By Varun Tiwari, MBA Class of 2016

The second year of the MBA program, I feel, is more fun than the first year of the program. The start of the year is exciting as we get to reunite with our classmates, whom we did not see during the summer internship. We also get to meet a bunch of new program candidates. The classes in the second year are more focused towards each student’s area of interest so the courses are more interesting.

We just completed our negotiation immersion between the modules five and six. It is a one week (four days) course that provides more insights into negotiation. This course was more of a preview to the elective course “Complex Negotiation” offered in module six. During the course, we had very interesting discussions about several aspects of negotiation. Before coming to Smeal, while working within the procurement function of my company, I had negotiated various business issues with external stakeholders. However during the course I learned several new techniques through which the negotiations could be made more effective. During this short course, we got to undergo several practical exercises on negotiations with our other class members through which we could apply some of the newly acquired knowledge in negotiations.

Courses in the strategic leadership concentration helped me learn more about the finer aspects of organizational behavior which are essential to master in order to be successful as a business leader. The subject matter is also very difficult to learn quickly outside of the business school. I would highly recommend that all the aspiring candidates dive deep into this concentration while in an MBA program.