As a platoon commander in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years, leadership was a big part of Jonathan Um’s day-to-day job. Heading his platoon both in the U.S. and in Iraq, he analyzed intelligence reports, acted on limited information, and worked with parties having different agendas. During that time, he became increasingly interested in gaining a more formal understanding of the management process and challenges of leadership. So when his military service ended in 2009, pursuing an MBA was the next logical step in his career path.
“UCLA Anderson was a great fit not only because my wife and I wanted to stay in southern California, but because it has such a strong focus on management and leadership principles,” he says. “I already had a law degree, but being a lawyer is very different from being an executive and I knew when I finished my military service that I wanted to go into management. The lessons I learned in the military have turned out to be very applicable to the MBA program where we work with data and facts to support business cases and projects. I’ve found a lot of commonalities between what I did in Iraq and in the military in general and business.”
Um, a native of New York, adds that he’s found UCLA to have a very military-friendly campus. “There are quite a few veterans in the MBA program and one student is actually still on active duty in the U.S. Airforce. The administration really supports veterans with things like the Yellow Ribbon Program and a special boot camp for veteran entrepreneurs in the summer. Plus, there’s a pretty big veteran military community in southern California so we have a big network.”
As for the transition from military life to school, Um says that the rigor of the first year was very challenging. “I was surprised because there is a conception about business school that it’s all about networking and transitioning into your next career. It is about those things, but UCLA Anderson gives you much more. We learned so many concrete tools through the curriculum that even after the first year, I felt like I was thinking differently and approaching problems differently.”
He notes that a highlight of his second year has been working on an independent study project with Prof. Jeffrey Dubin for the Mayor’s Office of Los Angeles. “We studied the market for electric vehicles in LA, conducting a survey, collecting data, and presenting our results to the client. It’s been a great learning experience using the actual tools we learned from the curriculum, building models, and applying techniques for real-life business issues.”
Um, who plans to work for McKinsey as a consultant after graduation, credits his UCLA Anderson education with opening the door to the business world. “Without UCLA Anderson, I wouldn’t have built this network or had these learning and business opportunities. I’ve really boosted my career here – there was no better place I could have gone to start this next phase of my career,” he says.
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