This post is a part of the Student Blogger series - each post is written by a current UCLA Anderson student, and provides first-hand perspectives and experiences about being an MBA student at UCLA Anderson.
Hey everyone! My name is Ryan Dumlao and I’m a first-year student here at Anderson. Prior to Anderson, I was an electrical engineer, spending a few years working on radars, satellites, medical devices, and an iPad app. I eventually shifted away from design and into higher level roles, and finally decided to come to Anderson to pivot into product management in technology. As a first-year, one of the big events we get to look forward to during the first few months of the program are the Days On the Job, where we get a full week’s break from classes and recruiting to trek out across the country and visit companies in our intended industries. For those of us going into technology, the Anderson Tech Business Association (AnderTech for short) sets up an amazing week of company visits during this time: the Tech Trek.
Traveling up to Seattle and back down to the Bay Area, we were each able to visit a handful of companies throughout the tech sector. For my trek, I was able to visit 11 companies during the week: Microsoft, Amazon, and Tableau in Seattle, followed by Flex, Intel, Google, eBay, Adobe, Autodesk and Salesforce in the Bay Area. The selection of companies to visit was much larger, and we were able to ‘bid’ on companies to visit based on personal preference; I was particularly excited about Google and Intel, to learn about their product management and rotation programs available to MBA interns in the summer.
The trek gave us an in-depth perspective on what it was like to work at each company, including campus tours, information on the summer internship offerings and full-time opportunities, and sit-down discussions with Anderson alums and other employees from each company. It was amazing to see how strong and wide-reaching Anderson’s network is within the tech industry throughout the West Coast, and every alum was excited to meet and speak with us to help us navigate through the process they were once a part of as students themselves! Since most people were taking the same trek, I traveled and roomed with 3 other classmates in Seattle, Menlo Park and San Francisco. We bonded together, helped prep for our company visits, and unwound with other Anderson classmates at the end of each day.
In between company visits, we were able to explore the sights and eats of downtown Seattle, had a evening mixer hosted by Intel in Palo Alto, and I spent the rest of the weekend hosting classmates around San Francisco and visiting friends. Amidst the hectic non-stop of the first quarter of business school, the week was not just an opportunity to continue recruiting for the summer, but to take a break from UCLA and sunny Los Angeles to explore more of the West Coast. For many first-time visitors, we were able to check out the Space Needle, the Fremont Troll and Pike Place Market and Seattle, as well as the Ferry Building, Golden Gate Bridge, and the Embarcadero in San Francisco.
Truly a unique experience, DOJ week is one of the best advantages of coming to Anderson, utilizing our vast network and close proximity to the tech scenes in Seattle and the Bay Area!
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Student Blogger: Ryan Dumlao '18 Undergrad: Electrical Engineering (B.S., UC San Diego; M.S., UCLA) Pre-MBA: The Medicines Co & Raytheon Leadership@Anderson: |
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