.

Overseas students contribute both intellectually and financially to the industry development of this country. Many arrive with talents in the numerical or technological skill sets that are highly sought after by employers in the UK.  Without the purchasing power of students, workers and visitors from emerging economies, the recovery period of the UK economy during the global economic downturn could have been way longer.

“People imagine students to be those who come here for a few years to study at university and then go home”, which is not always the case. Students are attracted to the further education in the UK from all over the world for its world renowned education excellence, length of programmes (often 1-2 years shorter), and the English teaching environment. Overseas students pay premium tuition fees-often 2-3 times of that of a home or EU student. Exposure to the UK market can increase the competitiveness and attractiveness of the workforce when they go back to their home countries.

As more overseas students have the opportunity and capability of obtaining a UK degree, when they return to their home countries without any UK work experience, they have little competitive advantage over peers. If this continues to be the case and if work permit is restricted further, Britain would no longer be an attractive destination for education as the added value of studying in this country is undermined.

Commented Bethan Ovens, the Student Support Officer: “Our experience is that the Home Office is not very good at communicating with universities about announcing these changes and although there have been rumours for some time about the restriction of the Post Study Work visa route, no firm plans have been announced.”

Post Study Work visa can be applied for after students graduate. In its current structure, it is valid for 2 years and can be obtained without a job offer. “The update does not make any reference to post-study work in Tier 1. The addition of new routes through Tier 2, which relate to company sponsored visas, seems to indicate that this will replace post-study work visa.”

Bethan reassures that the University will make every effort to keep students informed of developments as further guidance is released from the Home Office.

A name to share

Guido Mocafico

Summer shoot in Coventry

One lovely shooting day at Jocelyn's house next to Canley roundabout. It was after all the exams were done when we could finally fix a day to do something crazy as a celebration of the end of just about everything at Warwick. Wei Jean was the amazing photographer and Jocelyn's such a talented model, striking bold, symbolic poses naturally, delivering strong emotions through the clicks. The one below has been retouched by Adrien, a random space engineer from Cranfield who also happens to be a brilliant photographer. Love the retouch done. 

Today I have been drowning myself in reflecting my role as an ethical marketer, going through the case once again for Pizza Hut and its sustainability approaches, evaluation and recommendations with possible ways of improvements, which was fun. During my breaks, I was looking at old photo albums and trying to dig out several favourite ones. Here's a quote from Tony Benn (whose talk I've actually been to at a local church in Coventry during my PPE days): "Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure." I could vividly recall when I was trying to do some difficult, or even weird poses when it actually turned out to fit so well with the surroundings, background and lightings. 


Photo memories are priceless to me. All the places I have travelled to with the very people I love(d), all the good old times when there was absolutely nothing to worry about, in a city where I was always taken good care of, and most importantly, the emotions, especially the love that was embedded in the gestures and facial expressions, that remained on the prints, always made me smile and carry on.

Back to work now...
©

One old fav

New Year's Resolutions 2011

- Continue to keep diary everyday (well, almost)
- Keep blogging at least twice a week (will try!)
- Must go to the gym, at least three times a week
- Improve my French, both listening and speaking
- Land on a job offer, by my 23rd birthday
- Visit 15 European countries before my UK Student Visa expires...