UW CBPM Blog

Great Success! 2nd Years Rocking the Job Market!

cbpmbrandblogger — Mon, 02 May 2011 18:18:06 +0000

It is with great pleasure that I announce, every 2^nd year Brand Center student is either reviewing or has already accepted job offers upon graduation. This means that our pool of alumni is growing by one whole class and that the Brand Center placement streak continues! I would like to congratulate all of the 2^nd year students for their hard work and success in the job search! I will miss you all and wish you the very best in your future careers (also don’t forget the little guys next year)!

Summer is around the corner and so are Internships!

cbpmbrandblogger — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:11:01 +0000

We only have a few weeks left in the semester and we are nearing what for most of us is the longest job interview we will ever have… Internships. I am very proud to say I will be working at Intuit this summer. The Brand Center is spanning the country for internships, spread between the west and east coasts. We are nearly finished with the process and my fellow Brandies are going to some great companies.

Brand Center Talent

cbpmbrandblogger — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 03:27:49 +0000

As promised… here is a quick video recap I put together of the Brand Center talent from the On Wisconsin Weekend. It was an awesome show and it was great to meet all the new prospects! Enjoy…

We had a Ball during the On Wisconsin Weekend

cbpmbrandblogger — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:37:26 +0000

To cap off the annual On Wisconsin weekend, the GBA (Graduate Business Association) hosted a formal ball. This was my first time attending the event and it lived up to the hype. It was a great excuse to dress up and get jiggy. My fiancée came up for the ball and most couples brought out their significants as well. It was fun seeing everybody outside of Grainger Hall having a good time. Best of all, Bucky made an appearance and posed for some photos!!!

Click to view slideshow.

On Wisconsin Weekend

cbpmbrandblogger — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:02:50 +0000

Tomorrow starts the MBA On Wisconsin Weekend!!! If you are an admitted Brand Center student I am really looking forward to meeting you (even if you aren’t, I am still excited). This is a great chance to see what Wisconsin has to offer. Don’t miss the Artful Business Collective’s Art Showcase as you will get to see some brand center hip-hop dancing and solo-guitar playing. We rock, and if I can get some video from the event I will post it up later this week.

So, if you are here for the weekend come up to the brand center and say hi! Also grab some candy… Karen is in charge of the candy bowl this week and she is rocking the chocolate!

China Recap Video

cbpmbrandblogger — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:06:06 +0000

Last friday the CBPM had its annual spring board meeting. At this meeting our board members come by and learn about the previous semester, and set the agenda for the next semester. It is a great event where we get to meet and learn from some of the smartest marketing minds out in the real world. In fact, many of us will be working in some capacity for the board members (several levels below of course). It is a special treat to be able to forge relationships with the senior leadership of our future companies.

As part of the board meeting Emily Spaulding and Brett Hoerz gave a terrific recap of the CBPM trip to China. As mentioned in an earlier post, the trip was absolutely amazing. With the support of our board, Emily and Brett were able to put on the best trip yet! I was lucky enough to attend and put together a quick video recap of our visit to China.

This was my first time making a video like this so cut me some slack already… geesh!

If you are going to be here next fall, make the international trip a priority. I haven’t met anybody who has regretted the experience, it blew away all of our expectations. Not to mention that this trip is completely student planned and organized! I am already looking forward to the next one…

Emily "If your not on the bus we are leaving you in China" Spaulding

Brett "The Chinese Acrobat" Hoerz

Long distance… not as bad as you think? (Part 3)

cbpmbrandblogger — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:22:49 +0000

(Continued from the previous post on LDR)

You can make it work! Going the LDR route is a very difficult decision to make. In the brand center there are quite a few of us committed in a LDR (of ~50 CBPM students, ~10 are in LDR). If you choose to come to Madison without your significant other you will have a great support group to commiserate, and understanding teammates when you “have” to leave to visit your loved ones.

Make the right decision for you! Don’t let anybody else make the decision for you. I am not advocating travelling this road, my only intent is to show that it works for me in my particular situation. This should be a “team” decision and think about the pros and cons carefully. There isn’t much that strains a relationship more than going long distance, if you are willing to work at your relationship you can make it work!

The Happy Couple!!

Long distance… not as bad as you think? (Part 2)

cbpmbrandblogger — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:26:43 +0000

(Continued from the previous post on LDR)

Living apart is tough, there is no other way to describe our new reality. After spending years sharing our lives in the same city, I now realize how much I took for granted about our time together. Cooking dinner together, walking our dog on the beach, watching The Office on Thursday nights are just a few of the things I miss.

How do we make it work? Well, Google video has become my new best friend, being able to see each other while talking to each other is significant. I commute every weekend to Chicago and she drives out to Madison as many weekends as feasible. We email each other a lot and talk on the phone regularly. Basically, we work at maintaining (improving?) communication and do it everyday. Nothing, even finance midterms, is more important than communicating with Linds. At least for us, that is the standard for what it takes to make this work.

Benefits? I have focused a lot about the negatives of LDRs but there are actually a few positives as well. For instance, every time Linds and I see each other it is a celebration and it is something to look forward to after a rough week of classes. Also, I don’t feel guilty for staying up late in Grainger studying, where if we lived in Madison together I’d feel a lot of pressure to come home. Finally, I think we have gotten to know each other better. When you have to talk on the phone regularly, to make it interesting, you have to talk about new and interesting topics. I have received some deep insights into what is important to her and vice-versa.

My roommate taking a video of me video chatting with Linds from Guangzhou

(To be concluded later this week)

Long distance… not as bad as you think? (Part 1)

cbpmbrandblogger — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:04:22 +0000

Piggybacking off of Drew’s awesome post earlier this week, let’s talk about having a long distance relationship while at Wisconsin…

LDRs are doable but not easy while a student. How do I know? Well, I am currently in a very committed long distance relationship with my fiancée Lindsey (We are getting married this July!).

Linds and I have been together for 8 years and when I was admitted to the Brand Center, we had to make a few very difficult decision. She is a very talented engineer and has a great career with her engineering firm. Unfortunately, her company doesn’t have an office in Madison. I didn’t want to make her choose between her career and my education, so when we decided (and it was a joint decision) to come to Madison, she pursued an office transfer to the closest city to Madison (Chicago).

Although not ideal, looking back, neither of us would have done anything differently. She is able to continue to pursue her career ambitions and I am able to get the best brand management MBA possible. I don’t want to sugar coat the decision process though, it was very difficult and involved a lot of sleepless nights. At the time of the decision neither of us realized how difficult it is to actually live apart.

Part 2 – Later this week

Guest Blogger – Drew Vernon!!!

cbpmbrandblogger — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:43:56 +0000

In an effort to get you different perspectives, I asked my friend Drew to write about his experience choosing an MBA program with a family. Drew is an amazing guy and has a very unique view of Madison and the CBPM. So, without further ado… Drew Vernon!

Drew Vernon

Like most people considering different MBA programs, I struggled with decision of where to go. On one hand, the thought of staying in-state (Utah) was attractive because it meant that I could stay close to friends and family. On the other hand, I wanted to go to a school that wasn’t just good, but top-notch in the field that I wanted to pursue. Having been passionate about brand management for several years, Wisconsin stood out to me early on as the clear leader in that regard. But was it worth uprooting my life and moving across the country to go there?

Added to the mix was the fact that I would be coming with my wife and one year old daughter. That being the case, I wanted to make sure that wherever I chose would be a good fit not only for me, but for my family as well.

When I visited the campus in Madison, I began to get a sense of the atmosphere. I found the city itself to be a good mix of urban and suburban—not too crowded, but not too “backwoodsy” either. Upon meeting faculty and students, I began to experience the close-knit environment of the program. I also learned about some of the events and clubs designed to build camaraderie among Brand students as well as students from other specializations within the MBA. Wisconsin even had a “Joint Venture Club”, created for the single goal of building a community for spouses and significant others of MBA students.

Highly satisfied with my experience, I packed up my car and drove the 1,471 miles from Salt Lake City to Madison. Since that time, I’ve been amazed how many friends my wife and I have made here. In my mind, I got the best of both worlds—an unmatched program in brand and product management, along with a community and atmosphere suitable for me and my family.