Pre defence approaching

On Wednesday I sent my thesis to my supervisors for evaluation. It is now approximately 80 % ready, about 10 - 15 % for the empirical part and 5 - 10 % to finalize the theoretical part. Of course, I got right away a horrible flue. I would say that I'm really devoted to the work I do, I'm never sick before the deadline. Well, I hope I get better now during the Easter holidays so I'd have some voice left to defend the thesis on Wednesday. 

One reason for the cold might be also the fact that I didn't just go home and rest when I felt that I was coming down with flue. Instead I took part in a student event. It was the first for me while studying in Lappeenranta (if you don't count those our own MITIM-events..) 

This was a bar hopping event called Willimiehen Wipellys, where the aim is to collect stamps in your "passport" from different pubs in Lappeenranta. And yeah, I don't even need to say that you get one stamp for each drink... All this should be done wearing the traditional students outfit, the overall. For the LUT business school students, the color of overalls is neon yellow (easy to spot). 

Unfortunately, us MITIMs were not able to get the overalls during the first year, so many decided not to get them either for this year. So, obviously, without an overall, I felt like an outsider. But in despite of that, it was quite fun and relaxing after the past weeks of hard work. Happily few other MITIMs without overalls joined the bar hopping too. 

Yay, now back to doing the presentation for pre-defence and finding a job!! It's almost oveeeeerrr, can't believe it!! 

Writing, Writing, Writing..

I spend every day several hours at the library in LUT, but still I feel like my thesis is not progressing fast enough.. We'll have the next seminar in GSOM in St.Petersburg 10th -11th of March and I'm guessing we should have quite a lot of new things to present to the supervisors and other MITIMs... 


I have been dealing a lot with the post-exchange paperwork and stuff, which is quite surprisingly time-consuming. I try to get everything sorted out during this week. 


Time really flies, next I should start to look for a job... 


Depending on the company & field of business, I'd like to do project management related job in R&D or business development (in processes and/or operations). Of course, CSR related positions are always interesting, although I think CSR can be an approach on the work that I'd do (meaning that I'd consider the impacts of decisions and actions in the stakeholders from the point view CSR even though I'd do something that's not directly related to it). And I'd love to work abroad or at least in an multinational environment...


Let's see what happens :)

Finally L.A.

I mean Learning Agreement, not Los Angeles.. ;)

I had to change quite many of my original courses due to overlapping in my schedule. The overlapping was because I had accidentally taken my courses from the same "module" (which was not explained anywhere in the course catalog - and I wasn´t the only one with the same problem), but fortunately I found good, more interesting courses to take. 

The biggest problem of waiting for the L.A to arrive is the fact that I´m not able to access the course material in HUBwise (kind of like Noppa in LUT). I got some materials from some other students in the classes, but not all...

Finally, yesterday I received the signed final Learning Agreement from LUT (it´s good to be prepared for delays and just take it easy meanwhile) and I took it to the coordinator today. And, dadaaa, the same day, I got the courses to my schedule! Great!

So now my schedule looks like this:

Monday
10.30-12.30 Business Intelligence Methods
13.30-15.30 Business process and operations
15.30-17.30 ICT Strategy & Architecture

Tuesday
17.30-19.30 Environmental economics (I´m loving this course!)

Wednesday
-

Thursday
10.30 - 12.30 ICT Strategy & Architecture
17.30-19.30  French (not for credits, for fun)

Friday
8.30-10.30 Global information management
15.30-17.30 Russian language & culture II

The time I´m not spending at school, I´m working 20 hours/week for CSR Forest project for LUT (http://www.lut.fi/en/business/research/researchprojects/Pages/CSR-Forest.aspx). That´s also related to my Master´s Thesis....

So, looks pretty nice, yeah?

Quite a lot to do, so little time...

I like Calvin, he has it right.

Next Tuesday we have exam on Knowledge Management and we should write a proposal for Master thesis by Monday. For the proposal we should have a clear picture of the topic, form the research questions and choose a Russian instructor for the thesis.  It feels unfair, because for us Finnish students the process should start in LUT during the spring. So, actually we don´t have any idea if LUT even likes our ideas and many of us don´t have a good topic for the thesis. But still, during the most busy time, we have to create the proposal, ppt-show with our voice recorded on it and published in YouTube and talk with a Russian professor and get him/her convinced to work with me...
Whew, well, I guess I just have to go back to work..

Lassi ja Leevi -sarjakuvat (by Bill Wattersson) osuu aina oikeaan... Tiistaina on Knowledge Managementin koe, johon pitäisi alkaa lukemaan. Asiaa ei auta se, että olen menossa viikonlopuksi Suomeen... Muuten opinnot ovat menneet ihan hyvin. CSR (vastuullinen liiketoiminta vapaasti käännettynä) välikokeesta sain arvosanaksi 10 ja Technology Management meni läpi. Arvosanat saamme vasta myöhemmin, joten en vielä tiedä miten kirkkaasti se meni läpi :)  Tenttien lisäksi meidän pitäisi kirjoittaa ehdotelma graduaiheeksi ja valita venäläinen professori ohjaajaksi. Siitä kirjoittelin vähän enemmän englanniksi, sillä meidän pitää pitää blogia aiheesta...