The MBA Student Voice

Golden Briefcase, Silver Chalice

It's no Stanley Cup, but winning the Golden Briefcase for UCLA was a thrill. 

A small army of Andersonians, including me, have just returned from the Challenge For Charity (C4C) Weekend hosted by Stanford University.  C4C is actually a year-long competition amongst the west coast business schools to see who can raise the most money and donate the most hours for charities.  The culmination is a mini-Olympics hosted by Stanford.  The winner of C4C gets the coveted Golden Briefcase, which is just what it says on the tin. Inscribed on the side are all of the schools in each year of the competition. 

The Olympics consisted of typical sports like (American) football and basketball, plus things like dodgeball and Trivia Bowl.  I contributed a small part to the Trivia Bowl team, which consisted of second-years David and Kevin and fellow first year Erin; we brought home a silver medla for UCLA - but this was serious stuff, like 18th century physics theories and 13th century British poets.  I wish I had studied! 

This year, we split the title with USC, which thrilled USC but bothered us as we thought we had won it outright. Next year's competition is bound to be more intense! 

* * * * * * * * * 

Speaking of athletic competitions, two of my favourites are well underway.  My beloved Manchester United got a massive gift from Spurs this week, who took home six points from Arsenal and Chelsea - that puts us just one point behind Chelsea with two games to play.  Both of us have one difficult opponent and one mid-table opponent - we have the aforementioned Spurs and Sunderland; Chelsea have Liverpool and Stoke.  Unlikely Chelsea will drop points from their matches, but if they do I daresay we have a great chance.  

The hockey playoffs have been absolutely exciting.  My beloved Washington Capitals played miserably in Game 1 against Montreal Canadiens, and were even worse for the first 38 minutes of Game 2 - even needing to replace Jose Theodore in goal with Semyon Varlamov.  Suddenly, everything clicked, and we ended up winning Game 2 6-5, then winning in Montreal 5-1 in Game 3.  My view: it's not that Theodore is a worse goalkeeper than Varlamov, it's that the team plays smarter defensively in front of the 22-year-old Russian, in part because he's a 22-year-old Russian and Theodore is a veteran. If we played as we did tonight with Theodore in goal, we still would have won. 

Closer to UCLA, Los Angeles Kings played very well in their first two games in Vancouver against Vancouver Canucks, winning Game 2; as I type this, they are leading Game 3, 4-2, with about 23 minutes left.  Most impressive is LA's speed and aggressive forechecking, which is causing Vancouver Canucks fits.  The crowd at Staples Center in LA is amazing, too - very loud, cheering and shouting.  Phenomenal atmosphere! 

This is just the first round - there are three more rounds after this! 

-- Sreesha 

Time to drop the puck and eat -- wait, what is Canadian food?

Loads to talk about since I last posted, so let's get right to it (in no particular order): 

* This past Thursday was our annual International Food Festival, which is a massive street food market as you would expect to see in Asia, with performances, dancers, and loads of food from 14 different ethnicities.  Along with my classmate Anthony Barber, I was in charge of organizing the diverse cuisine.  

Each food stall was either run by an Anderson cultural club or by Andersonians who wanted to highlight a culture -- and in a few cases, not necessarily their own!  Our student body president, Kevin Morris, and Anthony Pu ran the Vietnamese table and did a tremendous job.  Your favourite Manchester United supporter teamed up with several Canadians, including blogeteers John Park and Matt Kerbel, to run a Canadian table whilst wearing hockey sweaters -- I donned a vintage Edmonton Oilers Wayne Gretzky shirt, a gift I received from Mrs. V a few years ago. 

The dancing went on well into the night, until we were all kicked out by the Dean of Students, who we soon realized was supported by ... the LAPD. Oops. 

* The hockey playoffs start today and my beloved Washington Capitals have drawn the Montreal Canadiens in the first round.  I'm not sure how happy I am with this matchup: this is the first time ever that the Caps have played Montreal in the playoffs, and only the second time that the Caps have played a team based in Canada.  There is some discussion on campus of growing playoff beards, where each person participating does not shave until his team is eliminated from the playoffs -- they do this for charity across the NHL, but it may end up conflicting with recruiting for us.  

* Also, the LA Kings are in the playoffs for the first time in ages - I'm excited for them!  The Kings have a tough draw against the Vancouver Canucks but since I live here I will be cheering for them throughout the playoffs -- unless they play Washington, of course! 

* Last weekend was A-days II, where the second round of prospective admits get to visit the campus to get a taste of life here.  I wanted to share my response to a very pertinent question: so far, UCLA Anderson has exceeded my expectations in almost every criteria.  The alumni network has been fantastic, my classmates are extremely accomplished, and the courses -- especially the electives -- have provided me with excellent training.  Plus, the balance of career and fun is the perfect for me; everyone understands why we are here, and seeks to maximize every minute of it both in the classroom and in the bar.  I just can't say enough good things about my experience here.

* My only complaint is that not enough is done for significant others here.  Any business school that tells you that significant others are automatically integrated into the culture is lying to you - it's hard work for the partner and for you.  But business schools, UCLA Anderson included, could do more to make it an easier move for them, especially if they are moving from out of town. 

* UCLA Anderson's student body is phenomenally accomplished and diverse by way of backgrounds, professions, walks of life, and passports; from my (albeit limited) vantage point, I would say UCLA Anderson is more diverse than most other American business schools.  However, as Philip Delves Broughton astutely points out in his book, What They Teach You at Harvard Business School, all American business schools are glaringly deficient in diversity by business training.  Example: while there are loads of different passports in my section, almost everyone is, from a business perspective, American-trained.  In fact, I can count on one hand the number of people who spent more of their career outside of the U.S. than in the U.S. prior to business school -- and two of us are Americans! 

* Next year, I'll be co-president of the International Business Association, with my friend and section mate Lena Zaitseva.  Bringing a further global perspective to campus is extremely important to me -- especially cross-cultural perspective.  In fact, the other interesting statistic I would love to see is how many people in the student body have moved across regions for work (study abroad doesn't count); I would reckon this is higher than the number of people whose careers were primarily outside of the U.S. 

* Disappointing end to the Champions League campaign.  The second yellow to Rafael was very harsh, and I felt United had played well enough to deserve to be sent through.  It has definitely affected morale on the team, especially as we dropped three points at home to Chelsea a few days before, then dropped two more at Blackburn a few days after.  Hopefully the derby match this weekend will give us focus for a last-gasp run at the only title we are still in the running for.  We need a favour Bolton Wanderers and Spurs! 

Till next time, ROCK THE RED!!!!  And be on the lookout for the next installment of Europe's loudest ROCK THE RED party - this time from Los Angeles! 

-- Sreesha

The Softest Skill

Looking at the core course requirements for the Anderson MBA program, there is one course that I used to dread above all else: Human Resources.  Of course, it’s not actually called HR, but the name “Organizational Behavior” does not fool anyone here either.  Now, you might wonder what HR ever did to me.  Simply put, I am a quantitative man, and I figured HR is the kind of course where you sit in a circle around a campfire and empty your heart.  It’s not because I don’t have soft skills, but rather because I imagined HR required the softest skill: the ability to answer life-changing questions such as “and how does that make you feel?”  Moreover, I don’t think I ever met a single HR department that did a good job wherever I worked, so needless to say my prejudices against HR ran strong.  I am glad to say that I was wrong.

So far, the course is deep-rooted in psychology, and thus human behavior, which is a nice change of tune because most courses so far, especially economics and finance, keep looking at the world as if people made rational decisions, which I find rather baffling.  HR is finally making me aware (and providing me with names) of behaviors that I have been observing for a long time now, such as the insensitivity to sample size bias.  Of course, this would be of limited use if it did not also prescribe ways to solve problematic behaviors.  While I still have my doubts about some of these solutions, which would sometime require a drastic culture change within a company, I can tell some of this stuff will be helpful in dealing with others.  For instance, if you ever need to convince a group to adopt your idea rather than that of somebody else, speak first and also ask for the opinion of those who agree with you first; you will build a momentum and put the pressure on people who disagree with you to be heard.  Pretty useful stuff…

Of course, there is still stuff that I don’t like.  For instance, greed remains greed, and whatever reasons psychologists invoke to explain its existence does not change it being here.  And you’ll have a hard time convincing me that human nature can be changed significantly either, which is why we have laws in the first place.  But that’s like everything else:  you keep some, you throw some out, and you make the best of what you have.

-Simon

Back from the dead (and Miami Beach)

When I started this Anderson MBA blog, I remember being such a naïve little trooper, making self-made promises such as “yes, I will blog regularly” and “no, I will never skip posting a single week (except maybe for finals and breaks)”.  It has been nearly two months since my last post, so I’ll be the first one to call this what it is: an epic “FAIL”.  Thus, my apologies to my readers.  I am going to be a naïve little trooper, yet again, and swear that I will post weekly during the Spring quarter.  Let me first backtrack and give a summary of last quarter.

Ah, this last Winter quarter will be one that I remember fondly when reminiscing about the horrors of internship-hunting.  What last quarter lacked in courses (I chose to limit myself to three classes), it overcompensated in recruiting madness.  Note that I am not complaining since I finally found myself an internship, but it was just an incredibly competitive process.  Of course, this was not the case for everyone.  Those of us who have been doing, say, marketing for 3-5 years and seek to keep doing marketing had, I believe, a much easier time and access to prime opportunities during on-campus recruiting.  This is perfectly normal and alright.  Others who, as I do, have a less obvious background, had to work even harder and are often still searching.  Now, I find it rather strange that recruiters create so many hurdles just to hire interns.  After all, is this not the perfect opportunity to take a risk on atypical candidates since an internship is a 10-12 weeks affair?

What truly rocked about last quarter was the Faculty assigned to my section.  Whether it was Pr. Bernardo (for whom I now profess my enduring love) in corporate finance, Pr. Bodapati in marketing, or Pr. Roels in operations, all classes were taught by professors who really cared about the material and the students.  Moreover, I managed to get myself a position on the Healthcare Business Association, VP of marketing, which means that I have an occasion to help foster more healthcare opportunities at Anderson.  I am currently trying to convince Anderson to develop a medical marketing course for full- and part-time MBAs, and I also intend to promote more recruiting in the San Diego area, a region rich in biotech companies.  Cross your fingers for me.

–Simon