The MBA Student Voice

Career Nightz

Last week, I attended TWO career night events in two days, which was so awesome that it warrants a ‘z’ in my title.  So what’s so special about a career night compared to, say, any of the corporate presentations we attend weekly during this Anderson MBA?  First of all, the food is generally fancier, and there is alcohol.  More importantly, several companies are visiting at the same time, and we get to meet representatives who are generally more “representative” of a position we might end up holding right after graduation.  For instance, while I enjoyed chatting with Amgen’s Treasurer (!!) after their corporate presentation, it wasn’t exactly relevant to ask her to tell me about her job.

So the first event was the corporate finance career night, where two healthcare companies were represented among others such as Mattel.  The way it works is that there are as many tables as there are companies, and we spend 20 minutes at three tables of our choosing speaking with representatives.  I was very lucky at my first table, hosted by McKesson, since I was almost the only one there.  As a result, I got to speak for 20 minutes uninterrupted with someone currently in their 2-year old finance rotational program.  I then spent the last 40 minutes at the Amgen table since their representative had experience doing finance in the R&D department – exactly the kind of stuff that I’d like to do.

The next day, I attended the healthcare career night, where I also sat at the Amgen table, but this time to talk about their marketing rotational program.  I feel that I now know enough about Amgen to have a chance at being invited to an interview.  I also spoke to a consultant from ZS Associates, a marketing consulting firm specializing in healthcare, and to a global product manager from Abbott Vascular.  I think I hit it off pretty well with Abbott since two days later she was gracious enough to tell me I had been selected to attend their day on the job event in San Francisco.  I must say that all representatives were very nice and helpful, and I think it is definitely easier to make a connection there than at a corporate presentation because you have a little more face time.

–Zimon

The MBA Advantage

Every week, Anderson welcomes several prospective students seeking to learn more about the MBA program.  During their visit, prospectives have the option to attend a lecture in one of the sections.  Last week, I was discussing with a prospective who wants to transition into the healthcare business, and I was asked the sempiternal question: should I do this MBA or what?  While I used to agonize over this question, I can answer it pretty simply now that I am two months into the program.  If you currently hold a good job and can transition on your own, forgo the MBA and save yourself some time and money.  However, here are the factors that will catalyze my career change and that may apply to you as well.

First, I have numerous venues to reach top employers.  I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: don’t engulf your precious savings into an MBA unless you are accepted at a top school, such as UCLA, because top employers recruit at top schools only.  As an MBA student, not only do you get to meet in person with company representatives on campus during corporate presentations, but you also have the opportunity to visit their offices during Day on the Job events, eat with them at Dinner for Eight events, and interview on campus.  If a company does not actively recruit on campus, you have access to the alumni database to determine if former students work there and tactfully ask for some guidance.  Moreover, many current students can help you connect with companies they used to work for.

The goal is to use these resources to obtain a summer internship with your favorite employer and secure a full-time position one year later.  Since these internship positions are typically only open to MBA students, I have a significant advantage over non-MBA would-be career-switchers.  What I did not anticipate before attending Anderson was the importance of what I’ll call “MBA grooming” to penetrate super-competitive fields such as consulting and finance.  These firms have a precise idea about what they are looking for in a candidate in terms of knowledge, but also behavior.  The career center and the many student associations help us train for these competitive positions and act in ways that increase our chances of being recruited.  Again, I feel that it would be very difficult for a non-MBA to switch to a super-competitive field without this kind of guidance.

Finally, I’ll add that, for people with minimal business experience, doing an MBA is an even better deal.  I have learned tremendously during the past weeks, and I am impressed to see how all courses – Economics, Accounting, Statistics, Marketing, and Finance – are interrelated.

–Simon

The Ander-flu Strikes Again!

It's going around again. 

The Ander-flu, the nasty virus that isn't really the flu but still makes us Andersonians sick, is making a second pass around campus and decided to stick on me.  For a change, I've decided to fight back early: I took the day off from school (ok, so there's no classes because of Veterans Day, but I'm still taking credit), doused myself in Theraflu and Gatorade already.  And I slept very soundly for 10 hours.  

Poor Mrs. V. was up half the night, however.  Funny how that works. 

* * * * *

As I mentioned in my last post, entertainment industry titan David Geffen came to speak to us here on campus last week.  It was a massive opportunity for us to hear from someone so accomplished in music, film, television, and theatre.  The Dean of the Anderson school moderated the session.  

What I found most impressive was that Mr. Geffen took opportunities as they came, rather than having a clear goal in mind.  He started in the mail room of a talent agency, getting that job only because he lied on his resume about having graduated from UCLA.  (The Dean was quick to point out that (a) it was never too late to do his degree, and (b) that lying about graduating was not a path that she would advocate.)  He got into theatre because a friend of his recommended an opportunity.  

He donated $200 million to the UCLA Medical Center because he was tired of going to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for his constant back problems.  (You know, for $200 million, I think the Dean can let some or even all of the credits slide and just give him the degree.  Although if he was in my section, I would definitely vote for him for social chair.)  

Most interesting for me, though, was his response to the question I got the opportunity to ask him: what is one thing that you would change in the entertainment industry today?  His response: "I wish there was no digital."  

That really surprised me.  I appreciate that digital content has been and will continue to be a massive driver for change in the entertainment industry, but I would have thought that Mr. Geffen would be in the camp of promoting the opportunities that come with it.  To be fair, I had the last question of the session before the Dean took back the reigns and asked more of her own questions, so maybe he didn't get a chance to elaborate.  But I definitely didn't expect that answer. 

But then that's the point with these events -- we get the first-hand experience and insights of some of the most respected captains of industry, across many different sectors, and in my experience, these insights have been genuine and unfiltered.  It's these insights that are such a big part of the MBA experience, especially at Anderson.  

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If you ever surf onto this board and don't see any updates from me, you should definitely check out what my fellow blogeteers are up to.  I thought my buddy Simon Jaud's post on video games and brand management was insightful (especially as, for a change, he didn't mention DaVita!).  

My interest in video games is on the brand management of sports titles.  John Madden may have retired from broadcasting, but his video game sponsor, Electronic Arts, still hosts "Sundays with John" where EA clients can watch football with Madden in his office, which EA has kitted out with multiple HD LCD big screens.  Tony Hawk became legendary after his video games -- now an Activision property -- took off outside of X-games enthusiasts.  I found the Activision presentation equally as exciting as Simon did for that reason. 

Simon failed to mention a crucial detail though: he mentioned that at their corporate presentation on campus, Activision gave us free video games, including their massive hit "Band Hero".  But Simon didn't tell you about the raffle: they held a raffle whereby a few lucky winners won various prizes.  The big prize was a free Band Hero set.  And, for the first time that I can remember, my ticket was drawn!  So I got to walk away from the presentation with such a big video game hit.  It was very thrilling and exciting.  I can't wait to crack it open out of the box!  

* * * * *

Capitals update: 10-3-4.  Am very happy with the win over Florida on Saturday especially because the goals we scored were the grinding, banging in front of the net type goals that we will need in the playoffs.  And to score seven goals with Ovechkin hurt and Semin a non-factor is a HUGE plus.  Check out the highlights here!

Till next time! 

-- Sreesha

Video Games!!!

Ok.  Full disclosure: I am a video game addict.  So much so that I have never dared to play World of Warcraft because I know it would fully engulf my life.  I suppose this makes me a lucid addict.  Regardless, I haven’t played anything since I started my MBA at UCLA Anderson because I have just been way too busy.  I’ll dare say I am even too busy for these painful withdrawal symptoms!  Ironically, I discovered that Anderson is relatively well connected to the world of video gaming.  Thus, I figured that, since I am such a fan, I owe it to myself to at least explore the possibility of transitioning into that sector.

I am just out of a presentation by Jeremy Miller, a video game consultant… yes, there is such a thing.  According to Mr. Miller, the video game industry is relatively resistant-proof to recessions, although the hardware market seems to have already lost some steam.  Video game publishers are likely to keep consolidating, but from my perspective they are still recruiting.  Last week, I attended a corporate presentation from Activision, which announced that it hired all four of its marketing summer interns this year full-time.  I will grant you that four is by no mean a large number, but then I never said getting a job in the video game industry was easy.  By the way, both Mr. Miller and Activision gave us free games – including a "Band Hero" set – just for attending their presentations.  How cool is that?

Here are a few practical facts about the industry I have gathered over the past few weeks.  So far, I have seen more internship and job opportunities in brand management than in any other function.  Video gaming is a very popular sector, and as such salaries can be 10-15% lower than in other industries.  I was also told not to go into it just because I like video games – although it is important – but also because I have a special talent or interest in marketing, finance, etc.  Although one could argue that this last piece advice applies to pretty much any line of work.  I have spoken to a few video game brand managers, and it looks like fun, hard work, so I will definitely give it a shot.

–Simon

Of Beer, Human Food, and Zombie Fodder

One of the first courses you’ll take during Anderson’s MBA program is a statistics class during which, O joy, you’ll learn all the intricacies of confidence intervals.  While this topic is more of a conversation killer than anything else, it does have pretty useful applications in real-life.  For example, imagine that you want to market a new product, but you are unsure whether it will be well-received by consumers.  How many people should you poll until you can be confident that their opinion about your product is representative of, say, the country as a whole?  What we learned in class is that solutions to such problems lie in the Student’s distribution, developed by a statistics enthusiast who worked for the Guiness brewery, which of course prompted a "beer: is there anything it can’t do?"

On a completely unrelated topic, I was fortunate enough to participate in a Dinner for Eight event hosted by McKesson last Thursday.  Eight students, mostly first-years, had the privilege of being wined and dined by McKesson and, more importantly, asking questions about the company straight to recruiters.  McKesson is an enormous healthcare company that specializes, well, in many things actually, such as pharmaceutical distribution and IT solutions for hospital administration.  I cannot overemphasize how helpful it is to talk to a recruiter for more than five minutes at the end of a corporate presentation.  It is obviously great for networking, but even more invaluable is the insider perspective and the better understanding of the company that I gained.

Speaking of dinner, I was also served at a Dinner for One at Universal Studios last Saturday (see picture below).  Every Halloween, Universal Studios throws a horror night, during which the park is taken over by a multitude of ghoulish monsters.  Simply put, the goal is to have a good scare, and I must say Universal did a very good job.  Of course, many theme parks do the same thing, but what’s great about this one is that many of its monsters are based on its movies, such as Halloween, Child’s Play, and Saw – although shame on Universal for daring to come up with a fifth sequel to Saw!  If you’ve never tried this kind of event before, consider going next year.

According to this zombie, I don’t taste that great, so he let me go after a few munches.  That’ll teach me for not obeying signs…

–Simon

Am I A Fool?

Please hear me out before answering…  In my first post, I explained that my main motivation for attending Anderson’s MBA program is corporate finance in healthcare.  While I am still interested in corporate finance, I must say that attending business school has been a real eye-opening experience so far.  The reason is very simple: mostly everything I am studying is new to me.  For example, one of my epiphanies occurred during Accounting, when I finally made the connection between the last line on the income statement and the (until-then) mysterious “bottom line” expression I’ve heard so many times before.  I also enjoy the theoretical aspects of Economics, although I question how feasible it is to collect data to test these theories.  But my greatest surprise so far has been Marketing.

Like most people, my marketing experience until now has been limited to ads, so I thought that marketing was just another word for advertising.  I now realize that there is a significant strategic component behind marketing, and I’ve discovered that functions like brand or product management for a biotech company are also an excellent way to leverage my scientific background.  How?  The obvious example is sales: you must understand your product in order to sell it, and I have an edge in that area because understanding the science behind the product will come easily to me.  The less obvious example has to do with interacting with the research and development team; it helps to understand the language of scientists and engineers, and to already think the way they think.

Last week, Abbott came to Anderson to talk about their marketing MBA summer internship program, and it was an excellent presentation.  Abbott is a large, global healthcare company with pharmaceutical, nutritional, and medical products.  Now that I understand accounting a little better, it is very impressive to see how its sales and operating income have been increasing since 2004 to reach $30 billion and $6 billion respectively in 2008.  According to Abbott, its marketing interns are directly linked to a domestic or international business unit. Interns work on projects that impact the business, and provide them with a broad perspective of the healthcare industry.  And so I’m left considering marketing as well as corporate finance, which really doesn’t help since I am widening my options.  But then, only fools never change their minds, right?

–Simon

Marginal Competitive Advantage

One thing Anderson MBA students do is join an Anderson Career Team (ACT), a small group of 10-12 first years.  Led by a second year who guides us through our internship search, these teams revolve around either an industry or a function.  For example, while I considered joining the corporate finance ACT, I finally went for the healthcare one.  I find ACT meetings useful because they allow me to meet people with healthcare experience and share the internship-search workload with others.  We also discuss related topics, such as the need to send a thank you note to an interviewer after an interview.  The consensus seems to be that, while nobody likes to do it, you should do it anyway.  This of course brings me to our topic – marginal competitive advantage.

The quest for a marginal competitive advantage is akin to installing battery operated sound effects and twinkling stars in the background of your dinosaur shoebox diorama in the 2nd grade.  The idea is that, when facing tremendous competition, the little things will give you an edge.  Was it always so?  Well, I know an engineer who, laid off after 25 years of loyal service, must write cover letters for the first time in his life when applying for jobs.  Unfortunately for him, someone had an idea to differentiate himself sometime between now and two decades ago, and now we all have to write cover letters and thank-you notes.  In some way, we are all held hostage by the next guy who will raise the bar by coming up with a new marketing stunt to make an impression.  This raises the question: “What hoops will we have to jump through to get a job twenty years from now?”

In 2029, we will have to include a box of chocolates with each resume we send.  In order to better connect with the interviewer, our cover letters will end with “Big Love” instead of “Best Regards”.  Actually, cover letters and resumes won’t be electronic anymore because, let’s face it, e-mails are so 2009 and who has time to read the tens of thousands they receive anyway?  Instead, job applicants will hire people to intercept interviewers on their way to work, sing their resume, and maybe even top it off with a nice back rub.  We will also notice the emergence of a new trend: candidates bringing a bottle of wine or flowers to the interview.  Finally, we will prepare engraved gold thank-you placards written in haiku format, and make sure to send one to interviewers AND their immediate family.  So, you see, it’s good to live in 2009!

–Simon

The DaVita Way

At this point, astute readers might suspect that I am on DaVita’s payroll since this is my THIRD post about this company.  Let me assure you that this Anderson MBA student is every bit as penniless as he was last week.  But since I am just back from a “day on the job” event at DaVita’s corporate headquarters where I was well-fed, which is the primary need of any graduate student, DaVita shall be today’s topic – yet again!  Note that students from USC – our archrival – also participated in the event, but no brawl ensued…

So a group of about 30 students showed up midmorning at Casa DaVita, the corporate headquarters, located in El Segundo, CA.  There, VPs explained opportunities at DaVita through their leadership development program and told DaVita’s remarkable recovery story.  We toured the headquarters and, since DaVita is a dialysis services provider, we also visited a dialysis clinic.  Overall, it was a very interesting and enlightening day, and I finally found the best way to articulate why this company is so different: DaVita strives to humanize work and the work place.  Let me explain how it became apparent.

On the inside, the Casa is a relatively large, airy building.  Since HQ employees rarely meet patients, enormous tapestries featuring pictures of actual patients hang from the high ceiling to remind employees of the purpose of their work.  Actually, there are no employees at DaVita’s, only teammates, and each division has been renamed to sound more fun.  For example, the legal division is called the Justice League.  Doing so makes sense since “fun” is one of DaVita’s core values.  Moreover, many walls at the Casa are ornamented with murals that were designed by teammates at clinics to represent the company culture.  You would be amazed to see the amount of work and the level of artistry that some of them represent.  DaVita is also very involved in the community, here and abroad, and I encourage you to read their community care book if you care about corporate responsibility.

I’ll now do something I never do in any of my posts: write a fourth paragraph!  If you are “too cool for school” and think DaVita sounds cheesy, or tacky even, you are completely missing the point.  I have visited the headquarters and I have met with the staff and what I am telling you is that, as a result, I believe that this company is true to its mission to be the provider, partner and employer of choice.  Did I drink the DaVita Kool Aid?  Maybe a little.  But if, like me, you are on the skeptical, cynical side of things, you know how exciting it is to finally find something for which you could stand.

–Simon

Knock! Knock!

They say you better be ready when opportunity finally comes knocking on your door, but it doesn’t seem to apply to Anderson’s MBA program.  Here, you see, opportunity is a 300-pound sumo wrestler who will knock down your door and throw you in the street in your underwear.  At least that is the way it has felt to me so far.  The following is a list of professional opportunities that were made available to me during the last week only.  Granted, they might not all lead to something, but my point is that finding them was exceedingly easy; I either sent an e-mail or received an e-mail.  Keep in mind that I just started the program.

The first thing I did was to write to a few second year students to discuss their summer internship.  Next thing I know, I was speaking to the president of DCF Ventures, a consulting company that seeks to help researchers on campus commercialize their inventions.  I did not come to Anderson with that kind of career in mind, but considering my experience as a mad scientist I would find it very interesting.  I have applied for an academic internship with DCF, and we will see if I am selected.  In addition, second year students have allowed me to start making contacts at Amgen.

As you might remember, the CEO of DaVita made a strong impression on me, and I am hoping to visit Davita’s facility as early as next Friday.  If I am selected for DaVita’s Day on the Job event, I will get to visit the local facility, lunch with people who work there, and have my questions answered directly by the company.  Finally, I just participated in an All-Anderson networking event, where I met a fully employed MBA student with interesting ties to a growing tutoring company.  It’s just that easy!

–Simon

We Are the Champions…

At Anderson, MBA students have the opportunity to address quintessential questions, such as: "What would happen if Queen, Chuck Norris and the Most Interesting Man in the World (MIMW) put on a show together?"  Obviously, I am not talking about the MBA curriculum, but rather about my section skit, which we performed on the last day of the two-week leadership program.  Before the program started, students were separated in five sections of 70 to study leadership together and, among other things, compete for the prized Section Cup (see picture below).  Thus, sections battled with sportsmanship against each other in various activities – Olympics, team spirit, section skit, etc. – for the privilege of winning The Cup.

My section being especially foolish ambitious, we decided to produce a Queen rock opera for our skit because studying leadership and group dynamics 10-12 hours a day for about two weeks just wasn’t time-consuming enough.  Frankly, I am surprised how smoothly the whole project went.  A dozen of us, including yours truly, brainstormed for about two hours and came up with the Queen/Norris/MIMW concept.  We then divided the work into three acts/songs – rewriting Queen songs was definitely the longest part – and a talented colleague seamlessly put it all back together.  We rehearsed as a group for about five hours, et voila!

But why add Chuck Norris and MIMW to the cast, you might wonder.  Well, Chuck Norris can sneeze with his eyes open – and that’s fact #4 – so he just had to be in the skit.  As for the MIMW, he might be the only man cooler than Chuck Norris, so incorporating him was a no-brainer.  And by the way, my section did win the skit contest, which also led us to winning the cup (see below).  Is there anything Chuck Norris can’t do?

–Simon

Chuck Norris (with the hat) is evaluating how far he'll have to stretch to roundhouse kick the cup into the face of the Most Interesting Man in the World (in the suit).