The MBA Student Voice

Getting started with Anderson

Hello everybody! In about 20 days I will be travelling 4,176 miles to LA and I am a bit overwhelmed as there is still a lot to do! Besides figuring out living arrangements, making ultimate changes to my budget and scheduling eating every single item on this list, courtesy of Anderson 2017 Camila Moura, I have been focusing on career preparation. As recruiting events and company presentations start as soon as 2 weeks after the quarter begins, Anderson’s Parker Career Management Center (PCMC) has put together a list of summer deliverables on career preparation and tools to complete each one. So far I have been able to work on the first 2 sets of career deliverables and I wanted to share with you a sneak peak of how these two have been helpful to me.

1. Knowing the career path you want to pursue: The first deliverable dealt with understanding how our skills, interests and motivations fit in our future functions or industries. By answering several questions about those three aspects, we were given a report that highlighted possible career paths and how our abilities match to other professionals in those careers. Reflecting on this information has helped me to have my strengths mapped out and to have a better notion of what skills I will need to acquire or improve while at Anderson.

2. Improving your resume content: The second deliverable focuses on improving our resume. PCMC has given us access to videos that address how to optimize each part of our resume by structuring each job bullet in a more result-oriented way. In those videos, I have found great examples from 2^nd year students’ resumes that have helped me highlight specific accomplishments in a more impactful way.

Apart from the PCMC Career deliverables, international students have had the chance to have a one-on-one skype conversation with Qiling He, International Program Manager and Advisor. Through our chat, she wanted to learn more about me, my career path and according to that information, she shared with me career preparation tips, as well as contact information from 2^nd year students who had very similar career aspirations and experience as me.

I feel especially thankful for all the resources we have been given, and it also feels quite great to get started on the MBA experience!

I leave you with a picture of an Anderson meet in Lima Peru!

Meet Your Classmates (Part III)

First of all, a big thank you to Petro, Ankit, and Rohan for volunteering their time and energy to craft insightful, meaningful responses to my interview questions- they're all cool dudes I'm hoping to get to know better in person!

If there's one takeaway from interviewing fellow Anderson '17ers, it's that there is immense opportunity that arises from diverse and seemingly disparate perspectives. The three students profiled come from different countries (Russia, Australia, and India) and a variety of pre-MBA jobs/functions. I was astounded by how well-traveled and cosmopolitan- yet how distinctly unique- Petro, Ankit, and Rohan all were.They are all undoubtedly experts in many things, and they all hold key pieces of knowledge and perspectives I can (if I'm smart) take with me back to revolutionize the nonprofit / education world.

Without further ado, the final installment in the Class of 2017 profiles brings us Rohan Bhatia, who hopes to use his Anderson experience to prepare himself for a management role and ultimately launch his own company in the field of healthcare technology. 

Name: Rohan Bhatia

Hometown: New Delhi, India

Prior to Anderson:

Currently I am involved in my family business, which has distribution rights for various medical devices companies, such as Carefusion (BD) & Hillrom. In our business, I have been responsible for in-house product developments. To add some perspective, I come from a technical background and before joining the family business I was working in the semiconductor/hi-tech software space. So this is a position I naturally enjoy, and during my tenure I have been able to create few solutions to automate our in-house processes and some that extend the functionality of medical devices.  Apart from this role, I was also managing a joint venture with a Taiwanese company to promote quality medical consumables in India. For the venture, I was responsible for overall business development.

Why Anderson?

Back in 2011, I was working onsite at Intel and at the time a few of my friends were studying at UCLA. That’s the first time I visited the campus and fell in love with it. So I was already sure about applying to Anderson. What sealed the deal for me was experiencing the altruistic nature of the students during my campus visit, which really helped prove to me that Anderson has a very collaborative environment.

 Another great thing I discovered about Anderson during A-Days (that’s the on-campus event weekend for admitted students) was the diversity in both professional and personal interests, which is great because I met many folks that shared similar interests.    

What is one cool/interesting thing about yourself that others would not be able to tell upon first meeting you?

 

I have traveled to 10 different countries, and worked closely with teams from one end of the globe to the other. I also have a neat collection of Hard-Rock shot glasses serving as mementos of my travels.

 

(RIGHT: Rohan with other Anderson alums and '17 classmates during a July pre-orientation meetup in India)

 

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

10 years from now, I would like to have amassed enough experience either through consulting or working at a senior position in a healthcare technology company. My ultimate ambition is to start my own company that explores novel solutions to reduce the inefficiencies in patient engagement and improve healthcare outcomes. 

 

One thing I hope to accomplish by the end of my first year at Anderson:

Get back in shape! Do the ten best bike rides in LA and Anderson's Tour de strand.  I used to bike nearly 14 miles every day to work, but lately I haven't had the time for it.

#WhyAnderson

To continue on my previous post, I'd like to share with all of you a couple of the reasons why I chose to apply and ultimately decide to attend Anderson.

Location

 

An important question to ask yourself when you're applying is: Where do you want to live upon graduating and what industries interest you? Most MBA schools post employment statistics online (see Anderson's latest one here), and the majority of students start jobs in the same region of their school. It also makes recruiting much easier logistically if you are in the same region as the companies or industries you're interested in. For me, I ultimately want to stay in California and am interested in strategy/biz dev in tech or consumer products. LA has a burgeoning tech and entrepreneurial industry (e.g., Silicon Beach, SurfAir, Snapchat), Silicon Valley is only a 1 hr plane ride away, and many companies have their headquarters or an office in LA (e.g., Pressed Juicery, Disney, Mattel, and most consulting firms) which makes it a great fit for my career ambitions. Obviously the weather doesn't hurt either ;).

 

Parker Career Center

 

Most people go back to business school to switch careers and/or gain additional business skills to further their career. I am no exception, and needed to know I would have a strong career services team supporting me. During the entire admissions process, I was strongly impressed by Anderson's Parker Career Center. When you hear Director of Career Services' Regina Regazzi and her team share their experiences, you can tell they have a lot of passion and energy for supporting students during the entire recruiting process. Students told Bloomberg/Businessweek they would give Parker an A+. School hasn't even started yet and already we have Parker deliverables to help us prepare for recruiting and I'm even attending a Parker-hosted Q&A event in San Francisco this week!

 

Culture

 

Culture is a big buzz word and can oftentimes be used very liberally, but you really can't overlook the importance of choosing a school that fits you, and only you can make that determination. While I haven't officially arrived on campus yet, through the interview, Admit Preview Day, A-Days, unofficial Happy Hours, class of 2017 Slack group, and the cohort of Anderson women I met at the Women's Forte MBA Conference the vibe has been that of a collaborative family - just like what they said during recruiting events =]! Everybody has been so willing to connect me to someone in their network who can help answer questions I have. Also, with a relatively small class size of approximately, I don't feel like I'm just one fish in the big ocean and I'll be able to meet most if not everybody in my class.

 

 

Here's a picture from a happy hour for SF Bay Area people attending Anderson in the fall!

Meet Your Classmates (Part II)

The next member of the Class of 2017 is a former management consultant from Australia looking- like many incoming students at Anderson- to make a slight career transition and to get back in touch with his inner tech side during business school. The man also takes some tremendous selfies, as you'll see below.

 

Name: Ankit Pandey

Hometown: Melbourne, Australia

 

Prior to Anderson:

I was a management consultant at Ernst & Young, within the Supply Chain & Operations practice. My projects and clients varied over my 4 years in the practice, giving me the opportunity to work across the following industries: financial services, mining & metal, telecommunications, consumer goods, construction, government and not-for-profit.

 

Why Anderson:

A key influence in me applying for business school for this Fall was to move into an industry where I could get back in touch with my engineering education. As such, California was very attractive, with the Silicon Valley and a rapidly emerging technology base in LA.

 

Also, Anderson's reputation as a consistent Top 20 business school, a technology leader amongst business schools, and an institution with strong collaborative culture, made for a very strong case. Hence, when I received my offer call at 1:30am (won't be forgetting that anytime soon!) I was more than happy to accept.

 

What is one cool/interesting thing about yourself that others would not be able to tell upon first meeting you?

I'm Indian. Now, although my name may give this away, my 'fairish' skin colour, freckles, accent and red hair that has darkened over the years, usually throw off most new acquaintances. 

  

One thing I hope to accomplish by the end of my first year at Anderson:

Is to have competed in at least one case competition.

 

One piece of advice for prospective applicants:

Brace yourself for a cliché: "You have to be in it to win it." One should not let any self-doubt of whether their application will be strong enough to result in an offer influence whether they apply. 

So you want an MBA?

Whenever I share the news that I was admitted to UCLA Anderson my friends, colleagues and well wishers alike usually ask me one question - "What was your GMAT score?". Wrong question. The right questions are - what were your responsibilities at your workplace, how did you demonstrate initiative, what was your leadership experience like, how did you differentiate yourself in a highly competitive applicant pool?

As you can surmise from the picture above, success is an iceberg. Anything worth having requires a lot of dedication, persistence, a few failures but most important of all a plan of attack that is executed upon with consistency. A majority of us assume that an admission to a MBA school must be a few months of hard effort. I beg to defer. The final admission offer was YEARS into the making starting from an individual's undergraduate school, maybe high school even. Getting into a top MBA program is a marathon, not a sprint.

To any Anderson hopefuls out there or for that matter any of you even remotely thinking of getting an MBA - start planning now. As any gym instructor might tell you half the battle is just showing up. If you visit cities with MBA schools in the vicinity make it a point to drop by and take a look around. Start reaching out to anyone with an MBA in your current network to get a perspective. Even if you do not know anything about the GMAT start tackling a few questions just as a puzzle that needs solving. Assess the opportunities at your current workplace and be more pro-active in seeking out the activities that demonstrate your potential. Start detailing a plan of attack and lay out a 3 month, 6 month and 1 year plan - goal visualization and planning are critical to success.

I end this post with one last sagely advice - The worst mistake you can make is to assume that you will tackle the admission process when ready. Small incremental changes can lead to monumental exponential progress.

Until next time...

Meet Your Classmates (Part I)

Sometimes, the best way to get to know your future classmates is to just ask them. This week, I messaged several other Anderson '17 classmates to briefly answer some questions about themselves, their goals, and why they chose to come to Anderson. I'm sure we're all excited to find out more about the people we'll spending time with, so without further ado, our first '17 classmate profile hails from Russia and (no big deal) just a casual polyglot looking to learn Spanish and surf...

Name: Petro K

Hometown: Moscow (for the last 8 years); I was born in Ukraine.

Prior to Anderson: I am (still employed!) a corporate finance senior manager at one of the largest Russian banks. My role and responsibilities from the financial advisory side include: financial restructuring (aligning debt repayments to company’s future cash flows), business valuation, financial modeling, due diligence and buy/sell side M&A (both debt and equity deals).

From a consulting point of view, my responsibilities are: advising C-level executives on immediate and long-term remedial actions (identification of bottlenecks, hidden internal resources and market opportunities) required for turning struggling companies around and proposing to the bank's top managers the best exit strategies. The most exciting part of my profession is that it brings me much sought after satisfaction and meaningfulness (sometimes I even feel like a doctor!). Prior to that I worked at Deloitte (Transaction Services) and PWC (Financial Advisory).

Why Anderson? I was most attracted by UCLA Anderson's three defining principles (Sharing Success, Thinking Fearlessly, and Driving Change) – this is exactly how I love to live my life. Anderson’s entrepreneurial spirit, very supportive culture, and nice weather are other reasons why I am really excited about my choice!

What is one cool/interesting thing about yourself that others would not be able to tell upon first meeting you? I am fluent in four languages: Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian and English. I have basic knowledge of German and upon arrival to LA will begin studying Spanish. So, I would love to connect with anyone speaking Spanish fluently who wants to learn one of the languages I speak fluently.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? In 10 years I want to be an impactful entrepreneur in technology.

One thing I hope to accomplish by the end of my first year at Anderson:   

Professional goal: for my summer internship, I want to receive two job offers: one in tech and another one in consulting and manage to do both of them!

Personal goal: I want to learn to SURF– it’s really amazing to slide on the crest of a wave!

Cultural goal: I want to fully immerse myself and my family into American culture/life.

One piece of advice for prospective applicants: Do your own research: learn about both UCLA Anderson AND yourself (dig really deep). Build your network and speak to UCLA Anderson alumni and current students, and join the GMAT Club for help, advice, or latest rumors. 

Mouse Ears On!

As the inaugural blog post, I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself.  I'm a recent full-time grad of the class of 2015 and currently doing Marketing and Operations for Disney Interactive in their Media division.  In my subsequent posts, I'll share more in depth about my job, my mentors, and life in general post-grad.

To get to know me a bit better, here's a couple of things about myself:

• I'm a double Bruin and bleed blue and gold
• I live with another Anderson alum who works at Mattel
• I was a "fake FEMBA" and started my full-time job before I graduated
• I've never met a donut I didn't like

And, here's what to expect from my blog posts:

• Plenty of Disney (and Star Wars!) references
• Random alumni cameos
• An honest look at life working at the House of Mouse

I look forward to writing these posts and connecting with all of you!

Col-LA-boration

 

"Our students are very collaborative!" - Anonymous student at any MBA program

If you reach out to any potential student at an MBA program you are bound to hear the word "collaborative". Although a lot of students say that their schools are collaborative I feel that Anderson was the most collaborative school out of all the schools I reached out to.

Applying to Anderson was no easy task and I needed all the help I could get. The application process was arduous to navigate and between trying to give the GMAT, researching essays, networking with currents students help was sorely needed. I reached out to multiple students at various schools and most were willing to schedule a phone call or two or answer a question over email. 

In contrast, my experience interacting with Anderson students was phenomenal. Students at Anderson not only answered my questions but some also proofread my essays and setup multiple mock interviews with me - not an easy task for a first year student at the school. Everyone was open to sharing information freely often giving me more than what I needed. Students went the extra mile to make sure that I felt comfortable about Anderson and making sure that I apply. 

The pre-Anderson MBA trip to Binsar, India

As soon as I was accepted I got consumed by a flurry of activity. The current class of Anderson was engaging not only through Facebook and WhatsApp but also through Slack, a networking platform intended to promote collaboration across multiple teams. Students were constantly informing each other about articles read, upcoming deadlines for summer deliverables, rate plans for health insurance, cheering their sports team and even recommending movies worth a watch. Furthermore, students were taking the initiative to setup trips even before setting foot at Anderson. I personally had the chance to meet my fellow students in India at a Pre-Anderson trip to Binsar, Uttarakhand and made some great friends with whom I will be spending my next few years at school.

All this indicated to me that at Anderson collaboration isn't just a buzzword and that Anderson's three principles - Share success, drive change and think fearlessly, are embodied at every student attending the school.

Culture shock!

 

 

Culture shock!

Culture shock is an all too familiar experience for international students that visit the United States for the first time. Although most cultures have mass consumed the culture of United states via Social media, television and various other avenues nothing prepares you for the real deal.

I have spent most of my adult life in the US when I came here at the age of 17 and have been meshing with the US culture ever since. I have spent the last six years working for a Fortune 200 company where I have experienced these differences first hand. So when I decided to spend my summer working for a company in India I started to notice the miniscule differences in my country’s work culture and my findings both delighted and intrigued me. In this context the findings of social psychologist Geert Hofstede are mentionable.

Hofstede laid out what he calls 5 dimensions on which you can compare the national culture of two countries. The three key metrics that stand out are Power distance, Individualism and Indulgence,

• Power Distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. A higher power distance number means that indicates an appreciation for top-down hierarchy. For instance, unlike the United states where you can relate to your boss on a first name basis it would be considered disrespectful in India to do so. 
• The Individualism dimension represents the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members.The United states scores high in this regard. In combination with the Power distance metric this means that in the US employees are expected to be more forthcoming and to seek out new opportunities. 
• Finally the Indulgence dimension shows the extent to which an individual can display restraint. A higher score in this regard would demonstrate low level of restraint.

It is important to be mindful of such differences as you try to navigate the hiring process and network with students, alumni and recruiters alike. The Dashew center at Anderson provided ample resources to international students to get them prepared and polished prior to recruiting season. Even before school starts international students are on-boarded by a Parker CMC advisor (shout out to Qilin He!) and we are signed up for mandatory iStart sessions along with international orientation sessions. 

Prepare yourself for the corporate culture in the US. Find out how your country’s culture compares to the United States? Check out today at http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html

 

 

Summer Postcard From Boston

Everyone's summer before business school is different. My future '17 classmates are doing everything from going on transcontinental road trips to simply working full time and saving up. Here's a little taste of what I am up to this summer:

Soaking up as much knowledge as possible in my summer internship: I applied to Anderson planning on staying in the same industry (nonprofit education) but transitioning to management and operations post-MBA. I've been fortunate enough to be doing an internship that has been the perfect bridge between teaching and business school. I'm assigned projects that are definitely areas of growth for me. For example, one of my projects has been to help draft our school's annual report to the Massachusetts Department of Education, and the task requires compiling data and information from a wide range of staff members. The assignment has forced me to be intentional about networking with colleagues and following up consistently in my communication.

Learning Excel: I knew almost nothing about Excel before this summer, but am getting a lot more experienced through tutorial videos and using it in my internship projects. I've been watching the Excel tutorials on Lynda, which is offered through UCLA for free! You can find the link here (scroll to the bottom of the page).

Downsizing my belongings: It's always a strange experience- albeit a necessary one- cleaning out your belongings before any big transition. Below are some of the oddest things I found and likely parting ways with (and which may also be coming to a craigslist posting near you!):

- one- but just one, not two- winter snow boot (I'll never stop looking for you, left boot!)

- a fishing tackle box (I have never fished in my life, so curious as to why I even have this)

- middle school yearbook (sadly, time to let those glory days go...)

(ABOVE: Most of the books I have owned the past 10 years. Yes, I'll be donating them- the market for old LSAT prep books isn't exactly buzzing these days)

Looking for an apartment in LA while living in Boston: Fortunately, my girlfriend's parents live near LA and were gracious enough to act as surrogate property viewers for us, taking pictures of the different apartments during viewings and scanning/emailing us the rental applications. We've been using WestSide Rentals- I know there are mixed reviews but the site has generally worked out well in terms of supplying legitimate listings. We're still in the application process so I am keeping my fingers crossed!