The MBA Student Voice

Student Spotlight: Katherine Ozmeral

This post is a part of the Student Spotlight series where we highlight a current Anderson student and learn about their experience at Anderson. We will also get hear about their favorite Anderson memories and get their advice for current and prospective MBA students.

Today we are featuring Kathrine Ozmeral '17.

 

Tell us a little bit about your background.

I majored in Finance & Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Following school I started working at an insurance company where I sampled different areas finance: including investments, accounting, business strategy, and internal audit. Looking to transition into the retail industry in a marketing or merchandising capacity I decided to start preparing my MBA applications. While doing so, I moved to Thailand where I taught English & volunteered for the year leading up to my start at Anderson. Now that I'm here, I'm hoping to combine my passion for retail with my "social good" attitude.

 

What has been your favorite thing about Anderson so far?

The people. I was really sensitive to culture when looking for an MBA program - my undergraduate business school was very congenial; however, my first job had a very competitive culture which didn't fit my personality.  At Anderson, I've noticed that "Share Success" isn't just a saying, but a notion that every student lives and breathes. When interviewing for internships, I didn't have a shortage of alumni, second years, and even fellow first years sharing helpful tips and performing mock interviews with me. You spend a lot of time with your fellow classmates, so it's important that you enjoy their company!

 

Alumni Spotlight: JJ Haglund

This post is a part of the Alumni Spotlight series where we highlight an Anderson alum and learn what they have been up to since their time at Anderson. We will also get hear about their favorite Anderson memories and get their advice for current and prospective MBA students.

Today we are featuring JJ Haglund, Anderson Class of 2015.

What brought you to Anderson?

What first grabbed my attention about Anderson was the list of top employers and who recruited there. Before I even realized what career I wanted to pursue I was just impressed that so many grads went to Disney, Nike, Google, Adobe, Microsoft, and the like. Then the more I learned about the school and the culture, the more I wanted to be there. The collaborative environment and sense of community really resonated with me. 

 

What have you been up to since graduation?

Since graduation, I started working for Adobe as a PMM for the Marketing Cloud. I moved back to Utah, where Adobe's Digital Marketing headquarters is located (corporate HQ is in San Jose). I've still been able to maintain ties with my Anderfriends though - my job sends me to the Bay Area about once a month. We also took trips to Hawaii and Yellowstone this summer as a family.

 

Applying to Business School as a Couple

Recently we have received a lot of questions around applying to business school as a couple. For couples in this situation, there is a lot riding on the outcome of your applications. Daniela Castillo and David Valencia, members of the Class of 2016, were in this situation not too long ago. Here is their story:

Our journey applying to business school was special. Not only because we were international applicants, but also because we had a wedding to plan. We are second-year MBA students at UCLA Anderson, and we want to share with you our experience of applying to business school as an international couple.

Taking the GMAT

Business school has been part of our relationship since the beginning. We met at a GMAT student prep center back home in Bogotá, Colombia. The MBA was part of our respective career plans, and in each other we found a study partner who shared similar professional objectives.

Anyone thinking about an MBA has to face the challenging reality of taking the GMAT. Our strategy was to study at least one hour each day after work. We say “at least” because sometimes we studied for way more than one hour. It is not always easy to say “no” to other activities, especially social gatherings, parties, dinners, and the like. But we put our MBA application goal before anything else. Actually, studying for the GMAT became a way to spend a lot of time together and we learned very much about each other.

Once we had the scores we aimed for, we had thorough conversations about where we really wanted to go for business school. We spoke about rankings, career interests and classes, we reached out to alumni, and we even thought about weather as a factor that would affect our two-year experience.

Our recommendation to couples is to talk about everything on your mind. Avoid later surprises by discussing what really matters to you and your partner. At this stage, you have to factor in everything that could help you make a decision about where to go. In our case it was not easy, we each had different career priorities; but we ended up applying to three business schools that aligned with our interests, and UCLA Anderson was one of them.

What I wish I would have known when applying to b-school

Recently I have been asked by several prospective students variations of this question—if you could go back, what do you wish you would have know when applying to b-school? It is a great question. As I have thought about it, there have been several things that have come to mind, but the one I want to focus on is the importance of location.

When I was originally applying to business school, location was a very important factor. I wanted to be in a place that promoted a tight-knit student culture, and I wanted to go to school in a region I was interested in living in post-MBA. However, the one aspect of location I didn't consider, and for me as a career switcher is extremely important, is whether or not the local business community will provide me with opportunities to gain the skills and experiences I need to help me successfully switch careers.

Although I didn't realize it when applying, being in Los Angeles would be a key part of my success in being able to get to where I am now in the career switch process. Before business school, my work experience was primarily in operations. I spent the last 2+ years before Anderson at Goldman Sachs. When I came back to school, not only did I want to change functions to marketing, I wanted to change industries as well. Changing just functions or only industries is very common in b-school, but attempting to make the double switch is a bit more difficult.

So, what is the local business community like and how exactly has being in LA helped me? The startup scene in LA is booming and there are a ton of opportunities for students to gain valuable experience beyond just the typical MBA summer internship. There are also a lot of bigger well known name brands that hire part-time interns during the school year like Disney, NBC, etc. This summer I began building my marketing experience as a Brand and Content Marketing intern at Castlight Health. I wanted to continue that momentum and keep building on my marketing experience, and have recently started another internship in Brand Management at Little Tikes. I am confident that these experiences and skills I will continue to build beyond my summer internship will help me successfully make my desired career transition.

So what would I say to those out there looking to apply to business school? If you are considering switching careers, think carefully about how will the program and location of the school put you in the best position to make that switch.

Follow @UCLAMBA on Instagram to get a student perspective on life at Anderson. Also, follow me and UCLA Anderson on Twitter: @jhuntington14 and @UCLAMBA.

The Perks of Being in LA

Classes started last Thursday, and I am not sure about my classmates, but I feel like I am drinking out of a fire hose.  Stats, Econ, Accounting, Marketing, ACT Groups, Parker, clubs, Amazon Case Competition... WO.  Even though it has been a little stressful, it's been a great week!  Outside of class, on Monday, Google came and did their company presentation, it was pretty exciting.  To follow that up, Amazon was here on Tuesday.  

Later that night, after the Amazon presentation, just a couple miles away from campus, Google's Executive Chairman and former CEO, Eric Schmidt, and former Senior Vice President of Products at Google, Jonathan Rosenberg (currently serving as an advisor to Google CEO Larry Page), spoke to a small group of about 200 people.  A few of my fellow Anderson classmates and I were lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend and listen to them speak.

It was a fantastic experience!  They gave the audience a pretty unique prespective of Google, and also some great general leadership insights as well.  One of the things that stood out to me most was when Eric Schmidt spoke about "thinking 10X."  To quote from Eric and Jonathan's book, How Google Works,

"Too many people are stuck in the old, limited mindset... 'Think 10X' – helps fix that.  It encompasses the art of the possible... and the impossible."

"The obvious benefit of thinking big is that it gives smart creatives much more freedom.  It removes constraints and spurs creativity.  Astro Teller, the head of Google[x], notes that if you want to create a car that gets 10 percent better mileage, you just have to tweak the current design, but if you want to get one that gets five hundred miles per gallon, you need to start over.  Just the thought process - How would I start over? - can spur ideas that were previously not considered."  

This was just one of the many golden nuggets of wisdom Eric and Jonathan shared.  It was very inspring.  There aren't many other cities where you would have the opportunity to be less than 30 feet away from and get to hear such influential business leaders.  Definitely one of the many perks of being in LA.  You can check out the interview in its entirety here.

- James Huntington, MBA '16

Follow me on Twitter @jhuntington14 and UCLA Anderson @UCLAMBA

Why Anderson? (Part 2)

This is somewhat of a continuation to my previous post.  As an applicant/prospective student, I know how valuable it was in my decision making process to hear why people decided to attend a particular school.  As a way to pay it forward, I decided to ask some recent graduates, current students, and fellow incoming members of the Class of 2016 the question, “Why Anderson?”  I just wanted to thanks to everyone that responded!  So, here it goes.  (WARNING: This is a beast of a post)

One recent graduate, who played a huge part in me deciding on Anderson said, “I had a great career in New York, and I wasn't sure I needed to go to business school, and if I did, I thought I wanted to go to one of the top five schools. When, I was introduced to Anderson, however, my perspective changed completely. The students were ambitious but supportive of each other, and were the happiest people of any business schools I had visited. From Ivy Leaguers to Iraq War veterans to former male models, the class was more diverse than I thought possible, and I knew I could learn a lot from these people. I decided to go to Anderson over other, higher ranked schools, because it simply felt right. I have never once regretted that decision.”  She continued, "Anderson has been nothing short of a transformational experience. I became incredibly involved early on in my first year, and I have most enjoyed getting to know every one of my classmates through student government, professional organizations, and fun Anderson traditions like football tailgates, C4C Charity Weekend, and Lit Club. As I graduate, I feel lucky to have made such incredible new friends, and I know it is a network of impressive people that will help me for the rest of my life."

Why Anderson? (Part 1)

It looks like Piyush and I are either on the same wavelength.  That or we are both incoming students excited about Anderson!  Anyway, let me get started.  After the long grueling b-school application/interview process, I was fortunate enough to have been accepted to a few of the top schools in the country, including Anderson.  Having poured almost every ounce of my energy over the past two yar into the GMAT, applications, essays, and interview prep, I felt so relieved to know that I would be attending b-school at one of my top choices.  However, I didn’t realize how much effort it would take to decide which one of these school I wanted to attend.

Once I had heard back from all the programs I applied to, I revisted all the research I had done when deciding to apply to these schools.  I made pros and cons lists, read more blogs, visited websites, and spent countless hours discussing my options with my wife.  I was torn.  One day I would feel good about one school.  Then the next day it would be another.  I knew I needed a better understanding of what life as a student would be like at each one of these programs, and I knew I wouldn't be able to get a complete feel of that just by visiting school websites.  I began contacting as many current students as I could.  After talking to a couple students from each school, I was still feeling torn.  However, as time went on, and the more students I talked to, the clearer it became that Anderson was the place for me.

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.