The MBA Student Voice

Stepping back into the Real World….For Just A Minute!

About Me: Originally from Orange County, CA, I’m a rising 2nd Year and thrilled to be back in Westwood as a Double Bruin. My passion for strategy and technology stems from a broad-ranging career encompassing brand management, entrepreneurship, and government. I currently hold the VP of Alumni Affairs for Anderson’s student government and am the Managing Director/Co-Founder of the school’s newspaper, The Anderson Exchange. I volunteer as an MBA Fellow and active alum of Anderson’s Riordan Programs. Follow along as I blog while spending my summer working with Google in Mountain View. 

Day 1 of "The Internship": “Good luck…and by the way, you’re overdressed!” I hear the new roommate yell over my shoulder as I head out of my San Francisco four-story walk up apartment. I crack an uneasy smile looking down at my business casual pressed slacks and feel like the kid mom dressed on the first day of high school.

The last to jump on the Google shuttle to Mountain View, I get the ‘who’s the new guy?’ stares while I find a seat at the back. “They’re probably just admiring the slacks,” I lie to myself. Pulling out my laptop I can feel my hands are clammy - first day nerves are definitely settling in.

I take a deep breadth and a classic John Wooden quote pops into my head. “Trust your training.” Good ol’ Coach. My first year at Anderson has been tremendously transformative; however, it’s been particularly impactful in building confidence to run with the best of them in the “real world”. Reflecting upon a few of the takeaways from Anderyear 1, here are the ones I walked into Google with on the first day…

Hello from India!

Frantically preparing my tools on an oil rig in the middle of the Thar desert in Rajasthan, India, my heart skipped a beat when the mail popped up: "MBA Admissions decision available now". With trembling hands, I opened the link and signed in: finally, it was here! After 3 months of preparing for the GMAT and refining essays and 3 months of waiting for the decision, it was finally time to stop worrying about what I would do if I don't get in to Anderson and start worrying about what I should do once I get there. It's going to be a long and fun 2 years, and I very much look forward to sharing my experiences along the way with all of you.

My name is Nikhil George Punnoose and I'm from a fairly small town in Kerala at the southern tip of India, which means I'm probably quite different from most of the Indians you may have met before. I went to the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras to study for a dual degree (bachelor's and master's) in Electrical Engineering, but decided to switch things up and enter the energy sector as a Field Engineer for Schlumberger after I graduated. After a heady two and a half years of oil rigs in the desert, oil rigs in paddy fields, oil rigs in tea plantations, oil rigs on the beach and oil rigs in the middle of the deep blue sea, I came to the conclusion that I was spending entirely too much of my twenties on oil rigs. It was a very unique and intersting experience, though, and I'm very glad to have gotten the opportunity to gain a thorough grounding on how the drilling and exploration side of the Oil and Gas business works, and especially the key technologies that are in play in that area. I hope to use the resources and knowledge that Anderson will provide to also get a grasp on the business side of the equation. I intend to be involved with the Management Consulting Association and the Strategy and Operations Management Association as well as the Energy Management Group and the High Tech Business Association. I'm also really looking forward to exploring all the great foodie culture that Los Angeles has to offer with Anderson Eats and the Wine Club.

It's hard to look cool when you're free falling at 15000 ft.

Outside of work, I am a voracious reader, a fickle writer, and an enthusiastic traveller; I have gone scuba diving in the Lakshadweep islands, skydiving in Houston, and skateboarding down mountain roads in Switzerland. I've also gone on a cruise to Alaska, on desert safaris in Dubai, to watch some great stand-up and theater at the Edinburgh Festival (and Fringe), whale watching in Boston, to the casinos in Macau, and around Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. I will also be backpacking across Europe next month, before leaving for LA. 

There are so many things to figure out over the next couple of months - housing, insurance, loan applications, settling in... I haven't even booked my tickets yet! I will be sure to keep updating here as I go through this whole process, and I hope I manage to get across just how excited I am for this new adventure to begin!

~Nikhil George Punnoose, find me on twitter here and if you aren't already, do follow UCLAMBA.

Ready for the next two years

In the words of the late Christopher Wallace, “I’m going going, back back, to Cali Cali.”  Ever since making the decision to attend Anderson a few months ago, I am pretty sure that song has been playing on repeat in my head.  I am so excited to return to my home state and start my journey at Anderson!

My name is James Huntington, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be one of the UCLA Anderson Class of 2016 student bloggers.  I hope I can offer even a fraction of the insight that I was able to gain through reading the posts of bloggers from the Class of 2015, as well as other past student bloggers.

Anyway, a bit about me.  I was born in Okinawa, Japan.  My mother is Japanese and my father is from the U.S.  Contrary to most assumptions, my father did not serve in the military.  They actually met in Idaho of all places… and the rest is history.  I lived in Japan for a total of about eight years.  Other than that, I primarily grew up in Northern California.

In 2003, I moved to Provo, UT to attend Brigham Young University.  I graduated in 2008 with a BA in Japanese.  Post-graduation, I worked at The O.C. Tanner Company, an HR consulting firm in Salt Lake City as an International Operations Analyst for just over two years.  I then transitioned into my current role at Goldman Sachs, where I will be for a few more weeks until we moved down to LA the beginning of August.  I have been working as an Operations Specialist for a little over two years now, and have been focusing on risk management related to futures and options trading for the firm and our clients.

Let's Get Started!

Hi Everyone!

My name is Asher Kurland, and I am an incoming student to the UCLA Anderson full-time MBA class of 2016! I am so excited to be a part of this amazing program with an equally amazing group of people! I can't wait to start sharing my MBA journey with you here via the MBA Student Voice.

First, let me tell you a little bit about myself: I'm from Brooklyn, New York and currently live in New Jersey with my wife Ruti and one-year-old son Yonatan. I have always lived in the NYC area, so moving to LA is a big move for me! Somehow, I don't mind the frigid, snow-choked winters or the sultry summers here in NYC, but I will have no trouble getting used to the balmy SoCal climate!

Ruti grew up in LA, and we visit often, so I know LA pretty well. I am looking forward to revisiting some familiar places and discovering new ones, with new friends!

In pursuing an MBA at Anderson, I am making a career shift from the actuarial consulting field, where I have worked for over 5 years, to transition into investment banking. In future posts, I would like to get into more detail on career paths, and a whole lot of other good stuff business school and Anderson related. 

At this point in my pre-Anderson preparation, I am busy wrapping things up in NYC before flying out to LA in a couple of days! So far, I have gotten to meet some of the awesome NYC area admits at local happy hours, and I can't wait to meet the LA crowd very soon!

I look forward to sharing my journey with you throughout the summer!

Best,

Asher

California Dreaming!

My name is Zafeer Khan and I am one of the Class of 2016 bloggers looking forward to sharing my journey over the next two years. I was born and raised in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a small country in South Asia surrounded by India in the North and West, Myanmar in the East and the Bay of Bengal in the South. Bangladesh is a commonwealth nation so I ended up studying under the British system of education and had to take my Ordinary Level and Advanced Level exams out of high school (by the way, no relation to Ordinary Wizarding Level (O.W.L) exams, Harry Potter fans!).

I came to the US in 2004 to pursue my undergraduate studies at Georgia Institute of Technology. After graduating with a degree in Computer Science I decided I did not want to code for the rest of my life but stay in the tech industry and learn the business side of things, so I got into Technology Consulting. I worked in strategy consulting providing advice and assessment to top technology companies as well as worked in systems implementation helping both private and public sector clients upgrade their legacy business processes. I have been doing consulting for the past six years for both a small and large consulting firm, raking in tons of experience that eventually helped me secure a spot at a top business school - Anderson.

Anderson was my first choice due to its location in California and proximity to the tech startup industry. Plus, over 300 days of sunshine is not a bad deal either. My post-MBA plan (contrary to my application essay) is to get into the startup space. But that’s the beauty of business school and Anderson, you get to choose what really interests you. Check out some of the career switches through the Parker Career Management Center.

Over the next several weeks I will share more about my moving experience from Atlanta, GA to Los Angeles, CA, getting ready for school, participating in pre-orientation trips and much more.

By way of introduction here is a picture of me and my sister near Carmel, CA during our California road trip down Pacific Highway 1.

Here is a picture of me whitewater rafting in TN last weekend. I am the guy posing instead of paddling.

Year 1 finish line

This week I realized that the first year of MBA is done. Yes, I still have a couple of take-home exams to submit by Wednesday, but the mood is already in the summer mode and the time has come to make conclusions about first year experiences and set the goals for the next year.

In the past couple of months I have met a lot of people thinking about getting an MBA or who were admitted to UCLA Anderson and the most common question I hear is "why did you choose UCLA Anderson" and what were your experiences like?". You can read my reasons to choose the school in my last year post. In terms of the experiences, this year has been awesome and I can't be happier to have chosen UCLA Anderson a year ago and further I will tell you why.

• School name is a very good brand. Whenever I mention I am attending UCLA Anderson, people say it is very good school with strong reputation and community. A lot of companies have very strong relationships with Parker Career Management Center and they hire a lot of Anderson folks. Alumni network is also very strong and supportive: whenever I had any queries about the job in a company, I could always reach out to alums and ask for an informational interview - even top level managers could always find the time for me.
• Community at school is super supportive. Should I have any issue with not understanding a concept in class or personal issue like getting to another part of the city without a car, my classmates are always ready to give a helping hand. It is also true for people several years out of school - I got the mentor from Women Business Connection Club and she has been very helpful to me in terms of advice on my career search and she helped me to get ready for the interviews for my summer internship. This kind of relationship is very valuable and clearly demonstrates the community at school.
• Career services. We all come to school to ultimately find a job or start your own business. This year has been very stressful in terms of the career search but Parker CMC has been my point of contact, my family, my psycological center, my decision-making place and advice center. I am looking forward to helping Parker CMC with the newly admitted class of 2016 in their career search.
• Location. Honestly I don't go to the beach very often but being 1 year in a wonderful climate helped a lot. I became more healthy in terms of food I eat and amount of exercise I do, I have seen a lot in the city and fell in love with it, so I will be interning here in the summer as well.

When someone asked me what I didn't like at UCLA Anderson, I could not come up with something on the spot, but now I know what it is - I don't like that the time here flies by so quickly.

XOXO,

Alena