MBA Insider: Recent Episodes
Al Dea
The MBA Insider podcast is a show hosted by Author and Career Coach Al Dea that is designed for career-driven professionals looking for advice on how to grow their careers by leveraging the skills, experiences, and knowledge gained from an MBA degree. In each episode, Al will give you a look into the business school experience, along with practical tips, career advice, and real life stories to help MBAs grow their careers.
Lindsay Sage is the Founder of Sage Admit, and an MBA Admissions Consultant based in the New York City area. In this episode, Al Dea and Lindsay Sage discuss the M7 business schools, exploring their definitions, unique attributes, and the strengths of each institution. They delve into the commonalities among the M7 schools, the importance of selecting the right school based on individual goals, and when it might make sense to consider schools outside the M7.
Finally, Al and Lindsay emphasize the need for prospective students to do their research and understand the nuances of each program to find the best fit for their career aspirations.
Links:
- https://www.sageadmit.com/
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
Career development doesn’t happen by accident. It happens through intentional actions and practices. In this episode, we talk about what intentional career growth is, and practical actions you can take to start growing your career today.
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
In this episode, I share three of my favorite habits that I regularly practice in order to manage my career.
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
Your success in your career is correlated to the amount of people that want you to succeed. That’s why it’s important to have the right kinds of relationships that can help you in your career. In this episode, we talk about why relationships are important, and the kinds of people who can join your “career team” and help you advance in your career today
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
Working hard and doing good work is important. But if you just put your head down and do good work, you’ll miss out on a lot of opportunities. This episode focuses on helping people understand the importance of speaking up and sharing your work, and how you can use professional advocacy to elevate your work, help others, and grow your career
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
Sometimes, it's hard to know how you want to advance in your career, or what steps to take. We don’t have to have it all figured out, but when we use an iterative and experimentation approach to career growth, we can often find great opportunities. This episode focuses on the concept of career experiments, and walks you through how you can run your own career experiments to test, explore and learn your way to growing your career.
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
Many MBA students cite that networking and building relationships are two of the most valuable parts of the MBA experience. But how does that play out, and how do MBA graduates cultivate their relationships with their peers and classmates during business school and beyond? In this episode, we spoke to three MBA alums, Margaret Nealon (USC Marshall, ‘22) Ethan Siegel (Owen, ‘22) and Jill Toner (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘22) about their MBA experience, and how the as recent MBA alums are using their relationships to develop personally and professionally after they graduate from business school.
Margaret Nealon – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mknealon/ – USC Marshall 22
Jill Toner – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-toner/ – UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘22
Margaret Nealon – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mknealon/ – USC Marshall 22
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
Whitnie Narcisse is an MBA Graduate from UNC Kenan-Flagler, and currently the SVP of Operations at First Round Capital. Whitnie spoke about her journey to UNC and her journey to venture capital. She also provided insight into the moves she made to land a career in VC, as well as practical advice on some important lessons when it comes to networking, and Whitnie’s practical tips for building mentor and mentee relationships.
Links
- Proving the Power of Mentoring with Whitnie Narcisse
- Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC)
- Adams Apprenticeship
- Follow Whitnie on Twitter: @WhitniewLow
- Here’s What Makes Mentorship Work
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
Nasim Mirzai came to Duke University (Fuqua) after spending the beginning of her career in the Art Gallery Industry. During her time at Fuqua, In addition to her coursework, Nasim speaks to lots of prospective MBA students, holds numerous leadership positions, is an MBASchooled Ambassador. During our conversation Nasim spoke about her decision to attend Fuqua, the types of questions she helps prospective MBA students answer, and her advice to prospective and admitted MBA students for how they can select the right MBA Program.
- Nasim’s MBASchooled Ambassador Profile
In this episode, Al reflects back on his MBA Internship from a decade ago in the summer of 2014. He shares how he ended up at Salesforce (it wasn’t planned) what that recruiting experience taught him, as well as the key lessons he learned from that internship that has helped him navigate his career.
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
In this episode, MBASchooled Ambassador Margaret Nealon (USC Marshall, ‘22) joins us to talk about her journey to USC Marshall. During our conversation, we spoke about Margaret’s career journey, why she chose to get an MBA, and her advice to prospective MBA students.
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
Dr Lisa Orbe-Austin is an Executive Coach and Psychologist, as well as the author of Own Your Greatness: Overcome Impostor Syndrome, Beat Self-Doubt, and Succeed in Life. As someone who is an expert in imposter syndrome, Lisa shared her journey to studying imposter syndrome, the foundations of imposter syndrome, and why it impacts high-achievers and career strivers like MBA students. She also provided tactical advice, based on her research and clinical work on how MBA students can overcome imposter syndrome and achieve their goals.
Links:
- Lisa’s Website
- Lisa’s Book
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
Gorick Ng is a HBS Alum and the Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Start Your Career Off Right,. The Unspoken Rules is now offered at multinationals, professional services firms, startups, and non-profits around the world for onboarding, training, and diversity and inclusion. In 2021, Harvard Business School offered The Unspoken Rules to every MBA student. Gorick has been thinking about careers and jobs since he started helping his mother prepare her resume and apply to jobs when he was only a teenager. Since then, he’s gone on to help countless numbers of students and young professionals navigate their careers, and built his own career first as a management consultant and now as a career development expert.
During our conversation, Gorick spoke about his learnings about careers over the years, some of the challenging events in his career that led to the ideas for his book “The Unspoken Rules’ ‘ and a wide-ranging conversation around career development advice for MBA students and Alum.
Links:
- Unspoken Rules
- Gorick’s Website
- Gorick’s LinkedIn
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
Felix Watson Junior is a UCLA Anderson Alumni, and the Founder of the PM Mastermind Group. After starting his career as an engineer, Felix pursued an MBA to pivot into a career in product management, and has done PM stints at Microsoft and Google. Now, Felix helps educate current and aspiring Product Managers through his PM Mastermind Group.
During our conversation, Felix spoke about his journey into Product Management, and his advice to aspiring Product Managers.
Additional Links
- Felix’s LinkedIn
- LinkedIn Product Management Mastermind Group
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
Breanna Atkinson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kokada, whose mission is to create good-tasting and healthy food with ingredients from around the world. After her undergraduate career, she spent some time in consulting. She was inspired to pursue her MBA early on, and applied to Wharton while launching her first company. Another large influence has been in her time as an athlete, playing as a student athlete at Duke, and then going on to be a member of the Jamaican national women’s volleyball team.
In this conversation, we discuss her journey as a student-athlete, developing her pitch, the value of an MBA for an entrepreneur, and the challenges of starting your own business.
Links
- Website
- Breanna’s LinkedIn
Right now, many MBA students are in the thick of internship interview season, navigating preparing for interviews, finding opportunities and building relationships with hiring managers and recruiters all while managing all the other academic components of business school is no easy task! In this episode, Al Dea, walks through some common challenges that MBA students face during internship recruiting season, and provides some tips and best practices for staying on course and focusing on your own personal goals.
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes from 2023
This week, we’re flipping the format on the MBA Insider Podcast, with the help of a former guest and friend Eryn Schultz, and putting Al Dea (MBA Insider Host) in the guest chair. In this episode, Eryn, a fellow entrepreneur, talks to Al about his own entrepreneurial journey with building MBASchooled. Al spoke about his motivation for creating MBASchooled, why he recently left his corporate career at Salesforce to focus on his entrepreneurial journey, and what’s next for MBASchooled.
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes from 2023
Paul Millerd is an MIT Sloan MBA Graduate, and the Author of the Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story for Life and Work. Like many hard-working and driven college graduates, Paul entered the corporate world after college ready to work hard, achieve success and climb the corporate ladder. But through a series of events before and after business school, Paul ended up taking an alternative path, and evolving his views on life and work. Much of which is written about in his book The Pathless Path as well as his newsletter, Boundless.
During our conversation, Paul spoke about his career journey after graduating from MIT Sloan and with an MBA, and what ultimately led him to leaving his corporate career for a path of exploration, as well as the many learnings, lessons, and experiences Paul got along the way. We also spoke about his book, and the applications and insights that can be relevant to those who are reflecting on their career aspirations.
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes from 2023
Many MBA students cite that networking and building relationships are two of the most valuable parts of the MBA experience. But how does that play out, and how do MBA graduates cultivate their relationships with their peers and classmates during business school and beyond? In this episode, we spoke to three MBA alums, Margaret Nealon (USC Marshall, ‘22) Ethan Siegel (Owen, ‘22) and Jill Toner (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘22) about their MBA experience, and how the as recent MBA alums are using their relationships to develop personally and professionally after they graduate from business school.
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes from 2023
Christina Wallace is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, an HBS Graduate, entrepreneur and author.
In her most recent book, The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card, Christina makes the case for how employees are multi-dimensional individuals, and can re-think and reframe their relationship with their job and career, and to use portfolio and diversification theory to de-risk and explore multiple paths instead.
During our conversation, Christina spoke about how living her own version of a Portfolio life gave her the idea to start researching the book, and why we need a more expansive mindset around how employees can navigate their lives and careers in a more expansive and modern way.
She shares her perspective on how people who are not interested in a more traditional or tried career path, can use the portfolio model to find meaning and success, and she also makes the case, for how in the future of work, The Portfolio model can be a more expansive way for employees to manage their career in today’s modern world of work.
Links
- The Portfolio Life: https://www.portfoliolife.com/
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes
One of the questions that is top of mind for any professional who is considering an MBA is around value - what is the ROI of an MBA degree, and is it worth it for me? In this solo episode, Al talks about how an MBA is one of many potential accelerants for career growth and learning, and why someone might value an MBA degree. He walks through key questions around figuring out if an MBA is worth it to you, the common reasons why people see value in an MBA, some alternatives to MBA degrees, and how to figure out if an MBA is the right path for your own career learning and growth.
Links:
- Should I get an MBA?
- The MBA Premium
Mentorship is a critical element of success in the career journey of many leaders. So how can mentorship facilitate learning and transformation during business school so that an MBA student can achieve their unique goals?
Founded over a decade ago, the Executive Connections Program at the ASU W.P Carey Business School was designed to provide MBA students with relationships, knowledge, and confidence personalized to their unique career goals
In this episode, you’ll hear from Jenny Tang (Mentee)) Amy Hillman, (Professor, and Program Director) and Anna Thomasson (Mentor) as they dive into the Executive Connections program at the Arizona State University W.P Carey MBA Program, and how specifically it helps MBA students as they navigate through their MBA experience and beyond.
Throughout the conversation, Amy, shared her perspective as the Program Director of how the program is designed to help a student navigate to achieve their goals, while Jenny (a former student) shared her own experience of her mentor relationship with Anna (an Executive in Residence) and how it helped Jenny throughout her time in business school and even now as an MBA graduate.
Note: This episode was produced in collaboration with the ASU W. P. Carey MBA Program
Listen Today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Speakers
Amy Hillman
Rusty Lyon Chair of Strategy, W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University
Jenny Tang
W.P. Carey MBA Graduate, 2018
Anna Thomasson
Executive in Residence
W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University
Links:
- W. P. Carey Full-time MBA program
- W. P. Carey Executive Connections
Stephanie Movahhed is Business and Mindset Coach, and an MBA Graduate from the Michigan Ross School of Business. Prior to her time in business school, Stephanie spent time at Google before deciding to pursue an MBA to get formal business training. In her time post business school, Stephanie found ways to follow her interests and curiosities, even if it meant taking her down a path that she didn’t always expect. This has allowed her to create a life and career that she finds fulfillment and meaning in.
During our conversation, Stephanie spoke about how after graduating business school, she was able to take advantage of following her interests and curiosities which led her to first working in consulting and tech startups, including spending time at LinkedIn during periods of high growth.
Stephanie also spoke about how she found her interest in coaching, eventually decided to become a business and leadership coach, the power of investing in building relationships in school and how it's helped her in her career, and her advice and lessons for other professionals who are looking at an MBA to help them find opportunity and excitement in their career.
Links:
- Stephanie’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smovahhed/
- Website: https://www.stephaniemovahhed.com/
MBA students go to business school to achieve their career goals. But how does that actually happen? In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Simone Bayfield and Joey Kimes about the MBA program at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
Consistently ranked as a top MBA program in the United States, W. P. Carey offers MBA students the benefits of a community-driven MBA program with the scale and opportunities of the broader Arizona State University brand and network.
During our conversation, Simone, a W. P. Carey MBA Graduate, shared her journey to W. P. Carey, and the steps she took to uncover her career aspirations in business school and how she was able to utilize her time and the resources at W. P. Carey to achieve her career goal to work in brand management.
As the Executive Director of the Arizona State University WP Carey Career Development Center, Joey shared how he and his team of Career specialists support all students in a personalized and unique way, along with offering his own perspective of his experience directly working with Simone in guiding and supporting her in her own journey through the MBA program at W. P. Carey.
Speakers:
- Simone Bayfield W.P Carey Graduate, 2019
- Joseph Kimes - Executive Director, W.P. Carey Career Services Center
Links:
- W. P. Carey Full-time MBA program
- W. P. Carey Executive Connections
Note: This episode was produced in collaboration with the ASU W. P. Carey MBA Program
A common question that career driven professionals have is “how do I know if I am ready for an MBA?”
In this episode, Al walks through how by taking stock and reflecting on where you are in your career, you can determine if an MBA could be the next step. Make sure to listen in to learn
- How the workplace and careers are changing, and why an MBA could be valuable
- Common reasons why MBA students choose to go to business school
- Common scenarios for when you might be ready to pursue an MBA as the next step in your career
- Criteria for how to evaluate if you are ready for an MBA
- A list of tactical actions to take if you want to know if you are ready for an MBA
In this episode, we explore the opportunities that come with MBA rotational programs. This episode features Jack Brynes (UNC Kenan-Flagler) Cindy Zheng (Wharton) and Adam Tomasiello (UNC-Kenan-Flagler) three MBA graduates who pursued MBA rotational programs after graduating from business school. During this episode, we’ll unpack what a rotational program is, some of the benefits of rotational programs, and hear from Jack, Cindy and Adam about how their experiences in rotational programs and how they are helping them grow in their respective careers.
Links
- Jack Byrnes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackbyrnes/
- Cindy Zheng: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindy-b-zheng/
- Adam Tomasiello: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-tomasiello/
In this episode, Al shares four specific actions that all professionals can take in order to grow their career today.
Jess Stokes is an MBA Graduate from the Wharton School of Business. Prior to going to Wharton, Jess was a teacher, and decided to get an MBA to broaden her business knowledge and find opportunities to learn and grow.
During our conversation, Jess spoke about her decision to attend business school and how she took a non-linear approach to learning, experimentation, and growth while an MBA student. Jess also shared how she was able to turn her interest in education into a career an EdTech, starting her podcast (Teach Me EdTech) and her advice for those thinking about pursuing an MBA degree
Links
- https://edtechpodcast.buzzsprout.com/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-stokes/
- https://www.jess-stokes.com/
We’re always looking for ideas to improve the show. Make sure to take our survey to help us improve the MBA Insider Podcast! → https://forms.gle/qtAbcqMMc2CzQgXg8
Kathy Oneto is a UC-Berkeley-Haas MBA Graduate, and the Principal Strategist at the Agency Oneto. She is also the host of the Sustainable Ambition Podcast. After starting her career in advertising, Kathy decided to pursue an MBA to continue learning and growing and finding other opportunities to explore new paths and explore more opportunities.
During our conversation, Kathy spoke about how after graduating from business school she went from working in the consulting and CPG industries to eventually pivoting to a path in solopreneurship and entrepreneurship.
Kathy also shared her thoughts around Sustainable Ambition a concept and movement that she built, why she came up with this concept and how she uses it in her work, as well as her own advice to MBAs about how they can use sustainable ambition to make meaningful and impactful career decisions throughout the entirety of their career
Links:
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-oneto/
- Podcast: https://sustainableambition.com/
In this episode, Al walks through 5 key lessons about work and careers that nobody ever teaches you.
- Al’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/
One of the most common career related questions we get is around how to get promoted at work. This episode walks through some suggestions for how to both strategically and tactically get promoted in your workplace
Links
- https://alsnewsletter.substack.com/p/new-year-new-promotion
- https://www.fastcompany.com/90832084/how-get-noticed-promoted-working-remotely
Betty Tran is a MBA Candidate in the Class of 2024 at the Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business. After starting her career working in tech and startups, Betty decided to pursue an MBA at Tuck to further her business acumen and explore other career opportunities.
During our conversation, Betty shared how she landed at Tuck, why she chose it, and how she has used her time at Tuck to advance in her career. Betty also shared some of the fun and challenging parts of the MBA experience, and how she thinks about her own view on career success.
- Betty Tran’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bettytranms/
- Betty’s Article in Fortune: https://fortune.com/education/articles/how-this-first-generation-student-ended-up-at-a-top-mba-program-and-landed-an-internship-with-microsoft/
Taylor Clark is an MBA Graduate from the Class of 2023 at Harvard Business School.
During our conversation, Taylor spoke about her journey to deciding on pursuing an MBA at HBS, why she wanted to go to Harvard specifically, and some of the memorable and impactful moments from her time at Harvard.
Since her childhood, Taylor has always pursued opportunities to lead, and during our conversation, Taylor spoke about her desire to use her time in business school at HBS to continue to build her leadership skills, and how her time at HBS has helped her transform her thinking about her career and her leadership abilities.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tayclark/
Are you looking to advance in your career? Trying to build relationships or advance towards a career goal? Here are five practical tips for standing out so you can build better relationships and find more ways to grow your career
Links:
- https://al-dea.medium.com/10-ways-to-stand-out-in-the-workplace-be95efc65c88
In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Rebecca Mallen Churchill and Elvis Diaz about the MBA program at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
Consistently ranked as a top MBA program in the United States, W. P. Carey offers MBA students the benefits of a community-driven MBA program with the scale and opportunities of the broader Arizona State University brand and network.
During our conversation, Elvis, a W. P. Carey MBA graduate shared his professional journey which took him from a career in the non-profit space in New Jersey to pursuing an MBA at W. P. Carey to now, living and working in a career in corporate finance at a technology company in Arizona.
As Director of Recruitment and Admission, Rebecca shared her perspective of what makes the community and students at W. P. Carey unique and valuable, some of the highlights of the W. P. Carey MBA program, and what she and her team are looking for in MBA applicants who are considering an MBA from W. P. Carey.
Episode Guests:
- Elvis Diaz (Arizona State University, W. P. Carey, ‘19)
- Rebecca Mallen-Churchill (Director of Graduate Recruitment and Admission, Arizona State University W. P. Carey MBA Program) and Elvis Diaz (W. P. Carey, 19)
Links:
- W. P. Carey Full-time MBA program
- W. P. Carey Executive Connections
Note: This episode was produced in collaboration with the ASU W. P. Carey MBA Program
Britt Hunter is an MBA Graduate from the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management. Prior to pursuing her MBA at Owen, Britt worked in education and now currently works in HR at Microsoft. During our conversation, Britt spoke about her pre-MBA work in education, and how her students motivated her to apply for an MBA. She also shared some of the reasons why she chose to attend Owen, her favorite memories from business school, and her own journey with public speaking.
Links
- Britt’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittbritt-hunter/
Lindsay Sage is a former MBA Admissions Director at NYU Stern, as well as the Founder of Sage Admit, and an MBA Admissions Consultant. To kick off this fall’s MBA application season, we asked Lindsay to come on the podcast to talk through some of the things she is seeing through her conversations with MBA programs and MBA applicants.
During our conversation, we spoke about some observations and learnings from the previous year’s MBA application cycle (2022-2023) , some recent events and trends and their implications and impacts on MBA applications, as well as what Lindsay is seeing and hearing from talking with MBA admissions directors and applicants.
Links
- Lindsay’s Website: https://www.sageadmit.com/
- Previous Episode: https://mbaschooled.com/2021/09/06/episode-117-the-2021-2022-mba-application-season-with-lindsay-sage/
- Previous Episode: https://mbaschooled.com/2022/08/29/162-what-type-of-mba-program-is-right-for-me/
- Previous Episode: https://mbaschooled.com/2020/10/15/episode-53-breaking-down-the-mba-application-and-navigating-mba-admissions-with-lindsay-sage/
Editor's Note. This is a replay of a Top Performing Episode from 2021:
After serving in the military, Katherine Rowe (UT-McCombs, ‘20) chose to get an MBA to pursue a new career, and landed at UT-McCombs. Throughout her time at McCombs, Katherine not only took advantage of the resources and opportunities to expand skills, but also built meaningful relationships that led to growth and development. In this conversation, Katherine spoke about her journey to McCombs, how she was able to effectively build a network from a non-traditional background, and the impact of those relationships that helped her grow her career in sports and entertainment.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-rowe/
Newton Cheng is a Director of Health and Performance at Google and a UC-Berkeley Haas MBA Alumni. After graduating from Haas, Newton entered his post-MBA career at Google where he has worked for more than 15 years. Along the way, he’s been able to learn and grow in order to pursue being a high-performing employee while also prioritizing the many other important roles in his life, as husband, parent, and athlete. During our conversation, Newton spoke about his time at Haas, and the importance and meaning of community to helping him land a job and navigate his career. He also highlighted some of his own professional accomplishments and meaningful moments that he has had from his time at Google.
Newton also spoke about what he’s learned from sharing his own story with large audiences about the intersection of performance, well-being and mental health, as well as how his own thinking about his MBA experience and what he’s learned has evolved as he has evolved in his life and career since graduating from business school
Links
- Newton’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/newtoncheng/
Note: This is a replay episode of one our most popular episodes from 2022: After graduating with an MBA from the University of Michigan (Ross) Jodi Innerfield moved to San Francisco to start her post-MBA career working in a Product Marketing role at a startup. Since then, she’s moved to larger companies and has built a career at Salesforce and moved back across the country to the East Coast. During our conversation, we spoke about her life after graduating from Ross as well as some of the exciting opportunities and challenges of life after business school. Jodi also spoke about her career journey, how she views her own career development, and her advice to MBA graduates for how to best launch their post-MBA careers.
- Jodi’s MBASchooled Profile
Editor's Note. This is a replay of a Top Performing Episode from 2021:
After graduating from the University of Texas-Austin (McCombs) with her MBA, Lucero Perez began her post-MBA journey after graduating from Texas McCombs by transitioning into a career in management consulting, before switching to a career in Tech at an enterprise software company. Along the way, Lucero navigated the post-MBA career and life journey with the support of family and friends, and her own career ambitions. During this conversation, Lucero spoke about her journey to transitioning to life after graduating, some of the highs and lows, and provided her own advice to how to best navigate career and life after graduating from business school.
David Bradford is a Senior Lecturer at the Stanford GSB, a Co-Instructor of the Popular GSB Class, Interpersonal Dynamics, and the Co-Author of the book Connect:Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends and Colleagues. David has taught the “touchy feely” course at Stanford for decades, and has a longtime experience in teaching and coaching MBAs on some of the most critical skills needed to thrive as a leader in an organization.
During our conversation, David spoke about why this course became so popular amongst Stanford MBA Students, some of the key relationship concepts from the book, as well as his own observations for how MBA students can make the most of their MBA experience.
Links:
- Book: https://connectandrelate.com/
This is the 200th episode of MBA Insider!
Thank you to all the listeners and supporters who have been a part of the MBA Insider journey. In this solo episode, Al walks through the history of starting the MBA Insider podcast, as well as sharing how he has evolved and changed since the podcast began in March of 2020.
Finally, Al shares some of the lessons he’s learned from producing 200 episodes.
Links
- MBASchooled Website: https://mbaschooled.com/
- Al’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/
Note: This is a crossover episode from The Edge of Work Podcast. If you like this episode, make sure to check out The Edge of Work
Simone Stolzoff is the Author of The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work.
Through his diverse experiences in advertising, tech, journalism, and design, Simone has developed a unique understanding of the evolving world of work.
In his book, "The Good Enough Job," Simone explores the idea of an alternative path to fulfillment in work and in your career, and instead of striving for a job you love, you just find a good enough job. By exploring this topic and featuring the stories of a handful of individuals who have lived this concept in real-time, Simone offers some insights to others navigating their jobs and careers in a complex world of work.
In this episode, we explore thoughtful questions about the changing world of work, including:
- The idea of a good enough job for a satisfying life.
- Discovering the importance of personal success metrics in the workplace.
- Reviewing the connection between self-awareness and work-life balance.
- Acknowledging the role that employers, governments and society plan in recreating a world of work
- Delve into cultural perspectives on labor and work appreciation.
Links:
- Book: https://www.simonestolzoff.com
- Simone’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simone-stolzoff-5a16b648/
Note: This is a crossover episode from The Edge of Work Podcast. If you like this episode, make sure to check out The Edge of Work
Christina Wallace is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, an HBS Graduate, entrepreneur and author.
In her most recent book, The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card, Christina makes the case for how employees are multi-dimensional individuals, and can re-think and reframe their relationship with their job and career, and to use portfolio and diversification theory to de-risk and explore multiple paths instead.
During our conversation, Christina spoke about how living her own version of a Portfolio life gave her the idea to start researching the book, and why we need a more expansive mindset around how employees can navigate their lives and careers in a more expansive and modern way.
She shares her perspective on how people who are not interested in a more traditional or tried career path, can use the portfolio model to find meaning and success, and she also makes the case, for how in the future of work, The Portfolio model can be a more expansive way for employees to manage their career in today’s modern world of work.
Listen Today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- The Portfolio Life: https://www.portfoliolife.com/
- The Edge of Work Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-edge-of-work/id1645964951
This episode is hosted by MBA Insider Friend and former guest, Jodi Innerfield. In this episode, Jodi interviews Rebecca Offesend, a Columbia Business School MBA Graduate. Rebecca was able to use her time at CBS and in business school to transition into the finance and banking sector, before finding a home working in Venture Capital.
During this conversation, Rebecca spoke about her journey to pursuing an MBA, some of the career changes and transitions that she’s made, and her own reflections on how her MBA has informed her career and life decisions and propelled her forward in her career.
Elissa Sangster is the CEO of the Forté Foundation, an organization that is dedicated to changing the power balance in the workplace. Through various programs, partnerships and resources, Forté plays a critical role in identifying and developing women leaders by supporting them in their time in business school and as MBA graduates and leaders in their chosen fields.
During our conversation, Elissa spoke about how, in a changing world of work, how Forté remains committed to developing female leaders in the business world, and the programs, resources and offerings they provide to aspiring female leaders in business school and beyond. We also spoke about some of the shifts they are helping business schools make to provide a more inclusive learning experience, and her own advice to women about thinking about the opportunity an MBA can provide for professional growth and development.
Links
- Forté Website: https://www.fortefoundation.org/
DJ DiDonna is an Entrepreneurship Professor at HBS as well as the Founder of the Sabbatical Project. After pursuing an entrepreneurial path after graduating from an HBS, DJ decided to take a sabbatical before figuring out his next move, and enjoyed it so much that he decided to start studying sabbaticals. Through his career, DJ has interviewed hundreds of others who have taken sabbaticals and contributed significant research to this topic.
During our conversation, DJ spoke about his journey to business school and time at HBS, as well as how his entrepreneurial pursuits after business school enabled him on this path to going on and studying sabbaticals. He also shared his own reflections on his career, career success, and his advice to help others define career success on their terms.
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ddidonna/
Web: https://thesabbaticalproject.org/about/
After publishing MBA Insider: How to Make The Most of Your MBA Experience, I found that one of the most popular chapters in the book was the final chapter, Life After Business School. Even for aspiring students, many people were curious to learn how an MBA could change and accelerate the lives and careers of the students who participated in the MBA experience. To date, some of the top performing episodes on the MBA Insider podcast are from a series I titled Life After Business School.
So it was only fair that I took some time to do a solo episode about my own experience and journey after graduating from business school, what I learned in the process, and how that can be useful to aspiring, current and former MBA students. In this episode, I break down my own journey and the lessons that I’ve taken from my time since graduating, and how I think my life and career have changed since business school.
- Al’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/
- Life After Business School: https://mbaschooled.com/2016/05/17/one-year-later-there-is-life-after-business-school/
- Life After Business School: https://mbaschooled.com/2021/05/25/episode-109-life-after-business-school-with-kerry-rigley-unc-kenan-flagler/
Jessica Wan is a UC-Berkeley Haas MBA Alumni, Executive Coach, and The Host of the Ampersand Manifesto Podcast. Prior to attending UC-Berkeley Haas, Jessica worked in the arts and non profit sector before deciding to pursue an MBA all while continuing her passion for the arts as a trained opera singer and performer. After working in several marketing roles at tech companies after her MBA building and launching products and leading teams, Jessica found her love for coaching, and leaders navigate change and manage teams, and eventually left her marketing executive role to become an Executive Coach.
During our conversation, Jessica spoke about her career, decision to get an MBA, and her time after business school which enabled her to pursue the path that she is on today. She also shared her journey to entrepreneurship and her perspective on the idea behind the Ampersand Manifesto Podcast.
Links
- Jessica’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicamwan/
- Jessica’s Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ampersand-manifesto
Congratulations on landing a new job or internship! Even though you put in a ton of hard work to land this opportunity, have you put in the time and effort to figure out how you can be successful as you onboard into a new role, opportunity, or organization? In this episode, Al walks through the key actions and focus areas you can focus on when you’re onboarding into a new job or internship. You’ll walk away with practical ways to make sure you’re set up for success in your new job or internship.
Links
- Al’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/
- Article on Onboarding: https://mbaschooled.com/2022/12/17/how-to-start-a-new-job-the-right-way/
- Article on Internships: https://mbaschooled.com/2017/04/20/internship-insights-starting-early-to-set-yourself-up-for-success/
In this episode, MBA Insider Podcast Host Al Dea shares why he thinks it is important to define and cultivate a personal brand in order to advance your career on your own terms, along with providing some actionable and practical pieces of advice for how professionals can do this in their work and careers.
Links:
- Al’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/
- How to Stand out at Work: https://mbaschooled.com/2023/01/02/10-ways-to-improve-your-visibility-at-work/
Priyal Keni is an MBA Candidate at London Business School. Prior to attending London Business School Priyal worked as a chartered accountant, consultant and professional rifle shooter before deciding to pivot into a new profession. During our conversation, Priyal spoke about her decision to find new opportunities in her career by pursuing an MBA, as well as her decision to go to London Business School. Priyal also shared how she has been able to deliver multiple TED Talks and amass a following of almost 50,000 followers on Linkedin as a creator
Links
- Priyal’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyalkeni/
Jerome Fulton Jr is a MBA Candidate in the Class of 2023 at Harvard Business School. Prior to attending HBS, Jerome worked in accounting and finance before deciding to pursue an MBA degree. During our conversation, Jerome spoke about his journey to applying to an MBA and entering Harvard Business School, as well as some of the leadership opportunities he’s taken on while he’s been an HBS student. Jerome also provided his own advice to professionals who are thinking about the next in their career and considering an MBA degree
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromefulton/
How are you managing your career in today’s changing world of work?
In this solo episode, MBA Insider Podcast Host Al Dea walks us through six principles for how you can manage your career in today’s changing world of work, and something that any aspiring, current or former MBA can benefit from.
Links
- Al’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/
- Al’s Newsletter: https://alsnewsletter.substack.com/
Laura Fox is an MBA Graduate from the NYU Stern School of Business. Prior to her time at NYU Stern, Laura spent her time thinking about how to improve cities and building and executing digital strategies. After realizing her desire to make a broader impact at the systemic level of cities and communities, Laura decided to pursue an MBA at NYU Stern, where she was able to explore and pursue numerous interests and curiosities that led her to a number of career opportunities, including working as a management consultant, serving as the GM of the Citi Bike program at Lyft, teaching at NYU Stern, and building and scaling a Venture Capital Fund.
During the conversation, Laura spoke about her journey, how following her interests and curiosities has helped her create her own career opportunities, and how her MBA and time at NYU Stern has helped her advance her career.
- Laura’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraafox/
- NYU Stern on MBA Insider: https://mbaschooled.com/2022/10/03/167-unlock-your-leadership-potential-with-the-nyu-stern-mba/
Editors Note: This is a replay of a popular episode from 2021 featuring Joey Parker (Haas MBA Alum)
After spending six years in the non-profit sector, Joey Parker (Haas, ’21) enrolled at UC-Berkeley (Haas) to pursue an MBA and to transition to a new career. During this episode, Joey talks about his experience with MBA internship recruiting for both management consulting and technology roles, the highs and hows of navigating internship recruiting, and his overall reflections and learnings from his first year MBA internship search.
Sowa Imoisilli is an MBA Candidate in the Class of 2023 at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to attending the GSB, Sowa worked as a management consultant in the health and public service sector and eventually made her way into the innovation hub helping ideate and build products. After realizing she was interested in getting more ownership of the work she was doing as well as being drawn to entrepreneurship and venture capital, Sowa decided to pursue an MBA degree, and wound up at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
During our conversation, Sowa spoke about her journey to an MBA at the GSB, as well as how she is using her time in business school to develop herself and grow her career. She also spoke in-depth about her own leadership experience as a Co-President of the Stanford GSB student government, and the lessons she’s learned in the experience.
Janine Lee is a Global L&D Strategy and Ops Lead at Google, and graduated with her MBA from UC-Berkeley Haas. Throughout her life and career, Janine has always pushed herself to learn and grow. Prior to business school, Janine was working in the utility and energy space before deciding that she wanted to further her learning by switching careers, and after seeing many leaders and mentors she admired who had gotten MBAs, Janine decided she too wanted to pursue one.
During our conversation, Janine spoke about her early career and eventually what inspired her to get her MBA. She also spoke about how she was able to use her MBA to transition into a new role, and how she continues to push herself to learn and grow in her career now as an Educational Doctoral student.
Links
- Janine’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janinelee/
- Janine’s Instagram Profile: https://www.instagram.com/drjaninelee/
Editor’s Note: This episode has been produced in partnership with the Texas McCombs School of Business.
Whether it’s going to get an MBA to transition into a new career or accelerate your path on an existing one, finding the right program with the right resources to help students achieve their career goals is important to MBA applicants.
To talk about the importance of support and resources in the MBA career process, we had the pleasure of speaking with Abby Pollard, (Director, Full Time MBA Career Education & Coaching) and Claudia Lara (McCombs, ‘23) from the Texas McCombs School of Business.
As the Director of MBA Career Education and Coaching, Abby and her team work with hundreds of students each year as they navigate their career process in the Texas McCombs MBA program. And as a student with a desire to make a career switch, Claudia made sure to utilize all the resources at her disposal to transition into a career at the intersection of cleantech, finance, and sustainability.
During our conversation, Claudia spoke about her decision to get an MBA, why she chose Texas McCombs, and how the various career resources at McCombs helped her achieve her goal of transitioning into the cleantech industry, while Abby added in her insights from helping hundreds of students who have navigated career transitions, as well as her advice to prospective MBA applicants considering an MBA from the Texas McCombs.
Links
In this solo episode, Al tackles a number of listener questions that are top of mind for aspiring MBA applicants including:
- What to do about an upcoming promotion at work and balancing that with pursuing an MBA
- When does it make sense to pursue a part-time MBA vs a Full-Time MBA?
- Advice on how to get your employer to pay for your MBA degree?
If you are an aspiring, current or former MBA student who has questions about the MBA or any other career related question, make sure to send us your questions so we can answer them in an episode. Contact us at hello@mbaschooled.com
Links
- What Type of MBA Program is Right For Me? https://mbaschooled.com/2022/08/29/162-what-type-of-mba-program-is-right-for-me/
Nathan Tanner is a longtime friend of MBASchooled and the MBA Insider Podcast. During this episode, Nathan spoke to us about his journey to business school, and how his time in business school helped him transition into a career in HR. After spending the past 6-7 years working in HR & People roles at tech companies Nathan recently made a career change to becoming an Executive Coach & Founder of his own coaching firm.
During our conversation, Nathan spoke about the numerous career transitions he’s made in his career, including his most recent one to becoming an Executive Coach. Nathan also spoke about how his MBA has helped him grow in his career, and his advice for how MBAs can achieve their career goals
Links
- Nathan’s website: https://nathantanner.net/coaching/
- Nathans previous episode: https://mbaschooled.com/2020/05/19/episode-15-the-importance-of-career-development-for-mba-students-and-graduates/
Aaron Fung is a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Business Partner at Pinterest, and an MBA Graduate from the Vanderbilt Owen School of Management.
After starting his career in the banking and financial services industry, Aaron chose to go to business school to pursue his interests in people development. While he re-entered the financial services industry immediately after business school, Aaron did eventually transition into people development and now works in diversity, equity and inclusion at Pinterest, and serves as a Career Coach.
During our conversation, Aaron spoke about his journey and the topic of career transitions. He shared a number of reflections about what he’s learned from his MBA experience, and how it’s helped him navigate and grow his career.
Links
- Aaron’s Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronlfung/
- Aaron’s Coaching Practice; https://coachingaf.com/
- Al’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/
Blessing Adesiyan is a UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA Alum, and the Founder of MH, a platform that is helping mothers build better careers and happier homes. During this conversation, Blessing shared her journey to pursuing an MBA, how she used her time in business school at UNC Kenan-Flagler to prototype and test her idea, and her ambitions for empowering women to build better careers and happier homes.
Links
Listener Note: This is a replay of episode #87
This episode is all about informational interviews, something that many students and professionals rely on during the course of their time in business school and in the everyday workplace. With help of Alli Jaeggi (USC Marshall, ‘20) we broke down everything MBAs need to know about the topic of informational interviews, tips for how to do them right, and mistakes to avoid, and actionable practices you can put into place for your relationship building efforts in the job search and in your career
- Alli Jaeggi’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrajaeggi/
Welcome to 2023! In the first episode of 2023, Al Dea does a solo episode and tackles the following topics:
- Big Headlines in the MBA space in from Fall 2023
- Other underreported things that happened in the MBA space and their implications for the MBA and MBA degree
- Mailbag questions from listeners around how to write and talk about yourself in MBA applications
Links:
- Pay and Compensation: https://fortune.com/education/articles/mba-grads-from-these-6-top-business-schools-landed-200k-starting-pay-packages-in-2022/
- Darden’s Pay Stats: https://poetsandquants.com/2022/06/08/2022-darden-mbas-get-21-jump-in-median-salary-over-previous-class/
- GMAC Applications: https://poetsandquants.com/2022/10/26/gmac-says-applications-to-b-schools-dropped-3-4-globally-in-2022/
- Wharton’s New Concentrations: https://www.wharton.upenn.edu/story/wharton-welcomes-two-new-majors-and-concentrations-dei-and-esgb/
- NY Times and HBS: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/28/business/business-school-social-justice.html
- WSJ and Berkeley: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-class-where-future-bosses-learn-how-to-deliver-bad-news-11669576727
- GMAC’s New CEO: https://www.gmac.com/news-center/gmac-press-releases/graduate-management-admission-council-appoints-joy-jones-as-incoming-ceo
- MBA Roundtable: https://www.diverseeducation.com/reports-data/article/15304369/report-testoptional-policies-result-in-increased-application-numbers-and-student-diversity-at-many-business-schools
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Christina Wallace is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, an HBS Graduate, entrepreneur and author. As a self-described “human venn diagram,” Christina wears many hats, and has learned to embrace and lean into her unique talents and found ways to bring them to life throughout a multitude of different avenues in her career and in her life.
During this conversation, we spoke about Christina’s career journey to HBS, and her time in management consulting, as an entrepreneur and life now as an author and lecturer. We also spoke about the concept of a Portfolio life, and how this framework and language has helped Christina and others find more expansive ways to find meaning and fulfillment in their work and life.
Links
- Christina Wallace: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawallace
Today’s guest host is Brad Vonick, a Texas McCombs MBA Graduate and friend of MBA Insider.
Today’s guest is Greg Labanowski, a Texas McCombs MBA Graduate from the Class of 2022. In college, Greg was a member of the USC men’s tennis team, and was able to pursue his passion to work in sports prior to getting his MBA. After a few years in the industry, he chose to pursue an MBA and attend Texas McCombs to further his career.
During this conversation, Greg spoke about his journey to an MBA and how his time at McCombs and in business school helped him grow for his post-MBA career. Brad and Greg also talked in depth about the definition of career and professional success, and some of the steps Greg took to learn and grow in his career.
- Greg's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greglabanowski/
Nicole Gwanzura is the CEO and Founder of EAC Consulting LLC. Nicole is a leader in the early career talent attraction and development space, and works with organizations to help them attract, develop and retain diverse talent while empowering early career professionals to get the guidance and resources they need to grow their careers.
During our conversation, Nicole shared her journey to starting her business and some of the insights she’s gained from helping organizations and early career professionals navigate career opportunities. She also shared her thoughts on why an MBA could be a great opportunity for early career professionals, and her advice for how these individuals can explore the MBA degree.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- Website:https://www.educationadvancementconsulting.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolegwanzura/
Many MBA students cite that networking and building relationships are two of the most valuable parts of the MBA experience. But how does that play out, and how do MBA graduates cultivate their relationships with their peers and classmates during business school and beyond? In this episode, we spoke to three MBA alums, Margaret Nealon (USC Marshall, ‘22) Ethan Siegel (Owen, ‘22) and Jill Toner (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘22) about their MBA experience, and how the as recent MBA alums are using their relationships to develop personally and professionally after they graduate from business school.
Listen Today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Margaret Nealon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mknealon/ - USC Marshall 22
Ethan Siegel - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-siegel/ - Vanderbilt Owen ‘22
Jill Toner - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-toner/ - UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘22
In this episode, we spoke with Javier Madriz (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘22) and Paige Smith (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘23). While Javier and Paige chose to get an MBA for different reasons, a commonality they both share is being able to take advantage of the career coaching and leadership resources from UNC Kenan-Flagler that enabled both of them to explore the right career path based on their unique strengths, goals and interests.
During this conversation, Javier and Paige spoke about their journey to UNC Kenan-Flagler and their experience pursuing their career goals while students at UNC. They both discussed the specific resources and programming that were most helpful to achieving their internship & full-time career goals, and shared advice for how prospective MBA students should think about their personal development journey to get to a career that aligns with your long-term vision for success.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- UNC Kenan-Flagler Full-Time MBA Program
- Ep 127: The Role of Allyship at UNC Kenan-Flagler
Note: This is a special episode produced in conjunction with UNC Kenan-Flagler
Jordan Sale is the Founder of 81Cents, GM of Rora, and MBA Graduate from UC-Berkeley Haas. After starting her career in Fintech, Jordan decided to pursue an MBA and moved back across the country to attend Berkeley. During her time in business school, Jordan began exploring different programs, classes and experiences in entrepreneurship, and also found her idea for starting 81 Cents, to help individuals, especially those of underserved backgrounds advocate for themselves in career decisions such as job offers, compensation discussions and other negotiations.
During our conversation, Jordan spoke about her decision to pursue an MBA and how she used her time at Haas to explore entrepreneurship and how she was able to start building 81 Cents. She also spoke about the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, some of the things she loves about being an entrepreneur, and the journey to founding 81cents to recently being acquired by Rora.
Links:
Rora: https://www.teamrora.com/
Jordan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordansale/
Shana Lebowitz Gaynor is a columnist at Insider and the author of Don’t Call it Quits: Turn The Job You Have into The Job You Love. Shana has been covering the workplace, careers and leadership at Insider and recently published her book as a guide to employees who are struggling with their current role but don’t necessarily want to quit or leave their company on how they can make changes or take action to improve the day to day lives in the workplace.
During our conversation, we spoke about topics ranging from Shana’s own experience navigating a challenging workplace situation and how she was able to overcome and find a better alternative without quitting, to everything from quiet quitting, the role that meaning in the workplace, and the role that managers play in understanding facilitating dialogue around career development and growth for employees.
Shana also provided some tactical advice from her book, on what employees can do who don’t want to quit, but who want to improve their current workplace situation.
Listen Today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links:
- Book: Don’t Call It Quits: Turn The Job You Have Into The Job You Love
- Shana’s LinkedIn Profile
Lindsay Case is an MBA Graduate from the University of Michigan Ross’s Online MBA Program from the Class of 2021.
During this conversation, we spoke to Lindsay about her decision to pursue an MBA in her career journey, why she chose the online MBA and the program at Ross. We also spoke to her about her experience managing an online MBA program while working full-time, what she got out of the experience, and her advice to other professionals who are considering an online MBA.
Lindsay’s Links
- Poets and Quants Article:
- Lindsay’s Linkedin Profile
- Michigan Ross Online MBA Program
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Note: This episode was produced in Collaboration with the Texas McCombs MBA Program.
In this episode we spoke with Sarah Davison (McCombs, ‘22) and Craig Perry (McCombs, ‘23.) While Sarah and Craig have unique professional journeys, they came to the decision that an MBA was the right next step in their professional journey, and decided to move to Austin and attend the Texas McCombs MBA Program.
During our conversation, we spoke to Sarah and Craig about their own career and life prior to attending McCombs, and why they chose to get an MBA and what specifically made McCombs the right fit for them.
We also spent time talking through their McCombs experience, why McCombs was a great fit for their personal and career goals. Sarah and Craig also shared their own thoughts and reflections about how they’ve developed personally and professionally in the MBA program, and their advice for prospective MBA applicants who are considering an MBA from Texas-McCombs.
Links
- Apply Now: The Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA Application
- Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA Program
Getting an MBA is an opportunity to achieve a desired career goal, but it’s also a chance to develop your leadership skills and open yourself up to further development and growth. At NYU Stern, leadership development is a critical component of the MBA experience, from the moment a prospective student applies to their program all the way until after they graduate.
During this episode, we spoke with students, alum, and faculty of the NYU Stern School of Business to learn how MBA students can build themselves as a leader both inside and outside of the classroom throughout the MBA experience.
We learned how these students and alum engaged in various leadership development opportunities at NYU Stern and how that helped them grow at school and beyond. The students and alum shared their reflections on how they applied their learnings immediately in leadership positions, internships, and careers. Finally, they shared advice to prospective MBA students about why applicants should consider NYU Stern.
Note: This episode was produced in collaboration with the NYU Stern School of Business
This episode features the following students, alum, and faculty of NYU Stern:
- Lance Banks, ‘23
- Josie Raccucia, ‘23
- Ashley Zaslov, ‘19
- Nathan Pettit, Associate Professor, Management and Organizations
Links
- NYU Stern MBA Program Overview
- NYU Stern Leadership Accelerator
Jenny Blake is an Author, Entrepreneur, and Podcast Host. After starting her career at Google and helping develop a global career and leadership coaching program, Jenny left Google to pursue a career in solopreneurship and entrepreneurship. Since then, Jenny has written books, spoken on stages in front of thousands of people, and pivoted and iterated through 10+ years of a career as an entrepreneur.
During our conversation, we spoke about how Jenny wrote Pivot and then took the lessons from Pivot to reimagine her business during the early stages of COVID-19 in March of 2020. Jenny also spoke about her newest book Free Time and lessons for how professionals of all career backgrounds can remove themselves from stress and busyness to work on things that matter to each of us as well as find strategies for identifying the priorities that are most important to you.
Listen Today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links:
- Free Time Podcast
- Free Time Book
- Pivot Podcast
- Pivot Book
Jenny Blake is an Author, Entrepreneur, and Podcast Host. After starting her career at Google and helping develop a global career and leadership coaching program, Jenny left Google to pursue a career in solopreneurship and entrepreneurship. Since then, Jenny has written books, spoken on stages in front of thousands of people, and pivoted and iterated through 10+ years of a career as an entrepreneur.
During our conversation, we spoke about how Jenny wrote Pivot and then took the lessons from Pivot to reimagine her business during the early stages of COVID-19 in March of 2020. Jenny also spoke about her newest book Free Time and lessons for how professionals of all career backgrounds can remove themselves from stress and busyness to work on things that matter to each of us as well as find strategies for identifying the priorities that are most important to you.
Listen Today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links:
- Free Time Podcast
- Free Time Book
- Pivot Podcast
- Pivot Book
Claire Harbour is an Author of Disrupt Your Career, a Podcast Host of the Disrupt Your Career Podcast, and Leadership Coach to executives and leaders who are making significant career transitions.
During our conversation, Claire talked about how she got into the work of career development and studying the nature of careers. She also talked about some of the common shifts in career development approaches today versus 10-20 years ago, the common challenges and questions that MBA students and alum have about their careers, and the “6 C’s” framework that you can use to develop your own career agility to navigate a career transition.
Listen Today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Episode Links
- LinkedIn Profile
- Disrupt Your Career Podcast
- Book: Disrupt Your Career
- Website
- Career Acrobats Online Course
Claire Harbour is an Author of Disrupt Your Career, a Podcast Host of the Disrupt Your Career Podcast, and Leadership Coach to executives and leaders who are making significant career transitions.
During our conversation, Claire talked about how she got into the work of career development and studying the nature of careers. She also talked about some of the common shifts in career development approaches today versus 10-20 years ago, the common challenges and questions that MBA students and alum have about their careers, and the “6 C’s” framework that you can use to develop your own career agility to navigate a career transition.
Listen Today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Episode Links
- LinkedIn Profile
- Disrupt Your Career Podcast
- Book: Disrupt Your Career
- Website
- Career Acrobats Online Course
Ann Hiatt is the Author of Bet On Yourself: Recognize, Own and Implement Breakthrough Opportunities, and a CEO Consultant to fast-growing startups and entrepreneurs. After starting her career at Amazon working directly for Jeff Bezos, Ann has also worked for other tech CEOs like Eric Schmidt and Marissa Mayer, where she learned how to create her own opportunities, operate in high-pressure environments, and figure out the types of people and priorities that were important to her when making career decisions. Now, Ann spends her time working with entrepreneurs who want to dream big, and bet on themselves to bring their own ideas and ambitions to life.
During our conversation, Ann spoke about her journey to Amazon, her experience working with Jeff Bezos, as well as the lessons she learned for managing her career while working at Google and Amazon during years of hyper-growth. She also shared advice for how professionals can engineer and create their own serendipity in their careers, and increase the surface area for opportunities through building relationships.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- Bet on Yourself (Amazon)
- Ann’s Website
- Ann’s HBR Article
- Ann’s LinkedIn
Ann Hiatt is the Author of Bet On Yourself: Recognize, Own and Implement Breakthrough Opportunities, and a CEO Consultant to fast-growing startups and entrepreneurs. After starting her career at Amazon working directly for Jeff Bezos, Ann has also worked for other tech CEOs like Eric Schmidt and Marissa Mayer, where she learned how to create her own opportunities, operate in high-pressure environments, and figure out the types of people and priorities that were important to her when making career decisions. Now, Ann spends her time working with entrepreneurs who want to dream big, and bet on themselves to bring their own ideas and ambitions to life.
During our conversation, Ann spoke about her journey to Amazon, her experience working with Jeff Bezos, as well as the lessons she learned for managing her career while working at Google and Amazon during years of hyper-growth. She also shared advice for how professionals can engineer and create their own serendipity in their careers, and increase the surface area for opportunities through building relationships.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- Bet on Yourself (Amazon)
- Ann’s Website
- Ann’s HBR Article
- Ann’s LinkedIn
Ashley Lautezenheiser is the Associate Director of Pre-MBA & Professional Programs at the Forté Foundation. In this episode, Ashley spoke to us about the role that Forté and it’s partners are playing in creating more opportunities for more women to take on leadership roles within business and specifically, the opportunities they are providing to early in career women who may have an interest in the MBA degree.
During this conversation, Ashley spoke about some of the common questions, challenges and conversations she has with early in career women who are curious about leadership opportunities such as an MBA. She also shared some of the programming and offerings Forté provides to open doors to more women interested in an MBA, as well as her advice to women who might be considering pursuing an MBA degree.
Ashley Lautezenheiser is the Associate Director of Pre-MBA & Professional Programs at the Forté Foundation. In this episode, Ashley spoke to us about the role that Forté and it’s partners are playing in creating more opportunities for more women to take on leadership roles within business and specifically, the opportunities they are providing to early in career women who may have an interest in the MBA degree.
During this conversation, Ashley spoke about some of the common questions, challenges and conversations she has with early in career women who are curious about leadership opportunities such as an MBA. She also shared some of the programming and offerings Forté provides to open doors to more women interested in an MBA, as well as her advice to women who might be considering pursuing an MBA degree.
Lindsay Sage is the Founder of Sage Admit, an MBA Admissions Consulting Firm, and a frequent guest of the MBA Insider Podcast. In this episode, Lindsay and Al covered a critical topic to any prospective MBA applicant: what type of MBA program is right for me?
During the conversation, Lindsay and Al covered everything from the common types of MBA programs, (ex: Full-Time, Part-Time, Executive, Online, Dual-Degree) consideration factors for why a program might be a good fit for you, and new and recently launched online, hybrid, and part-time MBA programs. Lindsay also provided advice for how MBA applicants can select the right MBA program based on their unique goals and aspirations.
https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/programs/mba/charlotte-executive-mba/
https://business.wisc.edu/graduate/mba/professional/
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Lindsay Sage is the Founder of Sage Admit, an MBA Admissions Consulting Firm, and a frequent guest of the MBA Insider Podcast. In this episode, Lindsay and Al covered a critical topic to any prospective MBA applicant: what type of MBA program is right for me?
During the conversation, Lindsay and Al covered everything from the common types of MBA programs, (ex: Full-Time, Part-Time, Executive, Online, Dual-Degree) consideration factors for why a program might be a good fit for you, and new and recently launched online, hybrid, and part-time MBA programs. Lindsay also provided advice for how MBA applicants can select the right MBA program based on their unique goals and aspirations.
https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/programs/mba/charlotte-executive-mba/
https://business.wisc.edu/graduate/mba/professional/
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
April Rinne is a keynote speaker, futurist and author of the book Flux: 8 Superpowers For Thriving in Constant Change. Throughout her career, April has studied the concept of change, and is trying to better understand how we can create a better relationship with change, especially when we are living in a world of constant flux.
During our conversation, April spoke about the meaning of flux, and what it means for people who are building and growing their careers in a state of constant change. She also gave advice and some ideas, around how to navigate setbacks and challenges, and how you can apply some of the 8 superpowers of flux, to grow yourself and your career amidst uncertainty and change.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
April’s Links
- Amazon Link
- Website
- Website: Flux
- HBR Article: Why You Should Build a Career Portfolio
April Rinne is a keynote speaker, futurist and author of the book Flux: 8 Superpowers For Thriving in Constant Change. Throughout her career, April has studied the concept of change, and is trying to better understand how we can create a better relationship with change, especially when we are living in a world of constant flux.
During our conversation, April spoke about the meaning of flux, and what it means for people who are building and growing their careers in a state of constant change. She also gave advice and some ideas, around how to navigate setbacks and challenges, and how you can apply some of the 8 superpowers of flux, to grow yourself and your career amidst uncertainty and change.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
April’s Links
- Amazon Link
- Website
- Website: Flux
- HBR Article: Why You Should Build a Career Portfolio
Editor’s Note: This episode has been produced in partnership with the Texas McCombs School of Business MBA Program
In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with two Texas McCombs leaders in Rodrigo Malta (Managing Director, Marketing, Recruiting and Admissions)) and Tina Mabley (Assistant Dean, Full-Time MBA Program Director)
In addition to their roles in the Texas McCombs MBA program, both are proud McCombs MBA graduates and have a strong passion for all things McCombs and Austin.
During our conversation, Rodrigo spoke about updates and changes to the MBA application to McCombs, including their test policy, video interview, and opportunities to speak with current MBA students. Rodrigo also shared his perspective on what makes Austin a great place to get an MBA, and why he believes prospective MBA applicants should consider McCombs.
Tina shared with us some of the new opportunities and changes that have come about with the MBA program experience at McCombs as a result of the past few years, and she provided her perspective about what makes the student experience at McCombs unique. She also spoke about the opportunities that McCombs students have inside and outside of the classroom at McCombs, and their approach to providing new and relevant courses to ensure students build the skills needed to thrive in their careers and the future of work.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Links
- Apply Now: The Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA Application
- Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA Program
Editor’s Note: This episode has been produced in partnership with the Texas McCombs School of Business MBA Program
In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with two Texas McCombs leaders in Rodrigo Malta (Managing Director, Marketing, Recruiting and Admissions)) and Tina Mabley (Assistant Dean, Full-Time MBA Program Director)
In addition to their roles in the Texas McCombs MBA program, both are proud McCombs MBA graduates and have a strong passion for all things McCombs and Austin.
During our conversation, Rodrigo spoke about updates and changes to the MBA application to McCombs, including their test policy, video interview, and opportunities to speak with current MBA students. Rodrigo also shared his perspective on what makes Austin a great place to get an MBA, and why he believes prospective MBA applicants should consider McCombs.
Tina shared with us some of the new opportunities and changes that have come about with the MBA program experience at McCombs as a result of the past few years, and she provided her perspective about what makes the student experience at McCombs unique. She also spoke about the opportunities that McCombs students have inside and outside of the classroom at McCombs, and their approach to providing new and relevant courses to ensure students build the skills needed to thrive in their careers and the future of work.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Links
- Apply Now: The Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA Application
- Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA Program
Linda Abraham is an MBA Admissions Consultant and the Founder of Accepted, an admissions consulting firm. Linda shared some of the trends and insights from the previous MBA admissions cycle, and previewed her thoughts on trends what’s ahead for the 2022-2023 MBA admissions cycle including the impact of the economy, trends in MBA applications, and new We also talked about the challenges and opportunities of applying to an MBA program during periods of economic uncertainty, predictions of what might happen during the 2022-2023 MBA admissions cycle.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- Linda’s Previous Episode
- Accepted
- Linda’s Poets and Quants Article
Linda Abraham is an MBA Admissions Consultant and the Founder of Accepted, an admissions consulting firm. Linda shared some of the trends and insights from the previous MBA admissions cycle, and previewed her thoughts on trends what’s ahead for the 2022-2023 MBA admissions cycle including the impact of the economy, trends in MBA applications, and new We also talked about the challenges and opportunities of applying to an MBA program during periods of economic uncertainty, predictions of what might happen during the 2022-2023 MBA admissions cycle.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- Linda’s Previous Episode
- Accepted
- Linda’s Poets and Quants Article
Sabina Sulat is an author, speaker, consultant and employment expert. Aftering spending her career in corporate L&D, Sabina now spends her time as a coach, consultant and employer expert helping students and professionals navigate job searches and career transitions.
During our conversation, Sabina spoke about some of the challenges that student job seekers face, and how to navigate them. She shared her own insights and perspective on topics including personal branding, transferable skills, and managing a job search while trying to work a job, all to help students and job seekers effectively navigate their job search.
Sabina’s Links
- LinkedIn Profile
- Re: Working (reworkingworks.com)
Sabina Sulat is an author, speaker, consultant and employment expert. Aftering spending her career in corporate L&D, Sabina now spends her time as a coach, consultant and employer expert helping students and professionals navigate job searches and career transitions.
During our conversation, Sabina spoke about some of the challenges that student job seekers face, and how to navigate them. She shared her own insights and perspective on topics including personal branding, transferable skills, and managing a job search while trying to work a job, all to help students and job seekers effectively navigate their job search.
Sabina’s Links
- LinkedIn Profile
- Re: Working (reworkingworks.com)
Stephanie Lio is a Kellogg MBA Graduate and a Product Marketer. After starting her career as a management consultant, Stephanie went to the Kellogg School of Management to pursue an MBA, and pivot to a new career.
After graduating from Kellogg and entering the product marketing and tech world, Stephanie has now held product marketing roles at multiple tech companies and navigated through a few years of her post MBA career, which has allowed her to reflect, think deeply, and evolve her own thinking on work, career, and life, and the most important things in each area.
During this conversation, we spoke about Stephanie’s career and work journey, transitions, and the importance of finding your own intrinsic motivations for pursuing work and careers.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Stephanie Lio is a Kellogg MBA Graduate and a Product Marketer. After starting her career as a management consultant, Stephanie went to the Kellogg School of Management to pursue an MBA, and pivot to a new career.
After graduating from Kellogg and entering the product marketing and tech world, Stephanie has now held product marketing roles at multiple tech companies and navigated through a few years of her post MBA career, which has allowed her to reflect, think deeply, and evolve her own thinking on work, career, and life, and the most important things in each area.
During this conversation, we spoke about Stephanie’s career and work journey, transitions, and the importance of finding your own intrinsic motivations for pursuing work and careers.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Steve Gilman is the Founder of Range, an employee professional development platform, and a graduate of Columbia Business School. After entering business school with a desire to explore numerous career paths, Steve found his way into entrepreneurship during his second year of business school and has worked on multiple companies since graduation.
During this interview, Steve spoke about his journey from professional baseball to the foreign service to entering business school and how his experiences gave him the inspiration for his newest company, Range. Steve also reflected on some of the challenges with how professional development and learning happens in today’s workplace, and what he and his team are doing to solve for it with Range.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- Range Website
- Steve’s Profile
Steve Gilman is the Founder of Range, an employee professional development platform, and a graduate of Columbia Business School. After entering business school with a desire to explore numerous career paths, Steve found his way into entrepreneurship during his second year of business school and has worked on multiple companies since graduation.
During this interview, Steve spoke about his journey from professional baseball to the foreign service to entering business school and how his experiences gave him the inspiration for his newest company, Range. Steve also reflected on some of the challenges with how professional development and learning happens in today’s workplace, and what he and his team are doing to solve for it with Range.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- Range Website
- Steve’s Profile
Karen Hebert-Maccaro is the GM of Education at Morning Brew, and a seasoned executive in the field of business education and learning with stints in corporate, higher education and now startups. After overseeing the entire Executive Education portfolio at Babson College, Karen came to Morning Brew to lead their efforts in building in-context and personalized learning experiences for Morning Brew readers. Karen’s background across multiple aspects of learning and education gives her a unique perspective and insight into the future of learning and business education, a topic we spoke about at length during this discussion.
During our conversation, Karen spoke about her journey to Morning Brew, as well as what she sees as the opportunities and challenges with the business education space. She also spoke about what she and her team at Morning Brew are working on, including some insights into their new Cohort-Based Education programs at Morning Brew.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- Morning Brew Learning
Starting a new career and reentering the professional world after you graduate from an MBA program is an exciting opportunity - but how do you start right, and hit the ground running?
In this recorded webinar, our three MBASchooled community members of Natasha Chan, Audrey del Rosario and Lucero Perez share their own post-MBA journeys after they graduated from business school. During this conversation, they spoke about what it was like to onboard into a role/industry/function, how to build relationships, and how to learn from mistakes and challenges.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Episode #153: Building Meaningful Relationships To Win in Work and Life
Tim Sanders is a Best-Selling Author of Love is the Killer App, a VP at Upwork, and an expert on building and cultivating relationships. While Tim’s book was released over 20 years ago, it has stood the test of time as relationships and building connection are critical elements of succeeding in life and in your career.
Tim is the author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller, Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends. His publications have over one million copies in print with bestseller status in India, South Korea, Italy, Brazil, and Denmark.
During this conversation, Tim spoke about his story in writing the book, along with some of the lessons he’s learned about building relationships from his time at Broadcast.com, Yahoo, and now Upwork. He also shared advice and practices for how people can use a mindset of abundance, generosity and collaboration to build meaningful and impactful relationships in work and in life.
Links:
Love is the Killer App
Niya Dragova is the Co-Founder and CEO of Candor, a company that helps tech employees negotiate compensation packages and advocate for pay equity in the tech industry. After learning on the fly about how to negotiate compensation and becoming aware of the information gap that employees face in compensation negotiation, Niya started coaching friends and colleagues on their compensation negotiation, which eventually led to starting Candor. Through her own experience and with advising hundreds of employees, Niya believes that your career can be a powerful source of wealth, and ensuring you are negotiating with the right information when you make career decisions is critical to your own financial well-being.
Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify today!
Links
- Candor Newsletter
- Lenny’s Newsletter: Salary Commandments
Lindsey Pollak is NY Times Best-Selling Author author, speaker, consultant, and career and workplace expert. For the past two decades, Lindsey has been writing, speaking, researching and advising individuals and organizations on how to navigate and thrive in the workplace.
During our conversation, Lindsey shared her observations and insights from her research and ongoing conversations with company leaders, higher education professionals and other career and workplace research that she has conducted. We also spoke about her most recent book: Recalculating, and how employees can recalculate their own mindset and ways of thinking, to build a successful career in our fast changing world of work.
Listen Today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Links
- Recalculating: Navigate Your Career Through The Changing World of Work
- Lindsey’s Website
To celebrate the 150 episode of the MBA Insider Podcast, Al Dea jumps on to share some of his reflections from building MBASchooled and the MBA Insider podcast.
In this episode, Al shares some of his stories and experiences around going to business school, starting MBASchooled and deciding to launch the MBA Insider podcast. He also shares lessons and reflections of what he has learned about the MBA degree through the past 150 episodes, what he’s learned from starting a podcast, and what to expect from the MBA Insider Podcast moving forward.
We’d love to hear from you about what YOU want to hear on the podcast moving forward, so reach out to Al (Al@mbaschooled.com) or Connect with him on LinkedIn to share your thoughts!
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Khe Hy is the Founder of Radreads, an online community and newsletter around productivity, life and careers. After a career on Wall Street, Khe quit his job and went on to pursue his own path, and started writing a newsletter, blogging, and building an online learning business all along the way
During our conversation, Khe spoke about his career, and what led him to quit a career in finance to pursue a path to entrepreneurship, and eventually what led him to creating Radreads and the Supercharge Your Productivity Cohort Course. He also shared his journey to Founding Radreads, along with how he thinks about using your time in ways that align to the things that are most important to you.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Links
- Website
- Khe's Supercharge Your Productivity Course
—
Powerful ways to live the action part of your life is to be focused. Be focused on what you want and what might hold you back. Being able to move things forward is an important skill!
Write an essay about yourself for where you want to be in 5 years.
This episode features MBA Insider Guest Host, Brad Vonick. A longtime supporter and friend of MBASchooled and the MBA Insider Podcast, Brad takes over the mic to interview his friend, Fernando Gutierrez, a Booth MBA graduate from the Class of 2017.
After Starting his career in Management Consulting, Fernando decided to pursue an MBA at Booth, and then transition into tech. During the last 3 years he has been working in Product Management, and today he is the Head of Product at Jointly.
During this conversation, Brad spoke to Fernando about traveling and living abroad, and the impact that these experiences have had on his personal and professional life. He also spoke about product management, startups, and Fernando’s guiding principles to navigate his career for the last 10 years.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- Brad Vonick’s MBA Insider (ep 35)
- Fernando Guiterrez’s Profile
Ethan Burris is a Management Professor and Senior Associate Dean at the University of Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business. He studies and researches on the concept of employee voice, and how employees can make their voices heard.
Recently, Ethan wrote an HBR article titled “How to Sell Your Ideas Up The Chain of Command” a critical skill for any employee who wants to advance within their company, get their ideas heard and successfully execute projects.
During the conversation, we spoke about why some ideas get heard and others don’t, how employees can use different tactics to speak up, and different ways to build relationships and connect with others to gain influence, get your ideas heard, and advance your career.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- HBR Article
- Ethan’s Bio
Ben Jackson is the Founder and Principal of Hear Me Out, a Culture Strategy service that works with fast-growing companies to improve their culture and their workplace. Through 1:1 interviews, Ben and his team talk directly and confidently with the employees of the companies that hire them to understand workplace and culture challenges, and to identify potential solutions to improve company culture. But at the heart of their work is an ability to create spaces for employees to speak openly, directly and transparently, to help companies identify solutions to improve culture and performance. During our conversation, we spoke about some of the common challenges that Ben is hearing from employees about the state of work right now, and what might lie ahead, as well as where many companies go wrong, with trying to listen to employees, and build company culture. Ben also shared some practical tips, for how any employee or job seeker, can try to understand company culture prior to joining a company.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Links
- Ben’s LinkedIn
- Ben’s Twitter
- Hear Me Out
In this solo episode, Al Dea talks about what to do once you’ve been admitted to an MBA program. He’ll go over some of the common things you need to think through before you accept your offer, and what information to find out from admission weekend events if you’re still evaluating your decision. Finally, he’ll also share a couple examples of things you can do to start preparing for your MBA.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- How to Prepare For Business School
- MBA Math
- My Experience with a Pre-MBA Internship
Jeroen Verhoeven is the Associate Director of Admissions and Recruitment at ESADE Business School. After working in Spain for 19 years with 16 of them at ESADE, Jeroen is well-versed in the value and impact of a global MBA experience. During the conversation, Jeroen spoke about the invisible, but essential aspects of the ESADE MBA experience and what makes it unique, along with the opportunities of attending a global MBA program. He also spoke about his observations of the changes in the MBA degree, what he is excited about for the future of the MBA, and what prospective students should consider when evaluating applying to a Global MBA program like ESADE.
Listen Today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Links
- ESADE Youtube Page
- ESADE MBA Page
This episode’s guest is Brooke Elliott, the Executive Associate Dean of at the University of Illinois Gies College of Business. Brooke has been involved in the Gies College of Business for over 18+ years, and has seen first-hand the rise of online business education globally, as well as at the Gies College of Business, which offers a number of masters business degrees, including it’s iMBA program.
During our conversation, Brooke spoke about the value proposition of the iMBA, and why the degree appeals to a diverse range of students. She also shared her thoughts on what the graduate business education industry needs to do to stay relevant with the future of work, and what she is excited about with the future of the iMBA.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- Brooke Elliott’s Profile
- Gies College of Business iMBA
David Siegel is the CEO of Meetup, the Author of Decide and Conquer, and well as a Wharton MBA Graduate. After a number of executive roles at companies including 1-800 Flowers, Investopedia and Seeking Alpha, David got his first CEO job as the CEO of Meetup in November of 2019.
During our conversation David spoke about his career journey, leadership lessons and some of the more memorable moments of his journey and decision making that he had to make while leading Meetup through it’s journey during a global pandemic and the challenges it faced along the way. David also spoke about some of the memorable moments from his journey at Meetup, his experiences dealing with leaders like Adam Newman (Former WeWork CEO and Founder) and the importance of relationships and communities in the future of work.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Links:
- Decide and Conquer (Amazon)
This episode features guest Host and Friend of the MBA Insider Podcast, Jodi Innerfield.
In this episode, Jodi spoke to her fellow Michigan Ross MBA Alumni classmate Ryan Bouchard. Prior to attending Ross, Ryan spent almost five years in the United States Army before getting an MBA from the University of Michigan. During the conversation, Jodi spoke to Ryan about his experience in the U.S. Army and his motivations for going to get an MBA. Ryan also spoke to Jodi about his career transitions he’s made so far, how he’s looked for opportunities to take on leadership experiences in his roles after graduating from business school, and additional insights and learnings from Jodi and Ryan on leadership and management that they’ve both learned through their post-MBA careers.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
- Ryan’s Linkedin Profile
- Ep 106: Jodi Innerfield: Life After Business School
Experiential learning opportunities facilitate hands-on skills application and growth for MBA students, while setting them up for new career opportunities. To talk about how experiential learning facilitates development and growth, we spoke with two UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA students, Jeryon Davis and Olivia Koziol, as well as Karin Cochran, Executive Director of the STAR Program at UNC Kenan-Flagler.
During our conversation, Jeryon and Olivia, MBA students who participated in the STAR Program, spoke about how experiential learning helped them expand their knowledge and skillsets in the short term, while also giving them the confidence and capability to make major career transitions into new functions and industries. Karin also spoke about the value of experiential learning programs like STAR. Having worked with hundreds of students and countless employers who have hired UNC MBAs, she discusses how programs like STAR prepare MBA students to navigate the complexities of the fast-changing world of work.
Links
- UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School: STAR Program
Right now, many MBA students are in the thick of internship interview season, navigating preparing for interviews, finding opportunities and building relationships with hiring managers and recruiters all while managing all the other academic components of business school is no easy task! In this episode, Al Dea, walks through some common challenges that MBA students face during internship recruiting season, and provides some tips and best practices for staying on course and focusing on your own personal goals.
Listen Today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- How to Navigate the MBA Management Consulting Interview Process
- Navigating the MBA Internship Search
- Navigating The First Year MBA Internship Recruiting Process
Paul Millerd is an MIT Sloan MBA Graduate, and the Author of the Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story for Life and Work. Like many hard-working and driven college graduates, Paul entered the corporate world after college ready to work hard, achieve success and climb the corporate ladder. But through a series of events before and after business school, Paul ended up taking an alternative path, and evolving his views on life and work. Much of which is written about in his book The Pathless Path as well as his newsletter, Boundless.
During our conversation, Paul spoke about his career journey after graduating from MIT Sloan and with an MBA, and what ultimately led him to leaving his corporate career for a path of exploration, as well as the many learnings, lessons, and experiences Paul got along the way. We also spoke about his book, and the applications and insights that can be relevant to those who are reflecting on their career aspirations.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Additional Links
- Website/Newsletter
- The Pathless Path Book
Christine Tao is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sounding Board, a leadership coaching platform focused on providing leadership and executive coaching to companies in a scalable way. After graduating with an MBA from Wharton in Marketing and Operations, Christine began her own journey in the startup and media world, with stints at growth-stage companies. Through these experiences, Christine learned about leadership and executive coaching, and witnessed the power of it herself, and as a result, was able to navigate many different challenges and opportunities throughout her career.
During our conversation Christine spoke about her journey and learnings from her experiences in the workplace and in her career. She also shared her lessons of leadership, why she Co-Founded Sounding Board, and why she believes in the power of leadership coaching.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Links
- Sounding Board Website
- Christine’s LinkedIn Profile
Breanna Atkinson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kokada, whose mission is to create good-tasting and healthy food with ingredients from around the world. After her undergraduate career, she spent some time in consulting. She was inspired to pursue her MBA early on, and applied to Wharton while launching her first company. Another large influence has been in her time as an athlete, playing as a student athlete at Duke, and then going on to be a member of the Jamaican national women’s volleyball team.
In this conversation, we discuss her journey as a student-athlete, developing her pitch, the value of an MBA for an entrepreneur, and the challenges of starting your own business.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Links
- Website
- Breanna’s LinkedIn
Jake Singer is the Co-Founder of Swapstack, and an NYU Stern MBA Alum. Prior to Co-Founding Swapstack, Jake spent his post-MBA career at Amazon, and after a few years left to pursue new career opportunities. During his exploration, Jake started a number of side projects, including his newsletter (The Flywheel) while also participating in On Deck, a Learning Cohort and Online community that connected him with fellow entrepreneurs and founders, which was a catalyst to Co-Founding Swapstack.
During our conversation, Jake spoke about his post-MBA journey, founding Swapstack and some of the comparisons and differences between his learning experience with Swapstack and his MBA experience. We also spoke about some of the benefits of cohort learning experiences, and some of the valuable aspects of new forms of professional development in programs like On Deck.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- The Flywheel Newsletter: Disrupting The MBA
- Swapstack
- Jake’s LinkedIn Profile
- Jake’s Twitter
Alex Brandwein (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘20) is a UNC Kenan-Flagler Graduate and the Founder of Brandwein’s Bagels, a bagel shop located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. After working in the Investment Banking industry to start his career, Alex came to business school with a desire to pivot into a new career.
Through reflection and exploration and the use of the many entrepreneurship resources at UNC Kenan-Flagler, Alex decided to open a bagel shop, right in the heart of Chapel Hill during the spring of 2020. During this conversation, Alex spoke about his journey to business school, and how he came up with the idea for Brandwein’s Bagels and how he used his time at UNC Kenan-Flagler to build his business.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- Brandweins Bagels
- Alex’s Background
Yannell Selman is a UC Berkeley Haas MBA Graduate and the Founder of Cultiveit, an online wellness platform that human resources departments use to recommend “high-quality time-off” experiences to treat worker burnout. Selman built the company partially based on her own experiences with burnout in her career, and during her time in business school used many of the entrepreneurship programs and offerings at Haas to develop, test and scale her product and organization.
During this conversation, Selman spoke about her journey to Haas, how her MBA helped her build Cultivate. She also talked about some of the progress Cultiveit has made to date in working with companies to address burnout, and her future aspirations for what’s ahead for the company.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links:
- Cultiveit
- Instagram Page
- Write-Up in Berkeley Haas Blog
- Forbes Article
Berkeley Haas write up
One of the questions that is top of mind for any professional who is considering an MBA is around value - what is the ROI of an MBA degree, and is it worth it for me? In this solo episode, Al talks about how an MBA is one of many potential accelerants for career growth and learning, and why someone might value an MBA degree. He walks through key questions around figuring out if an MBA is worth it to you, the common reasons why people see value in an MBA, some alternatives to MBA degrees, and how to figure out if an MBA is the right path for your own career learning and growth.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!
Links:
- Should I get an MBA?
- The MBA Premium
This week, we’re flipping the format on the MBA Insider Podcast, with the help of a former guest and friend Eryn Schultz, and putting Al Dea (MBA Insider Host) in the guest chair. In this episode, Eryn, a fellow entrepreneur, talks to Al about his own entrepreneurial journey with building MBASchooled. Al spoke about his motivation for creating MBASchooled, why he recently left his corporate career at Salesforce to focus on his entrepreneurial journey, and what’s next for MBASchooled.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Links:
- MBASchooled
- Episode #123 with Eryn Schultz
- MBA Insider Book
In this episode, we spoke to Tanvi Lal (UC Berkeley Haas, ‘22) and Faud Lagali (UCLA Anderson, ‘23) 2 Members of the Founding team of VC Unleashed, a global community of BIPOC and women MBA investors. VC Unleashed was Founded by Michelle Dhansinghani (CBS, ‘22) as a means to improve pathways to the Venture Capital Industry for BIPOC and women investors. During our conversation, Tanvi and Faud spoke about their interest in the VC industry, why they were motivated to participate in building VC Unleashed, and about the current efforts and future aspirations of VC Unleashed.
Listen Today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Links
- Medium Article on VC Unleashed
- LinkedIn Page
- Medium Article
- HBCU VC
Alan Quigley and Chris Anen are Founding Members of the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund, a Venture Capital Fund they helped create that is affiliated with Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. During our conversation, Allen and Chris spoke about the ideation process for coming up with the idea for the fund, the actual process of building and launching the fund, and why they are looking to invest in underrepresented founders and entrepreneurs.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Links
- Background on Peachtree Minority Venture Fund
- Peachtree Minority Venture Fund LinkedIn Page
Felix Watson Junior is a UCLA Anderson Alumni, and the Founder of the PM Mastermind Group. After starting his career as an engineer, Felix pursued an MBA to pivot into a career in product management, and has done PM stints at Microsoft and Google. Now, Felix helps educate current and aspiring Product Managers through his PM Mastermind Group.
During our conversation, Felix spoke about his journey into Product Management, and his advice to aspiring Product Managers.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Additional Links
- Felix’s LinkedIn
- LinkedIn Product Management Mastermind Group
In this episode, we spoke to TJ Scott and Kelsie Carter, two MBA students in the Class of 2022 in UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Full-Time MBA program. TJ and Kelsie both come from different backgrounds and experiences, but are both advocates of allyship and honoring the intersectionality of whole human beings.
TJ and Kelsie spoke about their own unique journeys to UNC Kenan-Flagler, why they chose to get an MBA degree, and how the role of allyship and intersectionality play in creating a diverse and inclusive environment that allows all people to thrive. They also took time to define and share what these words mean to them, and spoke about how as student leaders, they are cultivating a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture for their classmates and peers at UNC Kenan-Flagler.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Links
- UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
- TJ Scott’s Profile
- Kelsie Carter's Profile
- From the Dean’s View: An Inside Look at Kenan-Flagler Business School
Elizabeth Davis (Tuck, ‘20) is a Tuck MBA Alum and Investor at Anthemis. In her role at Anthemis, Elizabeth works closely with the Female Innovators Lab, a Venture Fund and Studio dedicated to helping female entrepreneurs start and scale businesses in the financial services ecosystem. During our conversation, we spoke about Elizabeth’s career journey to, some of the experiences behind how she found her interest in the intersection of female entrepreneurialism and financial services, and her motivation for working to empower female entrepreneurs through venture capital.
Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Links
- Elizabeth’s Background
- Anthemis Female Innovators Lab
- Elizabeth’s Twitter
Andrew Crisp is the Owner of Carrington Crisp, and works with top business schools around the world. He is also the Author of a recently whitepaper titled “The Future of Lifelong and Executive Education,” where he conducted research on prospective MBA students, employers and hiring managers to better understand how higher education needs to evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of professionals. During our conversation, Andrew shared some of the insights he found in his report and what those insights mean for students, alum, employers and MBA administrators. He also spoke about what the future of MBA education could look like in the future.
Links:
- Carrington Crisp
- Research Report
Shyvee Shi is a Kellogg MBA Alum and Product Manager at LinkedIn. During our conversation, Shyvee spoke about her journey to Kellogg, and her post-MBA career, both as a management consultant and now product manager. She also gave a detailed look into the transitions that she’s made, first from consultant to product manager, and then making another internal transfer to another product management team. She also shared more about her recent experiments with producing content on LinkedIn, and some of her learnings from this experience.
Eryn Schultz is an HBS Alumna, and the Founder of Her Personal Finance, an online education platform focused on personal finance for women. Eryn started Her Personal Finance as a means to help other women learn the personal finance skills they needed to achieve their own goals, as well as from her own personal experiences with finance in her personal life and professional career.
During our conversation, Eryn spoke about her career journey, what inspired her to start Her Personal Finance, and the common questions and topics that come up in the courses and coaching she does through Her Personal Finance, especially with MBA students and alum. She also shared with us her journey to entrepreneurship, and her experience with building her own business.
Andy Storch is a USC Marshall MBA Alum, an author, podcast host, and keynote speaker. He is also the author of Own Your Career, Own Your Life, a book he wrote about how you can take ownership of your career to achieve your own personal goals. Throughout Andy’s life, he has taken control of his career by following his curiosity, staying open to learning, and by proactively setting and working toward his own version of success. During our conversation, Andy spoke about his career, how his time in business school helped him further his career, and his journey to writing and publishing his book.
Links:
- Andy’s Book
- Andy’s Linkedin
- Andy’s Podcast
Lisa Rios is the Assistant Dean of MBA Admissions at NYU Stern. This past month, NYU Stern’s Full-Time MBA program announced that they received an 8% increase in applications and welcomed 338 full-time MBA students into the class of 2023. During our conversation, Lisa spoke about some of the highlights from last year’s MBA application cycle at NYU Stern and some of her reflections and learnings on the application cycle. She also shared more of what’s new at NYU Stern, what she is excited about for this year’s MBA application cycle, and why a full-time MBA is great career development opportunity for early and emerging career professionals.
Kristina Hu is a MBA Student at Harvard Business School (2022) and the Co-Founder of the Equity Network, a social enterprise she is working on while a student at HBS. After doing stints in Investment Banking and Product Management, Kristina is building a social enterprise aimed at democratizing access to professional networks for underserved and underrepresented populations to help them achieve their career goals. During our conversation, Kristina spoke about her journey to HBS, why she and her Co-Founders came up with the idea of the Equity Network, and how they are working on their social enterprise while students at HBS.
Links
- LinkedIn Profile
- Website
- HBS Profile
Gorick Ng is a HBS Alum and the Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Start Your Career Off Right,. The Unspoken Rules is now offered at multinationals, professional services firms, startups, and non-profits around the world for onboarding, training, and diversity and inclusion. In 2021, Harvard Business School offered The Unspoken Rules to every MBA student. Gorick has been thinking about careers and jobs since he started helping his mother prepare her resume and apply to jobs when he was only a teenager.
Since then, he’s gone on to help countless numbers of students and young professionals navigate their careers, and built his own career first as a management consultant and now as a career development expert. During our conversation, Gorick spoke about his learnings about careers over the years, some of the challenging events in his career that led to the ideas for his book “The Unspoken Rules' ' and a wide-ranging conversation around career development advice for MBA students and Alum.
Links:
- Unspoken Rules
- Gorick’s Website
- Gorick’s LinkedIn
Becca Jordan Wright is the Founder of Piedmont Pennies, and a UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School MBA Alum. Becca focused most of her first year in business school finding a new career path after a stint in management consulting, but during the second year, she decided to pursue her entrepreneurial itch and founded Piedmont Pennies, a North Carolina’s handcrafted cheese snack. During our conversation, we spoke to Becca about her journey to pursuing an MBA, why she chose UNC Kenan-Flagler, and how she decided to take a favorite recipe from her childhood and turn it into an entrepreneurial venture. Use the Code “MBASchooled” for a discount at PiedmontPennies.com
- Piedmont Pennies Website
- Becca’s Previous MBA Insider Podcast Interview
- Becca’s Previous MBASchooled Article
Lindsay Sage is the CEO and Founder of Sage Admit, an MBA Admissions Consulting Firm where she specializes in helping MBA applicants navigate the MBA admissions process. After previously working on the MBA Admissions Staff at NYU Stern, Lindsay has seen MBA applications from diverse perspectives. During our conversation, we spoke about what’s new with the MBA admissions cycle for 2021-2022, some of the common challenges that MBA applicants face, and what MBA applicants can do to make sure they overcome these challenges to successfully navigate the MBA admissions process.
Links
- Sage Admit Website
- Episode #53: The MBA Admissions Process with Lindsay Sage
Michael Vilardo (UCLA Anderson, ‘21) is a UCLA Anderson Alumni, and Co-Founder of Emile. During his time at Anderson, Michael used every opportunity to explore opportunities within entrepreneurship before finding the opportunity to join Emile as a Co-Founder and COO. During our conversation, Michael spoke about his journey to UCLA Anderson, his time in business school, and how he used the programs and resources at UCLA Anderson to pursue his desire to strengthen his entrepreneurial skills.
- Michael’s Twitter
- Consortium
- Emile
- Price Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Priscilla Weninger is a graduate from the Texas McCombs MBA program, a management consultant, and the Founder and Host of the Early Career Moves Podcast. Priscilla started her podcast because she wanted to use her learnings, resources and voice to help and guide first-generation students and BIPOC young professionals to help them build and grow their careers. During our conversation Priscilla spoke about her journey to an MBA, her time at Texas McCombs, and what she’s learned from hosting her podcast.
- Priscilla’s LinkedIn
- Early Career Moves Podcast
Shannon Reinard Demko is a Director & Senior Coach at Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) as well as the Founder at MindfulMBA. As someone who has coached and advised numerous MBA aspirants and applications, Shannon has seen all the highs and lows that applicants and students encounter.
From the dreaded rejection to getting off the waitlist to navigating the difficulties of the first semester, Shannon uniquely understands the ups and downs of MBA students and applicants. Additionally, Shannon is Founder of the MindfulMBA, where she uses her knowledge of these challenges to help students and alum manage the challenges of the MBA lifestyle with mindfulness, stress management and introspection. During our conversation, Shannon spoke about her own journey and background, why she started MindfulMBA, how Mindfulness can help MBAs at every stage of their journey, and her advice to using mindfulness to navigate everyday life.
- MindfulMBA
- Shannon’s LinkedIn profile
Diego Granados is a Fuqua MBA Alum, Product Manager at Microsoft, and is passionate about helping people transition and succeed in Product Management Careers. As someone who worked hard to break into Product Management during his MBA, Diego found himself asking how he could help others break into the field during the beginning stages of COVID-19, and began writing, posting, teaching, and speaking about his experience, learnings and advice about how to break into Product Management. During our conversation, Diego spoke about his journey to Product Management, and his tips for aspiring MBA Product Managers.
Links:
- Diego’s LinkedIn
- Diego’s YouTube Channel
- Diego’s Substack Newsletter
Derek Pando is a BYU MBA Alum, and has done tours of duty in marketing roles at companies like Salesforce, LinkedIn, and most recently, Zoom. Along the way, Derek has always been thoughtful about making career decisions and has had a genuine curiosity in career development and growing a career. During our conversation, Derek spoke about his career journey, lessons he’s learned from each experience and how he has made transitions, and his advice to MBA and aspiring MBAs about how to build a successful career.
Links:
- Derek’s LinkedIn
- Derek’s Blog
- Derek’s Q&A with Nathan Tanner
Nick deWilde has spent his career working in talent development. After graduating from Stanford GSB, Nick served as the Managing Director of Tradecraft, where he helped hundreds of talented people navigate career transitions into design and marketing roles at high-growth startups. He currently serves as a Product Marketing Principal at Guild Education and publishes a newsletter called The Jungle Gym. He writes about career strategy, learning and the changing nature of work.
Links:
- Nick’s Jungle Gym Newsletter
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/nick_dewilde
- LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickdewilde/
Ryan Price is a MBA Student at the BYU School of Management (Class of 2023.) Prior to BYU, Ryan worked as an entrepreneur, which fueled his decision to pursue an MBA at BYU. Ryan is also the Host and Founder of the MBA Secrets podcast, and during our conversation, Ryan spoke about his decision to pursue an MBA, the highs and lows of his MBA application journey, and what he’s learned from creating the MBA Secrets Podcast.
After graduating from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School with her MBA, Kerry Rigley returned to her career in management consulting, and was able to take much of what she learned in business school to expand into new opportunities in her career. After breaking into serving new clients and new industries, Kerry then pivoted into an internal strategy role in the Travel and Hospitality Industry, and then again to a role within the tech industry. Through the successes and challenges, Kerry has learned valuable lessons along the way which have helped her grow personally and professionally. During our conversation, Kerry spoke about her life after graduating, how she has managed through the highs and lows of her career, as well how she is thinking about her career as an MBA Alum.
After graduating from Yale SOM in 2019, Jasmine Ako moved across the country to return to Los Angeles and began her post-MBA career in management consulting. Throughout her post-MBA journey, Jasmine has been able to use her MBA experience to develop and grow, personally and professionally. During our conversation, Jasmine spoke about her journey to her post-MBA career, her life after business school, and her advice to MBA graduates about how they can be successful in their lives after they graduate from business school.
After graduating from the University of Texas-Austin (McCombs) with her MBA, Lucero Perez began her post-MBA journey after graduating from Texas McCombs by transitioning into a career in management consulting, before switching to a career in Tech at an enterprise software company. Along the way, Lucero navigated the post-MBA career and life journey with the support of family and friends, and her own career ambitions. During this conversation, Lucero spoke about her journey to transitioning to life after graduating, some of the highs and lows, and provided her own advice to how to best navigate career and life after graduating from business school.
After graduating with an MBA from the University of Michigan (Ross) Jodi Innerfield moved to San Francisco to start her post-MBA career working in a Product Marketing role at a startup. Since then, she’s moved to larger companies and has built a career at Salesforce and moved back across the country to the East Coast. During our conversation, we spoke about her life after graduating from Ross as well as some of the exciting opportunities and challenges of life after business school. Jodi also spoke about her career journey, how she views her own career development, and her advice to MBA graduates for how to best launch their post-MBA careers.
In this episode, we spoke to Austin Lavin, and Elle Wisnicki, two Haas Student Ambassadors and Class of 2022 MBA students at the Haas School of Business. During our conversation, Austin and Elle shared their journey to Haas, their own beliefs in why Haas is a unique place, and what made them choose to pursue an MBA at Haas. As Haas Student Ambassadors, Elle and Austin talk to numerous prospective MBA students, and shared their advice for how prospective and admitted students can choose if Haas is the right MBA program for them.
In this episode, I spoke to Anh Phillips and Gerald Kane, two experts in the fields of digital transformation and the future of work, and 2 Co-Authors of The Technology Fallacy: How People Are The Real Key To Digital Transformation, and the upcoming book, The Transformation Myth: Leading Your Organization Through Uncertain Times. During our conversation, we spoke about what MBA students need to understand and know about the impact of digital transformation on organizations, people, and careers. We also spoke about the future of work, and the ways in which MBAs can use their time in school to prepare for their future careers.
- The Technology Fallacy (Amazon)
- The Transformation Myth (Amazon)
- Gerald Kane
- Anh Phillips
Dr Lisa Orbe-Austin is an Executive Coach and Psychologist, as well as the author of Own Your Greatness: Overcome Impostor Syndrome, Beat Self-Doubt, and Succeed in Life. As someone who is an expert in imposter syndrome, Lisa shared her journey to studying imposter syndrome, the foundations of imposter syndrome, and why it impacts high-achievers and career strivers like MBA students. She also provided tactical advice, based on her research and clinical work on how MBA students can overcome imposter syndrome and achieve their goals.
- Lisa’s Website: Website
- Lisa’s Book: Amazon Link
Lizzie Ann Jones is a MBA Student In the Class of 2022 at Rice University. Prior to business school, Lizzie was a Corporate Recruiter at Expedia and Amazon, where she learned the ins and outs of hiring and the job search process. Now, as an MBA student, Lizzie is continuing to broaden her business skillset to grow her own career coaching business while preparing for a transition to a career within product marketing. During our conversation, Lizzie spoke about her previous world as a corporate recruiter, her journey to Rice, and how she is building her own business while an MBA student
Ashley Lautzenehiser is an Associate Director at the Forté Foundation, and heads up the Forté MBALaunch program This 10-month program provides a structured road map for applying to business school, including step-by-step application guidance and supportive peer groups. During our conversation, Ashley spoke about Forte’s mission to empower more women leaders, and how the Forté MBALaunch program helps prospective female applicants navigate the MBA application process.
To celebrate the 100th Episode of the MBA Insider Podcast, Daniel Liu, the Managing Director of Career Education & Coaching for the Texas McCombs School of Business joins us to talk about career development for MBAs. As the world of work continues to evolve, Daniel has the task of thinking how he and his teams will equip students with the career development skills they need to succeed in a fast-changing and ever evolving landscape. In this episode, we spoke to Daniel about his own background, the “career development toolkit” MBA students need to continuously thrive in their careers, and what MBA students can do to use their time in business school to prepare for the future of work.
In this special episode, we’re joined by UNC Kenan-Flagler Dean Doug Shackelford. An award-winning researcher and educator, business education innovator and internationally recognized scholar, Doug Shackelford has led UNC Kenan-Flagler for the past 7 years as Dean of the Business School. During our conversation, Doug shares his perspective on what makes the UNC Kenan-Flagler community special, and the long-term career impact of an MBA. He also speaks about various programs and opportunities that students can take advantage of, and why he believes UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA students are uniquely prepared to accelerate their career growth and excel as leaders in the future workplace.
Paul Bauer is a University Recruiter and Program Manager at Tableau Software. After starting his career working in University Career Services, Paul made the jump to University Recruiting, and has recruited university students at companies including Northwestern Mutual, Expedia Group and Amazon. During our conversation, Paul spoke about his journey into University Recruiting, the MBA University recruiting process, and his advice to MBA students who are interested in learning more about how MBA recruiting works.
The MBA Insider Podcast is officially a year old! In this episode, we invite five of our past MBA Insider Podcast guests, to talk more in depth about their journey over the past year. During our conversation, we talked about how they’ve been managing through COVID-19, how the MBA has helped them navigate through the past year, and what they are looking forward to in the year to come
Jenene Vernon is a Director at the MBA Tour, an organization that helps connect MBA candidates with business schools. During our conversation, Jenene spoke about how The MBA Tour made the pivot to virtual events, the insights she got from candidates and recruiters on the virtual events, and how the MBA Tour has evolved over the past year. She also shared a look into what’s ahead for the MBA Tour into the Spring and Summer, and her advice for prospective MBA applicants looking to apply to an MBA program.
After serving in the military, Katherine Rowe (UT-McCombs, ‘20) chose to get an MBA to pursue a new career, and landed at UT-McCombs. Throughout her time at McCombs, Katherine not only took advantage of the resources and opportunities to expand skills, but also built meaningful relationships that led to growth and development. In this conversation, Katherine spoke about her journey to McCombs, how she was able to effectively build a network from a non-traditional background, and the impact of those relationships that helped her grow her career in sports and entertainment.
In this episode, we learn about all things Vanderbilt with Rob Schickler, Associate Director of Recruitment at the Owen Graduate School of Management. During our conversation, Rob gave his own unique perspective as an Owen Alum who now works in Admissions, and shared with us what makes Owen unique, what they look for in applicants, and why Owen is a great place for potential MBA students.
Ryan Hess is the Interim Director of Admissions at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business. During our conversation, Ryan spoke about his career in admissions and his journey to Smeal, what makes Smeal’s MBA program unique, and the culture and community at Smeal.
In this episode, MBASchooled Ambassador Margaret Nealon (USC Marshall, ‘22) joins us to talk about her journey to USC Marshall. During our conversation, we spoke about Margaret’s career journey, why she chose to get an MBA, and her advice to prospective MBA students.
Tess Michaels is the Founder and CEO of Stride Funding. After going through the MBA application process, upon reflection, Tess realized there had to be better ways to finance your degree, and went on a journey to create Stride Funding. During our conversation, Tess spoke about how she built Stride Funding, how Stride helps MBA students and other students finance their degrees, and what she’s learned about building a startup while an MBA student.
Marlo Abramowitz is a Class of 2021 MBA Student at Tepper School of Business and the recently past-President of the Tepper Business & Technology Club. During this interview, Marlo spoke about why she chose to pursue product management, her own product management interview practice approach, and how she was able to successfully navigate product management interviews to land a PM internship at Tableau. She also spoke about her own interview preparation process for PM interviews, and her advice how MBA students can successfully prepare for PM Interviews.
Tony Hung is a Class of 2021 MBA Student at Columbia Business School and the Co-President of the Technology & Data Analytics (TDA) Association. After a career in consulting and tech, Tony came to business school to pivot to a career in product management. During this interview, Tony spoke about why he chose to pursue product management, his own product management interview practice approach, and how he was able to successfully navigate product management interviews to land a PM internship at Google. He also spoke about some of the differences in PM Interviews by company, and shared his advice for how MBA students can successfully prepare for PM Interviews
Abdul Rastagar is an MBA Graduate of UC-Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business and a Marketing Executive in the Enterprise Software industry. Over the years, Abdul has conducted numerous marketing interviews and learned important lessons along the way. In this interview, Abdul spoke about his experience with marketing interviews, launching his video series “Up Your Game” as well as his most recent book Up Your Game. He also provides advice to those who are in the middle of interviewing for marketing roles.
This episode is all about informational interviews, something that all MBA students rely on during the course of their time in business school. With the help of our MBASchooled community member Alli Jaeggi (USC Marshall, ‘20) we broke down everything MBA students need to know about the topic of informational interviews, tips for how to do them right, and mistakes to avoid.
Shelly Heinrich is the Associate Dean, MBA Admissions, and Director of Marketing at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, as well as a McDonough MBA Alum. During our conversation, Shelly spoke about what makes McDonough unique, and some of the programs that McDonough students can take advantage of as MBA students. She also spoke about what she and her staff look for in MBA applications, what they have seen so far in admissions, and her advice to prospective MBA applicants.
Nasim Mirzai came to Duke University (Fuqua) after spending the beginning of her career in the Art Gallery Industry. During her time at Fuqua, In addition to her coursework, Nasim speaks to lots of prospective MBA students, holds numerous leadership positions, is an MBASchooled Ambassador. During our conversation Nasim spoke about her decision to attend Fuqua, the types of questions she helps prospective MBA students answer, and her advice to prospective and admitted MBA students for how they can select the right MBA Program.
In this episode, we spoke to Coalition 4 Change, a team from USC Marshall who recently won the Inaugural John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition hosted by Emory University. During this conversation, we spoke about the team's desire to get involved in the case competition, the process of coming up with their ideas, and their reflections on participating and winning the case competition. They also spoke about their aspirations and hopes for how they and their fellow MBA students can take more active ownership in promoting racial justice, and how they’re doing just that by planning the USC FORWARD Summit.
In this episode, Namaan Mian, Director at Management Consulted joins me to talk about trends and insights from MBA Management Consulting Recruiting from Fall of 2020. In addition to covering hiring trends and insights from full-time recruiting, we also spoke about what we thought the future looked like and he shared some of the top insights from the 2021 Management Consulted Salary Survey
Petia Whitmore is a higher education expert and entrepreneur. An MBA herself, she has previously served as Dean of MBA Admissions and Managing Director of the MBA Tour. Petia offers a unique perspective on helping applicants find the right MBA Program and navigate the MBA admissions process. During our conversation, she spoke about her diverse experience working in higher education admissions, some of her thoughts on the 2020-2021 MBA application season, and what she is up to with her most recent venture, My MBAPath. (https://www.mymbapath.com)
Layne Austin is both an MBA Recruiter, and MBA Student at the University of California Davis MBA Program. After starting and growing a career within university recruiting, Layne is building her business acumen through the part-time MBA program at UC Davis. During our conversation, Layne spoke about her experience thus far in business school, how her time in school has helped her as an MBA recruiter. We also broke down the MBA recruiting and hiring process and gave advice on how MBA students can shine and stand out as a candidate.
Robert Solby is an MBA Candidate in the Class of 2021 at UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business. Robert’s had an enjoyable and meaningful experience at Haas, but it started with some MBA application adversity. Robert was initially waitlisted, and wasn’t admitted until July before class started. During this interview, Robert spoke about his MBA application journey, being waitlisted and his response, and his advice to MBA applicants who end up on the waitlist.
Linda Abraham is a MBA Admissions Consultant and the Founder of Accepted, a Graduate Admissions Consulting Firm. Linda is a repeat guest on the MBA Insider Podcast, and she joined me today to talk about some insights and trends from the 2020-2021 MBA Admissions season. During our conversation, we spoke about some of the key developments, what she’s seeing from working with her clients, and made some predictions about what’s ahead in the remainder of the application season.
Willie Sullivan is a 2nd Year MBA Student at Goizueta Business School (Emory) and the Managing Director of the J.R Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition. In its inaugural year, this student-run case competition connects corporations and students interested in business in an effort to create innovative and actionable racial justice initiatives for those corporations, and has attracted over 105 teams in its first year. During our conversation, Willie spoke about how he came up with the idea, how he’s brought to life, and what he’s learned working with his peers in building it.
Arianna Sanchez is a MBA Student in the Class of 2021 at NYU Stern, and a future Management Consultant upon graduation. During our conversation, Arianna spoke about her decision to recruit for management consulting, navigating the recruiting process, and the highs and lows of the interviewing process. She also shared how what she learned from recruiting during her first year helped her improve during second year recruiting, and her advice to MBA students interested in careers in management consulting.
Whitnie Narcisse is an MBA Graduate from UNC Kenan-Flagler, and currently the SVP of Operations at First Round Capital. Whitnie spoke about her journey to UNC and her journey to venture capital. She also provided insight into the moves she made to land a career in VC, as well as practical advice on some important lessons when it comes to networking, and Whitnie’s practical tips for building mentor and mentee relationships.
Maya Grossman is the Author of Invaluable: Master the 10 Skills You Need to Skyrocket Your Career. During her career, she’s gotten 15 promotions in 10 years, and worked at leading companies including Microsoft and Google, and recently published her book to help young professionals build their own career development skills. In our conversation, we spoke about her career journey, how she learned to grow and accelerate her career, and her career advice for how MBA students can become invaluable employees in their career.
In this episode, NYU MBA students join me to talk about the NYU Stern MBA Community. In addition to being MBA Students, Daniel (Executive Producer) and Melanie (Host) run Stern Chats, a podcast that explores stories of students, alumni, administrators and faculty at NYU Stern. During our conversation, Daniel and Melanie spoke about their own MBA journey to NYU Stern, what they’ve learned from producing the podcast, and what life is like at NYU Stern
This episode features Sean Li and Paulina Lee, Hosts of the Haas Podcast Network, and MBA students from the UC-Berkeley Haas MBA Program. In this episode, Sean spoke about creating his first podcast (OneHaas) in 2018. and the journey to creating the Haas Podcast Network. Paulina shared her experience as a Co-Host of Here at Haas, and both spoke why they chose Haas, what makes Haas unique, and some of the lessons and stories they’ve learned from speaking to Haas students and alum through the podcast.
Kenton Kivestu is a Tuck MBA Graduate and the Founder of Rocketblocks (https://www.rocketblocks.me/) a comprehensive skills driven interview pre platform that he founded while a second year MBA student at Tuck. During our conversation, Kenton spoke about the journey and idea for founding Rocketblocks, common challenges and mistakes MBA students make in the product management interview preparation process, and his advice to MBA students on how they can successfully put together a plan to prepare for product management interviews.
Maria Wich-Vila is an HBA Alum and the Founder of ApplicantLab, a platform designed to guide MBA applicants to navigate the MBA application process. During our conversation, Maria spoke about how she discovered her talent for MBA admissions consulting, which eventually led to founding Applicant Lab, and her approach to providing an accessible approach to MBA admissions consulting to diverse groups of people.
Natasha Chan graduated with a dual MBA-MPH Degree from The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and the Bloomberg School of Public Health and entered into management consulting. Since then, she’s successfully transitioned into higher education and technology roles - all within the past few years. During our conversation, Natasha spoke about her post-MBA journey, the art of the career pivot, and her advice for current MBA students and alum who are navigating career changes.
After graduating with an MBA from MIT Sloan, Indy Sen jumped into his first Product Marketing job at Salesforce during a high-growth period of its history. Since then, he’s charted his product marketing career at fast-growing tech companies including Box, MuleSoft, Google, WeWork and now Matterport. During our conversation, Indy spoke about his career transition into marketing from consulting, growing a career in Product Marketing and the technology space, and his advice to MBA students interested in Product Marketing.
In this episode, we have Danielle Richie, the Senior Associate Director of MBA Admissions and Student Recruitment from UNC Kenan-Flagler. During our conversation, Danielle spoke about her journey to MBA admissions, as well as finding her way to Chapel Hill and UNC’s MBA Program. Danielle also spoke about what makes UNC Kenan-Flagler unique, the family-like culture at UNC-Kenan-Flagler, and her guidance for how prospective MBA applicants can put together an authentic MBA application.
Rehan Mirza is a UCLA Anderson Alum, and a Senior Director of Product & Customer Marketing at Culture Amp. Since graduating from Anderson, Rehan has held Product Marketing roles at a number of tech startups. During our interview, Rehan spoke about his PMM journey, the relevance of an MBA to Product Marketing, and his advice to MBA students interested in Product Marketing careers.
Natalie Poston is a MBA Student in the Class of 2021 at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. After pursuing a career in PR, Natalie decided to build her business acumen through an MBA degree, and at McDonough decided to pursue a career in Social Impact and Venture Capital. During our conversation, we spoke about Natalie’s journey to business school, and how she was able to land a career opportunity in Venture Capital
Morgan Franklin is a Chicago Booth MBA Student in the Class of 2021. During her time at Booth, Morgan decided to turn her interest in learning about her classmates’s stories into MBA: The Blog, a blog dedicated to sharing the stories and lives of Booth MBA Students. During this interview, Morgan spoke about her journey to Booth, what she’s learned building MBA the Blog, and some of the powerful stories of her classmates.
Courtney Jacobson is a JD-MBA Candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode, Courtney spoke about how she discovered dual degree programs, why she decided to apply to a JD-MBA program, and her advice to prospective students who are considering business school or a joint MBA degree.
Bryan Ramos is the Executive Director in the Office of Student Engagement at NYU Stern. As part of his role he’s responsible for overseeing Stern’s Experiential Learning programs, branded Stern Solutions, for MBA students. During our conversation, we spoke about the importance of experiential learning in higher education, and how Stern has created a new model and unique set of offerings for MBA students that engages them in an iterative process of immersion, acting and reflecting. Bryan also spoke about some of the opportunities students at Stern get to participate in, the impact of these programs on students’ learning and growth, and how MBA programs like Stern prepare their students to navigate and succeed in the Future of Work.
Priyanka Srinivasan is the Head of Product Marketing at Gainsight, as well as a Wharton MBA Alum. After graduating from Wharton, Priyanka worked in a number of roles within tech companies before transitioning into PMM. During our interview, Priyanka spoke about her journey to Product Marketing, the important skills PMMs need to have, and her advice to those who are interested in Product Marketing Careers.
Lillian Zheng is an MBA graduate of Columbia Business School. After spending most of her career in management consulting, Lillian pivoted to a Product Marketing role, and after a few years made another pivot to a Product Management role for a consumer tech company. During this interview, Lillian spoke about her time working in both Product Marketing and Product Management, and shared her advice to MBA students who are evaluating both career tracks.
Jenna Link and Harvey Han (Stern ,’21) are the Co-Presidents of the NYU Stern Tech Association. Both Jenna and Harvey came to Stern to pursue careers in tech, and now lead the association as they help Stern MBA students grow their careers. In this interview, we spoke about why they chose to go to NYU Stern, the opportunities of the Tech Scene in NYC, and how The Stern Tech Association helps its members launch careers in tech. (https://www.nyusterntech.com/)
In this special episode, I had the chance to speak with four student leaders at the UCLA Anderson School of Management to talk about Equity, Diversity and Inclusion on campus. With student leaders representing four key student organizations, we spoke about the importance of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in their student community, the role that they and their respective organizations play in furthering EDI efforts, and the initiatives and programs that are in the works for this calendar year. They also spoke about Embracing Diversity Week - register to attend through November 1st! (https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/about/equity-diversity-and-inclusion/embracing-diversity-week)
Stephen Sweeney is the Director of Full-Time MBA Recruiting and Admissions at UT-McCombs. During our interview, I spoke to Stephen about his own journey to McCombs, what makes McCombs a unique place, and advice for MBA applicants who are interested in learning more about an MBA at Texas McCombs
Justin Gordon is a MBA Graduate of USC Marshall and the Host of the Just Go Grind Podcast. During our interview, Justin spoke about his decision to get an MBA, why he chose USC Marshall, and the unique aspects of his MBA experience. Justin also spoke about his inspiration behind the Just Go Grind Podcast, his own entrepreneurial experiences, and what he’s learned from interviewing hundreds of successful entrepreneurs
Nilay Ajbani (USC Marshall, '21) is a 2nd Year MBA Student at USC Marshall and the President of the Marshall Consulting and Strategy Club. During Ajbani’s first year as an MBA, he recruited for management consulting, and shared a timeline of his recruiting process and how he managed through the highs and lows. Ajbani also talked about some of the setbacks and challenges, and how using a growth mindset enabled him to thrive and learn through his experience.
Eric Eliasason and Lara Mitra are the Hosts of the How I Got Here Podcast, and met as first year MBA students at MIT Sloan, and became friends through classes and conversations about careers. In our conversation, Eric and Lara spoke about their own career journeys, and how their time at Sloan inspired them to start their podcast. We also spoke about what they’ve learned about careers from interviewing numerous guests, and their own mindset on how they view their own careers. (www.howigotherepodcast.com)
Lindsay Sage is the Founder of Sage Admit. After spending almost a decade in higher education at various institutions, Lindsay came to the world of MBA Admissions Consulting and helps her clients get into Top-25 MBA programs. During our interview, Lindsay spoke about some key topics, including standing out amongst a competitive applicant pool, how to position yourself effectively if you are a non-traditional applicant, and how to use self-reflection to uncover your unique strengths.
Emily Sawyer Kegerreis is the Owner of Military MBA Consulting, and specializes in helping Veterans successfully apply and get admitted to top MBA Programs across the world. After working in Marketing roles after getting her MBA, Emily made the jump to the MBA Admissions World, before going off and starting her own consulting firm. During our interview, Emily spoke about her journey, and provided actionable and tactical advice for how military veterans can successfully navigate the MBA Admissions process.
Lewis Lin is the Founder and CEO of Impact Interview and has taught thousands of students and professionals how to successfully land Product Management and Tech Jobs. In our interview, Lewis spoke about his own career in Product Management and shared what MBA students need to know about careers in product management. He also shared advice and guidance on how to navigate the MBA product management internship and full-time recruiting process.
Ben Leiner is a Product Marketer and a graduate of UVA Darden. In this interview, Ben provided a detailed look into his journey from politics to product marketing, how he leveraged his past experience in politics to position himself for a product marketing role, and his advice to MBA students and employees who are looking to transition into Product Marketing roles.
Becca Wright Jordan (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘21) is a 2nd Year MBA Student and Current President of the Carolina Women in Business (CWIB). During our conversation, Becca shared her journey to UNC Kenan-Flagler and the role CWIB played in helping her land at UNC. She also shared CWIB’s priorities for this year, advice for prospective MBA students, and why UNC Kenan-Flagler is a great opportunity for female MBA applicants. (https://www.carolinawomeninbusiness.com/)
Donna Bauman is a Senior MBA Admissions Counselor with Stratus Admissions and a former admissions team member at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. In this interview, Donna spoke about the importance of storytelling in your MBA application, and provided some tactical guidance on how to use principles of storytelling to your advantage in your MBA applications.
After applying to hundreds of jobs with no response, Austin Belcak decided that there had to be a better way to do a job search. Through trial and error, Belcak perfected the process and landed job offers at some of the most sought after tech companies. Now, through his own company, Cultivated Culture, Belcak and his job search strategies and tactics have helped over thousands of students and employees land jobs of their own. In this interview, Belcak shares his story of the challenges with job hunting, how to perfect networking and the other tactics MBA students can use to land jobs and internships.
Adam Davis is a MBA Student in the Class of 2021 at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. During our conversation, we talked about his career prior to business school, and why he chose an MBA and Georgetown. We also spoke about the values and culture at Georgetown and what makes it a unique place, and what he hopes to spend time on during his second year, and his advice for prospective MBA applicants,
Caroline Diarte Edwards is an MBA Admissions Consultant, and Director and Co-Founder of Fortuna Admissions. During this interview, Caroline spoke about some of the common challenges MBA applicants face in the application process (and how to overcome them) what’s different (and the same) about the 2020 MBA application process, and her advice for navigating MBA admissions season.
Carolyn Nohejl is a Fuqua MBA Alum who has worked in leadership roles across medical devices and digital health. Carolyn shared her journey to business school, career lessons she's learned along the way, and specific insights into what MBA students need to know about careers in digital health. Carolyn also spoke about her latest project, healthtech hunches, a website connecting students interested in entering digital health with guidance from experienced professionals.
Lulu Curiel is the CEO and Founder of Ivy Advisors, an MBA Admissions Consulting firm, and an HBS graduate. Throughout her time as a consultant, she’s worked with hundreds of aspiring MBA applicants looking to get into the top MBA programs. In this interview, Curiel shares her thoughts on what it takes to get into a Top MBA program, common mistakes she sees MBA applicants make, and some of the trends she is seeing in the MBA application season in 2020.
Julia Wuench (Fuqua, ‘17) is a Career Development and Leadership coach on a mission to enhance human connection and fulfillment at work. She is the Founder of The Authenticity Guide. Before her life as a coach, she graduated from Fuqua, worked as a financial analyst and pursued her “dream career” in social impact. In our interview, Wuench shares how she moved on from her “dream career” to becoming a coach, and the importance and value of being your authentic self.
Sarah Rumbaugh (Darden, ‘15) is the Co-Founder and CEO of Relish Careers, and has a unique perspective in working with both graduate business job seekers as well hiring managers and employers. During our conversation, Sarah shared some of the data and research that she and her team have uncovered from their platform from March-August, as well as the potential shifts in hiring for interns and full-time hiring for this year.
After being elected in late February as Co-Presidents of the Fuqua MBAA, Sarah Izzo and Mike Treiser (Fuqua, ‘21) were thrown into leading the student government and student body as the world and MBA programs began to navigate the challenges of COVID-19. I spoke to Sarah and Mike about their experience leading a student organization during this time, the highs and lows of the past few months, and how the strength of the Fuqua culture and values brought the community together during this difficult time. They also shared their advice to current MBA students, about how they could make the most of their MBA experience this year.
Dr. Britt Andreatta is an author, speaker, and CEO of 7th Mind Inc, and the former Chief Learning Officer at Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning). During this interview, we spoke about the brain science behind learning, tips for learning in business school, and maximizing learning in a virtual environment. Britt also shared insights into how to manage stress and challenges while taking care of yourself in business school.
Richard Castleberry is the Director, Full-Time MBA and MS Business Programs at Mays Business School, Texas A&M University. In this interview, Richard takes us behind the scenes of what it’s been like over the past few months to prepare Mays graduate students for the fall semester. He talks about the decisions he and his staff have had to make, and their approach to doing what they can to provide a safe and valuable MBA experience for their students.
Laura Huang is Associate Professor at Harvard Business School who studies interpersonal relationships and implicit bias in entrepreneurship and in the workplace. In this conversation, we’re talking about her new book Edge: Turning Adversity into your advantage. During our conversation, Huang shares the research and stories behind Edge along with practical tips MBA students can use to identify their own unique edge to enrich and bring value to others, whether it’s classmates, professors, or employers. She also shares her thinking and approach around various career development topics that are important for all MBA students to understand.
Follow her on Twitter @LauraHaungLA
After starting her career in consulting, Jovanna Youssef (Anderson, ‘16) got her MBA at UCLA Anderson and transitioned into a career in Product Management. Throughout her post-MBA career, Jovanna has launched products at leading companies in the tech, retail, and fashion industries. In this interview, Jovanna shares her journey to product management, thoughts on what MBAs need to know about product management, and her advice for MBA students interested in product management.
Brad Vonick (UT-McCombs, ‘20) went into March 2020 excited to spend time with his classmates, executing his job search strategy, and making the most of the second year of business school. COVID-19 hit, altered many of his plans, but despite the challenges, Vonick landed a job, cultivated relationships, and worked to ensure he made the most of his MBA experience. During this interview, Vonick spoke about how he navigated business school during COVID-19, his tips for making the most of challenging moments, advice for building relationships, and his guidance to Second Year Students for how to maximize their time in Business School.
After getting her internship offer rescinded due to COVID-19, Austin Carroll (Fuqua, ‘21) was determined to take matters into her own hands. Carroll not only found another summer internship, but took online coding classes, built a mobile app, and worked on writing a book, all while supporting her fellow classmates looking for internships. The trick? Focusing on following her curiosity. In this interview, Carroll shared her story of finding and losing her internship, finding another internship, and how she’s made the most of her MBA experience at Fuqua.
Presney Blackman and Alexis Murray UT-McCombs (‘21) took on leadership roles at McCombs right as COVID-19 hit in March. During this interview, we spoke about leading student organizations while navigating COVID-19, as well how they navigated, as students, and as student leaders in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Finally, we also spoke about the response of the McCombs community, leading and taking initiative while maintaining self-care, and the importance of putting in the work as an ally.
In this episode, Al Dea walks through some of the key trends and insights from this summer's MBA Internship season, including some of the common themes and challenges. Al also walks through a checklist of things to do in order to assess your internship and use it to inform your decisions and actions during your second year of business school.
Julia Silbergeld (Haas, ‘15) cultivated meaningful relationships with her classmates during her time at business school. During this interview, Silbergeld talked about building relationships and community in business school, as well as what it takes to maintain those bonds after school ends. She also talked about two community and relationship building initiatives she has launched, first, Hinge IRL, and her latest, The Quarantine Love Project, a virtual matchmaking and dating service. For more check out https://www.quarantineloveproject.com/
After a busy and hectic spring and summer of MBA Admissions, Linda Abraham (CEO, Accepted.com) takes some time to step away from advising her clients and joins me to talk about MBA Admissions. During this interview, we talk about what happened with MBA admissions during COVID-19, the implications of the GMAT moving forward, and some of Linda’s predictions for the upcoming MBA Admissions Cycle for 2020-2021.
Amy Hernadez Turcios (HBS, ‘20) grew up in a low-income neighborhood and was the first in her family to go to college. Growing up, she didn’t know anyone who worked on Wall Street, went to Wharton, or attended HBS, but despite those odds, found her way to all three of those places. Now an HBS Graduate, Amy is off to her post-MBA career in management consulting as well as kicking off her own venture, Haz Ruido. During this interview, Amy shared her personal story and journey to Wall Street, and HBS, as well as her aspirations and vision for Haz Ruido. Follow Amy on IG at @hazruidoamy
Nikita Mitchell (Haas, ‘15) has spent her professional career thinking about the role companies and leaders play in creating responsible and equitable companies and communities. In this episode, Mitchell spoke about the intersection of business and society, how companies are doing well (and poorly) with their responses to social issues, and the responsibility that MBA students have in addressing these issues, both at their school and in their future.
Prior to attending Kellogg, Francis McManus worked as a middle school teacher, and management consultant, which spawned a curiosity and interest in learning from and with diverse groups of people. Getting his MBA at Kellogg allowed him to build meaningful relationships with his classmates and peers, and shaped his thoughts on his career and worldview. During this episode, I spoke to Francis about how people in his life as well as MBA experience impacted his thinking and worldview and his thoughts on the role that MBAs play in creating a more diverse and equitable workplace.
Business school can be a transformative experience. But what happens after you graduate with your MBA? During this interview, Jessi Gordon (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘16) shares her story about transitioning to life after getting her MBA, and talks about the highs and lows and the most important lessons she's learned that have helped her grow in her post-MBA life.
After spending six years in the non-profit sector, Joey Parker (Haas, '21) enrolled in UC-Berkeley (Haas) to transition to a new career. During this episode, Joey talks about his experience with MBA internship recruiting for both management consulting and technology roles, the highs and hows of navigating internship recruiting, and his overall reflections and learnings from his first year MBA internship search. Show Notes: https://mbaschooled.com/2020/07/14/episode-25-navigating-the-first-year-mba-internship-search-process/
Before attending business school, Alli Jaeggi (USC Marshall, ‘20) was a teacher looking to transition into a business role. After exploration and reflection, she decided to pursue a career in Product Marketing in the technology industry. In this episode, Jaeggi walks through how she chose product marketing, how she navigated her career search, and the steps she took to move from Teacher to Product Marketer.
During her time at Wharton, Ashley Wells (WG, ‘16) took on stretch opportunities, and built confidence that allowed her to thrive in her post-MBA career. In this episode, Wells talks about how her MBA experience at Wharton helped her embrace risk and appreciate uncertainty, and shared her advice on how to remain confident during ambiguous times, and embrace the unexpected twists and turns of careers and life.
Jasmine Ako (Yale SOM, ‘19) entered business school with a desire to pivot into a career in management consulting. Now a management consultant, Ako took some time to share with us her journey to management consulting, what the first-year management consulting recruiting process is like, and her advice to incoming MBA students who are interested in careers in management consulting.
Triston Francis (HBS, ‘19) entered Harvard Business School with the intention of growing and developing as a leader. He got the chance to do this through many avenues, most notably in serving as Co-President of the HBS Student Association. During this interview, Triston shares his journey to HBS, the highs and lows of the MBA experience, and the lessons he learned from serving as Co-President of the HBS Student Association.
In this podcast episode, I'm sharing a webinar I did about how to prepare the MBA experience. During this webinar, 3 current students shared their experience with the first semester of business school, their tips for preparing for the MBA, and guidance and advice for navigating the virtual MBA experience.
MBA students and student organizations are responding in a variety of ways against racial injustice and institutionalized violence toward Black communities. During this episode, I spoke with three Black MBA student leaders who shared their experience leading student organizations to navigate these responses. During the podcast, we spoke in detail about how they led their student organization’s response, the importance of action by MBA student leaders, and the challenges and opportunities for growth as a leader through this experience.
After working in politics, Ben Leiner (Darden, 19) came to Darden to pursue a career in technology. At Darden, he realized he wanted to pursue a career in product marketing, and landed an internship and full-time offer in this field, but not without challenges. Ben talks about how he found his interest in product marketing, how his job search went viral on LinkedIn, and his advice for how MBA students can focus on their strengths to find opportunities and navigate challenging job searches.
During his time at business school at UNC Kenan-Flagler, Ben Thayer made the most of his MBA experience. Whether it was learning entirely new topics and skillsets in the classroom, transitioning into a career in management consulting, or actively engaging in student activities and leadership positions, Thayer thoughtfully engaged and immersed himself in the MBA experience. In this wide ranging interview, Thayer shares a detailed account of his journey while at UNC, some of the challenges and difficulties he encountered as well as the lessons and skills he learned along the way that helped him make the most of his MBA Experience.
In this episode, I’m joined by two of my fellow UNC Kenan-Flagler Class of 2015 classmates Blake Koch and Kerry Rigley to talk about life five years after graduating from Business School. This spring, Kerry, Blake and I and many of our classmates were slated to be celebrating our 5-year MBA reunion a few weeks ago in Chapel Hill, but like all in-person events that plan was put on hold. Instead, Blake, Kerry and I reflected upon our own journeys after graduating with our degree, what we've learned, and our advice to fellow MBA graduates.
As an HR Leader at a fast-growing tech company, and author of the career development book Not Your Parents Workplace, Nathan Tanner knows a thing or two about career development. After starting his career in 2008 and having three jobs in one year, Tanner learned the importance of being adaptable and flexible while also embracing each job by making the most of the experience, no matter how challenging or exciting it was. In this episode, Nathan shares his MBA journey, how business school helped him refine his approach to career development, and his advice to MBA students about how to take the career skills you learn in business school and apply them to achieve your own version of success.
MBA Internships are right around the corner, but they’ll certainly look and feel a little bit different this year. In this episode, Tony Morash (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘16) joins Al to talk about tips, best practices and general advice for MBA Internships. During the second part of this two part Podcast, Al and Tony talk about tips to be successful, how MBA students can prepare, and guidance around communicating and navigating a virtual MBA Internship.
MBA Internships are right around the corner, but they’ll certainly look and feel a little bit different this year. In this episode, Tony Morash (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘16) joins Al to talk about tips, best practices and general advice for MBA Internships. During the first part of this two pert Podcast, Al and Tony talk about tips to be successful, how MBA students can prepare, and guidance around communicating and navigating a virtual MBA Internship
During his time at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Adam Miller has done his best to align his interests and goals to the activities and experiences he chose to participate in. In this interview, Miller speaks to why he chose to come to business school, some of his career and recruiting journey, and some of the highlights of his MBA experience, including launching his very own podcast. Miller also talks in depth about some of the honest challenges or difficult aspects of business school, and his advice for how MBA students can stay true to following their own goals, and vision of success
John Huang (Ross, ‘15) has been an MBA graduate for five years as of this May. In this time he’s worked for the largest company in the world, a 10 person startup, and 3 other companies in between. Regardless of his career steps, he’s always found ways to pursue roles that allowed him to use his skills and experiences, as well as to find and position himself for future opportunities for growth. In this podcast, John shares his journey to business school, how his time at Ross helped him build career development skills for life, and how he has used those skills to chart his career after he graduated.
Product Marketing is becoming a popular career choice for many professionals including aspiring and current MBA students. In this episode, I'm joined by Shyna Zhang, a former Product Marketer at Microsoft and Marketo, and current Product Marketing Consultant and Advisor. During our conversation, Shyna breaks down what Product Marketing is, some of the important skills Product Marketers have, and her advice and guidance to professionals on how they can build the skills needed to become a Product Marketer
While many MBA students were on spring break, most MBA programs across the world made a fast pivot to a virtual MBA environment as the world grappled with COVID-19. Students were forced to think and work differently in this new environment, in order to achieve their goals and make the most of their MBA experience. In this episode, four current MBA students from NYU Stern, UC Berkeley, UNC Kenan-Flagler, and Michigan Ross share what it's like to attend business school in a virtual environment, how they are making the most of the experience, and their advice to fellow and prospective MBA students about navigating business school during uncertain times.
After serving in the Merchant Marines and founding his own entrepreneurial venture, Ravi Maniar (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘16) moved from India to North Carolina to pursue his MBA. There were many adjustments Maniar had to make during the transition, and one of the biggest was around networking. In this podcast, Maniar shares how he flipped the switch on networking and how it helped him build relationships, land career opportunities, and strengthen his overall MBA experience.
Jeremy Schifeling is a former Kindergarten teacher, an MBA Alum of the University of Michigan (Ross) Product Marketer, and Founder of BreakInto Tech. Throughout his career, Schifeling went from not knowing much about networking to working at LinkedIn, and now runs an online course that teaches job seekers how to successfully navigate a career search using LinkedIn. He is an expert in career development and job searching and in this episode, shared his advice for how MBA students can effectively use LinkedIn in their career and job search. For Show Notes go to http://www.mbaschooled.com/podcast
In this episode, I have Adam Miller, a 2nd-Year MBA Student at the University of Virginia (Darden). Initially I had set out to talk to Adam about some of the stories he shared in MBA Insider, but given the uncertainty that exists in the world I decided to chat with Adam about how he was doing, what he was experiencing, and his general outlook of navigating business school during these uncertain times.
http://www.mbaschooled.com/podcast for show notes
As the world economy moves towards a potential recession, there is a lot of uncertainty and concern in the job and labor market. In this episode I talk through some suggestions on how to manage the stress of a job search during tumultuous times. I share some research I did on how MBA students navigated the job market during previous recessions, and provide some thoughts and advice for how MBA students can use do now to navigate their career and job search during uncertain economic times.
It is MBA Admit Decision Season, and I’m profiling students and alum from different schools to give you the inside look on the MBA experience at that school. In this episode, I have Jackie Callahan, a first-year MBA Student at Duke University (Fuqua). In this interview, Callahan shares her story from her journey from the U.S. Navy to Duke, why she chose Fuqua, and her advice for admitted students and Veterans who are prospective MBA students.
For show notes, check out www.mbaschooled.com/podcast
It is MBA Admit Decision Season, and I’m profiling students and alum from different schools to give you the inside look on the MBA experience at that school. In this episode, I have Jasmine Ako, a graduate from the Yale SOM class of 2019. Ako shares her journey to Yale SOM, why she chose it, and how Yale is helping her in her career.
COVID-19 has impacted everything including the MBA Admissions and Application process. Many MBA programs have responded by extending admissions deadlines or creating new opportunities for students to apply for this year and next year. To help make sense of all of this, Linda Abraham, CEO of Accepted.com joins me to talk about the changes to MBA admissions, and how current and future MBA applicants can navigate them.
COVID-19 is impacting every aspect of our lives and every industry across the world. In this podcast, I'll share some thoughts and tips for current MBA students who are wondering how to make the most of their MBA Experience given the new world they live in as a result of COVID-19.
Welcome to the MBA Insider Podcast! In this episode, I'll give an overview of the podcast, the history behind, and share what you can expect out of the MBA Insider Podcast.