The MBA Student Voice

2nd Year @ UCLA Anderson is Off and Running!

Geez, how time flies! So, I decided to look back at my old posts and made myself laugh because of all the discussion on finding an internship. Now it all seems like ages ago. Just to update you all, I had an awesome internship in the Bay Area this past summer, working for a well-known tech company in the investor relations department. I had a blast, because I got to work on many projects and collaborate with several executives. My first year at Anderson really prepared me for the internship, including how to approach a problem, prepare a well-thought/crisp presentation, and present to a room full of people with calm and poise. Things went so well that I got an offer at the company - woohoo! But, like any good pragmatist, I am planning to go through the full-time recruiting process to see what other options are out there. I must say, this year's recruiting turnout is tremendous - I've already lost count of the number of companies recruiting here. Perhaps the recession really IS over or at the least improved.

From my previous blogs you saw a taste of the frenetic 1st year life: jam-packed core courses, internship recruiting up to your neck, networking events, and the delicate art of finding time to breathe through all of this madness. And, while you're wondering how you could ever survive the demanding schedule, you are loving every minute of it (or most minutes) because you are busy in a fun way - making new friends and learning something new every day.  But, that's all over now - sigh.

So you might now be wondering what the second year is like. First, I must mention that during my first year, the second-years seemed like wise sages. They had this calm, cool demeanor. Nothing phased them, not their master's thesis or class grades. They were like James Dean on a motorcycle, man. Simply awesome. So now that I'm a 2nd year, do I feel too cool for school? Well, the fact that I just said "too cool for school" automatically makes me not cool. But I must say that I have calmed down a little from my first year. I do actually feel a bit wiser, I think because I've learned to go with the flow - enjoy rather than fear any new experience that comes along. Because believe me, at MBA school you will be operating outside of your comfort zone on many occasions. I've also decided to make the most of my time here from a non-academic point of view. I previously took guitar and dance lessons and plan to continue with the guitar and also learn drawing, archery, rock climbing, and strength training, to name a few. The sky's the limit. 

So with good ol' optimism and excitement, I am ready to face my 2nd and last year at UCLA Anderson School of Management. The master's thesis (aka Applied Management Research Program) is going to be tough, but I'm sure it will be another great experience. I have to keep telling myself to savor every moment because I know it will be over in a flash. Here I go..........

McKesson: Mission Accomplished

I finally had proof that this Anderson MBA blog is useful for a few people, so I have decided to make the effort to keep on going on with my posts.  If you are reading this, I encourage you to leave us bloggers a message every now and then because it keeps us, writers, motivated.  I imagine that, to do so, you actually have to register with TypePad, which is undoubtedly a major pain you know where, but your feedback does make a difference.  Looking at my old posts, I realize that I never announced that I spent the summer in San Francisco working for McKesson, a drug distribution company that you probably don’t know because you and I buy our drugs straight from pharmacies. Yet, McKesson is a giant: it supplies over 40,000 pharmacy locations, employs over 30,000 people, and is actually a Fortune 15 company.

I must say I was very lucky to get this internship.  The person who was supposed to interview me during the first round couldn’t make it, and was replaced by, of all people, a vice-president.  I hit it off really well with her and advanced to the second round.  The second round didn’t go so well, however, but the next day I got a phone call from the VP telling me that she wanted me in her group for the summer.  I guess miracles do happen.  And so I spent the summer in a corner office on the 31st floor of a San Francisco skyscraper doing work in Corporate Financial Reporting.  I had the best supervisor ever.  She provided the support that I needed while giving me the leeway to do things how I thought they should be – a welcomed contrast with the control freaks who used to rule my professional life so far.  I am glad to report that I even got an offer for McKesson’s rotational program.  Mission accomplished, indeed!

In all honesty, this internship experience was beyond my expectations.  All of us interns (including Marketing, Strategy, Operations, etc.) were treated to many happy hours and social events.  We got to meet the CFO and many senior executives.  Anytime I wanted to know more about a unit in McKesson, all I had to do was to shoot an e-mail, and everyone always replied and never refused to meet, usually over lunch.  McKesson is a company that understands that it needs to keep growing to provide challenges to its employees and keep them happy. If I accept the offer, the corporate finance program will expose me to the many units within the company for the next two years through 6-month rotations.  I find myself very fortunate, although I did work pretty hard during the summer…

–Simon

New Year, Endless Possibilities

Hope springs eternal -- first day of school and first week of NHL training camp! 

* Great to be back on campus, and now in classes that I really am excited about since they are all electives.  But the pressure is on to have a job -- and at least a shell of a career path -- lined up by end of the school year.

* Maket participants will always push the market rules to the limits for their own gain.  Thus, it is unreasonable to expect the NHL -- or any governing body in any industry -- to create rules that account for every possible circumvention attempt.  Rules must constantly evolve. 

* We've created a cohesive message and mission for the International Business Association, and are already seeing the fruits of that through increased buzz on campus and exciting new possibilities. Exciting!

* For the Sports Business Association, it was clear that we took a tremendous step forward last year, so this year we will be building on the same momentum with more events, more opportunities, and more brand recognition. Equally exciting!

* Do you know who was most excited about Dimitar Berbatov''s incredible third goal against Liverpool this past weekend?  Howard Webb.  Takes the spotlight off the fact that his two controversial refereeing decisions led to Liverpool goals. 

* Two darkhorse White House candidates for 2012 that are getting more attention lately: Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley.  Imagine having to decide between two Indian-American candidates in the GOP primary -- and then have one of them square off against African-American Barack Obama?  Never thought I would see that in my lifetime.  Sadly, despite its centuries-old heritage ties with India, I can't forsee anything remotely close in the UK.

* Controversial thought of the day: in our strive for a gender-equal world, we can all agree that women should be allowed to compete and thrive for equally successful and lucrative careers in any industry; why do we then assume that men are not as competent as women when raising children?  Why can't that job be 50/50 as well? I get the sense that most women assume that they will be "in charge" when raising kids -- in today's era, could it be that this is just an unfair sense of entitlement, or a gross underestimation of the father's parenting capabilities?

The possibilities are endless!

-- Sreesha

ALMA Welcomes the Class of 2010 to the Alumni Network!

The Anderson Latino Management Alumni (ALMA) hosted a summer happy hour to welcome the Class of 2010 to the alumni network.  The event, which was held at Upper West in West Los Angeles, provided a great opportunity for recent graduates to connect with other members of the Latino professional community in Los Angeles and for former business school classmates to reconnect.  Also in attendance was Linda Baldwin, who continues to support UCLA Anderson’s diversity efforts.

I enjoyed seeing my former classmates again, after they graduated. (I still have one more year to go!).  It was also great to see that so many members of the UCLA Anderson Latino community continue to remain involved with ALMA and the Latino Management Student Association (LMSA) as they progress through their careers.

UCLA Anderson MBA Admissions Events in LA

For those interested in finding out more about UCLA Anderson by speaking with admissions officers, current students and alumni, there are numerous opportunities to do so in the coming weeks. Please see below for details.

I will be at several of those events so please stop by and say hello if you do happen to attend. Look forward to seeing some of your there!

***

Saturday, September 11th
QS World MBA Tour
2:00-5:00pm
Wilshire Grand Los Angeles

Wednesday, September 15th
Forte Forum
6:00-9:00pm
Renaissance Hollywood Hotel & Spa

Saturday, September 25th
The MBA Tour
3:00-5:00pm
Wilshire Grand Hotel

Monday, October 4th
Los Angeles Information Evening
7:00-9:00pm
Korn Hall, UCLA Anderson

Saturday, October 16th
Inside the MBA
2:30-5:30pm
Hyatt Regency Century Plaza

First Year Recap

"First year is over and I'm about to start second year" - even though I just typed this sentence the truth of this statement still isn't quite registering. I've been thinking a lot about my first year at UCLA Anderson recently, especially as I had the opportunity to present to the incoming international students during their International Student Orientation Days. Just seeing them filled me with excitement and nervousness for the adventure on which they were about to embark, as well as feeling a certain sense of accomplishment and relief that I had survived and made it to the start of year 2.

Looking back at the year that was,I would recap my experience as follows:

1)    First year is challenging -

It's challenging for everyone but to varying degrees and reasons. For me, the academics, in particular the core courses, were borderline Sisyphean. Never having been exposed to courses like accounting, statistics, economics etc., it was a real personal struggle trying to keep up. That being said, my knowledge increased exponentially.

2)    The people are amazing -

From my fellow classmates, professors, administrators and everyone in between, the people at UCLA Anderson are amazing. Brilliant, personable, supportive and fun, I would not have survived first year without them. And I am really excited at the prospect of meeting the new incoming class of 2012.

3)   It was one of the most memorable years of my life -

First year was full of so many positive experiences that despite the challenges, it will be forever remembered as one of the most memorable and best years of my life. Bold statement? Yes. But in light of the people, program and location, I absolutely stand by it with confidence.

With the experience of first year under my belt, I'm looking forward to see what second year holds in store. But before that, still have a couple weeks of fun and relaxation to enjoy and plan on taking full advantage!

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them?  ~Rose F. Kennedy

Lack of Depth Permeates...

Like most of the entertainment industry, my blog has been on hiatus for the second half of the summer.  I wish I could tell you that this was intentional, but sadly, it was down to pure laziness. 

A lot has happened and since my audience this summer has been limited thus far to go-go dancers in sultry lingerie  Mrs. V, it’s time to catch you all up. 

In honor of my lifelong mentor and former boss Stan Fischler, here are my “impertinent thoughts on pertinent subjects”:

• DirecTV is offering a promotion where new customers get five months off of service if they sign up for the NFL package -- essentially a 100% discount; customers like me who signed up for DirecTV over the past few months get a 0% discount.  Any wonder why DirecTV has to give away rich promotions to get more subscribers?

• Last year, prior to the start of training camp, I predicted that the run to the Stanley Cup goes through Philadelphia.  Sure enough, the Flyers were the last team to be eliminated.  These aren’t my official predictions (yet), but my early thoughts are that the LA Kings will represent the West. 


  
  When healthy, Willie Mitchell is a better, younger version of Sean O’Donnell.  Though Alexei Ponikarovsky has more baggage than Heathrow, he’s still an upgrade over Alex Frolov and Fredrik Modin.  I’d be surprised if the Kings didn’t re-sign Potomac native Jeff Halpern.  


  
  Meanwhile, the rest of the West has gotten worse.  Chicago has lost a lot of critical depth.  Detroit has lost a lot of scarce youth.  Evgeni Nabokov’s departure is meant to be an addition by subtraction in San Jose.  And with Phoenix’s off-ice troubles...

• My football teams are at a crossroads.  Given Ben Roethlisberger’s suspension and the dire need of reinforcements in a variety of places, I’d be happy with a 2-14 season, a high first-round draft pick, and writing this season off.  

Slightly different story at O.T. 
  
  The Premiership is wide open this year, to the point where United could win it or finish as low as seventh.  Neither extreme seems likely, but we’re relying on a lot of young players stepping up to retain our automatic birth for the Champions League. 
  
  We’re especially struggling with depth - it wasn’t that long ago that the second-best team in English football was our reserve squad; now, our next-best options at forward after Rooney are either Macheda or Chicharito depending on Berbatov’s mood.  I’m still predicting we finish second but the race will be a lot closer. 


• Speaking of lack of depth, I’m unimpressed with the course offerings in this quarter.  There are some great professors teaching this quarter, but the overall docket is very thin.  I realize that us second-years are tied up with the field study project (AMR), and about a third of us are abroad.  But that should have provided us here in LA with a better chance to get some depth in our coursework, rather than giving the university an excuse to reduce the offerings. 

Stay tuned to this space to hear about updates on the International Business Association’s career trek to London!  This year, as last year, the trip will be held over Thanksgiving weekend and will give us the opportunity to meet with a variety of companies in investment banking, consulting, sports, energy, and entertainment.  Stay tuned!

-- Sreesha