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Experiential Learning @ Stern: Endless Possibilities

Jeet Khilnani is an MBA2, specializing in strategy and leadership & change management. Prior to Stern, Jeet worked at Nomura in a corporate finance role, and Deloitte in an audit role. This summer, Jeet interned at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as a Summer Consultant and will be continuing to work at the firm post graduation in New York City. Additionally, Jeet is the Co-President of Outclass (Stern’s LGBTQ+ organization), and a VP of Stern Student Government, Management Consulting Association, Graduate Finance Association, and South Asian Business Association at Stern.

One of the biggest drivers of the MBA experience at Stern is the countless opportunities to learn by doing. Stern’s incredible location unlocks access to almost anything you want to do – PE/VC, Startups, Healthcare, Consulting, Finance, Impact Investing and the list just goes on. Stern’s “Change Studio” umbrella is so wide and deep, I think most students would not even be able to list all the different opportunities available!

This was a key component of my decision to attend Stern. I was uprooting my life from India and moving thousands of miles away to a whole new world in the US. I wanted to familiarize myself with the culture and see the different facets of the business world before I started my full time job, both as a way to prepare for it and to ease the learning curve a little bit. Through my time so far, I’ve experienced three different experiential learning opportunities – Communication for Consultants, Operations Consulting – An Experiential Approach & Endless Frontier Labs. Each course came with an opportunity to learn something new about business, about an industry I had no clue about, and in the process, about myself.

  • Communication for Consultants: I decided to take this course in Spring 2022 right after I decided to pivot into consulting for my summer internship. I had no idea how consulting works, and I was coming from a near-shore role just before Stern. I instantly found myself attracted to a non-profit in the film and media space, and luckily, was matched to work with them. The challenge was mind-blowing – the non-profit had started a social impact film festival in virtual format during the pandemic, and now wanted to bring it to in-person format post-COVID. 

In addition to this, the goal was to identify and overcome challenges in communication from the clients – they sometimes confuse symptoms with the problem, and there’s a lot of reading between the lines involved. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project, eventually culminating into a final presentation with the client being present in the room with us, and appreciating the recommendations. We’re all so excited that the festival will be in-person (with a virtual option) in 2023 in Boston, MA!

  • Operations Consulting – An Experiential Approach: After Communication for Consultants, I was craving more. And then came the opportunity to enroll in Operations Consulting during Fall 2022, and admittedly I understand nothing about operations. This course involves weekly visits to a new company and witness their operations during class time, followed by debrief and discussion thereafter. I was able to experience so many different industries in such a short span of time and I couldn’t be happier about it – a brewery, a global FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), a sugar refinery, a port terminal, and a global cosmetics company. Learning how different (and how similar) their operations are, identifying problems and areas for improvement, and witnessing the different levels of adoption of technology has been so enriching!

While visiting all these plants, we also had to pick a business and do an independent project advising them improvements in their own operations – and we’re currently working with a grocery-delivery company to identify improvements for inventory management. It takes work, yes, but the learning and benefits are far greater and are setting me up for my career at BCG!

  • Endless Frontier Labs: EFL is Stern’s signature startup accelerator, providing mentorship opportunities to startups around the world. This year, EFL received 1100+ applications from startups, and selected 75 startups for the year-long program through a process of rigorous interviews and application screenings (so it’s highly selective!). The first step was to interview companies and fill out our evaluations. Post that, MBA students are matched with selected startups following a double-blind matching process, and I was matched with a groundbreaking startup in the EV charging space. Again, I found myself feeling a bit anxious since I knew nothing about the space. But the founder and team was gracious enough to coach me, and so far, I’ve been designing a go-to-market strategy for them. Next semester, we plan to raise the seed funding for this company and if all goes well, I will be able to take pride in being a small part of this incredible company’s growth trajectory.

I’ve learnt so much already – about the EV space, the charging space, how it all works, and the economics behind it. This is an invaluable experience that I will take with me wherever I go, and also a great way to test out the craziness of the startup world that always intimidated me. I really like it – and I can survive it (which I didn’t know before!)

As you can probably tell, this is only a small fraction of the endless possibilities that Stern offers you through its experiential learning opportunities. To me, this is what an MBA looks like in today’s ever-changing business world, where you learn in class and apply the learnings to a real-world project with implications that define the success of your clients, and you.

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Jumping into the Next Stage of Your Career at Stern

Catherine is a Senior Associate Director at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and has been with Stern since 2016. Outside of recruiting the next class of Sternies, she enjoys watching football (NY Giants & Boston College) as well as working her way through her extensive list of NYC restaurants to try.

What do you want to be when you graduate business school? No matter what you are interested in, Stern has the tools to help you succeed in your career.

Historically, Stern was known as the school to go to if you wanted to become an investment banker. Nowadays, you’ll find students interested in all sorts of industries – technology, healthcare, consulting, luxury and retail … the list goes on. To dive deeper, students are able to to specialize in specific subject areas. These specializations help students become experts in the business topics of their choice. 

Aside from offering a diverse and flexible curriculum, Stern has a top-notch Office of Career Development (OCD). OCD’s main focus is to prepare students for internship and full-time employment recruitment. It all starts with IGNITE, which is a job preparation program that all Full-time MBA students complete in their first semester. Students will revise their resumes, participate in interview prep, and attend workshops to identify which industries or career paths pique their interest. Stern’s professional clubs are also a great resource to help students prepare for recruitment. MBA2s act as mentors for the MBA1s, and impart their wisdom after having gone through the recruitment process just one year before.


OCD and the professional clubs are an especially great resource for students who are not coming from a “business” background. In fact, many students pursue an MBA to make a serious career pivot, so don’t fear – you’re not the only one! Our MBA program and its career-focused resources are designed to give you the skills you need to make that career pivot. 

Once students have completed the IGNITE program, they’re ready to recruit! Stern has many companies that participate in on-campus recruiting, meaning they come to Stern to recruit our students directly. Our location in the heart of NYC makes this process even easier since companies and students don’t have to travel far to meet each other. Students are able to recruit for a variety  of industries, given NYC’s status as a hub for global business. Students also find it easy to connect with Stern alumni at companies of interest by simply hopping on the subway to meet a former Sternie for a coffee chat in a matter of minutes. For students who are interested in pursuing roles at smaller companies, or in more niche industries, OCD will help you to make the connections, find applications, and land the perfect role.

We’ve talked about career support, but where do Sternies end up? Take a look at our employment report! Each year, OCD publishes a summary of where the graduating class has accepted jobs, broken down by industry and function. The report also includes information on compensation. For example, the median salary for the Class of 2022 was $170,000. This report is a helpful tool to demonstrate the ROI of Stern’s Full-time MBA program, and highlights career possibilities for Sternies. 

Career support doesn’t stop once a Sternie graduates! Alumni have lifelong access to the Career Center for Working Professionals (CCWP). CCWP provides professional development support and coaches to help you with any career changes. Graduates also join the Stern alumni network, which is 100,000+ alumni strong. 

I hope I’ve provided more insight on how Stern can help shape your future career. The impact of a Stern MBA is something you will feel long after you’ve graduated! 

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Academics at Stern

Gustavo Valverde Rezende is an MBA2, originally from Brazil. He has a Bachelor’s in business administration from Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora and a Master’s in finance from IBMEC. Before joining Stern, Gustavo worked in management consulting, public management, and corporate finance before joining Eureca, a purpose-driven startup, as Chief Financial Officer.  His latest job was as Strategy & Finance Leader at Grupo Anga, Eureca’s parent company, overlooking a portfolio of six purpose-driven companies. This summer, Gustavo worked as an Investment Banking Summer Associate at Credit Suisse in New York.

 

Before coming to NYC, I never cared too much about academics. After a few weeks in my first year at Stern, I realized it would be a mistake not to care. As I studied Statistics, Accounting, Foundations of Finance, Strategy, and Firms & Markets, – all courses I had taken before – I felt like I was exploring a whole new world. Now, in my second to last semester, I already miss the academic experience at Stern.

What made me change my mind so drastically and quickly?

1. Stern classes are relevant to me

As they will be to you. Note I didn’t write that they are important for a business professional –  I chose my words carefully. After a few years of work experience, I have a pretty strong sense of things I like to do and, more importantly, areas where I need to improve. Stern has over 200 elective classes that allow me to tailor my professional experience to what I like and need.

Even with core classes, like the ones I mentioned before, I had the option to opt out based on my previous experience – but chose to take them anyway because I believed that would strengthen my fundamentals, as they did. I also took classes such as Modeling Financial Statements, which aligns with what I want to do in the future, and Management Communications, which is something I’m sure I need to improve upon. These are two of my favorite classes – but I’ll get back to them.

To help me avoid a choice paradox, Stern offers 27 specializations that cluster all these electives together. I’m not required to choose any particular specialization, but they are very helpful for my own academic planning. They are also nice signals to send to recruiters or the market about topics you care about enough to specialize in. So I can pick up to three specializations, or none. Whatever works best for me. I chose to specialize in Corporate Finance, General Management, and Banking because these align with my short and long-term career goals.

2. Stern professors care about what you take from their classes

I like to think that my teachers are as diverse as my classmates. Each of them has their own teaching methods, backgrounds, and styles. Some are researchers, some are practitioners. But I like to think they all have one thing in common: they give you tough love. 

Believe me, they can be tough! In Modeling Financial Statements, Professor Dan Gode gave us over 100 assignments in one semester. In Management Communication, Professor Burns held an in-class exercise where she played the part of an obnoxious CEO that made me wanna quit (her company, not her class!).

Professors at Stern do this because they believe that’s the best way for you to take something from their class. And they have the freedom to do so. I would have never gotten through my internship without the practice runs Professor Gode gave me last Spring. It was hard, but I left that class much better prepared for life. Professor Burns took me out of my comfort zone to teach me how to handle difficult people in power positions. She did not need to do this, but she did. And it was invaluable.

3. Stern academics don’t end in the classroom

At Stern, I can learn in several different ways. I can travel abroad for an exchange program in Europe, LATAM, Asia, and many other places. I can spend a week learning about business in South Africa or Argentina. I’m gaining real-world experience through my involvement in  a student-led fund seeking to invest in impactful startups. I could also gain experience on  a non-profit Board, deliver a consulting engagement, or engage with an early-stage tech startup in NYC.

This allows me to really learn from my peers and form my own experience. I learn as I do, or do as I learn, just like it should be.

The bad news is that I won’t be able to do everything I wanted. Two years may sound like a lot, but most of the time it feels like it’s not enough. There’s just not enough time to take classes with all Professors I’d like to learn from, nor to take all the experiential offerings I’d like to live. Prioritizing is an arduous and constant struggle. FOMO is real at Stern. Even in academics, believe it or not.

And I’m glad it is. Because this variety of options is what makes my Stern experience unique. It’s what makes NYU Stern a good fit for me. And hopefully, for you. 

 

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Course Spotlight: Tech Innovation Strategy

Michael Graf is an MBA2 who spent his summer internship at Facebook. Prior to Stern, he worked at J.P. Morgan Chase as a Reputation Risk Associate. He serves as Co-President of OutClass, an Orientation Leader, a Leadership Fellow, and a Graduate Ambassador. Michael is working towards specializations in Strategy and Leadership & Change Management. He enjoys crossword puzzles, snowboarding, and reading historical fiction.

This fall, I finally had the opportunity to take one of my favorite classes at Stern, Technology Innovation Strategy. I had been looking forward to learning from Professor Melissa Schilling since I made the bold decision to pursue my post-MBA career in Big Tech. As a career switcher from the financial services industry, I wanted to add new skills to my toolkit to better understand and contribute to the fast-paced changes in the tech sector. I was specifically interested in Professor Schilling’s lectures after I heard her speak on NPR about lessons we can learn from the world’s most famous innovators, from Elon Musk to Albert Einstein and Marie Curie. 

Technology Innovation Strategy is a half-semester class that flies by in six short weeks, so I knew I had to make the most of each three-hour session. Our first class focused on sources of innovation, where we explored some of the serial innovators that Professor Schilling spoke about on NPR. I was excited and surprised to learn that while we aren’t all born with genius, we can make use of certain techniques and management practices to cultivate innovation. Teams that can lower the price of failure when brainstorming ideas and providing autonomy to independent contributors – and even a dose of caffeine – can facilitate creativity and allow us to engage in unstructured thinking. I was inspired to make some small changes in my routine, like setting aside a half hour before tackling a group project to go for a walk to set the stage for associative thinking, and jotted down the big takeaways to carry with me when I return to work full time. 

A later class on technology platforms and dominant designs helped me think critically about decisions made by Facebook’s Gaming team, who I had the opportunity to work with during my summer internship. I learned that certain industries – especially in the technology space, like video games – benefit from a dominant design, a standard that defines the majority of the products in the marketplace. Dominant designs exist because they exhibit increasing returns to adoption, meaning the more a technology is adopted, the more valuable it becomes. In the video game industry, the more users who adopt a certain system, like Nintendo or Xbox, the more likely it is the other users will also adopt that platform. I began to understand why the team spent so much time trying to attract the best and most popular streamers to the platform and investing time in designing tools to incentivize streaming on Facebook, rather than a competitor. The value of Facebook Gaming to users increases with the number of streamers and ultimately the number of other viewers as well. Facebook’s Gaming team thoughtfully went to great lengths to advertise, through headline placement on its website, when a new high-profile streamer had agreed to use the platform. This way, users perceived growth in others adopting the platform, which actually led to increases in adoption.

Not only do I now feel well equipped to understand the strategies behind technology development, but I also feel confident in my ability to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of tech collaboration, deployment and innovation when I return to Facebook as a full-time employee. Professor Schilling’s class equipped me with an academic framework for thoughtfully dissecting the short- and long-term consequences of choosing innovation projects, working quickly or methodically towards a new technology with a partner organization, and even how best to license or trademark advancements. These skills have set me up for success for a career in Big Tech and I can’t wait to put them to use!

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Change: Celebrate It

Tiffaine Stephens is a current MBA2 who spent her summer internship at PepsiCo. Tiffaine serves as the Co-President of Stern Women in Business (SWiB). She is specializing in Marketing, Entertainment/Media/Technology, and Entrepreneurship.

 

 

 

This semester has been my favorite thus far! I am constantly thanking the Spring 2019 Tiffaine for choosing classes that genuinely spark my interest and passion. My favorite class this semester is “Branding + Innovation: Consulting Lab” taught by Fran Gormley. I thought I understood branding before this class, but I was wrong. Our class has the opportunity to consult for Spotify (how crazy is this!). The same company I longed for last year is the same company I now have access to. Fran’s teaching style is unique and supportive. She is a reminder that to be successful you have to own who you are. Every Wednesday at 6 pm, I feel like I’m getting two lessons: one on branding and one on how to be fearless in my entrepreneurial endeavors.

While Branding feels more like home to me, I’m taking one stretch course that has definitely pushed me outside of my comfort zone,  “Corporate Finance” with Anthony Marciano. Long term, I know I want to be an entrepreneur so taking Corp Fin was an intentional decision. I knew that I would not leave as a finance expert, but with enough information to be “dangerous.” This class highlights the power of collaboration at Stern. Before our midterm, which we were all worried about, we got together for a half day and worked through problem sets together, taught each other, and celebrated once we finished.

The class that has been the most eye-opening is “Sustainable Food Business” with Hans Taparia, which is cross-listed with Steinhardt’s Food Studies program. Taking a class with students outside of Stern is an interesting experience – we tend to get caught up with a maniacal focus on the bottom line, whereas my classmates think of this lastly. Instead, they prioritize the societal impact of a business, which has pushed me to be more critical of my career plan.

Outside of class, my role as Co-President of Stern Women in Business (SWIB) has been keeping me quite busy. Everyday there’s a new set of challenges that have trained me to be agile but thoughtful in the way that I approach problem solving. I’m constantly learning how to flex my leadership + management style. The co-president structure at Stern gives you an immediate accountability partner and it’s helpful when trying to balance school, extra-curricular activities and life outside of Stern. Although we have a few months left in our term, I’ve gotten the most satisfaction from the small, but meaningful changes we’ve made to change the way our community thinks about gender equity in higher education. 

Another leadership opportunity presented itself in the form of Co-VP of Marketing for a new special interest club on campus – CannaBusiness. I’ve been able to get back in touch with my creative and entrepreneurial side while learning about a growing industry that’s been stigmatized and riddled with injustice.

As the semester comes to a close, I’m getting ready to take it easy, connect with family and friends, and reflect on this semester and what I want the rest of the year to be like. At the start of January, I’ll be heading to DBi New Zealand with about 10 other Sternies for two weeks. Afterwards, I’ll be joining a group in Bali for a week to take advantage of the much needed time off!

So much has changed since the start of this program. I am proud of the personal growth that I’ve experienced. I am more self-aware, more solution-oriented, and more vulnerable than I’ve been in a while. Change can be made out to be this scary moment in your life, but Stern creates an atmosphere that encourages change. To describe my MBA experience, I would say “Change. CELEBRATE IT.” I’m looking forward to more celebrations, more growth, and more friendship in Spring 2020. Cheers!

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A Sternspective on… Healthcare

This time I have with me my friend and fellow Graduate Ambassador Kyle Boutin, who is our resident Healthcare expert and Co-President of the Stern Healthcare Association (SHA).  Kyle and I got to know each other after teaming up with a handful of others to put together Preview Weekend for admitted students last Spring—and now we’re glad to be working together again as Graduate Ambassadors!  Kyle hails from outside Boston and was a research engineer for Reactive Innovations, a small chemical engineering research and development firm where he performed electrochemistry research for NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Defense.  Kyle interned at Pfizer this past summer as a Procurement Associate in their Worldwide Medical and R&D division, and he will be returning there full-time after graduation.

Here’s what he had to say:

Thanks for joining me, Kyle!  As someone interested in healthcare, what was attractive to you about Stern?

It was two large factors.  First, I wanted to build a strong foundation in finance, and Stern obviously has a strong finance curriculum.  I came to school wanting to learn the right way to develop business, and to do that I think understanding how your decisions flow through your financial statements is critical.  Even though I was interested more in strategy and operations than in corporate finance, I felt that having these strong finance skills would give me an edge when recruiting at pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotech companies.

Second, when it comes to MBA recruiting, healthcare is a newer industry than consulting or investment banking.  Since the opportunities available to students in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries are not necessarily acquired through on-campus recruiting, I wanted to be in a city that had as many recruiting opportunities as possible.  For that, there’s no better place in the world than New York City because it’s a hotbed for corporate recruiters.  There’s a lot of companies that thrive here—Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, Stryker, Medtronic, Genentech, Amgen, and so on.  So you can find opportunities, on-campus and throughout the city, and I thought if I could have two bites at the apple, I would have a better shot at getting my dream job.

Susan Silbermann, President and General Manager of Pfizer Vaccines and a Stern alumna, addresses a packed room as the keynote speaker at Stern’s Healthcare Conference last October. (Photo credit: Stern Healthcare Association)
Susan Silbermann, President and General Manager of Pfizer Vaccines and a Stern alumna, addresses a packed room as the keynote speaker at Stern’s Healthcare Conference last October. (Photo credit: Stern Healthcare Association)

 

Can you elaborate on the sort of interactions that you and others at Stern have had with these companies?

MBA healthcare recruiting is pretty new, but I think the pharmaceutical companies are actually really involved, so we have a lot of them visiting us here on campus.  Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, the ones I named before, they’re all here and they all come to events.  It’s more structured for them.  As you go to more payer/provider, hospital administration, they post listings here, but hospitals still recruit MPHs and MPPs, so there’s competition there.  Private insurance companies are starting to become more popular because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations that have created competition for large public insurance companies, so they’re trying to infuse new talent, but they appear later on the recruiting timeline.  I say that medical device and biotech are a little between both in that you have some large cap companies that are able to compete with pharmaceutical companies, and then you have some smaller ones where you have to do a little bit more legwork because their ROI from recruiting on campus for maybe one position is just not worth it for them.  So they’ll post on a board, or they’ll go to recruiting events in the city.  And the Office of Career Development (OCD) is awesome in alerting you to these opportunities and keeping that information in their databases so that you can reach out to them, but you have to do the outreach so that you get on their radar.

Full disclosure: Kyle is also a Graduate Fellow for the Office of Career Development because he’s an all-star.  Care to comment on that, Kyle?

Only that it’s not true!  Everyone at Stern is as involved as I am.  It’s one on the things I love about Stern!

Spoken like a true Graduate Ambassador.  Back to healthcare, what was the recruiting process like for you?

I applied to 12 different firms—six on campus, six off.  I would say that’s a pretty common split for someone recruiting for healthcare outside of healthcare consulting.  If you’re doing consulting, you can do 100 percent on campus.  You can find plenty of good opportunities in strategy and operations, business development at Stern too.  Off campus, there are smaller companies that post on the job boards, smaller companies that reach out to the Stern Healthcare Association (SHA) that we post in our newsletter that require students to reach out.  If you’re looking for something at a smaller size healthcare company, we would probably have more people contacting SHA directly that we could direct your way.

How does the Stern Healthcare Association (SHA) play a role in students’ career development?

SHA can be a really good resource for students.  Something amazing about Stern is that we’re really collaborative and good about passing information and connections from MBA2s to MBA1s year over year.  I’m President of SHA, and one of my initiatives is for us to establish an alumni list, so we are tracking alumni from years back so we can get a better off-campus recruiting baseline. So if someone is interested in a position, we have several people to reach out to.

Another awesome thing we do is our healthcare conference.  Every year we have companies coming from all over to network at our conference.  Last year we were 175 people, and we’re going to break 200 this year, so we’re really increasing our presence in the industry through this platform.  We’re really putting ourselves at the forefront, and we’re really growing our membership.

The Technology, Big Data and Analytics Panel drew a large crowd and was just one of the event offerings at the conference, whose theme was “The Changing Face in Healthcare.” (Photo credit: Stern Healthcare Association)
The Technology, Big Data and Analytics Panel drew a large crowd and was just one of the event offerings at the conference, whose theme was “The Changing Face in Healthcare.” (Photo credit: Stern Healthcare Association)

Switching gears a little, what sort of classes are available for students interested in healthcare?

We’re actually making great headway in this.  We offer five electives in healthcare.  One that’s popular is Topics in Investments: Financial Analysis in Healthcare.  We’re also doing a new course this year called Healthcare Markets, which focuses on the economics of the healthcare industry, and I’m really excited about that one.  I’ve sat down with the professor of the course—he’s brilliant, and he’s done most of his research on pharmaceutical pricing and health insurance.  I think what he’s planning on doing is lecturing on the drivers in each industry in healthcare, because they’re vastly different, and he’ll also invite guest speakers to class.  There are two other courses called The Business of Health and Medical Care and Economic Transformation of Healthcare, which are industry overview courses, less in depth than Healthcare Markets, and then there’s a fifth course called Pharmaceutical Marketing (Innovation in Pharmaceutical/Bio Technology).  This one is more an “innovations in healthcare” course, but pharmaceutical marketing is so important to the topic because educating the public and raising awareness about innovation is essential to having the market accept the product and necessary for gaining market share.  Pharmaceutical marketing and innovation are highly linked.

Those are just Stern classes.  You’re also free to take 25 percent of your courses outside of Stern at other NYU schools.  For example, there are ACA policy courses you can take at the law school.  If you’re interested in payer/provider, the med school does a drug development class that some of our MD/MBAs have taken and said is interesting, and it’s more business-related than technical.  Lastly, Wagner [School of Public Service and Policy] has a very good healthcare program, and we partner with the Wagner healthcare network often.  Their dean is one of the chief architects of the ACA as well, and she set the curriculum for the healthcare management courses they offer. These courses focus more on hospital and payer/provider systems.

There you have it, from the resident expert on healthcare himself.  Thanks so much, Kyle!

Sternspective is a series of interviews with Sternies about the diverse paths they are taking in the classroom and beyond. Check out our previous posts about Stern Signature Projects and Marketing.

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Experiential Learning in China

Back in January, I traveled with 35 of my classmates to Hong Kong for one of the handful of “Doing Business in…” (DBi) courses offered each semester.  With b-school lasting only a short two years, these one- or two-week courses are the most popular way for students to take advantage of Stern’s partnerships with international institutions and to expand their learning beyond the classroom and New York City.

Apart from a pre-departure meeting during the semester, the entire class takes place on location and consists of a balanced blend of classroom learning, corporate visits, and field trips to cultural sites.  For my DBi, Stern partnered with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), whose faculty, staff, and students welcomed us onto their campus with great hospitality.  In the classroom, we learned about current social issues in China and how they have been influenced by geography, history, culture, and politics.  We also examined the major opportunities and challenges that firms encounter, from the standpoints of both the foreign multinational companies, who tend to underestimate the costs of doing business in China, and the local Chinese companies, who are rising to compete against these corporate giants in the global market.

We were able to witness these successes and challenges in action at the companies we visited, which were chosen due to their relation to Hong Kong’s significant travel and tourism industry.  My personal favorite was a trip to the MTR, the private Hong Kong-based corporation that runs the highly efficient mass transit railway system in Hong Kong and—as we learned during our visit—in other parts of the world as well.  In addition to a quick tour of the control room at Kowloon Bay Station (where the MTR’s headquarters are located), we had the opportunity to hear directly from the Head of Operations, the Strategy and Planning Manager, and the Head of Town Planning about the MTR’s impressive operational achievements, profitable business models, and goals and aspirations moving forward and beyond Hong Kong.  The executives also discussed the difficulties they are encountering as they grow their operations, such as meeting customer demands, fighting market competition, and navigating the complications and regulatory webs of foreign places and their governments.

Some of these successes and challenges were echoed at the other companies too.  Uber invited us to their sleek new office, where we sat in their open kitchen and met with their regional head (who began at Uber as their first Hong Kong employee).  Over the course of 90 minutes, he excitedly shared with us the firm’s successes in Hong Kong, highlighting the uplifting impact Uber has had on the lives of their drivers and customers.  He also discussed the developments that have resulted from serving Hong Kong’s residents specifically—a service for the elderly called uberASSIST, as well as the city’s own UberEATS, whose incredible success in Hong Kong has inspired the firm to name each of its new meeting rooms after a food they deliver.  Their office mascot also proudly bears the logo:

We couldn’t help ourselves.
We couldn’t help ourselves.

In addition, a visit to Hong Kong’s flag carrier airline Cathay Pacific exposed us to the company’s approach to addressing shifts in consumer behaviors and fighting off increased competition in a highly regulated industry.  Moreover, on the tour of Cathay’s headquarters, led by the airline’s lovely flight managers, we had the opportunity to witness Cathay’s pre-flight crew procedures, sit in one of the pilot seats of a flight simulator, and lay back in the six pods that comprise the exclusive first class cabins of Cathay’s transoceanic planes (or in this case, a replica of one that is used for training).  Later in the week, a visit to Ocean Park granted us insights into how the beloved amusement park managed to leverage its local understanding of its customers to differentiate itself from Disneyland and fend off the foreign goliath’s arrival.  We were then set free into the park, where we observed various animals, raised our adrenaline on the array of rides, and took in aerial views of the park from the park’s signature cable cars, which also affords views of the South China Sea.

The future business leaders of tomorrow pose for a photo before running off to the panda exhibit.
The future business leaders of tomorrow pose for a photo before running off to the panda exhibit.

As if the corporate visits were not enlightening enough in themselves, so we could experience aspects of the local culture first-hand, Stern also arranged plenty of Cantonese-style meals and class trips to the Hong Kong Jockey Club and Po Lin Monastery (where the Big Buddha statue sits).  Additionally, we had time on the weekend to explore on our own, giving us the chance to create even more memories with one another.  For example, I’ll personally never forget that a group of us hiked up [the very steep] Victoria Peak one day to take in the breathtaking views we were promised only to encounter the whims of the weather and smog instead.

There’s a gorgeous view of Hong Kong behind us somewhere.
There’s a gorgeous view of Hong Kong behind us somewhere.

Indeed, in addition to the satisfaction of visiting Asia for the first time and getting to do something that I wrote about wanting to do in my admissions essay, I feel very fortunate to have been able to learn so much through these unique experiences and to be able to share them with such wonderful classmates.  Whether we were touring a corporate headquarters or searching the streets for pork buns, I don’t think any of it would have been as exciting and memorable if my fellow Sternies were not by my side.

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Studying Abroad Through Stern

Hi All!

After a 7-week winter break, it feels so good to be back in NYC, to be back at Stern finishing my final semester of business school (!!!?). I’ve spent the past couple of weeks getting back into the grind, and of course catching up with my amazing classmates, some who I haven’t seen in over half a year!

For those of you that don’t know, one of the many reasons I love Stern is just the incredible amount of opportunities it provides its students to work, study, and travel abroad. Whether it be through our short-term Stern Signature Projects (SSP) and Doing Business In…(DBi) programs, or our longer-term semester and half semester exchange programs, there are just a wealth of programs offered abroad. Every year, a good number of students decide to spend a full semester abroad, and here I’d like to introduce you to two of them.

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Exchange Buddies @ HKUST (photo from: Caspar Di Sun)

Kimberly (Kimi) Rodriguez and Caspar Di Sun are both second year MBA students with me who spent their last semester as an exchange student at London Business School (LBS) and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) respectively.

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Welcome to London! (photo from: Kimberly Rodriguez)

V: Hi Guys! It’s so nice to have both of you back at Stern! Did you enjoy your time abroad?
K: Yes of course! London was amazing. I mean I love New York, it will always be exciting, but there’s just a completely different feel about London. It’s slightly slower than hectic NYC for one, and it is a bit more international- LBS itself has a 92% international student body!
C: Being originally from China, there’s just no place like home. I also have plans to move back to Hong Kong post-graduation, so it was great to be there, learn the city and create a network while still at school.

V: Can I ask what in particular made you decide to study abroad? And why you chose where you did in particular?
C: I believe studying abroad enriches and enhances my overall MBA education. Hong Kong is a gateway to doing business in China and China is not just a buzzword in today’s globalized economy but also a true battlefield in today’s business competition. HKUST is a world-renowned education institute. Hong Kong is one of the busiest metropolitan cities in the world. Hence, it was not a hard decision when I factoring those reasons together.
K: I am an international student, and one of the main reasons I came to Stern was that I have family and friends in New York. However, I came knowing that I also wanted try going somewhere that would force me out of my comfort zone, where I would be living somewhere completely new and get to meet an entirely new set of people. Furthermore, I understand the importance of planting seeds in different countries, of expanding my network geographically.

V: What would you say was your favorite thing about being abroad?
K: The ease of traveling within Europe. (see more of Kimi’s adventures here!)
C: Terrific friends I made from the world MBA community.

V: Would you ever go back to London/Hong Kong to visit or live?
C: I’m definitely moving to Hong Kong after graduation. And since I will be living in there, I would like to be the “friendly ghost” in Hong Kong for any Sternies on the exchange program in Hong Kong and will try be as helpful as I can when you need.
K: No plans at the moment, but definitely would be up to go back and visit!

V: Words of advice?
K: If you plan on recruiting in New York full-time in your second year, make sure that you understand the risks and opportunity costs of spending 25% of your MBA in another country. Ultimately though, I believe it was more than worth it.

And that’s it! Hope everyone enjoyed having these two amazing friends of mine drop-in as much as I did. Till next time!

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And We’re Back!

The sun is shining.  The air is hot.  The open area in front of Stern that is Gould Plaza is once again a concrete quad where hundreds of students cross paths daily, colliding at will—conversations shared, smiles exchanged, waves projected from afar.

Through the familiar swoosh-swoosh of the revolving doors is a hive buzzing with activity.  Students run to and from class, meetings, and meet-ups. The first-years are rushing to their core classes and club kick-offs, as they feel the pressure to dive in and take in as much as the school has to offer (which can certainly feel like too much at times!).  The second-years happily reconnect after three months of time apart, before breaking away themselves, away to their elective classes, away to lead the club meetings for the first-years, away to find full-time jobs.

As a second-year, things are a bit different, of course.  I miss the ex-MBA2s who I looked up to as mentors.  I miss taking classes with my block.  I miss my dual-degree classmates who are off fulfilling requirements at their other NYU schools this semester.

Yet I love having another 400 people to meet and talk to.  I love being able to offer my time and experiences to them.  Even within my year, while our disparate schedules sometimes mean that my usual friends and I see each other less, I love that it is allowing me to continue to meet people who I had not yet had the chance to meet before.

Of course, it is a lovely feeling to be able to return to school with rich relationships already in place.  Just this summer, I had the chance to meet and become closer with dozens of Sternies.  If you’ve read my earlier post about the Cannes Film Festival class, you would know that I spent a week running around the French Riviera with 25 of my classmates, only five of whom I would say I knew well before the trip.  Then right before school started, along with 20 Sternies (and seven Stern Partners), I attended the wedding of one of my best friends at Stern (despite having met him only a year ago!).  In this case, almost all of us knew each other well already because we recruited with each other and/or are in the same block, but I still came away from that weekend feeling that I had taken part in something special with my classmates, something that will connect us for life.

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Unofficial photo of the wedding of our dear friend Pranav and his amazing wife Jignya, whose gregariousness we joke makes her a better Sternie than he is (it’s true).

Indeed, every time I reflect on my network I’m amazed at how much it has grown, how quickly it continues to grow, and how strong and healthy it is.  I imagine that if one’s network were a wholly tangible thing, watching it grow would be like watching an oak tree grow from a sapling to maturity in two years.

And the growth continues.  So far, I’ve had the chance to interact with the MBA1s at LAUNCH (orientation), where I met about a fifth of the class at the Club Expo and another nine on their LAUNCH Day of Service.

MBA1s (and myself) volunteering at St. Peter’s Pantry for the NYC Food Bank, just one of the many options available to the first-years as part of the service portion of LAUNCH.
MBA1s (and myself) volunteering at St. Peter’s Pantry for the NYC Food Bank, just one of the many options available to the first-years as part of the service portion of LAUNCH.

Also, this past Saturday I had the chance to chat with even more first-years at our MBA1/MBA2 mixer.  While I was there, another MBA2 and I were especially delighted to run into the new MBA1 roommate of one of our dear friends, who was not present at the time.  We promptly sent said friend the following message:

To show our friend that her new MBA1 roommate (center) was being cooler than she.
To show our friend that her new MBA1 roommate (center) was being cooler than she.

 

And so we’re back!  A new year.  New connections.  New possibilities.

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Facing My Fear of Finance

Hey everyone,

There are a number of MBA students across the country who feel uncomfortable or apprehensive about registering for certain academic subjects; typically, financial courses top that list. Needless to say, I was one of those students for the first 3/4 of my MBA journey. But then I had an epiphany of sorts, and decided to challenge myself in this daunting field. First, however, a bit of background.

I knew that finance was arguably my achilles heel when it came to subject matter comfortability. I had taken a couple of required finance courses in undergrad, and I admit that I was not the student receiving the highest accolades from my professors after each quiz or mid-term. So when I was considering applying to NYU Stern, the strength and popularity of its finance curriculum flat out scared me. Would I feel uncomfortable amongst the masses of future I-Bankers? Would I constantly be falling behind in said courses? I even told myself that I would only take the Foundations of Finance core course, which isn’t even required. But that would be it. I never saw myself working in a financial position or working on financial models, so why even bother to use course credits in a subject matter that would not be directly applicable to my future career endeavors?

And then my epiphany occurred sometime in late October or early November when we all had register for our last semester of classes. What was this epiphany? What was this blaring realization staring straight at me? It was that I had one more semester, one more shot, to make the most of an incredible and fortunate opportunity set before me. I had three and a half months before I graduated with an MBA – an MBA from a top school highly regarded for its finance program, nonetheless – and I had only taken ONE finance course! There was no way I could take pride in my degree and accomplishments without pushing myself to be at least a little more well-versed in this subject matter.

With that rude awakening, I put aside my fears and enrolled in two of our school’s most popular financial courses – Corporate Finance, taught by the legendary Aswath Damodaran, and Financial Services Industries, taught by former Head of Investment Banking at Credit Suisse Charles Murphy. I am halfway through the semester at this point, and I cannot believe I am saying this, but it so happens that these two classes have been some of my favorite while at Stern. Who would have thought?

This new-found interest is not to say that I am sitting in the center of the front row, and am making the highest scores on exams, or am now considering a major career change. But I can now comprehend with a better financial understanding top headlines in the Wall Street Journal; I now understand the relationships between Private Equity firms, Hedge Funds, and Investment Banks; I can now hold at least a basic conversation around financial events in networking scenarios. Above all else, it was naive of me to think that I wouldn’t touch finance at some point in my future career. It will happen, and I will now be prepared. I will at least be a little more knowledgable, and comfortable, when sitting at conference tables with finance managers.

So for those of you out there who are like me, and have apprehensions about a certain subject, whether its finance or not, I would highly recommend stepping outside your comfort zone and challenging yourself. You have an amazing opportunity within an MBA program, and it is what you make of it. For me, I want to graduate as a very well-rounded business leader, and in order to do that, I had to face my fears of that daunting subject that is finance.

Best of luck,
Jon