The MBA Student Voice

Alumni Perspectives: Strength of the Anderson Network

In just under two months, it will have been a year since I graduated from UCLA Anderson.

Wow. Time flies yet again. 

For those of you who haven't been introduced to me via this blog before, my name is Kyle Forrest. Here's a link to my first post as a student blogger during my two years at Anderson. 

For those of you who have read my previous posts, it's good to see you in this space again!

I'm returning for a guest appearance to share my experience as an alumni thus far. 

For a little about me - I work at Deloitte Consulting, in our Human Capital Practice, where I focus on advising clients on HR Strategy and HR M&A. While at Anderson, I had the opportunity to serve the student body as the ASA VP of Social Events, an Orientation Co-Director for the class of 2015, and a variety of other roles. 

Below is a picture of the Orientation Board for the Class of 2015 having a fun group dinner. 

 

The inspiration for this post came after I had been working at Deloitte for a few months. At Deloitte, in addition to working on a client project, people are encouraged to work on 1-2 additional activities that contribute to the firm in some form or fashion. For example, one of the activities I worked on was returning to Anderson as part of the recruiting team. Not only was this a great way to connect with Anderson alum at Deloitte, but a way to stay in touch with the administration, class of 2015, and meet new members of the class of 2016.   

 

Pictured (from left to right): Me, Jacqueline Sutro, Geoff Hewitt, and Mark Joshua, all within Deloitte Human Capital in LA. Not pictured, two of our classmates also in Human Capital, Dan Kiernan and Fran Benjamin, and all of our classmates and colleagues in the Technology and Strategy & Operations groups. 

 

 

Separate from recruiting, I became a co-lead of an initiative doing research about start-ups, and determining what types of human capital and talent related challenges start-ups face. 

Given Anderson's reputation in the entrepreneurial and start-up world, I knew the best place for me to start my research was within the Anderson network. 

Over the course of a couple of months, I spoke to fellow alumni, current students, and professors, of which a few are listed below: 

- Leo Petrossian, class of 2014, CEO and founder of Neural Analytics

- Ari Zandman-Zeman, class of 2014, co-founder of Rubberbanditz

- Elaine Shi, COO, & Bryce Luken, co-founder, both class of 2014, COO and  - BodySpec

- Max Mauro, class of 2015 and President of the Entrepreneur's Association

- Prof. Jeff Scheinrock, who teaches Entrepreneurial Venture Initiation and Business Plan Development at UCLA Anderson, in addition to the number of other ways in which he supports Anderson's budding entrepreneurs. 

In addition to proving incredibly insightful, every single person I spoke to personally introduced me to other contacts who they felt would be helpful for me to speak with. The support was incredible. While I had interacted with alumni and seen the strength of the Anderson network in action while I was in school, I had never seen it work to this degree for myself personally. 

Since that time, I've been more active on the alumni list serves that students and alumni can join. I've seen alumni from all programs, full-time, fully employed, and executive, ask for questions, pitch investments, or seek contacts, and each and every time someone from within the Anderson network is able to help out or point someone in the right direction. 

While I miss being on campus every day, knowing that I have this incredible network standing by has made me feel closer to the school than I realized. 

Also, it doesn't hurt that Alumni Weekend 2015 is coming up, along with Tour de Strand, a major alumni attraction where I'll get to catch up with friends who have moved out of LA to pursue their careers. 

I'll close with a comment for people currently considering applying to Anderson - don't hesitate to contact alumni. We're always willing to talk about our experience, if for no other reason than to reminisce about the unforgettable two years we had. 

And with that, I hope everyone enjoys has a great day! 

Mini-Anderson alumni reunion at Lake Tahoe catching a true snow day. 

 

The End of Two Years, The Beginning of a Lifetime

A little over six weeks ago, I graduated. Almost two years ago to the day, I moved to Los Angeles. 

Wow. 

I felt prepared for business school before I had started - I'd been given advice by recent grads, read blog posts, done some prep work, but there is nothing that can truly prepare you for the transformative experience that takes place over two years. Even by the end of year one, when I thought "Ok, now I know what to expect in year two", I didn't appreciate how much could be packed into the remaining 50% of my time at Anderson. 

Now that I've had a chance to step away from school and decompress a little bit, I wanted to write one final post to share some lessons learned and thoughts, along with a good collection of photos from my Anderson journey. The thoughts are in no particular order of importance, but the pictures start from pre-Anderson and end at graduation.

Enjoy!

Pre-MBA / Starting MBA advice

(Statue of John Anderson at the entrance to school)

If you are considering applying to business school or have already applied, you've probably spent a lot of time thinking about what getting an MBA means in the context of your career. Yes, an MBA is a means by which you can career switch or advance further in your current field, but a full-time MBA is also a two year experience that has a significant personal life impact. 

C4C Part Deux: What a Difference a Year Makes

It's been about a month since my last post right before spring break, and we are now near the end of week 3 of the spring quarter. Hard to believe that I only have 7 weeks left of my time at Anderson!

However, it may be the most jam-packed 7 weeks of my MBA experience as I try to fit in every last possible business school experience as I can. I'll write about some of my non-Anderson experiences in an upcoming post so that people can learn about all the opportunities living in Los Angeles provides for having fun, but right now I want to talk about one of my favorite weekends at Anderson - the Challenge 4 Charity Sports Weekend. 

I wrote a post about it last year, but as a quick refresher, Challenge 4 Charity is a non-profit organization that nine West Coast business schools participate in. Over the course of the year, students volunteer and fundraise for charities to earn points. Said points make you eligible to participate in the final event of the year, sports weekend at Stanford.

Last year due Stanford needing to change the date of the sports weekend for logistical reasons, the group of 200+ Anderson students in attendance were primarily first-year students (my class). This year we brought 302(!?!) people to Stanford, as our C4C co-presidents, David Ketelsen and Karri VanMeetren, did a phenomenal job getting the class of 2015 hyped to attend. 

Combining the athletic talents of two classes of Anderson students resulted in the following out of 20 total sports:

- 13 teams in 1st place

- 6 teams in 2nd place

- 1 team in 4th place

Overall Place - #1 in sports!

Without further ado, here's some great photos from the weekend of our players in action and our championship teams: 

Guest Post: Lessons Learned to Make the Most of your MBA Experience

With a little over one week left in my 5th quarter out of 6 at Anderson, I've begun getting a little nostalgic. When I look back at my first year and where I was prior to starting school, I'm amazed at the number of experiences I've been through and how much I've changed personally and professionally. 

I started thinking of lessons learned to share with prospective MBA students, but was saved by a classmate of mine, Nathan Adelman. 

He recently wrote the below 5 lessons learned for The Anderson Exchange, our student newspaper. 

Keep in mind that these lessons are Nate's view on how to maximize your MBA experience at Anderson, and thus might not all be applicable to those of you who are reading this for fun and might not attend our program. 

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As I approach the home stretch of my Anderson MBA, I have had some time to reflect on some of the most meaningful lessons that I have learned as both a student and as a Teaching Assistant.  I believe the following ideas apply to most Anderson students, regardless of your career track.  Here is my list of the top five things to help you make the most of your time at Anderson.

 

Looking to Career Switch? An Interesting Graphic from Parker CMC

The Parker Career Management Center posted this interesting graphic today that I thought would be worth sharing with the MBA Student Voice readers. 

As you can see, there's a lot of career transition between industries - which is one reason why many people choose to get an MBA. What isn't highlighted in the graphic is that, for the people who stay within the same industry, a lot of them are moving to a different sector or part of the value chain. For example, some people in the technology industry might transition from a hardware company doing corporate finance to a software company doing marketing. 

This graphic also highlights the career diversity at Anderson, both pre and post graduation. That diversity is one unique strength of the program, and enables students to tap into incredible networks as they figure out their career. 

Anyways - that's all I've got! Just thought the graphic would be an interesting data point for people considering getting their MBA in general and at Anderson. 

Until next time, 

~Kyle Forrest, follow me on Twitter and follow UCLAMBA

 

Second Annual Challenge 4 Charity Winter Sports Day

It's that time of year again - middle of the winter quarter, recruiting is starting to wind down for some and crank up for others, and as all eyes begin to look towards spring break, they also notice just on the horizon is C4C Weekend at Stanford. 

As people start signing up for the sports and activities they want to participate in, what better way to prepare then to dust off the cleats and shoes and participate in some good old-fashioned competition? 

For those of you who've read through my first-year blog posts, I wrote about the first annual sports day last year. I also wrote about the AWESOMENESS and just all around epic experience that is C4C Sports Weekend at Stanford. 

To start getting everyone excited about the C4C experience again, here's some pictures from the action that took place at the Second Annual C4C Winter Sports Day. There was a twist to the competition, as the fields were a bit muddy due to some rain (sorely needed in LA these days!), but that just made for some amazing pictures. 

This year there were four sports to compete in: flag football, wiffle ball, ultimate frisbee, and dodgeball. 

 

 

This picture may be from one of the more epic plays of the day. Tie game, 20 seconds left, a deep ball was thrown that the receiver caught after the defender had his arm hit the ball. #SCTop10!

As you can see, the middle of the field was the muddiest, which made for some interesting slip and slide manuevers whenever people were running in that area. 

 

Wiffle ball made for some hilarious moments. People used to playing baseball or softball had their timing thrown off due to how light the plastic bat was - to the point that we saw some strikeouts! Tough to imagine happening, especially when batters were facing a pitcher from their own team throwing underhand... 

 

If you've never played competitive dodgeball before, it is far and away the most contentious sport out there. Arguments break out about people getting hit or not; if someone's foot crossed the line or if they jumped out of bounds to dodge a ball; if the referee is correct or not, or any nother number of things. Who knew that the Dodgeball movie so accurately depicted the competitive world of dodgeball? 

 

Ultimate frisbee was the sport that required the most amount of skill. Teams that had players who could actually throw a frisbee in a straight line quickly piled up the points, as teams that couldn't throw frequently turned the frisbee over. 

 Elliot Ling is a true renaissance man. He was the full-time MBA recipient of the John Wooden Global Leadership Award , he is a contributor to the Anderson community, and he also happens to dominate at every sport he plays on the field and isn't afraid to get dirty doing so. 

 Sports day runner-ups, a strong showing by some of the first-year students who came out and took a break from recruiting to participate. 

The winners, a group of second-years led by an impeccably well-dressed coach. Since none of the other teams were aware that they could recruit someone to dress up and play coach, this team had a definite edge. 

That about wraps up sports day. Teams have begun practicing for their various C4C sports (beach volleyball met for the first time yesterday), and excitement is beginning to build for Sports Weekend at Stanford!

In the meantime, keep an eye out for other upcoming C4C events like the Polar Plunge and the Junior Achievement Shadow Day. 

Until next time, 

~Kyle Forrest, follow me on Twitter and follow UCLAMBA

AMR Midpoint Update

As many of you who have been researching Anderson know, an integral part of the second-year experience is the Applied Management Research program. 

If you've been following my blog posts from year two, you also know that I'm on a project that is working with a breast cancer clinic in Ethiopia (if not, you can catch up here). 

From Dec 30 to Jan 12, right in the middle of the AMR experience, AMR Team 49 (Bo Pulito, Lindsay Todd, Devin Scott, Briana Kelly, and myself) had the opportunity of a lifetime to travel to Ethiopia to conduct primary research for our client. 

Here's some pictures from our trip and an update on what's next with our AMR project. 

We flew from LA to Dubai, had a 14 hour layover, and then Dubai to Addis Ababa. Pretty incredible to think that we managed to stay in the dark part of the world for the entire duration of the flight. I may or may not have taken advantage of Emirates in-flight entertainment to watch 6 full movies...

During our first day of interviews in Addis Ababa, we had to stop for the obligatory UCLA photo overlooking the city. 

Earned the MB, working on the A. 2/3 of grad school complete!

First off, I have to credit the incredible Fran Benjamin, the MCA President for the tag-line of this blog post. 

As I sit here during my last school-related winter break and enjoy some quality holiday time with family and friends, I began reflecting on one of my favorite parts of my Anderson experience to date - all of the teams I've had a chance to join. 

Over the past four quarters, I've been placed on teams, created teams, and applied to join teams. At Anderson, teamwork is emphasized as part of the academic and student life experience. It's truly one of the best ways you can learn about yourself and get challenged to grow as a person and a professional. 

Below is a sampling of some of the amazing teams I've had a privilege to be on over the course of my experience to date: 

Orientation for the Class of 2015

The Orientation Board (as the team is called) was formed towards the end of my first year at Anderson. The team was formed in two steps. First, the Orientation Co-Directors interview with the Co-Directors from the prior year. I was fortunate enough to fill that role with the lovely Shweta Kapoor this year. 

Second, Shweta and I had to interview our classmates who were interested in participating in orientation and, along with input from Student Affairs, identify 10 section leaders (two for each of the five sections) and event co-directors (responsible for orientation's social activities). 

Here's a photo of our team at the beginning of orientation, and then dressed up for the end of orientation party. 

Life as a 2nd Year

It's official - now I understand why I didn't see that many posts from 2nd year students on this blog last year. Upon returning from summer, 2nd years have been doing any number of the following things: 

- Taking a full load of electives for the first time

- Working on their Applied Management Research (AMR), Business Creation Option (BCO), or a special project that in effect serves as a master's thesis

- Diving back into the recruiting cycle

- Maximizing what could be their last year in Los Angeles by hiking, going to the beach, or enjoying the wide variety of multi-cultural options available in the city

Given how quickly a schedule can fill up, it's extremely easy to look down one minute... and look up the next and realize the quarter is almost over!

I'm going to focus on two aspects of the fall quarter so far - my AMR project and the additional schedule freedom you have as a 2nd year to take advantage of Los Angeles. 

Applied Management Research Project

As a quick overview, AMR is a requirement for 2nd year students. As mentioned above, there are 3 options for students to fulfill the requirement. They can choose Business Creation Option and help start a business; they can choose a special project (lots of options exist here); or they can go the route that the majority of students do, and participate in the AMR Field Study. For more info about AMR in general, check out the AMR website. 

My team is doing the AMR Field Study option. 

Here's everyone! From left to right, our team consists of Bo Pulito, Lindsay Todd, Devin Scott, Briana Kelly, and myself. 

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.