After six long years of being a cog in a wheel of a well-oiled financial machine, I found myself applying a bit late in the game for round 3 admissions to UCLA Anderson School of Manangement. It's one of those events where all the stars seemed aligned and the timing seemed perfect--of course, I later found that things never go the way they are initially planned.
I currently work as a financial consultant at Charles Schwab in Century City. We are one of the premier branches in a network of 300+ nationwide, and I've been here for the entire length of my post-undergrad employment. I was hired straight out of UCLA undergrad (I admit, I lucked out as Schwab mostly hires Series 7-licensed reps) as a client service specialist and after two years of proving myself, my manager put a whole lot of faith in me and promoted me to financial consultant. This happened in August of 2007. And we all know what happened later on that year: The financial meltdown. My job is rooted in sales & service coupled with advising, so when the crisis hit and continued its downward spiral, I faced some tough obstacles, to say the least. But in the end, I managed to survive and learned many invaluable human lessons along the way.
Although given great opportunities at Schwab for which I'm eternally grateful, I found that I wanted a new set of challenges & experiences. I decided that it was time to take my future in my hands and change its trajectory. I took the GMAT, then took it again, and finally, after a grueling round 3 application process, I found out in late May that I was part of the Class of 2013 at Anderson. I couldn't have been more ecstatic the moment I checked the Apply Yourself site on that fateful day. I was an anxious ball of nerves and my heart was beating out of my chest and my palms wouldn't stop sweating, but as soon as I read, "Congratulations..." I jumped up and couldn't help but do a fist pump (or two). The only other time I was this excited was when I found out that I was accepted to UCLA undergrad back in 2001.
So with this, I am part of the elite Class of 2013 at UCLA Anderson and can't wait to document my experiences and share them with the rest of our online community!
