The MBA Student Voice

First Impressions of LA

Finally- the first blog post actually from Westwood! We arrived late Sunday night and spent this week getting settled in to our apartment (ie. building hordes of IKEA furniture). Here are some of my first impressions of LA: 

Anderson people KNOW their social media:

Before I came to LA, I thought I was hip to the tech scene because I used Google Drive. How foolish and naive of me! I can barely count all the different ways Anderson 2017 people communicate, socialize, and organize events with one another: GroupMe, Slack, WhatsApp, Facebook groups (probably missing a couple other platforms here). Section assignments and fall class schedules were released late this afternoon via email and within seconds the Anderson 2017 GroupMe was blowing up my phone with classmates announcing their sections and talking trash about the best section (clearly Section B- so step off, Jordan Stone from Section E whoever you are). 

Take advantage of the days before orientation starts:

Before we continue any further, let me just say that I'm an introvert. I spent the majority of my undergrad freshman orientation week squirreled away in my dorm room with the shades drawn playing online poker. And not going to lie- I enjoyed it thoroughly.

But honestly, any academic on-campus experience is at its essence about the people you meet and the relationships you build. Not taking the time to get to know my neighbors, classmates, and hallmates really set me back a ton in me getting the full college experience, and I was determined not to repeat my mistakes this time around for business school. The days and weeks before Anderson orientation starts provide ample opportunity to get to know your classmates. I would hardly say I'm a social butterfly, but I'm planning on attending / have attended a social Anderson event each day since I finished setting up IKEA furniture:

- meeting up with a group of 6-7 Anderson people at Philly West for a beer Wednesday night

- spending today at Six Flags with a group of 15 classmates and significant others and then getting ramen on Sawtelle Boulevard. Thanks Angela for organizing such a great trip and to Sicong for driving! We all learned that Andry has the ultimate selfie stick (ask him when you meet him) and that Ean and Natasha know a thing or two about cross-continental road trips. Check out this group of photogenic characters to the right at the end of a long day of riding roller coasters (also happy birthday Lucia!):

- going hiking at Sandstone Peak for an Anderson pre-orientation day trip on Saturday

- heading to Qs on Wilshere Saturday night for a meet-and-greet with more Anderson 2017 people

Indeed, if there's one thing you learn as a teacher (or any professional job for that matter), it's that a vast amount of your effectiveness as a professional depends on your ability to make and sustain meaningful relationships with the network of people around you.

The middle of America is absolutely underrated: 

We traveled through Nebraska, Iowa, and Utah on the way to California, and all three states feature breathtaking landscapes and the nicest people you will ever meet:

Looking at Ghost Rock at a rest stop in Utah. I mean seriously, this is the view from a rest stop. Imagine what it's like in a national park!

A rain shower and partial dust storm in Nebraska.

LA drivers are just as crazy as their NYC and Massachusetts counterparts:

Only with less honking. But with an equal disdain for turn signals- there, I said it.

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. 

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. 

A Culture of Happy

Here's an interesting question to ponder:

What would your Netflix watchlist and queue reveal about your personality, your priorities, your mood, and your interests? With the Breaking Bad chapter of my Netflix life finally concluded, I recently embarked on a summer documentary binge-watching streak, with the most recent one being Happy, a 2011 film directed by Roko Belic and focused on positive psychology and happiness.

Belic's film features a variety of individuals from around the world (a rickshaw driver in Kolkatta, a Louisiana fisherman, a single-mother family living in a Danish housing cooperative, among others).  At one point in the film, Knox College Professor of Psychology Tim Kasser explains how true happiness and life satisfaction is tied most deeply to four intrinsic human goals/desires:

- close community of family and friend relationships

- opportunities for personal growth

- status and personal recognition

- ability to help others and the world at large

These goals seem relatively self-evident and almost obvious, but the film raised lots of questions that I had already begun to ask myself when I started the business school application process: how can you create a genuine staff culture in schools (and an organizational culture in general) that allows for employees to hit all of these four benchmarks of happiness without negatively affecting productivity, efficiency, or the bottom line, whatever that may be (profit margins, standardized test scores, win-loss records, etc.)? Can happiness and an optimal bottom line truly coexist?

As I peruse the first year curriculum at Anderson, I'm looking forward especially to two things:

- taking Organizational Behavior during the Spring Quarter.

- attending Anderson's Management and Organization Speaker Series. There was a really interesting talk last November by Hengchen Dai about the "fresh start effect" on motivation and willpower (if anyone here has ever thought New Year's resolutions to eat better and exercise more are silly and pointless, this is for you!). 

Is it possible to systematize and sustain employee happiness and motivation, in our schools and in our businesses? As teachers, my colleagues and I have always focused on improving student and classroom culture- ensuring that our classes provided a safe, focused atmosphere where students could be comfortable making mistakes, collaborating with their classmates, reading difficult literary texts, etc. Yet, we often inevitably overlook our own mental and physical health- our staff culture- as I learned the hard way my first year teaching. So what DOES it take to create a culture of happy?

Getting Down to Business (School)

Let me get straight into it and give you the lowdown on yours truly:

My name is Yu and I am going to be one of your student bloggers. I was born in China and moved to the United States at age five. After doing the whole childhood / angsty teenager thing for a while, I headed off to college intent on studying history and becoming a hotshot lawyer.

That's when everything went awry.

After graduating from Penn in 2010, I taught/tutored as part of a service program called MATCH Corps. It was only supposed to be a one year gap in my master plan before taking the LSAT and heading off to law school, but urban education grew on me and ultimately become a calling. I've spent the past four years teaching a motley crew of subjects (World History, English Literature, AP English, Physics) and coaching sports at an alternative school called Phoenix Charter Academy. Phoenix is a Massachusetts charter school network that specifically enrolls and serves low-income students with behavioral, academic, or social-emotional issues that prevented them from being successful at traditional district schools.

(BELOW) "Hey you! You gonna finish those Doritos? Cause Mr. Chen didn't eat breakfast this morning..." That's me dropping some knowledge in a Conceptual Physics classroom!

So why business school? I can give you the whole speech complete with bells and whistles later, but the gist of it is that I want to make education- urban education in particular- a more sustainable, viable career path. All the teachers I have met work incredibly long hours, sacrifice countless weekends lesson planning and grading, and ride the emotional rollercoaster with our students- yet that in it of itself is part of the problem- at some point we all run out of steam. What can Anderson teach me about keeping teachers happy, balanced, and coming back to the classrooms? That's what I'll be packing my stuff into a dinged-up 2008 Honda Civic in mid-August and driving 3,000 miles to LA to find out.

Between now and then, I've got quite the grocery list to check off, including...

- finding an apartment in LA

- brushing up on my Excel skills (currently non-existent)

- working as a summer intern with my charter school network's development and operations team

- growing out my hair from East Coast-teacher crew cut into luxurious locks of West Coast sunshine

(ABOVE) School's finally out! A native Bostonian doing his best California beach impression. 

That's it until next week. In the meantime, check out the Facebook page for one of Anderson's most popular student organizations - Challenge For Charity. It's one of the clubs I am definitely hoping to join when I arrive on campus and their page really gives into an "authentic feel" for both C4C and the Anderson student body.