The MBA Student Voice

Looking Ahead to Year Two

It's finally arrived... the end of the internship chapter of my MBA and the beginning of year two. Nothing sums it up better than a song I'll be sure to karaoke this year, The Final Countdown.  

While many of you have been hearing a great deal about why Anderson and how to prepare for the MBA experience from the fantastic bloggers in the class of 2015 (Aimee, Alena, Buzz , Daniel, Devon, Lorraine), this post will provide some perspective on what I'm looking forward to as a 2nd year student. 

Internship wrap-up and career decisions

As of today, August 30th, I'm officially done with my summer internship with HP. It's been a wonderful learning experience. I worked with an incredible team, discovered what it's like to actually work for Corporate HR, and even gained exposure to additional functions, such as Supply Chain. 

While my time at HP helped me realize that I could have a future career within Corporate HR, especially at a company like HP, or others within the technology industry, I now have a lot of thinking to do as to whether Corporate HR, or another function, is the right next step for me. I'll give you an update on my career decision in the coming month. 

Los Angeles: A Vegetarian Paradise

If you're like me, you spend a significant amount of time each day thinking about food. First of all, I'm a grazer. I am hungry all the time. Secondly, I don't eat everything. Actually, I don't eat a lot of things.

As of last summer, for a variety of health and moral reasons, I am a proud (mostly) dairy-free vegetarian. I avoid meat completey and avoid seafood unless I know - and can most likely see - where it comes from. It's easier than going vegan, but pretty difficult nonetheless. 

Fortunately, there are few better cities in which to live than Los Angeles when it comes to eclectic vegetarian cuisine. So, for the others of you out there with morals (I kid, I ate meat for 26 years #nojudging), or for those who simply like the veggie option and want to expand your horizons, here is a sampling of some of my favorite vegetarian, vegetarian-friendly and vegan spots in Westwood and beyond.

The MBA Student Voice: Sig-O Edition!

Hello! My name is Sunny, I'm a Taiwanese-Canadian florist/calligrapher and I'm turning 30 in a few weeks! I'm also married to a 2nd year MBA student—his name is Mike, I met him in the 7th grade, he's a structural engineer & wannabe real estate developer—which is what brings me here: to share with you some of my experiences as a Sig-O ("significant other") at Anderson.

This time last year, we were walking around in Westwood looking for a place to live so that we can get settled in before orientation began. Mike was preparing himself mentally to being a student again and I was trying to come to terms with this new supportive housewife role I'd apparently signed up for. My point is, we've been there/done that, and we get what you’re going through: this whole moving to L.A. and going down to one income so your husband/wife can get their MBA thing is interesting, isn’t it?

But you know what, it is pretty cool actually. Besides the fact that you now live in Cali-freakin'-fornia where it's all sunshine & blue skies every single day, this 2-year transition period also creates one of those rare gaps in your life where you get to leave that job that you don't 100% love, start over in another city, try new things, meet people from all over, and just take some time to figure out what you want to do with your life, all while taking credit as the awesome amazing person who made these huge sacrifices so that your spouse can pursue their dreams.

Humility

Last week, I was a man of the mountains. Though it's not what you might think.

First of all, allow me to explain why I've missed a few (as in, many) weeks on this blog. Life has taken me by a storm:

Specifically, a bit over one month ago, a nonprofit I have volunteered with in the past contacted me asking for help. Their annual summer program - a week-long arts camp for young people affected by and infected with HIV/AIDS - was coming up, and they were still missing an integral member of the leadership team. I was planning to volunteer for a day or two at the camp this year, but with my summer work schedule did not think I would be able to make it up for the entire camp. But, despite my best effort to avoid any additional commitments this summer, they needed me. So, I went.

Starting in early July, I dropped everything (well, not everything, but unfortunately blogging was one of those things), rearranged my work scheduled and focused on preparing for camp.

And it was worth it. Last week was magical.

One week before my flight to LA

     Past week was very busy for me as I had to settle down so many important things: a visit to lawyer to organize my life here without me for the following two years, a visit to relatives, parties with friends and last day at work. Someone would choose to stop working earlier, but I decided to stay at my employer till the last moment. It was hard to say good-bye to people with whom I have worked for 6,5 years, but my last working day was very nice with so many good words being said, with so many presents and wishes to achieve my career goals and to have very interesting life at Anderson in the coming years (second photo in the post is from farewell party at my work).

So, I decided to dedicate this post to saying good-bye to Moscow using some pics I have taken lately. I have two goals of uploading the pics in my blog: the first is just to highlight the beauty of Russian capital and the second one is to demonstrate that sometimes we just walk by and don't see the beauty surrounding us. 

I have lived all my life in Russia and got used to pass by Pushkin monument every day on my way to work without paying attention to it. It is a funny thing, but last week when I was in a hurry for my work I noticed a group of tourists in the metro station Mayakovskaya where my office is located. All these tourists were looking up and making photos and I also stopped to see what they were just looking at. You''ll see below the photos of mosaics on the ceilings of the station which I have never paid attention to. Probably my soon departure from Moscow made me care for the beauty of my own city, probably it was just a coincidence, but I looked up and then every single day I made photos of different places and monuments just to have them with me in Los Angeles. See below some of these pics to feel the spirit of Moscow:)

 

Two More Ways To Save Big On MBA Tech

If you've thought about persuing an MBA, then you've probably asked yourself, "Is it worth it?" I asked the same question (A: Yes!) and now find myself asking it about all sorts of things related to back-to-school. Along with campus housing, MBA tech is a great place to find value with pain-free ways to save.

 

Laptops

My $1422 MacBook Air

Whether you're looking for a simple user interface, all-day battery life or just the coolest looking notebook around, the MacBook Air is a great choice. But for UCLA Anderson purposes*, the MacBook Air presents a significant problem: it doesn't run Windows out of the box and installing Windows can add hundreds of dollars to the cost of your PC.

Yet, with a little price shopping and internet savvy, you can have your MacBook and eat it, too. I bought my new MacBook Air direct from Apple and all of its software and accessories online. Here's the cost breakdown:

Look at that! A brand new, Anderson-ready MacBook Air with a RAM upgrade, Windows 8 Pro, Office Home and Business and a sharp looking case, all for just $1422. For those of you keeping track, that's $323 less than the list prices and $578 less than Anderson's suggested computer allowance of $2000.

*Anderson uses Microsoft Office features and educational software that work best with Windows.

 

For the MBA with a Significant Other...

Husband.  Wife.  Partner.  Significant Other.  Sig-O.  Better Half.  The list goes on...Before applying to UCLA, I was a little concerned about going back to school with a wife and new baby.  I had heard the misconception that most MBA students were single and that I would be the part of a very small minority of students with families or significant others.  I was worried that one of two things would happen--I would either end up diving too deep into the MBA social scene and lose out on "family time" or I would overcompensate for being gone so often that I would miss out on the MBA experience.  Fortunately, that isn't the case at UCLA Anderson.  

15 years ago, only about 25% of incoming MBA students had spouses/families.  Now, the number is reaching 40% or higher at some schools.  This makes sense, since the average pre-MBA work experience each student is around 5 years, making the average student age 27-28.  In response to this growing trend, UCLA Anderson, and many schools for that matter, have created well-organized programs/clubs aimed at the significant others of the MBA student.

At UCLA, we have the following resources to involve our families in the program.  Believe me, if they want to be busy and involved, there are plenty of activities to choose from!

The Results Are In!

Class may not start until September 23, but don't tell that to the team at Anderson's Parker Career Management Center. With their strategic selection of pre-orientation deliverables (and due dates!), they've had the incoming Class of 2015 hard at work well before any of us have set foot on campus.

Among the deliverables is the CareerLeader Self-Assessment Tool. CareerLeader is a research and data-supported "approach to business career self-assessment built on the premise that one's interests, motivators and skills will drive their future career success and satisfaction."

My reasons to choose UCLA Anderson

    A question "what school to attend" comes to a great number of accepted applicants and the answer is always specific to your particular goals. See below my reasons for attending Anderson this fall and some thoughts and things to consider when you have to make a decision.

    1. Rankings. A lot of people consider school's placement in different rankings and I was also the one who googled Full time MBA rankings before I made my decision, so I could understand the inclination to just go with TOP-5 or TOP-10 school and be just fine. But then I made a consideration of other factors (that I will mention below) and decided just for myself that rankings is just one factor and not the decisive one. I even compared it with GMAT score during application process - it is good if it is withtin school's 80% range and is balanced, but not "the make or break". So, with ratings I decided that a school within TOP -20 in the US will be this "80% range" and I never turned to rankings again.

    2. Employment report or companies that recruit on campus.  I have talked to dozens of alums from different schools and the majority of them said to look closely to the employment reports first. The closer the school year is, the better I realize how right they were. For instance, if you dream to work for company X, you should look at the # of graduates and interns this company hired from the latest intake in the school. I made a close look at Anderson employment report, considered trends within several years and came to 2 conclusions:

• Tech companies have very good presence at Anderson and they hire about 1/5th of the class and as I look closely on technology sector, this school is very much for me!
• Anderson class is very diverse in terms of career paths people choose. There is no dominant industry and I like this fact from the learning environment point of view.

5 Application Fallacies

The original title of my blog post was going to be "5 Application Fallacies That I Straight Up Debunk Cuz That's How We Roll at Anderson", but the more conservative "me" took hold and I went with the plain vanilla title.  There is a latin phrase "res ipsa loquitur" which means "the thing speaks for itself."  This blog post hopefully does just that and helps all of you out there to approach your applications with correct expectations.

1.  If I don't get a 700 on the GMAT I have no chance and should lock myself in a dark, damp closet as punishment.

Have you ever seen those "Keep Calm and..." signs?  They should make one that says "Keep Calm and Be Happy with Your 690."  Let me qualify this.  If you have taken the GMAT multiple times and you max out in the 670-690 range, calm down and realize that the GMAT is but one of many measurements the admissions committee takes into consideration when evaluating your candidacy.  Here is some basic information about how the adcom looks at the GMAT.  The more balanced the score, the better.  If you have to be better off in one section, be better in quant.  Why?  They want to make sure you don't have a nervous breakdown when you dive into the very quantitative courseload.  If you only take the GMAT once and your high score is 670, take it again.  The adcom will appreciate that you attempted improving your score, even if it goes up a mere 10 points.  If your GMAT is a 590, you're in trouble.  However, each top business school admits someone with a very poor GMAT score, but that's probably because they had an AMAZING story to tell in their essays, work experience, or recommendation letters (i.e. you were a member of Seal Team Six, you made a career out of saving stray animals and turning them into trained acrobats, etc.).  Here's the bottom line--remember that the GMAT is but a piece in the puzzle.  Don't let it discourage you.