About Patrick: Patrick Macias (’24) is originally from Sacramento, CA. He graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a Bachelor’s in Industrial & Systems Engineering. After USC, Patrick went to Orange County to work at Applied Medical as an Operations Team Leader and later, a Project Manager. At Anderson, he seeks to pivot into consulting and will be interning at Bain & Co. over the summer in San Francisco. Patrick is incredibly interested in both the CPG & Gaming industries as potential consulting exit routes.
Most people at Anderson don’t even think about recruiting until the fall quarter. People wait until companies are on campus to start networking to land their dream internships. I was a little different. I actually received my internship offer the week before classes started!
The summer before I started my MBA, I was a participant in a group run by an organization called Management’s Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT). This group focuses on providing academic and career support for underrepresented minorities (URMs). Through them, I participated in a program called MBA Professional Development (PD). This program is aimed at helping URMs who are MBA-bound network with employers in their desired industry. I received a resume review and 1-on-1 coaching from a current industry professional. My coach, Jeremy Hemsworth, is currently a director at Slack. I received a ton of assistance and prepared to hunt for my dream role. I attended a conference where I got to network with every consulting firm recruiting MBA students where I had coffee chats and casing workshops for three days straight. While I was there, I also got to talk to employees at my future firm.
I met two recent MBA grads who were both consultants at Bain and they told me about their firm’s pre-MBA program, Building and Supporting Excellence (BASE). I applied to BASE that same day. To my surprise, I got an interview invite! I spent the following week casing with all of my friends who were recruiting for consulting. We were relentless in our preparation and, eventually, I had my interview and received an offer the next day! As a BASE Scholar, I would be working at Bain for a week with the hopes of getting an internship offer. On top of that, I was Anderson’s first BASE Scholar, a worthy honor for my program to rep!
Come the end of July, I started my weeklong BASE internship! I got to sit on the top floors of Salesforce Tower and work with an actual case team. I got to see a team of consultants work with a CPG company to provide insight into their latest corporate conundrum. During the week, I met people at all levels of the company and spent my breaks walking around Salesforce Park. After five days, I gave a final presentation to firm partners about my week. About an hour later, I got an invite to a meeting with a Bain manager I had worked with. I hopped on just to find out I was being made an offer! I hung up, called my parents, and proceeded to cry in a random conference room. I left San Francisco that night and moved to LA to start Anderson the following Monday. I arrived on campus with all of my classmates and was able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing I was starting the school year off in a good spot. I highly encourage all those who are eligible for these opportunities to go for it!
Student Blogger: Patrick Macias ‘24
Undergrad: University of Southern California ('18) - B.S. Industrial & Systems Engineering
Pre-MBA: Project Management, Applied Medical
Leadership@Anderson: Incoming Out@Anderson President, Incoming Craft Beer Club President, ALMA Director of Club Partnerships, EMA Director of EDI, First-Year Director, Admission Ambassador Corps, AnderEats Director of Club Partnerships
Instagram handle: @CallMeMacias
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