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.
In this episode, Al walks through 5 key lessons about work and careers that nobody ever teaches you. Al’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/
One of the most common career related questions we get is around how to get promoted at work. This episode walks through some suggestions for how to both strategically and tactically get promoted in your workplace Links https://alsnewsletter.substack.com/p/new-year-new-promotion https://www.fastcompany.com/90832084/how-get-noticed-promoted-working-remotely...
Betty Tran is a MBA Candidate in the Class of 2024 at the Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business. After starting her career working in tech and startups, Betty decided to pursue an MBA at Tuck to further her business acumen and explore other career opportunities. During our conversation, Betty shared how she landed at Tuck, why she chose it, and how she has used her time at Tuck to advance in her career. Betty also shared some of the fun and challenging parts of the MBA experience, and how sh...
Taylor Clark is an MBA Graduate from the Class of 2023 at Harvard Business School. Since her childhood, Taylor has always pursued opportunities to lead, and during our conversation, Taylor spoke about her desire to use her time in business school at HBS to continue to build her leadership skills, and how her time at HBS has helped her transform her thinking about her career and her leadership abilities. During our conversation, Taylor spoke about her journey to deciding on pursuing an MBA at HBS...
Are you looking to advance in your career? Trying to build relationships or advance towards a career goal? Here are five practical tips for standing out so you can build better relationships and find more ways to grow your career Links: https://al-dea.medium.com/10-ways-to-stand-out-in-the-workplace-be95efc65c88...
In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Rebecca Mallen Churchill and Elvis Diaz about the MBA program at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Consistently ranked as a top MBA program in the United States, W. P. Carey offers MBA students the benefits of a community-driven MBA program with the scale and opportunities of the broader Arizona State University brand and network. During our conversation, Elvis, a W. P. Carey MBA graduate shared his professional ...
Britt Hunter is an MBA Graduate from the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management. Prior to pursuing her MBA at Owen, Britt worked in education and now currently works in HR at Microsoft. During our conversation, Britt spoke about her pre-MBA work in education, and how her students motivated her to apply for an MBA. She also shared some of the reasons why she chose to attend Owen, her favorite memories from business school, and her own journey with public speaking. Links Britt’s ...
Lindsay Sage is a former MBA Admissions Director at NYU Stern, as well as the Founder of Sage Admit, and an MBA Admissions Consultant. To kick off this fall’s MBA application season, we asked Lindsay to come on the podcast to talk through some of the things she is seeing through her conversations with MBA programs and MBA applicants. During our conversation, we spoke about some observations and learnings from the previous year’s MBA application cycle (2022-2023) , some recent events and trends a...
Editor's Note. This is a replay of a Top Performing Episode from 2021: After serving in the military, Katherine Rowe (UT-McCombs, ‘20) chose to get an MBA to pursue a new career, and landed at UT-McCombs. Throughout her time at McCombs, Katherine not only took advantage of the resources and opportunities to expand skills, but also built meaningful relationships that led to growth and development. In this conversation, Katherine spoke about her journey to McCombs, how she was able to effectiv...
Newton Cheng is a Director of Health and Performance at Google and a UC-Berkeley Haas MBA Alumni. After graduating from Haas, Newton entered his post-MBA career at Google where he has worked for more than 15 years. Along the way, he’s been able to learn and grow in order to pursue being a high-performing employee while also prioritizing the many other important roles in his life, as husband, parent, and athlete. During our conversation, Newton spoke about his time at Haas, and the importance and...
Note: This is a replay episode of one our most popular episodes from 2022: After graduating with an MBA from the University of Michigan (Ross) Jodi Innerfield moved to San Francisco to start her post-MBA career working in a Product Marketing role at a startup. Since then, she’s moved to larger companies and has built a career at Salesforce and moved back across the country to the East Coast. During our conversation, we spoke about her life after graduating from Ross as well as some of the exciti...
Editor's Note. This is a replay of a Top Performing Episode from 2021: After graduating from the University of Texas-Austin (McCombs) with her MBA, Lucero Perez began her post-MBA journey after graduating from Texas McCombs by transitioning into a career in management consulting, before switching to a career in Tech at an enterprise software company. Along the way, Lucero navigated the post-MBA career and life journey with the support of family and friends, and her own career ambitions. Duri...
David Bradford is a Senior Lecturer at the Stanford GSB, a Co-Instructor of the Popular GSB Class, Interpersonal Dynamics, and the Co-Author of the book Connect :Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends and Colleagues. David has taught the “touchy feely” course at Stanford for decades, and has a longtime experience in teaching and coaching MBAs on some of the most critical skills needed to thrive as a leader in an organization. During our conversation, David spoke about why this c...
This is the 200th episode of MBA Insider! Thank you to all the listeners and supporters who have been a part of the MBA Insider journey. In this solo episode, Al walks through the history of starting the MBA Insider podcast, as well as sharing how he has evolved and changed since the podcast began in March of 2020. Finally, Al shares some of the lessons he’s learned from producing 200 episodes. Links MBASchooled Website: https://mbaschooled.com/ Al’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsalde...
Note : This is a crossover episode from The Edge of Work Podcast. If you like this episode, make sure to check out The Edge of Work Simone Stolzoff is the Author of The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work . Through his diverse experiences in advertising, tech, journalism, and design, Simone has developed a unique understanding of the evolving world of work. In his book, " The Good Enough Job ," Simone explores the idea of an alternative path to fulfillment in work and in your care...
Note : This is a crossover episode from The Edge of Work Podcast. If you like this episode, make sure to check out The Edge of Work Christina Wallace is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, an HBS Graduate, entrepreneur and author. In her most recent book, The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card, Christina makes the case for how employees are multi-dimensional individuals, and can re-think and reframe their rela...
This episode is hosted by MBA Insider Friend and former guest, Jodi Innerfield. In this episode, Jodi interviews Rebecca Offesend, a Columbia Business School MBA Graduate. Rebecca was able to use her time at CBS and in business school to transition into the finance and banking sector, before finding a home working in Venture Capital. During this conversation, Rebecca spoke about her journey to pursuing an MBA, some of the career changes and transitions that she’s made, and her own reflections on...
Elissa Sangster is the CEO of the Forté Foundation, an organization that is dedicated to changing the power balance in the workplace. Through various programs, partnerships and resources, Forté plays a critical role in identifying and developing women leaders by supporting them in their time in business school and as MBA graduates and leaders in their chosen fields. During our conversation, Elissa spoke about how, in a changing world of work, how Forté remains committed to developing female lead...
DJ DiDonna is an Entrepreneurship Professor at HBS as well as the Founder of the Sabbatical Project. After pursuing an entrepreneurial path after graduating from an HBS, DJ decided to take a sabbatical before figuring out his next move, and enjoyed it so much that he decided to start studying sabbaticals. Through his career, DJ has interviewed hundreds of others who have taken sabbaticals and contributed significant research to this topic. During our conversation, DJ spoke about his journey to b...
After publishing MBA Insider: How to Make The Most of Your MBA Experience, I found that one of the most popular chapters in the book was the final chapter, Life After Business School . Even for aspiring students, many people were curious to learn how an MBA could change and accelerate the lives and careers of the students who participated in the MBA experience. To date, some of the top performing episodes on the MBA Insider podcast are from a series I titled Life After Business School . So it wa...
Jessica Wan is a UC-Berkeley Haas MBA Alumni, Executive Coach, and The Host of the Ampersand Manifesto Podcast. Prior to attending UC-Berkeley Haas, Jessica worked in the arts and non profit sector before deciding to pursue an MBA all while continuing her passion for the arts as a trained opera singer and performer. After working in several marketing roles at tech companies after her MBA building and launching products and leading teams, Jessica found her love for coaching, and leaders navigate ...
Congratulations on landing a new job or internship! Even though you put in a ton of hard work to land this opportunity, have you put in the time and effort to figure out how you can be successful as you onboard into a new role, opportunity, or organization? In this episode, Al walks through the key actions and focus areas you can focus on when you’re onboarding into a new job or internship. You’ll walk away with practical ways to make sure you’re set up for success in your new job or internship....
In this episode, MBA Insider Podcast Host Al Dea shares why he thinks it is important to define and cultivate a personal brand in order to advance your career on your own terms, along with providing some actionable and practical pieces of advice for how professionals can do this in their work and careers. Links: Al’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/ How to Stand out at Work: https://mbaschooled.com/2023/01/02/10-ways-to-improve-your-visibility-at-work/...
Priyal Keni is an MBA Candidate at London Business School. Prior to attending London Business School Priyal worked as a chartered accountant, consultant and professional rifle shooter before deciding to pivot into a new profession. During our conversation, Priyal spoke about her decision to find new opportunities in her career by pursuing an MBA, as well as her decision to go to London Business School. Priyal also shared how she has been able to deliver multiple TED Talks and amass a following o...
Jerome Fulton Jr is a MBA Candidate in the Class of 2023 at Harvard Business School. Prior to attending HBS, Jerome worked in accounting and finance before deciding to pursue an MBA degree. During our conversation, Jerome spoke about his journey to applying to an MBA and entering Harvard Business School, as well as some of the leadership opportunities he’s taken on while he’s been an HBS student. Jerome also provided his own advice to professionals who are thinking about the next in their career...
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 ...
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 h...
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 ...
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, Ja...
