The MBA Student Voice

The Calm Before The Storm

I can't think about it anymore.  

Finals start in 10 hours, 19 minutes (but who's counting?) and I've now hit the point of no return for tomorrow's final.  Which means either (a) I'm ready and confident, or (b) I'm a complete muppet.  

I'm not sure which is more likely. 

Tomorrow's exam is open book, open note, open computer, no internet.  I feel like I know the stuff well enough, and there's no point in memorizing formulas or doing any last-minute cramming because anything I don't know, I can look up.  

Famous last words.  

* * * * * *

There were two great alumni mixers last week, both of which were student-organized through the Marketing Association and the Entertainment Management Association.    

I'm continually impressed with how active the UCLA Anderson alumni are with the school.  So far, of the alumni that I have met or called, they have all seemed very open to hearing from current students and very helpful with helping us with our career search.  Last week was no exception. 

We also had two interesting speakers at the two events: Thomas Crahan, National Manager of Product Planning at Toyota, came to the MA event; John Fogelman, a board member for William Morris Endeavor, spoke to the EMA.  

Mr. Fogelman also gave us a great gift -- a NERF gun with three foam bullets, which of course meant that there was an ensuing NERF battle in the atrium of one of our buildings -- which I inexplicably missed but was clued in by my good buddy and fellow blogeteer John Park (he didn't tell me who started it, so I'm guessing the culprit was J-Park himself!).  I made the mistake of leaving my NERF gun in my flat, which of course meant that Mrs. V shot me when I got home the next night from campus.  Grumble.   

(By the way, I think she really likes how intense the business school program is.  She spent most of this evening downloading 80s television shows from Hulu.  Tonight it's 21 Jump Street, with Johnny Depp.  If I walk by and see Mario Lopez and Tiffany Amber Thiessen on her computer screen, then I should take her out someplace.)  

* * * * * *

Two non-Anderson things to bring up.  Firstly, even though I am not a Penguins fan, I do enjoy catching the Empty Netters blog hosted by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Seth Rorabaugh.  Great read for hockey fans. 

Secondly, after spending Thanksgiving driving back and forth between Westwood (where UCLA is) and  Mrs. V's relatives in Burbank and Glendale (about 30-45 minutes away from UCLA), I strongly feel that the next governor of California needs to institute driving re-education in this state mandatory for all California drivers license holders.  Here's the syllabus:  

* Module 1: Manual Transmission.  After this module, students will have an appreciation for the fact that some cars require the driver to manually change gears ("Manual Transmission"); students will also understand that when on an inclined road, one should leave more than 2 millimeters of space between one's own car and one of these vehicles.  Extra Credit: Students will be encouraged to drive Manual Transmission vehicles around town (these must be purchased by students separately). 

* Module 2: Blind Spots.  After this module, students will be able to disprove the myth that if Driver A can see Driver B, Driver B can also see Driver A.  Students will also have experience with the difficulties of merging onto a motorway when another drive is in the student's "Blind Spot". 

* Module 3: Lane Management.  After this module, students will have explored how the UK's rule of banning undertaking coupled with requiring drivers to move to a slower lane if a faster car is behind, allows for traffic to flow faster, thus helping all drivers reach their destinations faster.  Students will also appreciate how the UK's motorways has fewer traffic accidents per capita than motorways in California, even though speeds in the UK are routinely 2-3 times faster.  

Failure to pass the course will require a student to sit in 100 hours of government-managed traffic for experiential learning of the three modules above. 

I bet only 20% of Californians could pass this course, and that's including 5% who are celebrities and get away with anything.  

That's all for now.  See this space for the post-finals quarter recap!   

-- Sreesha

A Guest Star on Learning Teams

The goal of this blog is to expose readers to the breadth of the Anderson MBA experience, but of course I can only write about what is happening to me.  Thus, I try to encourage other students to share their perspective on the program and post it here.  Alex Thibault was kind enough to talk about his learning team, which is a group of five students to which we are assigned each quarter to do homework, study, etc.  Study groups typically have varied personal and professional background, as will become apparent in Alex’s text below.

A quick word about Alex.  Just like me, he comes from Montreal, Canada, but I must admit that unlike me he is a true hockey fan (since I only watch it if the Canadians are in the playoffs).  Actually, he is at Anderson to transition into sports management, preferably in the NHL, I would imagine.  Like many of us here, his background doesn’t have much to do with where he wants to go since he is a lawyer, but this is all about leveraging our “past” in a way, and I’m confident he’ll be successful since he made it that far after all.  Here are his two cents below.

–Simon

“Hey guys, I don't have my own blog, but I still wanted to share my learning team experience with prospective students.  I used to be an attorney and, basically, hadn't done math in the past decade before coming to Anderson.  I landed in a learning team with 2 engineers, an accountant and an ex-consultant, so needless to say I have to work extra hard in a bunch of quant classes.  I can't stress enough how great all of those guys have been to help me get as much out of this program as possible and, like most teams in our section, we've all become great friends in the process (see picture below)!  Hope to see you all at Anderson sometime soon!”

–Alex

Alex’s learning team at a recent group dinner (from left to right are Markus, Hannah, Alex, Elaine and Jason)

Applied Management Research -- my project

In the second your of your MBA experience at Anderson, you will be required to complete a two-quarter thesis project, referred to as AMR (Applied Management Research). Although there is an option to create a business (aspiring entrepreneurs, email me if you'd like more information about that opportunity, and I'll put you in touch with friends who are going the BCO -- business creation opportunity -- route).

My project has been amazing. On top of getting work with four talented, brilliant classmates, I've been getting valuable real-world consulting experience. Our field study engagement is focused on improving the operational efficiency of a Ghanaian health care facility called Korle Bu. Korle Bu is the largest provider of medical services in Ghana, and is the teaching hospital associated with the University of Ghana. It's located in the capital city of Accra, and three of my teammates were there last week doing extensive research on the current practices employed by the hospital. In January, I'll have a turn to visit -- by then, we will have a set of recommendations and will take advantage of another week on the client site to test them out and put on the final touches. The project will conclude with a final presentation in early March.

The MBA Advantage

Every week, Anderson welcomes several prospective students seeking to learn more about the MBA program.  During their visit, prospectives have the option to attend a lecture in one of the sections.  Last week, I was discussing with a prospective who wants to transition into the healthcare business, and I was asked the sempiternal question: should I do this MBA or what?  While I used to agonize over this question, I can answer it pretty simply now that I am two months into the program.  If you currently hold a good job and can transition on your own, forgo the MBA and save yourself some time and money.  However, here are the factors that will catalyze my career change and that may apply to you as well.

First, I have numerous venues to reach top employers.  I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: don’t engulf your precious savings into an MBA unless you are accepted at a top school, such as UCLA, because top employers recruit at top schools only.  As an MBA student, not only do you get to meet in person with company representatives on campus during corporate presentations, but you also have the opportunity to visit their offices during Day on the Job events, eat with them at Dinner for Eight events, and interview on campus.  If a company does not actively recruit on campus, you have access to the alumni database to determine if former students work there and tactfully ask for some guidance.  Moreover, many current students can help you connect with companies they used to work for.

The goal is to use these resources to obtain a summer internship with your favorite employer and secure a full-time position one year later.  Since these internship positions are typically only open to MBA students, I have a significant advantage over non-MBA would-be career-switchers.  What I did not anticipate before attending Anderson was the importance of what I’ll call “MBA grooming” to penetrate super-competitive fields such as consulting and finance.  These firms have a precise idea about what they are looking for in a candidate in terms of knowledge, but also behavior.  The career center and the many student associations help us train for these competitive positions and act in ways that increase our chances of being recruited.  Again, I feel that it would be very difficult for a non-MBA to switch to a super-competitive field without this kind of guidance.

Finally, I’ll add that, for people with minimal business experience, doing an MBA is an even better deal.  I have learned tremendously during the past weeks, and I am impressed to see how all courses – Economics, Accounting, Statistics, Marketing, and Finance – are interrelated.

–Simon

The Ander-flu Strikes Again!

It's going around again. 

The Ander-flu, the nasty virus that isn't really the flu but still makes us Andersonians sick, is making a second pass around campus and decided to stick on me.  For a change, I've decided to fight back early: I took the day off from school (ok, so there's no classes because of Veterans Day, but I'm still taking credit), doused myself in Theraflu and Gatorade already.  And I slept very soundly for 10 hours.  

Poor Mrs. V. was up half the night, however.  Funny how that works. 

* * * * *

As I mentioned in my last post, entertainment industry titan David Geffen came to speak to us here on campus last week.  It was a massive opportunity for us to hear from someone so accomplished in music, film, television, and theatre.  The Dean of the Anderson school moderated the session.  

What I found most impressive was that Mr. Geffen took opportunities as they came, rather than having a clear goal in mind.  He started in the mail room of a talent agency, getting that job only because he lied on his resume about having graduated from UCLA.  (The Dean was quick to point out that (a) it was never too late to do his degree, and (b) that lying about graduating was not a path that she would advocate.)  He got into theatre because a friend of his recommended an opportunity.  

He donated $200 million to the UCLA Medical Center because he was tired of going to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for his constant back problems.  (You know, for $200 million, I think the Dean can let some or even all of the credits slide and just give him the degree.  Although if he was in my section, I would definitely vote for him for social chair.)  

Most interesting for me, though, was his response to the question I got the opportunity to ask him: what is one thing that you would change in the entertainment industry today?  His response: "I wish there was no digital."  

That really surprised me.  I appreciate that digital content has been and will continue to be a massive driver for change in the entertainment industry, but I would have thought that Mr. Geffen would be in the camp of promoting the opportunities that come with it.  To be fair, I had the last question of the session before the Dean took back the reigns and asked more of her own questions, so maybe he didn't get a chance to elaborate.  But I definitely didn't expect that answer. 

But then that's the point with these events -- we get the first-hand experience and insights of some of the most respected captains of industry, across many different sectors, and in my experience, these insights have been genuine and unfiltered.  It's these insights that are such a big part of the MBA experience, especially at Anderson.  

* * * * *

If you ever surf onto this board and don't see any updates from me, you should definitely check out what my fellow blogeteers are up to.  I thought my buddy Simon Jaud's post on video games and brand management was insightful (especially as, for a change, he didn't mention DaVita!).  

My interest in video games is on the brand management of sports titles.  John Madden may have retired from broadcasting, but his video game sponsor, Electronic Arts, still hosts "Sundays with John" where EA clients can watch football with Madden in his office, which EA has kitted out with multiple HD LCD big screens.  Tony Hawk became legendary after his video games -- now an Activision property -- took off outside of X-games enthusiasts.  I found the Activision presentation equally as exciting as Simon did for that reason. 

Simon failed to mention a crucial detail though: he mentioned that at their corporate presentation on campus, Activision gave us free video games, including their massive hit "Band Hero".  But Simon didn't tell you about the raffle: they held a raffle whereby a few lucky winners won various prizes.  The big prize was a free Band Hero set.  And, for the first time that I can remember, my ticket was drawn!  So I got to walk away from the presentation with such a big video game hit.  It was very thrilling and exciting.  I can't wait to crack it open out of the box!  

* * * * *

Capitals update: 10-3-4.  Am very happy with the win over Florida on Saturday especially because the goals we scored were the grinding, banging in front of the net type goals that we will need in the playoffs.  And to score seven goals with Ovechkin hurt and Semin a non-factor is a HUGE plus.  Check out the highlights here!

Till next time! 

-- Sreesha

Straight From Freshman to Senior

It's funny -- I thought it was going to get easier second year.

It definitely hasn't, but there is a big difference this go-round. I'm doing a lot more things that I've chosen to do, as opposed to things that are mandatory parts of the program. That's not say the mandatory stuff last year was anything less than fantastic (see any of the posts from the 1st-years this fall), but it's definitely a different mentality going into Year 2. 

In this sense, Anderson definitely has a Senior / Freshman culture, and it's actually a great way to have this b-school experience since there is such a strong sense of camaraderie among all the students here. The "Seniors" really take care of the "Freshmen" here -- I got the benefit of it last year, and am proud to have the opportunity to give back now that it's my turn.

Second-year provides a ton of opportunities for leadership at Anderson, and I'm trying to take advantage of a few of them. First, I am co-Partner of the Anderson Strategy Group, which is the student consulting firm. Anuradha Kumar, the other partner, and I have hired 10 first-years to join the group, and have them staffed on seven different strategy projects this fall.

Second is that I am a TA for the core Economics class. This is a great way to get to know the first-years, since I spent 3 hours a week in class with them, give review sessions, and hold office hours. I also get to make a good connection with a professor -- in this case, Victor Tabbush, who is an accomplished and gifted professor here and specializes in Economics and Health Care Management. (I'll write about my awesome AMR project in a future post). 

Third, I am the Coordinator of the Management Communications TA program, which provides communications consulting services to students preparing for presentations.

These are just a few of the many leadership opportunities that exist here. You can also be on the board for a club (such as the Marketing Association, the Public Speaking Club, or the Investment Finance Association, just to name a few). You can be an ACT coach and help first-years prep for recruiting. You can help with Orientation. You can be on the student government. The list goes on ...

Of Beer, Human Food, and Zombie Fodder

One of the first courses you’ll take during Anderson’s MBA program is a statistics class during which, O joy, you’ll learn all the intricacies of confidence intervals.  While this topic is more of a conversation killer than anything else, it does have pretty useful applications in real-life.  For example, imagine that you want to market a new product, but you are unsure whether it will be well-received by consumers.  How many people should you poll until you can be confident that their opinion about your product is representative of, say, the country as a whole?  What we learned in class is that solutions to such problems lie in the Student’s distribution, developed by a statistics enthusiast who worked for the Guiness brewery, which of course prompted a "beer: is there anything it can’t do?"

On a completely unrelated topic, I was fortunate enough to participate in a Dinner for Eight event hosted by McKesson last Thursday.  Eight students, mostly first-years, had the privilege of being wined and dined by McKesson and, more importantly, asking questions about the company straight to recruiters.  McKesson is an enormous healthcare company that specializes, well, in many things actually, such as pharmaceutical distribution and IT solutions for hospital administration.  I cannot overemphasize how helpful it is to talk to a recruiter for more than five minutes at the end of a corporate presentation.  It is obviously great for networking, but even more invaluable is the insider perspective and the better understanding of the company that I gained.

Speaking of dinner, I was also served at a Dinner for One at Universal Studios last Saturday (see picture below).  Every Halloween, Universal Studios throws a horror night, during which the park is taken over by a multitude of ghoulish monsters.  Simply put, the goal is to have a good scare, and I must say Universal did a very good job.  Of course, many theme parks do the same thing, but what’s great about this one is that many of its monsters are based on its movies, such as Halloween, Child’s Play, and Saw – although shame on Universal for daring to come up with a fifth sequel to Saw!  If you’ve never tried this kind of event before, consider going next year.

According to this zombie, I don’t taste that great, so he let me go after a few munches.  That’ll teach me for not obeying signs…

–Simon

Midterms

So the first years are currently knee deep in midterms. Accounting and economics are now under our belts with the Marketing final (at UCLA Anderson we have Marketing everyday for the first two months, followed by Financial Markets everyday for the rest of the quarter) and the Statistics midterm Monday. You can check out the first year curriculum here.

Coming from a non-quant background (I majored in politics in undergrad followed by law school) I anticipated that these core courses which we take in the first quarter would be a challenge. It certainly hasn't disappointed. This may sound funny, but one of the biggest adjustments for me has been to come to grips with the idea that in these classes, there's a "right answer". Coming from the liberal arts and law side of things, I was used to writing essays and analyzing cases. It was a new type of stress taking the accounting and economics midterms knowing that there was a definitive answer.

Being exposed to these topics for the first time, my knowledge has grown tremendously since the start of school. But I admit I sometimes find myself feeling envious of some of my colleagues who have a business background and seem to pick things up more quickly. Luckily there hasn't been a lack of colleagues offering to help me get through what are hopefully temporary growing pains. Good thing I've been trained in the corporate law firm experience and am used to putting in some long hours.

Speaking of which, I should get back to the books....

--JP

~I'm normally not a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me Superman! ~ Homer J. Simpson

Anderson is in the House - Get Going on Your Career

Hey Everyone,

Hope all of you out there in cyberspace are doing well. It is getting harder to come up with a catchy article title - hopefully I didn't disappoint. I have been getting emails from some of you (you really like me, you really really like me! .......sorry, I just had to pull a Sally Field). Okay, what was my point? Ah yes....I have been getting emails about my blog and general questions about the application and MBA environment; I am glad some of you got some use out of this. Feel free to contact about me about anything like the application process or why the heck you should even care about an MBA or whatever else is on your mind.

My week has been has been a little less hectic, although I am still writing this blog at 10pm, so not sure what that means. I'm a night owl I guess. I have been spending a lot of time working on my resume these days. The Parker CMC and my lovely ACTgroup have given me some good tips and pretty much inundated me with comments and revisions - but it's all good. It's amazing how much you improve with a little constructive feedback. My resume has gone through three revisions and will be seen another two times before I submit my final version to the career management center. Company recruiting has been picking up lately too. It's getting near that time when we will be applying for upcoming summer internships - oooh scary! I have also been practicing my 30-second pitch in the shower - hey! practice makes perfect - don't judge. FYI:  a 30-second pitch is a succinct and memorable way of describing yourself (in 30 seconds) to recruiters at company events. Now comes the next hard thing - coming up with a list of companies I am interested in working for. Yikes. Again, my ACT teamcomes to the rescue. They gave me some templates for how to evaluate companies and how best to pitch to to them. For those of you who haven't been reading my previous posts (I shudder at the thought), the ACT group is led by two second year students who have been there and done that when it comes to first year recruiting. They lead a session every week or every two weeks and basically keep you on track. With all the fun college times to be had, we definitely need people to keep us in check. The ACT coaches, which are the 2nd year students, guide you through all the elements of recruiting from learning to handle yourself at company presentations, preparing a rockin' resume, marketing yourself, to grabbing an interview, among so many other delicious things. I am part of the Strategic Ops and Management ACT team. There are also a gazillion databases available to Anderson students (including our large and helpful alumni database). These databases contain every company known to man (or woman) based on industry or location or whatever other manner of search criteria you choose.

Okay, some of you may be wondering what this poor blogger does for fun. Is she all about resumes and internships? I must dispel that opinion at once! Aside from getting some exercise on the weekends and checking out the town, I joined Riordan Scholars on campus where I will be mentoring high school students. I've also attended so many fantastic workshops offered through many campus clubs. One in particular that I just attended yesterday was titled "Launching an Internet Business in One Hour." How awesome is that? The speaker had launched several of his own companies and basically gave us an insiders look at some of the most common pitfalls to avoid and some of the great resources to take advantage of.

I am also itching to try the indoor rock wall at the John Wooden campus gym. It looks awesome. I just need to carve out some time and go.

Alright folks. It's been a pleasure as usual. Until next time!

Warning! Incoming Cold Call!

So I received my first cold call this week, in Managerial Economics.  And, of course, it had to happen the morning after I slept a grand total of 15 minutes thanks to having to get assignments done and to just not being able to sleep.  

Not that I'm making excuses. 

It must have been quite clear to the professor that I was having a hard time staying awake during class.  I didn't help my own cause much by getting to class later than others and therefore having to sit in Row 2; I'm easily a back-row guy both from personality and academics.  Here's a tip: if you think the professor can't see you blinking and nodding heavily, you are wrong.  So I should have guessed that a cold call was coming my way at some point during class. 

I wasn't as bad as Alex Ovechkin singing the Eastern Motors jingle but it wasn't a million miles away from that.  The question was about an article in the Wall Street Journal that we were meant to have read and analyzed before class. I had read it but as the professor surely knew I hadn't analzyed it much.

Prof: "Why would they follow this strategy?"

Me: "To gain market share."

Prof: "Why do they want market share?" 

Me: "Because they want profits."

Prof: "Do they want all profits?"

Me: "uhhhh...no....uhm, they want profits until Marginal Cost equals Marginal Revenue." (Class erupts in laughter.) 

Prof: "Do they want short-term profits?"

Me: "Yes, I mean...no, they want long-term profits." 

That's the answer he was looking for.  The professor went on to say that he wasn't just pushing back at me, but that he wanted us to understand what type of push-back we may experience in an interview.  I appreciated that, but like Henrik Lundqvist must have felt after giving up this goal to Niklas Backstrom last week, I wish I had that one back. 

Capitals update: 4-2-2.  Wished we had played better against New York Rangers and Detroit, but this would put us on pace for 41 wins and 102 points at the end of the season so not panicking just yet.  

'Till next time, keep Rocking the Red, whereever you are! 

-- Sreesha