The MBA Insider podcast is for career-driven professionals who want career guidance and practical advice about how an MBA can help advance your career,
During each episode, Al Dea interviews former and current MBA students, MBA experts and leaders to learn about their career stories, MBA experience, business school school lessons to help aspiring, current and former MBAs like you to stand out, level up, and grow a successful career.
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...
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...
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 mark...
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 ca...
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...
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 recen...
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 ...
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 h...
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 consu...
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 emp...
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 pod...
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 prepar...
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 interest...
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.
