Preparing to Move: Of Visas & Shipping

Moving countries is a real pain when it comes to trying to figure out what to do with your stuff. And I've got plenty of stuff. I've left a suitcase and bag with a mate in London when I was up in May for the Admits Weekend, but that's hardly made a ding in the amount of stuff I've managed to accumulate over the years.

So I've spent the last month researching shipping options and getting various quotes. The cheapest I could find in NZ was Seven Seas Worldwide Shipping, which allows me to ship 2 large boxes (61x51x41cm) door to door from Auckland to London for NZD$209. There is a landing fee charge of £55, now cheaper in NZD thanks to Brexit. The shipment takes between 83-101 days to arrive according to their site. Probably the best thing is that you can change your delivery address prior to the shipment arriving in the UK - very important if like me, you don't know your permanent London address yet. Given the long shipping time, I should know my new London address long before the boxes arrive.

I figured I'd get organised and aim to get my shipment out by the end of June so that I'd get it on the other end by around end September. I booked the shipping with Seven Seas, got the boxes delivered, sorted out what I could wait till end of September to receive, packed my boxes, started filling in the paperwork..........what?!! I need to include a copy of my student visa?!!

It's been almost 3 weeks now since I sent in my visa documents and I still haven't gotten my passport and visa yet. The UK immigration in NZ is very bad at communicating what happens - you send in the documents and it's silence from them unless you get in touch and ask what's happening. This is probably the most painful part of the visa application process.

The LBS visa office puts together this great document on the Portal discussion each year that tells you specifically how to apply for the visa online and precisely what to fill in the form. The biometric appointment takes 5-10 minutes in NZ just to get fingerprints and a photo taken. Once that's done, you're meant to post a printout of your visa application and documents, a passport sized photo, your passport and a self-addressed return envelope to the UK immigration office. Then wait for them to send you your visa.

In the meantime, my boxes are still packed and waiting, and it looks like it'll be end of October before I get those boxes. :(

P.S. Having a UK mobile number beforehand comes in handy when filling in forms where they want your UK contact details. See my previous post regarding picking mobile service providers if you're in the UK beforehand.

Shockingly It Happened - Post Referendum Discussions

So the last couple of weeks have seen a flurry of discussion in our MBA class Whatsapp group around Brexit, the referendum and currency exchange. Most of us believed the vote would be to remain, so it was quite unexpected to follow the vote counts today and learn that Brexit won the referendum. Naturally the pound has plunged in value, much to the annoyance of some of us who were keen on capitalising on the volatile pound prior to the vote and converted most of our available cash to pounds.

I must say that I'm definitely looking forward to classes and discussions with my fellow classmates if our discussions are anything like those we've been having on Whatsapp around the Brexit!

We've had discussions around the impacts and potential outcomes of the Brexit. Also around what potential negotiations with the EU might look like. Certainly there's much concern over how this will affect us in 2018 when we graduate, and in the shorter term, obtaining those summer internships. The general commentary in the group is that consultancies will be doing well due to the Brexit. After all, businesses will need strategies to cope with the impacts. Guess that would be where most MBA's are going to be headed!

The lawyers in the class assure us that from a legal standpoint though, the Brexit isn't guaranteed yet. There's still the Parliament vote, invoking Article 50, and then final negotiations with the EU. To be honest, although the world and corporates are reacting to the news now, I don't see there being much change in London in the short term. It'll take at least 2 years before anything even happens. In the long term, who knows? The dust would have settled and the markets adjust, and life will carry on BAU. This really good commentary on the Brexit by Alex Edmans, professor at LBS is worth a read.

So my long term plan of moving to work in London post-MBA still remains unchanged. After all, my belief is that if you're determined enough and willing to put in effort, then you'll be able to find a job regardless of market conditions. The LBS brand still remains strong and I'm confident they'll be able to maintain this. Still, the referendum outcome has definitely been a curve ball and we're looking forward to the interesting case studies that Brexit will present.

The silver lining? Our tuition at LBS just got a whole lot cheaper. Time to convert cash!

MBA 2018 Orientation Site From LBS

The MBA journey begins even before you start the course. This is true especially for the one year programs like INSEAD, but is also the case for London Business School. The MBA program team put together a very comprehensive orientation website which was launched in May shortly before the Admits Weekend:

On the site, we have the ability to enrol for some pre-courses, important especially for those with no finance background. In total, there are 4 pre-courses you can take:

1. Introduction to Finance
2. Introduction to Financial Accounting
3. Quantitative Methods
4. Microsoft Excel Fundamentals

As these online courses are run by a third party, there is actually a deadline for signing up to get the course links on time. It doesn't mean though that you can't sign up after the deadline, just means you'll get the links later than everyone else.

Also on the site is the ability to request letters needed for renting accommodation and opening bank accounts. The orientation schedule and program details will also be put on the site at a later stage.

To any future admits, you'll want to keep an eye out for the LBS email that comes round launching the orientation website and make sure you make the pre-course enrollment deadline! It's actually easily missed and I for one just made it.

In any case, I'm pretty impressed with all the work the LBS MBA programme team has done really around providing information on this site. My only comment though is that with Portal, the app, this orientation site and the official MBA 2018 Facebook page, there're really a lot of communications channels to keep up with. Unfortunately, different information can be disseminated through different channels so there's plenty of room for information falling through the cracks. I know admits who have missed things because they've only checked one channel.

LBS Language Requirements & Waiver

London Business School requires you to have 2 languages to graduate from the MBA program. They don't provide much information however on how the language fulfillment criteria works. So it was great to have a chance to find out more during the Admits Weekend. Here's how it works and how you can get a waiver for it if you have a second language already:

• After registration, right at the start of the program you have the opportunity to get the waiver. It's a limited time deal though.
• You can either get a waiver from taking a language course through showing certification that you have working knowledge of a second language, or by sitting for a diagnostic test.
• If you don't pass the diagnostic test or if you don't have a second language then you must take one of the offered second language courses
• The language course will be counted as a core course and there are 2 levels. You have to achieve Level 2 to graduate
• For mandarin, Level 2 corresponds to HSK Level 4.
• You'll have several opportunities throughout the MBA program to take the test to pass the language requirement - there's at least one opportunity each term.
• If you do already have a second language or you've passed the diagnostic test, you have the option of still taking a language course. However, this will be counted as one of the electives you're allowed to take (you can take only 12 max).

Speaking to alumni and current students, you really want to try and get that waiver right at the start. The first year core courses are so intensive that adding another language core course on top will make things pretty tough for you. For total beginners the commitment involved is 2x 3 hour classes a week and for advanced beginners, you'll need to do one 3 hour class a week. That's 3-6 hours that could be used doing something else.

As for taking a third language as an elective, my opinion is....really? Is that wise? You've only got 12 electives max that you can take and LBS has a large menu of really cool electives. You can learn another language after you graduate from somewhere else. You don't need to pay top dollar to attend a top business school to learn another language. But that's just me :)

Picking UK Mobile Phone Service Providers

Based on research and conversations with both current students and friends living in London, if you're looking for a mobile phone service provider and are on a budget, Three or Giff Gaff are the ones for you.

I recommend picking up a prepaid SIM (they call it Pay As You Go in the UK) from Three asap when you visit London (or are up for the Admits Weekend). This is what I did when I was there for a week. Here's why:

• I would be contactable without having to pay overpriced auto-roaming charges
• I'd have a UK number that I can give to friends and family for when I later move to London
• I'd be contactable and be able to contact people without having to pay overpriced auto-roaming charges subsequently when I move to London
• Three charges £0.01 per MB, £0.02 per text and £0.02 per min for calls, which makes it very cheap if you tend to do all your texting and calling through Whatsapp the way I do.

Why Three and not Giff Gaff? Well, Giff Gaff operates by monthly bundles, the lowest being £5. It makes it cheaper than Three overall, but since I wasn't going to be there for a month, why pay for what I wasn't going to use? As is, in that week I barely used £1 from my £10 credit loaded on the SIM.

£10 btw is the lowest value you can load on a Three PAYG SIM. Definitely worth my doing research before hand because they'll try and sell you the SIM with the £10 or £20 monthly bundle at the store so just make sure you let them know exactly what it is you want - a free SIM and to load some credit on it.

My plan after moving to London in terms of mobile providers would be to use up all my credit on the Three SIM, and then simply port my number over and switch to Giff Gaff for their cheaper monthly bundle. Well...that is if I run through credit enough to warrant it. One of the great things about Three if you plan to travel (which I am), is that they don't have roaming charges for a select list of countries. And in case you were wondering, Australia and NZ are on the list! See full list here. Go figure.