The MBA Student Voice

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.

 

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. 

Favorite Recruiting Moments of Fall 2014

I survived my first quarter!! No, I didn’t just survive; I flourished! But it wasn’t easy. Over the last three months, I was stretched and challenged in ways that change a person. I had 36 hours of things to do each day, and I had to bring my A-game to everything. First quarter classes are extremely rigorous and Google was recruiting on campus Day 1, so for 12 weeks I did a calculated dance between academics, recruiting, and social activities. It was intense and I’m a better version of myself because of it.

Sometimes I would be on the phone to my parents and would have to stop myself and say, “It might sound like I’m complaining, but I’m not. I love this. Every email I send, every informational interview I do, and every hour I put into studying is all about me and my future. It’s not about my boss or the organization I work for. It’s about me. It’s a uniquely selfish time and I love every minute of it.”

All of the hard work paid off, and at the end of the quarter, I accepted an offer for a summer internship (stay tuned for more about that in a future post). However it’s not about the destination, but the path you take to get there, and I really enjoyed the recruiting process. I recruited for human capital consulting and internal human capital management roles at tech companies. It is a field that is gaining interest at Anderson as more companies think strategically about how they manage their employees. Companies make presentations daily and nightly on campus, but here are my top four favorite recruiting events of fall quarter:

1. MCA Firm Kickoff – At Anderson, a lot of the recruiting takes place through on-campus professional clubs. The opportunities for consulting are run through the Management Consulting Association (MCA). At the MCA Firm Kickoff, over 15 top firms sent representatives to meet Anderson students. Each practice was stationed at a cocktail table, and for three hours, students could walk around and network with each one. It was a formal yet casual affair, and the perfect venue to make a good first impression with a variety of firms. The event was also on the night before the Statistics midterm, so it served as a good lesson in balancing academics and recruiting.
2. National Academy of Human Resources Foundation – The NAHR hosts an annual dinner and meeting with its fellows in New York City each November. One of the NAHR Foundation initiatives is to include select MBA students in the event, with the goal of attracting “top first year Master’s students to the HR profession.” I was chosen to represent Anderson at this year’s NAHR dinner, where I had the chance to chat with CHROs from a range of Fortune 100 companies. It was inspiring to hear from executives who have shaped the HR function over the last few decades.
3. Deloitte Human Capital Case Workshop – Deloitte has one of the leading human capital consulting practices and a growing office in LA. So I jumped at the chance to learn from some of the best at a case workshop they did on campus. Five practitioners, who were all also Anderson alumni, generously spent four hours on a Friday walking us through the Deloitte approach to casing. They provided us with valuable feedback after we worked through a practice case in groups. The day wrapped with a happy hour at a bar in West LA, which was a great way to get to know the Deloitte HC Anderson team a little better.
4. Days on the Job Tech Trek – Fellow Student Voice Blogger, Piyush Jain, published an earlier article that talks about this week in more detail, but to quickly summarize: for one week in November deemed “DOJ Week,” classes were canceled and Anderson students flew all around the country, visiting companies they are interested in. The High Tech Business Association (HTBA) organized the Tech Trek, which allowed me to jet up to Seattle, then down to San Francisco and visit Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe, Visa, LinkedIn, eBay, Intel, and Autodesk. It was an incredible opportunity to network with Anderson alumni working at each of these companies and experience the corporate culture first hand. I was able to ask recruiters about strategic HR summer internship opportunities and hear about their human capital issues. For example, we toured Visa Inc.’s recently-opened innovation outpost in the heart of San Francisco. As Visa prepares to do a lot of tech hiring, the new office is a statement of how Visa is branding itself to compete for top talent against other companies.

After such a rewarding first quarter, I can’t wait to see what the rest of the school year has in store for me. Here’s to an incredible 2015!

The group of Master's students who were selected to participate in the 2014 National Academy of Human Resources Annual Dinner and Discussion Meeting in New York City.

Anderson students who visited Adobe during the San Francisco "Days on the Job" Tech Trek.

Cambodia: A dark history with a bright future

I dedicated this summer, between quitting my job and starting business school, to expanding my global perspective. Five countries in two and a half months was Southeast Asia 101.  Luckily I’m just getting warmed up. I plan to continue my global education with the Anderson Center for Global Management, making global management one of my MBA specializations.

During this summer’s adventure, I took a special, personal interest in Cambodia. While it is rich in natural resources and now offers cheaper labor than China, the recent and horrific chapter of Khmer Rouge has created a distinct business environment, both economically and culturally.

On April 17, 1975, Pol Pot rode through the streets of Phnom Penh as the new dictator of Cambodia and leader of the Khmer Rouge, the Communist Party of Kampuchea. He was only in power for four years, but managed to kill one fourth of the country’s population, roughly 2 million people, in a societal experiment gone terribly wrong. I feel a unique connection to this genocide – my father's best friend in high school was one of only six Americans captured and killed by the Khmer Rouge during their reign. Chris Delance was a sailor in the wrong place at the wrong time off the coast of Cambodia in late 1978. He was taken to the infamous S-21 prison, tortured, and killed shortly before the Vietnamese liberation in 1979. 

When I arrived in Phnom Penh just over 39 years later, I had no idea what to expect from Cambodia. I found a vibrant country eager but struggling to offer a quality of life comparable to its Lao, Vietnamese, and Thai neighbors. To get a better sense of its economy and people, I had the priveledge to sit down with the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, William Todd. We discussed economic opportunities and if Cambodia is ready for outside investment. The conclusion? Now is the time. There is too much instability and uncertainty for public companies to make large investments in Cambodia, but now is the time for entrepreneurs and private companies. Other places in Southeast Asia, like Singapore or Hong Kong, have extremely overinflated prices. Investment capital will go much farther in Cambodia because of the accessibility to inexpensive land and natural resources. However, investors should be prepared for a "rough and tumble" way of conducting business. Many deals are made off the books and paid with cash. 

We also discussed mobile technology (an industy I am passionate about) and how it is changing Cambodia. Since the government heavily regulates all national media, people now turn to the Internet for a more unbiased news source. Facebook and other social media in the palm of one's hand is becoming a powerful tool for organizing on both sides of the political spectrum.

I left Cambodia feeling hopeful. It is up to the future generation of global business leaders to help Cambodia develop in a sustainable and prosperous way. After gaining a solid global foundation from Anderson, I look forward to being part of that solution.

      

Left Photo: My dad on the left and Chris Delance on the right at a Long Beach, CA lifeguard stand in 1962.

Right Photo: S-21 photo of Chris Delance taken in 1978. (Documentation Center of Cambodia)

Below Photo: Ambassador William Todd and I at the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia.

 

Guest Post - High Tech Business Association

An increasing number of UCLA Anderson students are pursuing careers in tech after business school, so it's not surprising that the High Tech Business Association (HTBA) is one of the most popular professional clubs on campus.  The HTBA hosts numerous networking and professional development activities for members, one of which is highlighted below by 1st year student Leslie Kwoh. Read on to learn more!

As we learned during orientation, technology is an increasingly popular career path among UCLA Anderson students, with one-quarter of last year's class entering the field upon graduating. 

The trend appears to be continuing this year; nearly 120 students, including myself, attended the High Tech Business Association's Fall Career Night in November. Representatives from 11 tech firms, including Amazon, Microsoft, LinkedIn, LiveNation and AT&T, joined us for the networking event.

Career Night was so popular this year that HTBA said it had to draw up wait lists for both students and companies alike. "Companies were knocking down HTBA's doors to meet Anderson's best and brightest tech talent," said Ashley Mallinson, president of the club.

The event follows a roundtable rotation format, and each of us were assigned to three company tables for the evening (I sat with Amazon, LiveNation and LinkedIn). Over the course of three hours, my classmates and I gained a better understanding of each company's mission, culture, workflow and strategic direction.

One of my favorite parts of the evening was a keynote speech by Symantec senior product manager Rafael Alvarez, who gave a humorous but candid glimpse into the life of a tech employee. The job isn't always easy, he said. Ideas sometimes don't move as quickly as one would like, and the process can be bogged down by the need to get buy-in from many different divisions. A simple task like redesigning a webpage, for example, can require many iterations -- so knowing how to build consensus across functions is extremely valuable. 

But the final product, he assured us, is almost always worth it.

Learn more about the HTBA on their website.

Two More Ways To Save Big On MBA Tech

If you've thought about persuing an MBA, then you've probably asked yourself, "Is it worth it?" I asked the same question (A: Yes!) and now find myself asking it about all sorts of things related to back-to-school. Along with campus housing, MBA tech is a great place to find value with pain-free ways to save.

 

Laptops

My $1422 MacBook Air

Whether you're looking for a simple user interface, all-day battery life or just the coolest looking notebook around, the MacBook Air is a great choice. But for UCLA Anderson purposes*, the MacBook Air presents a significant problem: it doesn't run Windows out of the box and installing Windows can add hundreds of dollars to the cost of your PC.

Yet, with a little price shopping and internet savvy, you can have your MacBook and eat it, too. I bought my new MacBook Air direct from Apple and all of its software and accessories online. Here's the cost breakdown:

Look at that! A brand new, Anderson-ready MacBook Air with a RAM upgrade, Windows 8 Pro, Office Home and Business and a sharp looking case, all for just $1422. For those of you keeping track, that's $323 less than the list prices and $578 less than Anderson's suggested computer allowance of $2000.

*Anderson uses Microsoft Office features and educational software that work best with Windows.

 

My reasons to choose UCLA Anderson

    A question "what school to attend" comes to a great number of accepted applicants and the answer is always specific to your particular goals. See below my reasons for attending Anderson this fall and some thoughts and things to consider when you have to make a decision.

    1. Rankings. A lot of people consider school's placement in different rankings and I was also the one who googled Full time MBA rankings before I made my decision, so I could understand the inclination to just go with TOP-5 or TOP-10 school and be just fine. But then I made a consideration of other factors (that I will mention below) and decided just for myself that rankings is just one factor and not the decisive one. I even compared it with GMAT score during application process - it is good if it is withtin school's 80% range and is balanced, but not "the make or break". So, with ratings I decided that a school within TOP -20 in the US will be this "80% range" and I never turned to rankings again.

    2. Employment report or companies that recruit on campus.  I have talked to dozens of alums from different schools and the majority of them said to look closely to the employment reports first. The closer the school year is, the better I realize how right they were. For instance, if you dream to work for company X, you should look at the # of graduates and interns this company hired from the latest intake in the school. I made a close look at Anderson employment report, considered trends within several years and came to 2 conclusions:

• Tech companies have very good presence at Anderson and they hire about 1/5th of the class and as I look closely on technology sector, this school is very much for me!
• Anderson class is very diverse in terms of career paths people choose. There is no dominant industry and I like this fact from the learning environment point of view.

Choosing a laptop: MBA style

I’ll admit, I’m not the most technologically savvy. Sure, I can manage my way around InDesign and crank out a video in Final Cut Pro, but most of the time I use my laptop to watch the latest Community and catchup on celebrity gossip. That’s why I was thrilled when I saw Anderson’s laptop requirements. Perfect, I thought! Let me print it out and drive to the closest Apple store (have I mentioned I’m a Mac girl?). But wait, what’s that? Office for Mac is not supported? I need to install Windows on my Mac? Waaah? Perhaps I should consider a PC? I guess off to Best Buy I go…

Thirty minutes later, I’m in the middle of Best Buy with Mike, a sales associate and self-professed geek, the store manager and the floor rep. “She needs 250+GB SSD? Why is she a film student?” “The only computers we have that fit those requirements would be the Mac with Retina Display. But wait, oh. Then maybe a PC?” “This makes no sense.” Oi. If these three are having so much trouble I guess this might not be so easy. Here’s what I learned from the purchasing experience.

The breakdown:

If you’re looking for an investment piece, consider going with Anderson’s Recommended specs as they will guarantee you a top of the line computer. If, like me, you are thinking of getting a computer just for your time at Anderson (and buying a new one right before graduation to maximize on that student discount), consider a mix of both Recommended and Minimum requirements.

 

Winter has come and gone!

It was perhaps not a long time ago when the air nipped, leaves began to fall, Anderson Afternoons became Anderson nights and the rare hoodie-covered soul who'd be found roaming the Anderson compound had but one thing to say with a grim stare, "Winter is coming..". Just the thought of a winter quarter with the heavy recruiting, interviews, sitting in classes with suits and the wretched Operations Management course haunted almost everyone, except ofcourse the above-mentioned bravehearts. My absence from this blog, therefore, is pardonable. Hibernating seemed to be the safest thing to do.

Alas, hibernate I did not. As we slowly began to ease into the rigorous MBA program, a lot more began to be piled up on our frail shoulders. Here are some of the highlights, from my perspective, of the war that ensued.

Recruiting

The quarter sort of began with days on the job for finance, tech, entertainment, sports and retail industries. My sweet but short Florida winter vacation was cut even shorter by the "Tech trek" organized by HTBA. The allocation of companies was done through a bidding system where you bid 1000 points across the 9-10 companies chosen for the trek. I was somehow allotted companies I had bid only 1 point for and thus had no motivation at all to travel to the bay area. Frankly, being from the tech industry I already had contacts in most of my target companies who I could've contacted and arranged a meeting at a bit more convenient time. So the tech trek was a bit of a dampener in that sense for me. However, a lot of my classmates had a good experience because they could've never arranged to visit these companies on their own, so I guess it definitely has more value for people with non-tech backgrounds. 

As soon as school started in January, most of the big tech companie started pouring in and people like me recruting for tech were left gasping for breath. We were under the impression that the early recruiting is usually for consulting and finance but tech started real early this time.  I applied for about 20 jobs in January alone and interviewed with atleast 10 over the next 2 months. Almost everyone underestimated the time it takes to drop resume and cover letter into the Parker posting for on-campus opportunities! Interviewing itself was ofcourse time consuming because of the unique way one needs to prepare for different companies. All in all, it was hectic, but not stressful. So many companies come on campus at UCLA Anderson that it tremendously reduces your travel needs and time. Interviewing at Parker (with the friendly staff, Emily Taylor with the usual coffee and your friends offering you comfort) makes it much more relaxed. All through I was in touch with my friends from other schools and it was obvious that Anderson had the lead in the quality of companies to campus (atleast for tech, not sure whats the scene for other industries). Product Management, Product Marketing, Corp. Strategy, Finance and Buss. Development were the usual roles  in the offing. I ended up riding high on the first wave of recruting, got three offers and will be spending the summer in Seattle! My classmates recruting for rech have also reported some amazing offers, proving Anderson's reputation in tech.

Academics

While the coursework, as usual, was great and the professors awesome, it was hard to maintain focus while you're waiting to leave the class midway for an interview. You're physically in class, but in all other respects all you care about is the job you're interviewing for. Naturally, academics tend to suffer. It is worth mentioning, then, that the professors here make it really easy for students by bringing in a ton of energy to the classroom. I'm lucky to have been taught by Anderson's own Dougie Houser, Bruce Carlin, who has a way of spicing up Finance classes through Pink Floyd quotes and Philip Leslie, who got in his son's entire second grade class to participate in the Disney case discussion for the Strategy course. Yes, classroom continued to be a lot of fun!

Ander-fun

The recruiting stress couldn't keep the future business leaders here from partying fridays and being hungover Saturdays. While I'm bound by the Ander-honour code for partying, I can't really talk about all the crazy things that happened. What I can talk about are fun things we did on campus. A case in point being the Harlem Shake, where a bunch of MBA students-gone-crazy wore the most preposterous costumes and danced awkwardly to the meme of our times. Oh, and we even did one on the beach!
The song and dance continued into the Anderson Talent Showcase organized by Anderson Creative, a show where Anderson students perform to raise money for Challenge4Charity.  It was overwhelming to see the kind of talent we have in our class. We're surely gonna kick some butt in the upcoming Stanford C4C weekend!

Ander-families

This was the quarter that saw the first of Ander-babies, as some of my classmates became proud fathers/mothers. Our section put up a baby shower for four to-be dads, all at once! We're one big family and we're only growing. Sig-O's of Anderson students are a pretty active bunch as well! Never to miss the social scene, some of them are even making the most of their stint in LA. If you're a sig-o reading this or someone who has a sig-O, check out Sunny's blog to explore the possibilities.

Thats it for now. They say in the game of MBA, you either win or you die. That makes us a 360-strong class of survivors!

By the way, If you're a new admit still making a decision about Anderson, feel free to hit up any of us who post here and we'll be happy to talk! I've already spoken to a few people in the last few weeks and looks like we have amazing class starting this fall!

~Ayushman Jain, MBA '14

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