Maureen Keegan (Darden, ’17) is one of our most frequent contributors here at MBASchooled and has shared about her experience at Darden throughout the past year. She was kind enough to yet again sit down and share some reflections and thoughts on her first year at Darden.
MBASchooled: What’s the most important lesson you learned from your first year of business school?
Maureen: I think the most important lesson that I learned was to stay in my own lane. At business school it’s so easy to get swept up in what everyone else is doing and trying to avoid FOMO that you can find yourself doing things that you might not want to, just because you feel like you should. This can manifest itself in many ways, from recruiting in a certain industry or with certain companies that aren’t a good fit, to going out one night when you really just want to stay in. While I’ve certainly given in to the fear of FOMO, I’ve been working hard to figure out what it’s important to me and making sure I prioritize those things, even if sometimes it means saying no to something else.
MBASchooled: What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Maureen:I think the most important lesson that I learned was to stay in my own lane. At business school it’s so easy to get swept up in what everyone else is doing and trying to avoid FOMO that you can find yourself doing things that you might not want to, just because you feel like you should. This can manifest itself in many ways, from recruiting in a certain industry or with certain companies that aren’t a good fit, to going out one night when you really just want to stay in. While I’ve certainly given in to the fear of FOMO, I’ve been working hard to figure out what it’s important to me and making sure I prioritize those things, even if sometimes it means saying no to something else.
MBASchooled: What was the most memorable or exciting experience from your first year at school Darden?
Maureen: It’s really hard to to pick just one thing, but if I have to pick, I’ll go with my section winning Darden Cup this past week. I talked a little bit about Darden Cup in one of my earlier posts and it’s definitely been one of my favorite parts about this year. It’s been something like 10 years since my section won Darden Cup so it’s been a really big bonding experience for all of us. And not just between the 69 of us who are in the section this year, but all of the Section A SYs and our faculty as well. It reminds me just how far we’ve all come this year, from complete strangers into August to lifelong friends now and winning Darden Cup is something we will remember forever.
MBASchooled: If you had to do it over again, what would you do differently?
Maureen: I would spend more time getting to know my professors. All of the Darden faculty have an open-door policy, where there are no office hours and you can stop by their offices any time, but I didn’t take advantage of that until pretty much the end of Q3. I’ve made a point to go talk to my professors this quarter (including professors I had in other quarters) and it’s been great. Some I’ve gone to talk to about specific questions related to class and others I’ve stopped by just to say hi to (and ended up talking for half an hour). All of them have been really invested in how I’m doing and it’s been great to get another perspective on the Darden experience. I’m definitely planning to continue making an effort to spend time with my professors, old and new, during SY.
MBASchooled: What are you most looking forward to out of this summer?
Maureen: I’m really excited for the new experiences I am going to have this summer. I’m going to be living in Chicago, where I’ve never lived before and working for a consulting firm, which is going to be a very different experience from the non-profit that I worked at before Darden. I’m also going to be the only intern from Darden in my office and while I’m a little jealous of my classmates who will be in the NYC and DC offices together, I’m looking forward to getting to know the interns in my class from other schools.
MBASchooled: What’s something you are looking forward to during your second year of business school?
Maureen: I am looking forward to having time to be involved in more things outside of the classroom. The FY at Darden is notoriously challenging and while there are opportunities to get involved in some clubs and activities outside of the classroom, I chose to focus on my classes and recruiting. Even towards the end of FY I’ve gotten more involved in activities, but next year is when they’ll all really take off. I’m most excited about being a Second Year Coach and helping a group of FYs navigate the recruiting process. My SY Coach was a huge part of my Darden FY experience and it’s going to be great to pay that experience forward with my own coachees.