Midterms have come and gone, leaving only circles under my eyes and mixed grades. I've had more than a couple nights of "there literally isn't enough time from now until then for all I need to do", but here I am. While I'm older (and more tired), studying and homework are familiar territory from college and high school. Employer Information Sessions on the other hand... are new.
While I'm mostly pursuing health care innovation consulting, I've attended EISs for a number of pharma, biotech, and medical device companies. I've managed to find a couple companies with innovation branches (J&J and Aetna, for example), but mostly I'm just trying to learn more about these foreign areas of the health care industry. As a "career switcher" it's important to become saturated in the language of health care, even if it means giving up my evenings to hear about programs I'm not interested in. These innovation programs, on the other hand, are invested in creating new products and services to help patients and care providers alike.
I've also been busy working with the Health Care Club, helping them create a website for their 2013 health care business conference 'Reshaping Healthcare'. Before Wharton I spent 5 years creating the user experience for large corporate websites, so this experience is both familiar and foreign. Familiar because art direction and strategy come naturally to me at this point, foreign because I've never been a client before.
I had a great thanksgiving, a fellow HCM student made dinner for a group of 8 Wharton students (and partners). I'm glad I was able to stay in Philadelphia, partly because I needed to catch up on my home life, but mostly because it was me committing to Philadelphia and the Wharton network. I've been busy mapping out my classes for next semester, and have some mixed feeling about the flexible core. I'm ecstatic about personalized classes, reflecting my interests in IT and innovation. On the other hand, I'll be leaving my 70 person cohort behind. The administration has decided to "break up the band", we're all going solo. I'll run into some, from time to time I'm sure, but cementing these relationships is so vital I can't leave our meetings to chance. I'm determined to spend more time developing relationships with my classmates, they've truly been the best part about coming here. Thanks y'all.