If you are like me, you probably experienced some system shock when you returned to campus this Fall. Indeed, the abrupt transition from cool jobs, free evenings (sorry bankers) and exotic vacations, to omnipresent construction, long lines at Spangler and vanishing commuter parking, to name a few, was quite disturbing.
But while many of you were busy cave diving in Djibouti or sipping a ’59 Chateau Latour in Bordeaux (I attended a monster truck rally in Quincy), the IT Department, MBA Program Office and Career Services, were hard at work on myHBS. The result is a very welcome addition to the computing resources at the business school.
my.hbs displays a wealth of relevant information on a single web page, acting like a myYahoo! on steroids. It also serves as a launching pad for accessing much more useful information. This new resource is a huge improvement over the RC & EC home pages of last year and, best of all, it’s personalized and customizable. If you haven’t done so yet, it’s worth spending a little time exploring the site and tailoring it to your needs. For example, there is a consolidated search feature in the top right corner of your window. You can look up classcards, the staff directory or do a web search, all from the same box.
The page has three tabs: My Home, Quick Info and Careers. It also has “seasonal” tabs that only appear when relevant. An example was the EC Planning tab, which greatly facilitated the add/drop process this year. The default page, My Home, contains information such as school-wide announcements, today’s events, HBS links, Boston weather, and your own daily course schedule with course announcements. It also has a variety of news categories, from leading providers such as the New York Times and the BBC. Another useful feature is the MBA Distributions section. It shows which cases are waiting for you in your box. No need to go look at the monitors anymore. You can even look-up your locker combo if you’ve forgotten it, or submit case edits right from the site.
The second tab, Quick Info, has links to everything you need to know about academic guidelines, resources, grades, etc. Note that it has three sub-menus directly below the tab: Academics, Life@HBS and HBS Policies. Within these sections, you can get info on anything from graduation requirements, Shad hours, Lost & Found and Crimson Cash.
Finally, the Careers tab is probably the one you will be visiting the most often in the months to come. Career Services, in conjunction with the IT department, has done of great job of upgrading the online job search facilities. Students can access industry research, search and apply for jobs, post resumes and cover letters, develop skills, get pointers on writing good resumes and much more. It’s worth spending a few hours discovering all the resources that you will have at your fingertips, given the grim recruiting environment. You want to maximize your odds of securing that Assistant Brand Manager position at the third largest fertilizer company.
To top it all off, the IT Department is already in the process of making enhancements, based on student feedback, to several sections of myHBS. These include a more customizable Announcements section and the ability to view tomorrow’s courses today.
So hats off to the IT department, the MBA Program Office and Career Services and happy surfing!
