The MBA Student Voice

Net Impact Career Night

As a brand new blogger on Student Voice, I am looking forward to focusing on sustainability and social impact happenings at Anderson.

So I’ll jump right in. An event that stands out from last week is the “Net Impact Career Night”. Net Impact is a nationwide organization, with a mission to use business to create positive social change, and we have a chapter on campus. This event was quite cool in terms of the variety of organizations that attended. A group of us chatted with the director of “Cause and Effect”, an organization that worked on Al Gore’s movie “Inconvenient Truth”. I also caught up with X-Prize, which you might know for it’s completed prize for the world’s first private vehicle to space, and currently holds the $10 mil “Genomics” and $30 mil “Google Lunar” X Prize. The non-profit’s (yes, it’s a non-profit) directors are both Anderson alumni, and are very enthusiastic about working with Anderson students on various project. Also at Career Night were several alternative energy and educational companies. 

Good evening all in all. So many opportunities to go after, so little time.

 - Katya

A Guest Star on Learning Teams

The goal of this blog is to expose readers to the breadth of the Anderson MBA experience, but of course I can only write about what is happening to me.  Thus, I try to encourage other students to share their perspective on the program and post it here.  Alex Thibault was kind enough to talk about his learning team, which is a group of five students to which we are assigned each quarter to do homework, study, etc.  Study groups typically have varied personal and professional background, as will become apparent in Alex’s text below.

A quick word about Alex.  Just like me, he comes from Montreal, Canada, but I must admit that unlike me he is a true hockey fan (since I only watch it if the Canadians are in the playoffs).  Actually, he is at Anderson to transition into sports management, preferably in the NHL, I would imagine.  Like many of us here, his background doesn’t have much to do with where he wants to go since he is a lawyer, but this is all about leveraging our “past” in a way, and I’m confident he’ll be successful since he made it that far after all.  Here are his two cents below.

–Simon

“Hey guys, I don't have my own blog, but I still wanted to share my learning team experience with prospective students.  I used to be an attorney and, basically, hadn't done math in the past decade before coming to Anderson.  I landed in a learning team with 2 engineers, an accountant and an ex-consultant, so needless to say I have to work extra hard in a bunch of quant classes.  I can't stress enough how great all of those guys have been to help me get as much out of this program as possible and, like most teams in our section, we've all become great friends in the process (see picture below)!  Hope to see you all at Anderson sometime soon!”

–Alex

Alex’s learning team at a recent group dinner (from left to right are Markus, Hannah, Alex, Elaine and Jason)

UCLA Anderson = Quality People

I often get asked why I decided on UCLA Anderson. There are several reasons but one of the main reasons was for its people. The UCLA Anderson student body has a reputation of among other things being bright, collegial, down-to-earth and well-rounded. It sounded like the kind of people I could enjoy two years with and now that I'm here, I certainly have not been disappointed. Starting from the first day of orientation it has been really easy to make connections with my classmates. And while everyone is here to get a degree, that doesn't mean mean we're in the library all day. While we do get our study on in Rosenfeld, you're just as likely to find an Anderson student working out in the Wooden Center, volunteering with C4C, tailgating or just hanging out in the sun. We come from all different backgrounds, and if you want to get a better idea, take a look at the audio animations created in conjunction with the UCLA film school (bottom of the page). Very cool!

Interacting with such talented and fun people makes me look forward to going to school (even for the 8am classes, although admittedly it is a bit harder). And while some of my classmates may have questionable tastes in the sports teams which they support *cough Sreesha*, they have been a huge highlight in my UCLA Anderson experience thus far.

--JP

~We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken. ~ Fydor Dostoevsky

Cultural Exchange

As you can see in the class profile, students who have diverse backgrounds are studying together here at UCLA Anderson. Yesterday, I organized an event, so called Japanese-night in my section with other Japanese students in order to let other Anderson students know Japanese culture more. Also, we need a time to relax before getting ready for our final exams next month. More than 40 section mates participated, and enjoyed Japanese culture.

We went to Japanese "Izakaya" style restaurant, and had a great Japanese food and sake. You can see some foods in above picture. It was the first time for some students to enjoy Japanese food other than sushi, so they learned how to eat and taste those foods. After the restraunt, we went to karaoke place and sang together. This event was not only a fun time, but also a opportunity to strengthen ties with other students. I would like to share my take away from this event.

I strongly felt that proactive attitude is important to create a team spirit. Although organizing an event is difficult and takes me time, I was sure that this is what I should do as an international student. Sometimes, international students may have some cultural difficulties especially in such an intense program as MBA. I convinced from last night event that proactive attitude can break a cultural barrier and international background can create a great group dynamics.

Also, I can not make this event successful without other students help. They are always collaborative, and helped me to organize the event well. Now I got many thank you e-mail from participants and this illustrate UCLA Anderson atmosphere well.

Keishi

Reflection on Switching Cost

As you may already know, my prior background is medical research in biotech industry.  Upon joining UCLA Anderson, one concept I learned is switching cost, which has appeared repeatly in the Marketing course and Economy course.  This concept describes the cost that a consumer needs to pay in order to switch to using a new product and A marketer’s effort is to help the consumer makers the transition.  At a higher level, I think switching costs describes very well many aspect of my daily life and thus I want to share with you.

All my classmates at UCLA Anderson say that there are too many things to do in school, which I agree.  However, I do not feel like I have learned or accomplished as much.  I have heard from my classmates: “I did not do much today in school. But I feel tired.”  In my opinion, the reason for the contradiction is switching cost.  In the beginning of my day, I need to switch from home to school.  It takes at least one hour to make the switch washing up and commuting and another hour to go back (that is 2 hours of good time to switch).  Then it is my classes, which include marketing, fiancé, accounting, statistics and economy.  Students have various backgrounds so the professors try to take care of everybody, that means the least advanced.   I did not learn very much in statistics until half way into the semester. Here is half a semester of switching cost.  My accounting is the opposite and my lack of background makes the course hard to understand sometimes and I need to spend a lot of extra time to understand.   

After the class, there are school events.  There are events from Healthcare Business Association,  Marketing Association, Investment Finance Association, Entrepreneur Association, and the Strategic Operations Management Association.  I do not have prior business background and all these events are potentially useful for my future career.   However I cannot attend all the events and many events are in conflict with each other so I have to decide which one is ranked higher.  In the beginning of the semester it takes as much time to decide and manage the events as attending in the events.  Fortunately there is google calendar that is a huge help.  But of course learning how to use the google calendar, reading the emails announcing all the events, and entering all the events to attend into the google calendar is a big switching costs too.

There is switching cost in networking with my new people.   Breaking ice is the necessary step of meeting with any new people before knowing what is in people’s mind.  Our 2011 class spent almost two weeks of the orientation time to break the ice.  In other words, paying the switching cost to be comfortable and know the new group of friends.  Moreover,  the switching costs or the time to break the ice is a lot higher for international students than for domestic students because of the culture barrier.

In a nutshell, I want to learn new knowledge, knowing new people at UCLA Anderson  but in order to reach my goals I need to be patient. Only after paying the hefty switching cost will I be able to get what I want.  After all, my whole purpose of coming to UCLA Anderson is to pay the switch cost which including $120000 and 2 years of time to switch from medical research to business.  UCLA Anderson is realizing a value from students’ switching cost.  And consulting industry is making money off a company making a switch to a new business direction. 

Thus switching cost is a general phenomenon in life and in business and to study switching cost is of great significance and value to everyone.

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

Applied Management Research -- my project

In the second your of your MBA experience at Anderson, you will be required to complete a two-quarter thesis project, referred to as AMR (Applied Management Research). Although there is an option to create a business (aspiring entrepreneurs, email me if you'd like more information about that opportunity, and I'll put you in touch with friends who are going the BCO -- business creation opportunity -- route).

My project has been amazing. On top of getting work with four talented, brilliant classmates, I've been getting valuable real-world consulting experience. Our field study engagement is focused on improving the operational efficiency of a Ghanaian health care facility called Korle Bu. Korle Bu is the largest provider of medical services in Ghana, and is the teaching hospital associated with the University of Ghana. It's located in the capital city of Accra, and three of my teammates were there last week doing extensive research on the current practices employed by the hospital. In January, I'll have a turn to visit -- by then, we will have a set of recommendations and will take advantage of another week on the client site to test them out and put on the final touches. The project will conclude with a final presentation in early March.

Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

My apologies to all for yet another writing hiatus.  Those midterms took a lot out of me and the rehab from the exam related injuries took longer than expected.  First, there was some carpal tunnel as a result of using some Excel functions too much, and then I tore my ACL walking to a printer in the computer lab to collect an accounting problem set that I printed out.  All kidding aside, there's not much of an excuse except to say things have been busy.

So, what have I been busy with?  Well, as I've eluded to before, I'm trying to balance the holy trinity of academics, job search, and a social life.  Of late, I've been attempting to focus on the job search and the related requirement of networking.  Since I want to get back into the entertainment world post-MBA, albeit on the business side this time around, I joined Anderson's Entertainment Management Association.  The organization regularly puts on panels to educate its members about various portions of the industry, be it film, TV, videogames, and music.  These presentations are led, more often than not, by alumni within said fields and they've proven rather informative.  Additionally, the EMA organizes Days on Jobs (DOJ), where we have an onsite visit with a particular company and executives talk to us about their various functions.  We had one such DOJ last week at Fox. 

Long story short, classes take up your mornings and afternoons and then there's plenty more activities to gobble up the rest of your day.  The key, it seems, is to choose the right events and not spread yourself too thin, especially this first semester.  Maybe if I do that, you'll hear from me a wee bit more.  But for now, I gotta go ice my ACL. 

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.  

* * * * *

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