Meet the MBA Class of 2025: Jessica Confalone, Ivey Business School by: Jeff Schmitt on October 07, 2024 | 329 Views October 7, 2024 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit Jessica Confalone Ivey Business School at Western University “An engineer focused on building relationships, problem solving, bridging creativity with the technical every day.” Hometown: Oakville, ON Fun Fact About Yourself: I have created my own furniture and always have one creative (wood, art, sewing, etc.) project on the go. Graduate School and Major: Undergraduate – Western University, Civil and Structural Engineering, Masters – University of Toronto, Master of Management of Innovation Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Rowan William Davies and Irwin Inc., Project Manager How has the case method enriched your learning? The process of learning through the case-based method has provided me with the opportunity to problem-solve, fail quickly at building a solution, and learn from my peers. During the case method, you learn by doing it on your own (60% of the process), then learn through collaborating with your peers (another 30%), and then cement that learning in class (the last 10%), which is so important. It helps you form the building blocks of independent thinking, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It also demonstrates how you can learn from others in small groups and larger settings, all while giving you the grace to fail quickly and start again with minimum risks. Aside from classmates and cases, what part of the school’s MBA programming led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Ivey was one of the only schools that did not pressure me to choose their program. Instead, they allowed me to see what my potential there would be and showed me what was in store without a rosy-colored lens. They allowed me to live a day in the life of a student (Ivey for a day), meet current students who spoke candidly of the program, and were transparent about the financial expenses upfront. That honesty, openness, attention, and care paid to me before I even applied demonstrated the culture of the school and I knew right after Ivey for day that I really wanted to do it. Most importantly, even on days when I do not feel that way now, I remember how I felt after my Ivey for a day experience and still know this was the right choice. Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: As a project manager at RWDI, I worked on an infrastructure Ontario bidding project there these types of projects usually entailed a multitude of effort and frustrations for little reward. In addition, it happened to be with a new client and set at an abnormally fast speed which we knew would be challenging and irksome. During the project, the client, my company’s engineers, and I worked tirelessly for four months. We spoke at least once a day – and up to three or four times – dealing with design changes, overcoming challenges, and really bonding with one another. At the same time, I was training a new employee and brought him along for the ride. At the end of the project, our bonds had become so strong that we were excited about the meetings, predicting and overcoming hurdles before they arose. We were so seamless that everyone remarked to me that they would do that project again just for the experience. Building those relationships and fostering that culture for a type of project that most people dreaded was one of my biggest accomplishments. Describe your biggest accomplishment as an MBA student so far: While running for a club presidential position (I did not win), I found out that another club that I wanted to run for had a vacancy. In a secondary election, I became the vice president of the Wine and Culinary Club. While I did feel the first loss, I realized that it was a blessing in disguise. Now I could follow two of my other passions, one hosting wine events and the other bringing fun, stress-reducing events into our cohort. One event that stands out is on the morning of our last 24-Hour Report. We hosted a waffle breakfast with excellent coffee and had various fun toppings with whip cream. Everyone came for one or more two servings of waffles and who knows how many cups of coffee. The best part was that we got some of the significant others of classmates to come out and everyone remarked how this made the day much less stressful. Overall, it was something they looked forward to. Hearing that and having an impact on the cohort is important to me and something of which I am enormously proud of. What has been your most memorable experience as an Ivey MBA thus far? The 24-Hour Reports are something that I do not think I will ever be able to forget. Each one will hold a special place in my mind, both the good and the bad. The 24-Hour Reports involve teamwork, debates, critical thinking, and most importantly delegation of work to the entire team. Each time I have done one, I have improved, facing the challenges that forced us all to overcome obstacles while enjoying funny moments along the way. One fun moment was when one of my teams decided to get instant ramen from a convenience store that ended up being too spicey for all of us except the one who took all the extra spice. It is something we still joke about. Another moment, more challenging, included reworking pieces of the report to make it read a more seamless cohesive report lasting late into the night. I do not believe there will be another experience in my lifetime where I will be working on a team so intently, so resolute and so consistently for a full 24 hours ever again. Where is your favorite hang-out in London (Ontario)? Why do you (or your classmates) gravitate there? On Western University’s campus, there is a Graduate Club pub (Grad Club), which serves typical pub food and drinks. At first glance, it is unremarkable. After a particularly brutal 24-Hour Report, a few classmates and I decided that we needed to go somewhere close by to blow off steam. We kept repeating this activity after the next series of reports or exams. With each visit, the group grew a little more in size, eventually including people from both sections. Somewhere along the way, this “unremarkable pub” became a routine that we openly would joke before an exam. We’d say, “Grad Club after?” – to which the only natural response was, “Of course, we can’t break tradition.” It is a place with cheap, good beer and even better pub food. More than that, it is an atmosphere where we can truly exhale, forgetting the stress of the day. I believe that these moments at Grad Club will give us all memories to look back upon very fondly. What do you hope to do after graduation (at this point)? At this point, it would be SLEEP! Just kidding, I have lofty ambitions for myself. In the short term, I hope to land a job as a consultant, whether that be strategy consulting, niche consultant, or specialized internal consulting within a larger organization. I am drawn to consulting based on my professional history. In many of my roles, I experienced components of consulting where I investigated, determined problems, and created solutions that were implemented. In the long term, I hope that I can learn valuable skills from the role and create a network for myself so that one day have a business of my own. Pre-retirement, I hope to own my own change management consulting organization, focusing on improving workplace culture during periods of momentous change. In retirement, I hope to have a little more creative hobby in wood working either making furniture or creating home goods. DON’T MISS: MEET IVEY’S MBA CLASS OF 2025