Realizing the Future: Bridge to Business Analysis and Reflection

When I first arrived at Agnes Scott College in August 2015, I knew what my future held. I was going to study International Relations, with a double minor in History and French. I was going to get a 170 on the LSAT and receive my dual J.D./M.A. in International Affairs from my dream school– Georgetown.

That dream abruptly ended when I realized how much I hated the methodology of International Relations, how little I wanted to be a lawyer, and maybe most importantly, how much I despised the thought of spending four years in grad school. But I had this dream ever since my ninth grade Honors Government class– what was I supposed to do now?

My advisor gently reminded me that I was working in a social media job, I was the social media or marketing chair for several organizations on campus, and my mother had her MBA in Marketing, my father, the same advanced degree in International Business. Maybe, she suggested, it was time to stop avoiding the obvious, and enroll in a couple business courses.

I immediately knew I made the right decision, even if I did feel like I was selling out. But how could I know for sure a career in business was right for me?

I had been interested in the Women’s Bridge to Business since before my first year at Agnes Scott– I received a pamphlet shortly after a visit to the campus in my junior year of high school. But as a Sophomore at Agnes Scott, I decided that it would be the final test– a confirmation of whether or not I was sure I would study business.

The good news is, I am now positive that I want an MBA. The even better news is that I want to receive that MBA at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business (or Chicago’s Booth School of Business, like my dad). Opportunity is in Atlanta, and that is abundantly apparent after my three weeks in the Bridge to Business program.

It was hard to choose which functional areas I was most attracted to over the course of the program. I think my favorite was Marketing because I feel as if I have a natural affinity for it, but I was also fascinated by Project Management and International Business. I think this may lead to a future in Brand Management, something I have always found interesting and a natural progression within my future career.

Within these modules, I was able to relate to the content and the skills being offered by professors with a wealth of knowledge. I could imagine myself, in their shoes, after years of experience working and learning, teaching to another young Scottie. I believe I enjoyed these areas because they required creative, critical thinking, and I aspire to have a career where I am creatively challenged and learning every day.

However, even though I enjoyed these areas of the program, it was the modules more tailored to our careers and futures that I found most rewarding. The modules spent with Catherine Neiner provoked me to ask questions about my future that I hadn’t considered. She was frank and honest about the future of working as women, and I appreciated that– often times at Agnes Scott, we live in a bubble where we think the future will tailor itself to us, and that is simply not the case, especially in the business world. It was incredibly refreshing to hear a powerful woman say, “you may be called brazen, bossy, or bitchy. Here’s why you should be proud of that.”

Similarly, I found our session with Gail Evans to be, quite frankly, the most rewarding three hours of my academic career. She encouraged me to think of myself, my personal brand, and my future in ways that I had never before. I was taught why ‘hardworking’ is a bad word, and that if I want to promote myself, I need to tailor my language to my own success. Instead of referring to myself as hardworking, driven, and creative, I will now refer to myself as productive, promising, and passionate. Because, as Ms. Evans said, that is how a CEO refers to herself. I have already engrossed myself in the book she gave to me, and I plan to make my mother read it as well.

While I immensely enjoyed my three weeks in the Bridge to Business program, there were some things that I definitely knew weren’t for me. My father is an accountant, but staring at financial statements, fiddling with Excel, and pulling my hair out over ratios and vertical analyses just wasn’t for me. Still, I gave it my best effort, and I was pleasantly surprised at the rewarding feeling I felt when all the numbers equaled 100.

I also was very frustrated with the Strategic Management Simulation, Minnesota Micromotors, which was disappointing, as I found the Strategic Management module fascinating. I always love to focus on the big picture, and I felt I did well in the ‘strategic plan for Agnes Scott’ activity. However, after I got fired three times, I figured that I can still think big picture and focus on the future of an organization– I’ll just leave the customer service, price management, and research & development to the experts.

I think I was fascinated by Strategic Management because it closely relates to Marketing and Brand Management, two things I see in my future. In marketing and brand management, you must think creatively and anticipate what the customer wants to see, and needs to see, in the future. I think Strategic Management combines all those things, and maybe, is the culmination of many different aspects of a business.

Another module I struggled with was negotiating– kind of. It wasn’t as if I didn’t do well in the activities– I did extremely well. I just felt so unconfident– which is very unlike me. I love to speak publicly, argue, and get my way– negotiating comes naturally to me. However, afterward, when thinking about the future and negotiating my future salary– a topic discussed with Dawn Killenberg– I felt worried.  What if I’m not worth the price I ask for? What if I’m laughed at? What if my job is taken away from me?

All these questions may seem silly, but I called my mother, and she confessed that she has the same fears. She has negotiated dozens of salaries and raises from dozens of employers over her incredibly long and successful career. And yet, she fears what I fear. Is she worth the money? Is she asking for too much? Too little? What will they think of her?

I wonder if men experience these fears as women do. I wonder if, by-product of more and more women entering the workforce and negotiating for themselves, these fears will slowly become less ingrained in our minds. I hope so because I never want to make any less than a man, especially if he is equally or less qualified than me. But before these past few weeks, I hadn’t even considered, nor confronted, these fears that now seem ever present in my mind.

Maybe that is the real reward of the Bridge to Business program– learning valuable life skills that will help me in my future profession, like being able to confront my fears over negotiation, or balance a budget even though the black and white numbers make my vision swim and my brain hurt. I know I will be successful in marketing, or brand management, or social media, or whatever my specialty may be. But I know I will have to confront what I am less excellent at– that’s life, and that’s business.

The Bridge to Business program taught me that, and those lessons are valuable– more valuable than being assured that yes, I’m good at marketing and more valuable than reassuring me that I want an MBA. I knew those things before I enrolled in this program. But to learn to face your fears and try something new, and at the end of the day, still want to dress in a suit and go to work in an organization, trying to change the world or the marketplace, is something unique. And it is definitely unique to the Bridge to Business program.

For extra credit in my BUS-202 class, I wrote a short paper about the communication exchange in a scene from Mean Girls. The paper is short, sweet, and well-written, as well as fun!

Mean Girls and the Breakdown of Communication: an Analysis

In the 2004 film Mean Girls, there is a famous scene in which the Plastics: Regina George, Cady Heron, Karen Smith, and Gretchen Wieners conduct a four-way phone call rife with gossip, name-calling, and faux-friendship of the most famous frenemies in cinema history. The film, written by comedy queen Tina Fey, was created to highlight the complex relationships between teenage girls in America’s school system. The film draws inspiration from the book Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the New Realities of Girl World, a psychological self-help book written by Rosalind Wiseman.

The two-minute scene begins with a conversation between Regina and Cady, gossiping about their friend Gretchen. The film reveals that Gretchen has been listening to Regina gossip about her. Gretchen, leaving Cady listening on the other line, then calls Karen to expose what Regina said about Karen. However, before she can talk to Karen, Regina calls Karen to ask her to go out, even though she told Cady she was going to bed. Gretchen then reveals to Karen that Regina called her a slut, to which Cady responds to the ‘harshness’ of the revelation. Karen, offended by Regina’s comments, tells Regina that she can’t go out with her because she’s sick, leading Regina to respond with the now-famous quote, “Boo, you whore.”

This scene is an example of a dense, decentralized communication network. No single member of the foursome dominates the network, and because they can call members of the network independently of another member of the network, this scene is an example of an All-Connected Network. The density of the network supports this example: there are any number of potential connections between the four, as demonstrated in the scene when they call various members independently of a single, information-knowing member.

Additionally, this scene is an example of informal interpersonal communication through both gossip and rumors. The four girls are not communicating effectively, and there are many individual barriers to communication within this exchange. First, the girls all have differing perceptions of each other. Gretchen and Karen believe that Regina is their friend, while Regina’s actions prove otherwise. Regina also believes that Cady is ‘on her side’ so to speak, and doesn’t know that Cady is acting as a middleman to the rest of the girls. Second, there is a myriad of status differences between the girls. Regina is perceived to be the leader, thus making her word law to Gretchen. However, Cady does not see Regina as the leader and sees herself as outside of the network. This outsiderness allows her to be objective to Regina’s gossip and allows her to pass the information on to others without fear of retribution from Regina. Finally, there are different levels of self-interest within the exchange. Gretchen wants to know if Regina is mad at her, while Karen is interested in pleasing Regina until she learns Regina calls her promiscuous. Cady is attempting to sabotage the Plastics with her other friends, Janis and Damian. All these combined lead to a breakdown of communication between the group. However, no one in the group is interested in overcoming the individual barriers to effective communication.

This scene and the rest of Mean Girls is a fascinating look into the exchanges between teenage girls, and the effects they can have on the individual. While the film is a comedy, it shows the misunderstood behavior and communication of one of the most complex organizations in the world: the teenage girl’s clique. While this film may not be viewed as a ‘serious’ topic, the book it is based on certainly is serious, and I believe much can be revealed about organizational behavior and communication within larger, professional organizations if we continue to analyze the relationships and exchanges between teenage girls.

References

Hitt, M. A., Miller, C. C., & Colella, A. (2011). Organizational Behavior: a Strategic Approach
(4th ed.). Chichester: Wiley.

Michaels, L., Fey, T., Waters, M. S., Lohan, L., McAdams, R., Meadows, T., Poehler, A., …
Paramount Pictures Corporation. (2004). Mean Girls. Hollywood, Calif: Paramount. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/hVN7TJRRskQ

Wiseman, R. (2009). Queen Bees & Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and the New Realities of Girl World (3rd ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press.

As an International Relations/French double major with a minor in Religious Studies, I will spend the next four years at Agnes Scott in a myriad of history courses. Coca-Colonization, a class led by Professor Blaich, is not only preparing me for this future, but is enriching my interests and my skills. This class is helping me further my skills in analysis, discussion, and critiquing. It is both fascinating and powerful– in the discussions we share, the films we watch, and the essays we read.

It is by far the most important class I am taking this first semester of college. I am excited to see the ways in which this class shapes me and forms me for the future.