MBA Insider

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...

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-...

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...

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 yourse...

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 provi...

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 thei...

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 produc...

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 spo...

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 int...

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...

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 IR...

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...

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 ventu...

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 t...

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...

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...

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...

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 caree...

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 t...

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 res...

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 stud...