Who Do YOU Want to Work for When You Grow Up?

It’s time to go back to school! Tomorrow marks the beginning of the second year of my MBA program. While I am excited to go back, I am also a little bit apprehensive because I know how quickly this year will go by and I have to decide what I want to do “when I grow up”. I know I want to do brand management because I like the strategy, creativity and psychology behind it, but I am not yet very sure what company I want to work for.

Interestingly enough, today I cam across my application for the TEC Mentorship program and re-read it. One of the questions on the application was: What organization do you most admire and why? Today, I am going to share with you what I said in response. That was a year ago, and I am glad to see that I still feel the same. It was a nice reminder especially in view of the upcoming job search process. Enjoy and take a second to think what kind of company you want to be working for when you grow up and also what it stands for.

When I applied to business school, my friend’s advice was to “get in and get out.” Yes, I did come to business school to acquire the knowledge to complement my experience, but once again I realized knowledge is not enough by itself. I need to know that I can apply my knowledge within a supportive and stimulating environment. I also have to know that I can do business without harming other people.

I do not know a great deal about any specific organization, but Google’s business motto “Don’t be evil” is what drew me to find out more about the company. Today, Google stands for innovative, fun, responsible business. It is a brand that made its way into the dictionary. It is a business idea that replaced the word “search” in everyday language. Googlers are visionaries, innovators that constantly brake patterns. They thrive in the challenging, unorthodox, fun- and amenities-filled corporate culture that was created for them.

But it is not all about the business. One lesson that I learned from my father was to never forget where you came from. That is why I respect how Google funds many projects that give back to the community, students, and the environment where it came from. I am hoping that Google’s clean and renewable energy project will become a reality that could be implemented on a large scale in the corporate world. As I mentioned before, I would not even attempt to say that I know everything about this company. However, what I know and have read so far, makes me admire the founders’ commitment to business and ethics.

Think Big...in Small Steps

I was thinking the other day that we are so used to big things: big cars, big buildings, big promotions, working for big companies, wanting big houses, waiting for the big break… Companies want big market shares, big profit – more often than not the shorter the term the better – and big ideas. And we forget that it’s the small things that matter. Or, that by taking small steps we get to the big…everything. I am a true believer that by investing a little more time in relationships with employees, vendors, friends, or family the pay off will be a lot bigger.

This idea is based on my experience as a customer, employee, and student/leader. I will only give you two examples. I used to be a WaMu customer and enjoyed a very good and personal service. Now with Chase, I can see a difference. They are such a big company, so highly regulated and probably so preoccupied with branding Chase in SoCal that they neglect the small things that matter: thinking about what the customer needs and training (or allowing) their employees to offer a fast, reliable, and quality service. A friend of mine told me the other day that his company - otherwise very big, international and in-tune with the consumer’s needs – considers its employees very expendable and therefore only pretends to care. And I could go on and on with examples.

With this in mind, when it was time for my fellow Challenge for Charity Co-President, Ashley and I to discuss our strategy for this year, we decided we wanted to achieve big things, but by taking small steps. We did set a big goal for this year, namely to create awareness and increase the number of members, which in turn will lead us to the second goal of raising more money for our two charities: The Special Olympics Southern California and the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation. We, however, started with cultivating relationships with the incoming class as well as the charities we are representing. We went to both charities to discuss expectations, understand what they need the most, and also see what they are doing. Seeing is believing, right? So instead of assuming that our members are always ready to give us money and time just because we know it is important, we wanted them to get to know the organizations and understand why their money and time are so important. And we set up to create a two-day mini-consulting project during orientation, where our incoming class could meet the two organizations, listen to how they change lives every day and also propose solutions for challenges our charities are facing. The project was a success! Ashley and I were very impressed with how involved the students became once they understood how important their contribution is. After three hours of brainstorming and discussions, we left the room with 3 pages of very creative and valuable fundraising ideas and the commitment of all present.

Ashley and I realize this is an investment year but we know that we are pretty confident that we can create a legacy and a tradition that every Pepperdine MBA student is a Challenge for Charity member.

What Every Graziadio Student Needs to Know!

For those of you who got accepted and are now very excited to start Orientation, I put together a list of terms and abbreviations you will hear a lot during your two years of study at Graziadio. This list is by no means an exhaustive list, it is just an appetizer! I am sure that in the next two years, you will come up with your own abbreviations and this list will grow exponentially. In the meantime, take a look at this one and enjoy your first year!

Biz Law – Business Law, a required class you’ll have to take in your second year.

C4C - Challenge for Charity, the school's designated charity. Check out our new website at www.pepperdinec4c.org.

DELS – The Dean’s Executive Leadership Series, a networking event that brings executives on campus to talk about real-world challenges and opportunities.

Drescher - the graduate campus, home to the Business, Education and Psychology, and Public Policy schools.

E2B - Education to Business; a big part of the 14-class Marketing 101 class, where you and your teammates act as consultants to a company. It's also the project that will test your patience, nerves, and your people skills.

FEMBA - The Fully Employed MBA program.

GSBM - The Graziadio School of Business and Management, um, the school that you're either considering or just got accepted at. This is probably one of the first acronym you should remember.

QBA – Quantitative Business Analysis class.

MarComm – Marketing Communications class.

MGBS - The Malibu Graduate Business Society, the student government association that guides us throughout the year. They have elections every year, so if you’re eyeing the White House, you should consider starting your ascent with the MGBS President position.

MBAM - MBA Malibu, the full-time program in Malibu.

MSAF - Master of Science in Applied Finance.

SEW – Social Enterprise Week, a student-driven annual event promoting and celebrating social responsible practices. It is usually scheduled in March-April and it culminates with the infamous Talent Show.

The Talent Show aka PepperJam – This is something you wouldn’t want to miss! Every year, GSBM students shed their business suits and replace their laptops with guitars, pianos, or other instruments. And there is always a surprise! The quiet classmate is an amazing break dancer, the best presenter in your group is secretly a great drummer, and the QBA professor loves to rock. Yeap, that’s PepperJam!

VCLL - The Value-Centered Leadership Lab, a student organization emphasizing the presence and importance of ethics in business.

Waves - the Drescher cafeteria. It’s not amazing by any means, especially if you are a vegetarian, but at least it is convenient and the people there are very nice.

What I Learned from My Internships

First day of school is fast approaching and as I was looking at the schedule for the first year’s orientation, I realized that there is one thing that the incoming class will hear about besides “network, network, network” and that is “it is never too early to start looking for your internship”. As early as it seems to start thinking about internships in August, trust me, it is not! Now, that does not mean that you have to start interviewing right away. It just means that you should start thinking about what kind of internship you would like to land and start zeroing in on the company and a way to get your resume in front of the right people.

My goal this summer was to get as much meaningful marketing experience as possible, so I interned with three different companies – Pepperdine University, The Step Up Women’s Network, and Coca-Cola - learning about market research, online marketing, and business analysis. Based on my experience and search for the right internship, I came up with a list of ten things I learned in the process.

10) It is important to know what you want to get out of an internship before you start looking for one. I wanted a very structured internship that would allow me to get a lot of hands-on experience in different aspects of marketing and to have exposure to experienced marketers from whom to learn.

9) Talk to you friends, family, and your professional network about what you are looking for. I got two of my internships through friends and my professional network. The other one, I just contacted the company directly.

8) Tailor your resume to the position you are applying for and include relevant examples or work samples.

7) Set up informational interviews with people that are in the industry or the position you are looking for. These people will help you understand what skills you need and what exactly the position entails. And if they like you, they will become good contacts. A referral can go a long way!

6) Have the occasional introspective and honest conversation with yourself. Revisit your goals and assess where you are right now, then look at what you need to do to get to where you want to be and make it happen. Goals and views change over time and especially in business school when you become exposed to so many things. It is perfectly acceptable to change your mind and direction. That is what your time in school is for. Explore and find out what you like and want! It is better to do this while in school, rather than once you are finished or even worse, once you got a job.

5) Be open to learning new skills. The more you can do, the more valuable you become. A year ago, I knew very little about websites. Working with NAWMBA National as their VP of Website Development taught me a lot about html and content management systems, and that experience got me the internship with Step Up.

4) Think about what is more important for you: a big name on the resume, a good work environment, a meaningful experience? And make sure you pay attention to all that when you go in for an interview. Talk to people at that company and see if it is a good fit for you. More often than not, interns get full-time offers at the end of their internship, so make sure you understand how you fit in with the company and the position.

3) You never know what you do not know. Keep your eyes and ears open and you will learn a lot. People love to talk about themselves and about their experiences. Some do it because they just love to talk, but most people genuinely care and want to teach you. And that is great! Because that is when you learn the most. Why make the original mistake when you can learn from somebody else’s? And this takes me to number 2…

2) Find mentors that can guide you through the process of finding an internship, a job, or through life in general. I do not know how to tell you to find mentors, because so far for me, it just worked out. I have met people that I just clicked with and then they gradually became my mentors. The mentor-mentee relationship is a two-way street. Yes, usually mentors like to be able to offer guidance, but remember to be thoughtful and appreciative of their time and effort. It is a give and take.

1) Become a master of time management. You can pretty much do whatever you set your mind to do if you manage your time right. You will not be able to be the perfect best friend, partner, son or daughter while in school. But you will be able to balance all of that - even though it may be in a smaller proportion - if you set time aside for everything.

This is what I have got for you. In no way does this mean that I have everything figured out. But I am getting there! And if at least one of the points above will help you start figuring out what you want, then I am very happy. It will be a labor intensive process, but in the end very rewarding. Good luck!