The MBA Student Voice

Starting your MBA Life Tips

First of all I would like to say I am still alive! I am very sorry for the lack of posts but first quarter has been super busy (also super fun)! Today I want to talk to you guys about some tips that might be useful when starting your MBA life. Regardless of which MBA school you go to this will be useful (Though of course you should go to UCLA Anderson!). Lets get right to it:

- Your first MBA loan check won't be ready when you arrive at UCLA. Why? As soon as you get to Los Angeles you have to go to the financial aid office and personally sign a contract and hand in some documents. Without this the loan process can't start and If I remember correctly this whole process takes about 2 weeks. The good news is the financial office will kindly extend your tuition payment deadline but you still need to pay for your living expenses so make sure you have some savings or borrow some money from a family member for those 2 weeks. 

- Don't go grocery shopping crazy. I stocked up on food and cleaning supplies as soon as I arrived at Los Angeles. BIG mistake! First of all during orientation UCLA will provide you  with breakfast and lunch. Once classes start, clubs have so many events and left over food it is not very hard to get a free lunch almost every day. Groceries will expire all the time so buy only what you think you will use in one week. 

-Using a mac laptop for class is doable. If you look at the laptop requirements for school in this page, you will see windows and office are necessary. Alot of people in our class were worried about if they should use BootCamp, Parellels, or just buy a windows laptop. I do not own a mac computer so I don't know how they solved the problem but as you can see in the following picture many people in class use a mac and they manage:

Don't they look good in orange? 

-Get a roommate, preferrably from a different country than you. Alot of people will disagree with me since they prefer to live alone or feel safer getting a roommate from their country that they can relate to. I say be adventurouse, you go to an MBA to have new and exciting experiences and UCLA is so culturally diverse it is a shame to miss this opportunity. My roommate and classmate, Nhung Phung, is from Vietnam (I am from Mexico) and it has been an awesome experience sharing a home with her. I totally recommend it! 

My roomie and friend, Nhung :)!

-Strive to do things out of your comfort zone. This is the time to experiment, really. No one here will judge you, in fact people here are so nice that they support you and help you on anything you try. Here is a picture of me and some of the friends I danced with on a play during orientation. If you have ever met me you know I am the world's worst dancer, seriously. Everyone in that picture was super supportive and patient with me!

The start of our dance routine!

-Push yourself to talk to new people every day. Once classes starts you might find yourself trying to hang out with the same people all the time, don't. Try walking up to a circle of people you have never spoken to and introduce yourself, you don't want to miss out into meeting all your awesome classmates! 

These are only the first years!

-It is true you don't need all the books. I was warned by second years to wait and see if I actually needed all the books for class and I did not listen. Now I have a $200 dollars book i bought for a class and I never even read it! 

-Listen to second years. Really they know better, I wish I had listened to them more. They are all very nice and happy to help. It is a great community so don't be afraid to ask for advice. You can always contact me, I am happy to chat with anyone interested in UCLA Anderson! 

-Have fun. The MBA life is very busy and stressful but it is also the most fun you will ever have so make lots of friends and enjoy it :)! 

A group of Ucla bruin bears I saw during a tailgate. I love school spirit!

Happy holidays!

 

-Alejandra Rodriguez '14
Follow UCLA Anderson at @UCLAMBA

Opportunities Abound at Anderson

It's a little over halfway through the first quarter at Anderson, and as predicted, it's turned out to be very busy! Club events, recruiting, networking, classes, and homework seem to fill up every hour of the day. I never used a Google calendar before school, but now I refer to it several times a day--sometimes just to figure out which classroom I'm supposed to be in!

Despite the pace of the fall quarter, I'm trying to take advantage of the many opportunities offered at Anderson. For instance, this past week I attended a talk with Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. Dean Olian asked Ms. Nooyi several questions about her experiences and challenges at the helm of PepsiCo, then Ms. Nooyi entertained questions from students. One key piece of advice for future managers? "Invest in communication skills."

Of course, it wouldn't be a business school event without a free lunch. Fortunately, instead of the usual pizza, we were treated to a box lunch with a variety of PepsiCo products. Did you know Pepsi makes hummus?

So as I finalize my schedule for Winter quarter, I'm trying to leave some "white space" to attend more events like this. I have a feeling two years are going to go by pretty quickly, and I don't want to miss out!

-Ann Ching, '14

Follow me on Twitter: @annibbler

10 Reasons Anderson Orientation Rocked!

Top 10 things from UCLA Anderson Orientation

1. Game Day & Skits (Section Competitions)

2. Scavenger Hunt

3. Luau

4. Club outings & Social Hours

5. Prestigious speakers

 

Jim Morris, Chairman & CEO of Pacific Life

 

6. Extra curricular activities i.e. surfing

7. Leadership Foundations Rope course

8. 1st Official UCLA Anderson Football Tailgate

 

9. 80's Party Finale

10. Welcomes from Dean Judy Olean, Regina Regazzi & Parker Career Center and our distinguished professors!

 

Dean Judy Olean welcomes Class of 2014

 

 

ALMA Welcome Week Event!

UCLA Anderson Latino Management Alumni

Welcome Week event at Obika Mozzarella!
When: October 9th, 6pm - 8pm
Alumni: $15 - Students $5
Where:  Obika Mozarella - Century City Westfield, 10250 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA

First week for orientation (and my birthday)!!!

Hey everyone!! Last week orientation started and it has been awesome! The first day of orientation was actually my birthday and it just marked the start of a great week. Let me tell you all about it! 

I finally got to meet all my classmates in section A (the island section!) and our awesome section leaders Robbie and Aviva:

They are enthusiastic second years who have generously donated their time to organizing orientation activities for us, guiding us in our first days here, and making us feel very welcomed. Thank you guys for all your efforts for us, section A loves you both!!

We got a welcome from the MBA program deans, an introduction to orientation and to the Parker Career Management Center. I love how they decorated the conference room with flags from all the countries our very diverse class represents:

That evening I had dinner with some of my friends at Tomodachi Sushi in honor of my birthday. The sushi there is really nice and it is right in front of weyburn terrace. 

Back to orientation we have been taking a class called Leadership Foundations with Professor Kashkooli:

Our section is so luck to have him teach us! He makes our lessons so fun and interactive. We had a lego man building competition (You should go to Ayushman's latest post for a picture of it) and many leadership cases. I know what you must be thinking "Cases? Ew what is so fun about that?". Well these cases are! We had one that described clues for a murder case and, at the time we did not know but, there were three versions of it with different information and we got in groups to try to solve the case (our team got it right of course!).

We also had another one where we had to imagine we were stranded in a mountain during a snow storm and had to rate, individually and as a team, a list of 12 items according to how important they were for our survival. I have to tell you guys I think I had the lowest score ever on this one, I have no survival skills. I hope I never get stranded in a snow storm in a mountain and if I do then I hope one of my classmates is with me, some of them turned out to be very good at this!
Did I tell you guys that section A is the best section ever and that we are out to win the glorious and coveted section cup? We were born ready for it, just look at all this section spirit:

We all secretly decided to wear our section t-shirts on the same day and people in the other sections were so confused wondering if they had missed something! It was so much fun! If you play close attention to the picture you can see Chris Varin, a fellow blogger, right there on the bottom right. He is also a proud member of section A!

Another super fun activity we had last week was the scavenger hunt! We ran all over UCLA taking funny pictures, according to instructions on a list, while we got to know all the campus. This is me and two of my teammates planking like champions during the scavenger hunt at UCLA: 

Doesn't the picture scream fun!? If there had been a planking competition we would have won for sure! 

There is still another week and a half of orientation to come so please look forward to my next post about week 2 of orientation! A second year told me week 2 is way better than week 1!

 

-Alejandra Rodriguez '14
Follow UCLA Anderson at @UCLAMBA

A Story About Networking

During the final evening of MLT's Career Transition and Leadership Seminar (CTLS) event, I found myself with a hundred-plus other Fellows in the Citigroup building at 388 Greenwich St. in New York. Deloitte Consulting was hosting this particular reception. I had spent the past six years in advertising, and even on client visits I had never been in a place so... corporate. Nor did I have much detailed knowledge about consulting (and I had yet to begin my House of Lies marathon). As instructed, I came prepared with some light background info on Deloitte, but my uneasyness was a sure sign that I should have read up even further. More on that below.

The view from 388 Greenwich St.

Twenty minutes and a few appetizers later, I was sitting at a roundtable with a few of my closer Los Angeles-based MLT Fellows. As we talked amongst ourselves, a tall, elegant lady walked to up to the table and introduced herself as a consultant from Deloitte. We quickly racked our brains to think of smart questions to ask, but she instead requested that we introduce ourselves. Soon, she was giving us the inside scoop on management consulting, from the hours and lifestyle to the variety of projects in which she had taken part throughout her career. Merging a U.S. company with a Japanese counterpart. Improving customer service via digital technology for an airline. At one point I asked the most embarrassingly basic of a question about consulting, which she answered fully and respectfully. Very cool.

 

The conversation was still going strong thirty minutes later when a guy approached the table and tapped her on the shoulder. It was time for her speech. She excused herself from the table with a smile, and stood three feet away, facing a podium. Another gentleman took the podium and summarized some very impressive career accolades before introducing our new friend as Principal and Managing Director of Deloitte Consulting NY, Terri Cooper.

Now, there are a few practical networking lessons that you may have picked up in this little anecdote, including:

• Be prepared. Particularly for pre-planned networking events, you should be ready to engage in at least a basic professional conversation with anyone in the room.
• Be proactive. Despite this story, having Principals approach you is actually quite rare.
• Be yourself. It's a cliche for a reason. Initial conversations will be more interesting and sustained relationships will be more authentic and rewarding.

My true purpose in sharing this story, however, is to remind us all that networking is about people. Throughout business school we'll learn countless rules and tips and tidbits about how to approach corporate representatives, how to ask for business cards, how to gracefully exit those awkward little career fair circles, how to be memorable, how to follow up, how to prioritize and cull contacts based on personal goals. Et cetera.

Ultimately, it's still all about interacting with another human being. I have no interest in consulting. I may never see Terri Cooper again. But I learned more about an entire industry in that thirty minutes than I had in my entire life. Simply by enjoying a good conversation with an open mind.

Always be networking.

- Gregory Paige
  (Follow me on Twitter: @gregorypaige)

Top Advice for Women MBAs from the 2012 Forte Conference at Anderson

This summer I attended the Forte Foundation Conference, held at Anderson this year, and I would highly recommend it to all other women MBAs. I've shared some of my favorite advice below from the powerful women business leaders at the conference, as well as the insight into the true highlight of the conference for me: meeting a fantastic group of other women MBAs and Forte Fellows, not just my future classmates from Anderson but also women from other leading Forte schools. The event brought together amazing, intelligent women from a variety of background interested in a variety fields so it was an amazing opportunities to share ideas, hear about their experiences, make friends and compare goals and prospects.

I have had the opportunity to work with with amazing, successful women in primarily female-dominated industry in New York, but it was extremely exciting to talk to women from a wide range of industries with diverse perspectives. While many attendees were on different trajectories than mine, we all had similar goals: career success, life balance, mutual respect, leadership. There was a strong contingency of my future Anderson classmates, as well as women pursuing MBAs from places as varied as Canada at Queen's School of Business and Berkley's Haas to Emory's Goiezueta and UVA's Darden to Northwestern's Kellogg and NYU's Stern. I had insightful conversations with women from international backgrounds, women interested in fields similar to my background and interests like marketing, tech & digital media, entertainment & fashion, entrepreneurship as well as women with more technically trained backgrounds like engineering, computer programming, environmental sciences or from totally different industries like non-profit, education and public policy.

Plus, it was inspiring to hear from successful, powerful women who are already successful in industries I am interested in, powerfully leading fortune 100 companies or starting exciting new, successful businesses of their own. Plus we met representatives from a variety of institutions from Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Intel, AT&T to health-care and pharmaceutical companies (I had a great time at cocktail hour with two ladies from Lilly who were a delight) to energy and financial services (Chevron, Fidelity, Goldmans Sachs, Exxon, Deloitte are all big sponsors). Here is some of my favorite advice given at the conference.

TOP ADVICE FROM POWERFUL WOMEN BUSINESS LEADERS AT THE FORTE CONFERENCE:

 

Joyce Roche & Cathy Coughlin from AT&T, Luncheon Keynote

"Play the hand you are dealt with, and play to win"
    -Cathy Coughlin, SEVP & Global Marketing Officer AT&T 

 

"The difference between a manager & a leader is that leaders sign up up for outcomes"     -Cathy Coughlin, SEVP & Global Marketing Officer AT&T

"Be tough on issues & attack with everything you can, but don't be tough on & attack your people."
    -Joyce Roche, Board of Directors, AT&T & former CEO, Girls Inc.

"Visionary leadership is something that never goes out of style."
    -Joyce Roche, Board of Directors at AT&T & former CEO of Girls Inc.

"My most important advice is this: as a competent woman your voice can and SHOULD be heard. Assert it!"
-Patricia Yarrington, VP & CFO of Chevron

"Today is the most exciting time to work at intersection of small businesses and technology."
    -Cindy Bates, VP of Microsoft's US SMB Organization

"Have an informed viewpoint, and recognize your ability to lead and inspire"
    -Cindy Bates, VP of Microsoft's US SMB Organization

"To be a good leader you have to surround myself with people who bring something to the table that you don't and be comfortable with it. Different perspectives lead to different outcomes that are ultimately best for your company and your customer."
    -Cathy Coughlin, Senior Executive Vice President & Global Marketing Officer AT&T

 

Alison Pincus & Susan Feldman, co-founders of One King's Lane, with Anderson's Elaine Hagan

"Become an expert in something you care about, and then follow your dreams passionately but not recklessly"
     -Alison Pincus & Susan Feldman, co-founders of One King's Lane

"Our digital identity & brand can be more public & powerful than how we’re known & perceived in the physical world."
    -Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD, Principal Renaissance Strategic Solutions

 

"'Technology' is the new horizontal. It is no longer a vertical industry, but is instead horizontal across all industries"
    -Seema Kumar, salesforce.com 

"The most successful technology products are the ones that are most seductive & win your discretionary time"
    -Elisa Schreiber, Hulu (she invented TEDEX)

"The sweet spot for successful tech companies right now is their ability to analyze and translate data into what  the end user does with it in their everyday lives. We need the analytical capability to go beyond number crunching and draw out deep insights that other people can't necessarily see"
    -Jennifer Larson, IBM

"Mobile is the greatest place to be right now for new businesses"
    -Seema Kumar, salesforce.com

Everything said by Anderson's Dean Judy Olian, who opened the conference and moderated several keynotes. I am a huge fan of Dean Olian's & she is a great advocate for women in business. I've heard her speak many times about where women should be vs. where we are, and she has the facts and figures to back up her message that more intelligent women should be in positions of power in business. If you ever get a chance to hear her speak, do it!

Ladies, if you haven't joined Forte Foundation already, I highly recommend it. Whether you are pre-MBA or MBA, a women in business or just considering a career in business, check out more about the organization here, and enjoy!

XO from Anderson,
Ashley

Starting to say goodbye

Just Tweleve more days until I leave for Los Angeles! I am so excited about it that I keep getting the urge to start packing but then I remember I still need my stuff around for the following twelve days!!! So this is what I have been up to:
A week ago my best friends, Brenda and Ali, organized a Goodbye party for me! Alright, I admit I kinda peer pressured them to do it haha, but they enjoyed it too! (Thank you Bren and Ali!!)  I had alot of fun chatting with my friends and eating burgers but a part of me started feeling sad about all the people I care about that I won't be able to see so frequently anymore.

                                       My friends Meli, Bren, Ali and me at the party.

If you are planning to do an MBA away from home I highly recommend you start spending more time with your loved ones. If you can, quit your job a atleast a few weeks before you move out and spend some time with your family and friends because when the day draws closer it just won't feel like enough. Airline companies please lower the prices of Los Angeles - Monterrey tickets!! Pretty please?
My dear friend Meli gave me this adorable tissues holder at the party:

I have several allergies so I alway carry tissues with me in case I need to blow my nose. Isn't that super sweet and thoughtful of her?

Yesterday was my favorite person's birthday, my mother's. Thus my family got togheter to celebrate. I'm really happy I was able to still be in town for her special day and make her birthday cake. Well more like pieces of birthday cake since it broke when I took it out of the cake pan. It was still a delicious mix of brownie, vanila cake and chocolate frosting so all was well and happy.

 

                                                That's my mom in the middle.

Other than that I have been delighting myself in the joys of funemployment! I have been eating out with my friends, going to the movies, waking up late, and failing at my diet attempts. Good fun!!

 

-Alejandra Rodriguez '14
Follow UCLA Anderson at @UCLAMBA

When food strikes

One of my favorite aspects about MBAs is the many opportunities to meet interesting people. It starts from the moment you attend your first MBA talk or fair and continues all your life as long as you remain involved. A few weeks ago I had one of such opportunities; I was invited to a barbecue with other Mexicans going to MBAs this year.

 

(2014 MBAs from Monterrey)

I had so much fun meeting them and listening to their experiences. The highlight of the evening was when one of them told us about the time when he was on his way to one of his MBA interviews and there was an earthquake. As he calmly made his way to a safe area, a woman running in panic spilled coffee all over his suit. He had to run back to his hotel room, while the building was being evacuated and hotel security tried to stop him, so he could change to a clean suit (the things we do to get admitted!). After finally arriving to the interview location he spent two hours waiting for his interviewer to show up until he realized she had been sitting next to him all along! We could not stop laughing at his misfortune.

I thought my story about the waffle machine that broke and showered me and my only dress with waffle mix right before my interview was hilarious but he outshined me. A tip for all those applying to MBAs this year: Keep a change of clothes handy before any MBA interview. You never know when food will attack you!

 

-Alejandra Rodriguez '14
Follow UCLA Anderson at @UCLAMBA

Summer Seattle Anderson Mixer: Students, Alumni & New Admits

I'm loving living in Seattle for my summer internship working in Marketing and Operations at Microsoft. I see a good deal of my Anderson peers and last week, attend attended our super-fun Anderson Seattle Mixer! Over 25 students and alumni working in technology in the Seattle area gathered at A Terrible Beauty for a beautiful evening on Lake Union. Claude Brun of Microsoft and former head of the Seattle Alumni Chapter, gave his last speech to the group and thanked student interns and alumni employees from companies like Microsoft, Amazon, T-Mobile, Nordstrom, Boeing and Goldman Sachs for attending. David Cooley of Parker Career Center attended in high spirits and thanked the HTBA and other sponsoring organizations that make these summer mixers possible. Students have a great opportunity to attend to attend these mixer in cities like LA, San Francisoco, New York, Seattle, Orange County and more to meet alumni, hang out with other interns in their city (Andersonians stick together!) and network the heck out of the summer during our internship! 

xo from Anderson,

Ashley

Ashley Mallinson, Class of 2014  - @ashleymal - Follow @HTBAAnderson !

 

Seattle is beautiful in the summer!