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

• Apply Now: The Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA Application
• Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA Program

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/
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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

• https://www.mhworklife.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/blessingadesiyan/

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's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawallace
• The Portfolio Life:

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