As I end the glorious year 1 of the best MBA program in the world, it is only fitting that I give the spring quarter a fitting tribute with a quick round up! The quarter started on a high note. I'd signed my internship offer from Microsoft for the summer (Product Management) and from MarkedUp Inc. (a Santa Monica based startup) for the spring (Product Marketing). Yes, its very common for students here to do an internship during the school year and because the school is so well-entrenched in the Silicon Beach community (LA's startup scene) and opportunities keep coming all the time. Naturally, with the recruiting season behind me, I was relieved of so much stress. Also, while most people are confused about the difference between Product Mgmt and Marketing, I got a chance to dabble with both!! I got to meet so many vivacious new admits from the incoming class of 2015 at the A days, where I represented the International Business Association(IBA), Anderson Creative and the International students panel. As the first week of classes began, we started practicing for our C4C cheer, part of which we'd performed already in the Anderson Talent Showcase (February), but wanted to take it to the next level. After 3 weeks of tireless practicing, we put up a great show at the Stanford C4C weekend, which Kyle talked about earlier. You should totally watch the video below and stare at it with your jaw touching the floor (ok that part's optional).... Continue reading

It was perhaps not a long time ago when the air nipped, leaves began to fall, Anderson Afternoons became Anderson nights and the rare hoodie-covered soul who'd be found roaming the Anderson compound had but one thing to say with a grim stare, "Winter is coming..". Just the thought of a winter quarter with the heavy recruiting, interviews, sitting in classes with suits and the wretched Operations Management course haunted almost everyone, except ofcourse the above-mentioned bravehearts. My absence from this blog, therefore, is pardonable. Hibernating seemed to be the safest thing to do. Alas, hibernate I did not. As we slowly began to ease into the rigorous MBA program, a lot more began to be piled up on our frail shoulders. Here are some of the highlights, from my perspective, of the war that ensued. Recruiting The quarter sort of began with days on the job for finance, tech, entertainment, sports and retail industries. My sweet but short Florida winter vacation was cut even shorter by the "Tech trek" organized by HTBA. The allocation of companies was done through a bidding system where you bid 1000 points across the 9-10 companies chosen for the trek. I was somehow allotted companies I had bid only 1 point for and thus had no motivation at all to travel to the bay area. Frankly, being from the tech industry I already had contacts in most of my target companies who I could've contacted and arranged a meeting at a bit more convenient... Continue reading

It has never been busier, it has never been crazier. And yet, I've never learnt so much and never been so satisfied about being so busy. I've just completed the first couple of MBA-years (1 MBA year = 1 earth month), and this speeding bullet is not getting any slower. So what have I been upto and why have I been absent since so long from here? Hmm, let me take stock: 1. Two case competitions: Yes, an MBA is grossly incomplete without case competitions. The first one was the Amazon case competition where I collaborated with 3 other team mates through 24 hours to create a business plan for the new Amazon Gamecircle. We didn't win, but it was still like a successful conquest - coming up with some great ideas and writing a whitepaper - Amazon style! The company reps went so far as to say that they were highly impressed with the quality of submissions from UCLA Anderson and they're gonna hire big time from here. They love this school (read this again if you're a prospective student :) ). The second competition was the Deloitte National Case Challenge, where I spent another sleepless night with 3 other classmates working on a marketing plan to make Intelligentsia coffee a national brand. We ended up at 4th place and won $25 vouchers for the most expensive coffee in LA. The most exciting thing about both of these competitions was the fact that they were real problems of real... Continue reading

Regular readers of the blog might have noticed a drop in the number of posts published since the past 2 weeks. Here's why: the new class of 2014 is immersed in UCLA Anderson's comprehensive orientation program called the "Leadership Foundations". The result: we're all super-busy and super-excited! When I first looked at the schedule and read that we have to go through a 2 week long orientation, I was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing - wondering whether we'll have to sit for long hours in a big hall listening to an endless line up of speakers from all over Anderson dole out endless "leadership anecdotes" and whether i'll be able to stay awake at all given that the day starts at 8 am. Oh, how wrong I was! The Anderson orientation, like everything about the school, is such a wonderful experience. Let me give you a lowdown. We started with the UCLA-wide New Internation Students and Scholars Orientation (NISSO) and Anderson's Internation Student Orientation Day (ISOD), which were both full of very useful information about visa, job search, culture issues, campus resources, etc. for international students. It was a pleasure meeting the Anderson MBA Admissions team that recruited us all, and the Parker CMC staff that have already begin the hardwork to prepare us to get recruited to our dream jobs. The Leadership Foundation course started next and we're into the second week already. The case readings for each day of the course were already given to us.... Continue reading

This post talks about a few things on top of everyone's to-do list before departing for professional studies in the US Continue reading

The post talks about why the UCLA Anderson MBA program is ideally suited for people looking for careers in the high-tech industry. Continue reading

This post talks about the various funding options available to full time MBA students at UCLA Anderson School of management Continue reading

Introductory post by Ayushman Jain, MBA '14 at UCLA Anderson School of Management, talking about his pre-MBA adventures. Continue reading