So here I am in the student lounge at NYU Stern. In an hour I’ll have my last class here—an anticlimax, as I completed my major classes and assignments two weekends ago. Tonight is the last session of a marketing elective I took in the part-time program. By 9 p.m. I will truly be finished with school.
The denouement is rather nice. I had lunch with a classmate today, then met with my marketing professor to talk about my new job, which starts in January: I am the new director of Internet marketing for Clarins, where I’ll be the online evangelist and strategist while I learn about consumer product marketing. It’s a great chance to build upon my career to date and leverage the marketing and strategy work that became my main focus in business school.
As if that weren’t enough, tonight’s class centers around Mountain Dew’s “Do the Dew” campaign, on which my wife has worked extensively. The case study we read is all about her executive creative director, who I have met several times and who is truly a master of his craft. I find it appropriate that my time in schoolâan undertaking conceived and encouraged by my wife—concludes with my learning more about her line of work. After two years of patience and paying the bills, she deserves some extra attention.
I am pleased and proud to report that my MBA has already had a direct and positive impact on me: what I know, how I think, who my friends are, and where life will take me. In many ways I will miss being in school, but I am ready to move forward, and the path that lies ahead is full of promise. Wish me luck.