After working as an M&A Lawyer and running a food delivery startup, Olamide Bada (CBS, ‘20) enrolled at Columbia Business School and was immediately hit with navigating the challenges of the first semester. During this interview, Bada shared how she navigated her transition to CBS, managing the uncertainty of COVID-19, and her advice for how admitted MBA students can set themselves up for MBA Success.
MBASchooled: After you decided to attend business school, what was your timeline like leading up to business school? What did you do leading up to coming to school, and when did you arrive on campus?
The summer before school, I applied to and won the McKinsey Emerging Scholars (now Early Access) program, which gave me the opportunity to meet admits at other schools as well as learn more about McKinsey’s work firsthand. With management consulting set as my intended career path, I took some much needed time out to travel to Mykonos, Montenegro, Paris and Barcelona where my now fiancé surprised me with a yacht proposal. I arrived on campus in August 2018 hoping to continue the celebrations and good times!
MBASchooled: What was a surprise you had to navigate either in the transition to business school or early on during your first semester?
The pressure of very long days, intensified by competing priorities. I had worked in the corporate world as an M&A Lawyer early on in my career, so I knew what it was like to work very long hours. I had also run a food delivery start-up in an emerging market, so I knew what it meant to have several things to do at the same time.
However, to be completely honest, neither of these experiences fully prepared me for what my business school schedule would be like in the first semester. You must decide what’s important to you and be comfortable saying no to everything else.
MBASchooled: During your first semester, what was your favorite experience, and why?
Orientation was a cool experience for me. Coming from the British education system, I had seen nothing quite like it. The sheer amount of work that went into making sure we were welcomed and well-cared for by our peer advisors was amazing. That and (to be CBS-specific) experiencing my first CBS Matters were definitely my favourite experiences during the first semester.
MBASchooled: During your first semester, how did you go about managing all of your competing priorities? (academics, recruiting, social?)
I am pretty rigid with my calendar and will hardly remember to do anything that hasn’t been diarized. Making sure I consistently diarized everything from classes, to cluster events, to recruiting events meant that I could plan ahead to know what my days would look like.
Besides that, I made consulting recruiting my top priority in the first semester. I figured that, as it was such a competitive process and as I would have to spend a lot of time preparing, I should be honest with myself, my learning team and my new friends about what that would mean for my availability. I wouldn’t have it any other way though, as I also made great friends within the community of classmates going through the same recruiting process. We became a pillar of support for one another.
MBASchooled: Given the shift to a virtual MBA Experience as a result of COVID-19, what was the last part of your year like?
Pretty sad, quite overwhelming but also an opportunity to reset and take stock of what is truly important. A mantra that is now permanently imprinted in my day-to-day is: health is wealth – during COVID-19, that translates to complying with social distancing rules, no matter how hard that may be. In the post COVID-19 world, it may be prioritising meditation, exercise and proper nutrition over other demands on one’s time. Also: go with the flow – we can make all the plans in the world, but if it’s not meant to happen it won’t. How well we can adapt makes all the difference.
MBASchooled: How did you adjust to the virtual academic experience? What worked for you, and what was challenging?
Borrowed my fiance’s Airpods, downloaded Zoom on my MacBook and negotiated time slots at our shared dining room table for my classes. He is an early-stage investor and is therefore on work calls for most of the day, so it was important for me to flag my need for space and quiet when attending virtual classes.
I’ve been lucky as my final two classes are SQL, which is very interactive with plenty of in-class challenges, as well as working on a project to help formerly incarcerated women gain entrepreneurial skills upon release – both subjects I enjoy and can easily prioritize over binge watching the latest Netflix series.
MBASchooled: Given the virtual MBA environment, what were things you did to maintain relationships with your classmates?
Continue to check-in via iMessage, Instagram, Slack etc. Schedule FaceTime catch-ups and wine nights. Send them photos and videos as reminders of the good times!
At CBS, a few thoughtful classmates ran an initiative called Community is Contagious, where volunteers came together to lighten the mood virtually – be it via a virtual cooking class, workout session or karaoke party. I thought this was an ingenious way to get us together again,
MBASchooled: What advice do you have for how prospective MBA students should prepare for going to business school, especially considering these uncertain times?
Firstly, ask yourself what is important – are you primarily doing your MBA for a specific career outcome, to launch your start-up, to make Dean’s List and/or to make many new friends? This will guide how you spend the time leading up to the MBA.
I can only speak closely to the first, but for consulting and investment banking recruiting, I recommend you research and apply for pre-MBA insight events and scholarships to frontload some of the networking you’ll inevitably do once on-campus recruiting kicks off. For enterprise or off-campus recruiting, I recommend you connect with people in your desired companies and industries and begin forging meaningful relationships ahead of the recruiting rush. This advice will hopefully stand you in even better stead during these uncertain times.
Aside from that, focus on what’s important to you right now – do you want to spend quality time with family during lockdown before moving to a new city for your MBA? Are there opportunities for you to volunteer in your local communities through this difficult time? After working through and actioning the first question, I would spend the rest of the time on this.
Wish you all the best in your respective MBA journeys!
Are you a first-year getting ready for your MBA Experience? Join us for our Webinar to learn how to prepare for business school!