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Tips and Resources for Job Searching During the COVID-19 Pandemic

As we all navigate a new reality as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, job searching can feel like particularly shaky terrain. To address concerns around the job market, FlexMBA and Alumni Career Consultant Linda Kurtz recently led virtual workshops for Rady School students. Below, we’ve compiled expertise shared by Kurtz and fellow Career Management Center staff to help provide guidance for the Rady community.

Research industries of interest and look for trends.

“I want to be transparent,” Kurtz said during the workshop. “Some companies are actively hiring and recruiting, some are putting things on pause, and some are laying people off.”

To discover which companies and industries are actively hiring, Kurtz and the Career Management Center staff shared several resources.

For one, Candor.co is compiling a live, user-generated report of hiring activity across industries. CultivatedCulture.com prepared a COVID-19 job market insights guide, which summarized Candor.co’s findings as of April 4^th:

Industries of particular interest to Rady School graduates such as consulting & services, business software and financial services are showing a lot of hiring activity.

LinkedIn has also compiled this regularly updated list of companies currently hiring to meet increased demands.

Startup San Diego, CONNECT San Diego and San Diego: Life Changing, a division of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Council, has put together this list of companies with current job openings.

“Think about the functional areas that are being impacted,” said Mitchell Kam, Assistant Director of the Career Management Center. Ecommerce companies experiencing an increase in online orders are also experiencing an uptick of data. They’re likely to seek data analysts not just during the pandemic, but in the aftermath as well.

Create a job search plan.

While uncertainty can feel overwhelming, creating a plan can help you prioritize and take action. Kurtz recommended these three steps:

Write down your goals. Where would you like to be professionally in the next three to five years? What short-term adjustments might you need to make to get there?
Create a list of desired industries, roles, companies and locations. Include relevant advocates and contacts.
Continue applying to jobs and follow up on your applications.

“Even if an interview process is put on pause, the good news is that you are likely to be considered when interviewing resumes,” Kurtz said. Be “politely persistent” as you follow up, and keep in mind that everyone you are in contact with is likely experiencing their own concerns about the pandemic.

Continue to network online.

Without the opportunity to attend in-person networking events or schedule casual coffee chats, a thoughtful online networking strategy is more important than ever. You may find your inbox bombarded with Zoom happy hour invitations, connection requests, or colleagues checking-in.

Kurtz recommended prioritizing your networking efforts according to your job search plan so that you can maximize your time and make the most meaningful online connections. “Companies need the right talent to help them move their business forward,” she said. Conversations with your network can help you learn early about new opportunities, or learn about ways in which a business is shifting its priorities.

“It’s a better time than ever to be reaching out on LinkedIn,” said Graduate Career Advisor Michelle Sedgwick. “A lot of us have been through ups and downs of the economy in the past and people want to be able to provide some support.”

Now is also a good time to make sure your LinkedIn profile (and website, if applicable), are up-to-date. When requesting new LinkedIn connections, be sure to include a brief message about why you’re interested in talking to them, and what you have in common. A little customization can go a long way, and gives a personal touch to electronic communication.

Upskill (in a way that makes sense for your goals).

Many online learning sites are currently offering free or discounted courses. Research which programs can get you closer to the goals you outlined in your job search plan. Students can arrange a meeting with Rady Career Management Center advisors to personalize their plan. Online learnings options to consider include:

Take care of yourself.

It’s absolutely normal to feel overwhelmed by this pandemic. As you continue your job search, remember to look out for your health, too. UC San Diego has compiled a list of resources for coping with coronavirus stress that includes tips for preserving your mental, physical and emotional health. Your well-being comes first!

April 16, 2020 0 comment

Advancing Alumni COVID-19 MBA Rady School StartR Startup

How Rady School Alumni Are Responding to COVID-19

written by Camille Cannon

Alumni working at the Scripps Research Institute are conducting a study to improve the real-time surveillance of contagious respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 using data from smartwatches and activity trackers. Through the app-based DETECT study, Katie Baca-Motes (MBA ’09 and Director of the All of Us research project), Royan Kamyar (MBA ’10, physician and CEO and founder of Owaves app) and project manager and incoming MBA FlexWeekend student Lauren Ariniello, along with their colleagues, are crowdsourcing anonymized data across the United States.

“By evaluating individual changes to heart rate, sleep and activity patterns, as well as logged respiratory symptoms and diagnostics test results, the Scripps’ team hopes to complement traditional public health surveillance methods, potentially leading to earlier detection and containment of current and future outbreaks in various geographical locations,” said Baca-Motes.

Rady Alumni Board president Josh Kuss is the Senior Director of Commercial Strategy at Illumina and the commercial lead for the company’s San Diego Emergency Management Team. The team has been working since March “defining and implementing the strategies for how we keep Illumina’s employees safe, while ensuring supply to our customers, many of which are on the front line of SARS-COV-2/COVID19 research, tracing, and treatment. We tackled how to transition to work from home, and are now in the process of determining a sound return to work strategy,” said Kuss.

Krithi Bindal (MBA ’17) is the founder and president of Aroga Biosciences, a regulatory writing biopharma firm which has been donating their scientific expertise to peer-review pre-print literature related to COVID-19 research.

“We are in a period of information overload,” said Bindal. “Misinformation about COVID-19, especially information lacking scientific rigor, can lead to significant risk to the public. I feel it is our duty as scientists to ensure effective communication and to help delineate scientific factual results from fiction. After all, our job as scientists is to find the truth.”

“The name of our company Aroga is based on the sanskrit term ‘arogya”, which means free of disease. We hope to continue to contribute to freeing the world of disease as we help to develop treatments for ailing patients. As we navigate these challenging times, our mission is unchanged and is stronger than ever.”

Richard Castle (FlexWeekend MBA ’13), the co-founder and president of Cloudbeds, a hospitality management software, launched the #HospitalityHelps initiative. The online platform facilitates connections between hotel properties that want to make their beds available to healthcare agencies, organizations or individuals who need them. Within a few days, the more than 1.2 million beds had been pledged at HospitalityHelps.org.

Andrea Yoder Clark (MSBA ’17), and her consulting company LiveGoode Programs & Analytics is working with 211 San Diego to analyze statewide data collected from regional 211s to support the state of California’s policy response to COVID-19’s impact on most vulnerable populations.

Jaden Risner and Clay Treska (FlexWeekend MBA ’19) founded Family Proud an app to help patients and their caregivers and loved ones manage their care, while they were students at the Rady School. In Spring 2020, the Family Proud platform was updated to include resources and support for those affected by COVID-19.

Snehanshu Tiwari, Vishnu Sharon R. and Sakshi Sharma (MSBA ’18) contacted Professor Ken Wilbur to offer their help reviewing resumes, preparing for interviews or make introductions for current MSBA students graduating this summer. When Professor Wilbur shared this update on LinkedIn, even more alumni offered to help!

Steve Prestrelski (FlexWeekend MBA ’06) is the founder and chief scientific officer of Xeris Pharmaceuticals, which is offering its GVOKE Pre-Filled Syringe—an injectable treatment for diabetes patients who experience severe hypoglycemia—for $0 copay through May 31^st.

The team at Indigo Marketing Agency, founded by Claire Akin (MBA ’10). prepared a list of tips for working from home. “Indigo Marketing Agency is a company run almost completely virtually by mothers of young children,” said Akin. “We saw so many of our clients struggling to adapt, so we wanted to offer our tips and tricks for working at home (even with small children) … I believe that we are helping our team members support their families and spend time with their children. It’s the best of both worlds and it provides a highly fulfilling lifestyle!”

Sean Haggerty (FlexWeekend MBA ’17), founder of Protector Brewery, made curbside pickup and delivery available, in addition to offering the brewery’s supply of filtered water available to those in need. Protector Brewery has pledged to donate $1 from each order to Team Rubicon, a non-profit organization supporting veterans impacted by COVID-19.

Sara Jones (Flex Weekend ’13) is the CEO of Plum Blossom Creations. She is offering free workshops on The Big Four of Mental Toughness. “As an Unbeatable Mind student, I learned first-hand the power of the Big 4 of Mental Toughness in my fight against Triple Negative Breast Cancer. I used the Big 4 to feed my Courage Wolf, stare down my fears and thrive through the health crisis that threatened my life.”

Roche Diagnostics North America, of which Matt Sause (FlexWeekend MBA ’06) is president and CEO, developed the first available commercial test kit for the novel coronavirus, which was granted Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA.

Do you know of a Rady School of Management alumni responding to COVID-19? Please email cacannon@ucsd.edu with more information.

April 8, 2020 0 comment

Advancing Careers MSBA Rady School

Five Questions to Ask Yourself If You’re Pursuing a Career in Data

written by Camille Cannon

Updated 3/26/20: This post has been edited to reflect that the FlexWeekend MSBA program runs on Saturdays.

For the fourth year in a row, the job search website Glassdoor reported that Data Scientist is the best job in America. “This is due to the high demand, high salary, and high job satisfaction,” Glassdoor Chief Economist Dr. Andrew Chamberlain told CNBC. Several other data-driven roles also made the list: including data engineer at #8 and data analyst at #31.

There’s no denying that data is very much en vogue.

“All organizations are collecting more and more data. It’s never going to be less,” says Vincent Nijs, Associate Professor of Marketing and co-director of the Rady School of Management’s Master of Science in Business Analytics program. “In this competitive environment, what skill set do you bring?”

According to a 2017 report by IBM, 39% of data scientists and advanced analyst positions require a master’s or PhD. “I think of business analytics as data science specifically for business,” says Nijs. “Our curriculum is built on business problems that companies face in practice, those that companies are willing to pay people to help solve them.” And pay they do.

“Continually learning and adding new knowledge in the field of data science and analytics is a great long-term personal development strategy that pays,” says Forbes writer Louis Columbus. Indeed, that Glassdoor report shows the median base salary for a data analyst at $60,000, but a data scientist can expect to see closer to $110,000*.

“One piece of advice I always offer to students on the job market is to try and start at the highest level possible,” says Raymond Petit, Executive Director of the Rady School’s MSBA program. He has strong evidence to support that advice. “Among graduates who report, 100 hundred percent of our MSBA students are placed in jobs after graduation,” many of them in data scientist roles.

“These companies see how our graduates our fulfilling their needs and doing a great job at it,” says Terrence August, Associate Professor of Innovation, Technology and Operations, and co-director of the MSBA program.

The Rady School of Management is currently accepting applications for its full-time, 11-month Master of Science in Business Analytics degree program and its FlexWeekend MSBA program. The 12-24 month FlexWeekend MSBA program will cover the same curriculum as the full-time program, with classes offered on alternating Saturday-Sundays. This new program will be the first of its kind in California, making it possible for professionals to continue working full-time while they pursue their MSBA degree.

If you’re deciding whether or not to pursue your Master of Science of Business Analytics, here are a few questions to consider:

1. Do you want to earn a higher salary?

*See above.

2. Do you want to be able to communicate data more effectively?

“When we developed the curriculum for the MSBA programs, we talked to a number of different large corporations in the area,” says Nijs. “We asked them what they’d be looking for from our graduates. They talked about a lot of things like looking at data, being able to analyze the data, but also very importantly—being able to communicate the insights from that data back to decision makers.”

This is a skill set that Rady MSBA graduate Josh Bhatnagar says he uses every day as a Data Analyst at Mazda North American Operations. In addition to supporting the company’s quantitative needs such as data accessibility, modeling and structuring, communication is critical to his job function. “I maintain ongoing dialogue with domain owners and IT to prioritize organizational data requirements, design strategic data solutions and implement those solutions,” he says. “Without my time at Rady, I would not have had the foundation necessary to be successful in my current role.”

3. Do you want more confidence in your technical skills?

Rady MSBA graduate Swagata Chakraborty was working as an analyst in Citibank’s Global Decision Management team when she found herself contemplating how to move forward in her career. “I felt that people who already had a specialization relevant to their role were somewhat more confident and had more clarity about their role.” After graduating, Chakraborty secured a Data Scientist position with Walmart Labs. “Concepts like the statistical significance of the data, sampling methods for training and test data, working with unstructured data, training machine-learning models and confidence interval analysis are some of the topics which I learned through my coursework at Rady and apply on a daily basis [at work].”

4. Do you want the opportunity to expand your network?

Whether you pursue your MSBA in the full-time or in the FlexWeekend program, the Rady Capstone Project provides the opportunity to solve real business problems faced by real companies such as HP, Petco, Target, and Thermo Fisher. Students work in teams of three-four for ten weeks, ultimately to present their findings to the company. “It’s an experience that very much feels like working for a company as opposed to just a school project,” says August. And better yet, the capstone can become the stepping stone to your next career move.

“Companies are setting up this capstone-internship-job pipeline with us so that they can start to build their analytics teams in a very safe, smart way and make sure they’re getting the right talent for what they need,” says Petit. That’s exactly what happened for Rady MSBA graduate Radha Srinivasan, who worked on a capstone project for Thermo Fisher, was offered a data scientist job upon graduation, and is now their Senior Data Scientist (one year after graduating).

5. Do you want to drive up value in an organization?

“It’s great if you’re able to program something interesting in Python that solves a problem, but if nobody wants to use it, we’re not creating any value for anybody,” says Nijs.

Let’s look at that another way. According to a 2013 McKinsey report, “By 2020, the wider adoption of big-data analytics could increase annual GDP in retailing and manufacturing by up to $325 billion and save as much as $285 billion in the cost of health care and government services … Big data promises big things—but only if organizations have the right people in place who know what to do with it.”

Hmm. Sounds like a job for a Rady MSBA graduate.

Learn more about the Rady School of Management’s MSBA program here.

December 17, 2019 0 comment

Advancing Alumni MBA Rady School StartR Startup

How Collaboration at Rady Changed Amy Bernal’s Career Path

written by Camille Cannon

Amy Bernal’s path to become Chief Experience Officer at artificial intelligence company Aira began before the company was even born. Prior to entering the Rady School in 2011, Bernal, who graduated from the Flex MBA program in 2014, had worked in project management and business development for local non-profit organizations. “I was hungry to operate in an entrepreneurial environment,” she says. “I knew that Rady was the best in terms of the ability to connect to the right people.”

It was in her first study group at Rady where Bernal met classmate Suman Kanuganti. Bernal and Kanuganti also worked together through their Lab to Market course sequence. By their final quarter, Kanuganti had the idea for Aira, which connects blind and low-vision people to remote human agents via smart phone or smart glasses, and developed his concept through Rady’s Lab to Market and StartR programs.

“I was able to see him create that company, leave where he was working before, and I eventually followed him,” says Bernal, who a senior offering program manager at Intuit before joining Aira.

Since 2016, Bernal has grown from Director of Agent Services to Chief Experience Officer at Aira. Currently, she is working to expand Aira’s network of 25,000+ partners across companies, locations, platforms and devices to increase accessibility for Aira “explorers” (users).

In the video, Bernal explains how her MBA degree from Rady broadened her skillset and opened her world to new opportunities.

November 6, 2019 0 comment

Advancing Alumni MBA

From Scientist to Data Expert to UN Presenter

written by Hallie Jacobs

Earning an MBA from the Rady School of Management was another accomplishment on Mariana Melcón’s (MBA ’14) long list of academic and professional achievements. Boasting a resume that includes a Ph.D. in Animal Physiology, publications in top academic journals and research experience in world-renowned laboratories, Melcón is well-versed in what it means to be a dedicated scientist.

As an expert in bioacoustics, Melcón studies the way sounds affect underwater ecosystems. Though her academic career was thriving, she knew her impact in the field could be more significant with a background in business.

“I wanted to get an MBA to become more employable,” she said. “I was interested in learning more tools and skills that I hadn’t developed during my scientific studies. I was drawn to Rady because of the high numbers of scientists active in the program.”

Within her first few weeks at the Rady School, Melcón immersed herself in a number of activities and organizations during her time at the Rady School, taking advantage of the wealth of opportunities to learn and grow. She interned as a marketing consultant at a small digital marketing company, and served as a business development for Sense4Baby, an innovative fetal monitoring system for expecting mothers. She also took a teaching assistant role, assisting with the Quantitative Analysis, Operations Strategy and Architecture-Based Enterprise Systems Engineering courses offered at both the Rady School and Jacobs School of Engineering.

Despite diving head-first into the business world, Melcón couldn’t shake her passion for research, so she joined the Life Science Club. “I joined the Life Science Club because I figured it would be an excellent opportunity to combine my new-found interest for data-driven analytics with my love of science,” she said.

Change of plans

With a more generalized love for data analytics, Melcón decided to take on a new career path. She leveraged her Rady School network and was offered a Pricing Analytics Manager position HP Inc., and has been flourishing in her career ever since.

“Getting into data analytics was the perfect transition for me,” she said. “It took me quite some time to realize that breaking what you love doing into single units gives you more opportunities. A big passion of mine is playing detective with data and I apply this task in many different settings beyond biology. Understanding this led me to take my analytical science and critical thinking skills and transfer them into real-world business applications, while truly enjoying my job.”

Though her full-time job kept her busy, Melcón still found the time to volunteer her expertise serving as advisor and consultant for Argentina-based cetacean (whales and dolphins) conservation foundation Fundación Cethus.

This summer, her scientific and business worlds collided when she was invited to the United Nations to serve as a panelist for the Nineteenth meeting of the United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea. Serving as an expert on bioacoustics and underwater noise, Melcón was called to share her experience and knowledge on “Cooperation and coordination in addressing anthropogenic underwater noise”. In this session she shared her story on how she was able to start from scratch in a developing country to get equipment, train human resources and build an international network that made it possible to be leading bioacoustics research on cetaceans in South America, and addressing important issues such as impact of noise on these animals.

“My time at Rady was instrumental for my success addressing the world leaders at the United Nations,” she said. “My courses helped me prepare a compelling argument to influence the audience. Also during my studies at Rady, I learned to collaborate with a diverse group of students to accomplish a common goal that turned to be a stepping stone to many of my accomplishments.”

Presenting her research on the world’s stage was a dream come true for Melcón. In addition to sharing her research in bioacoustics, she was able to make a case for cross-country collaborations and the benefits of working with scientists from developing nations to accomplish global sustainability and nature preservation goals.

“Rady exposed me to paths and opportunities I never knew were available to me,” Melcón said. “My MBA experience helped me open my mind and see how different backgrounds and disciplines can work together to solve problems and devise new, innovative solutions.”

January 2, 2019 0 comment

Advancing Rady School Startup Students

Two Prestigious Organizations Laud Rady School of Management MBA Program for Excellence in Entrepreneurship

written by Hallie Jacobs

Rady School of Management at UCSD.

The MBA program at the Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego has been recognized as one of the top programs for entrepreneurship in the U.S. by the Princeton Review and Bloomberg Businessweek. The school’s MBA program ranked 16^th in The Princeton Review’s “Top 25 Graduate Schools for Entrepreneurship of 2019,” and 24^th in the Bloomberg Businessweek “Best Business Schools” entrepreneurship category.

Both rankings recognize the best programs for students aspiring to launch their own businesses. In the Princeton Review ranking, the Rady School ascended from 25^th to 16^th in this year’s 2019 ranking, placing the school’s MBA program among the elite programs for entrepreneurship in the U.S.

“Since its founding, the Rady School has been dedicated to providing an outstanding education focused on innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Rady School Dean Robert S. Sullivan. “This ranking recognizes that the Rady School is a leader in entrepreneurial education. The incredible companies founded by our students and alumni are transforming our world and are proof-positive of the quality of entrepreneurship education the school provides.”

Since the school’s first MBA class graduated in 2006, students and alumni have started over 150 operational companies, contributing over $2 billion to the economy. The rapid success of startups originating at the school can be attributed to the unique structure of the Rady School’s MBA program, which integrates entrepreneurial education into the program through its capstone Lab to Market course sequence.

November 14, 2018 0 comment

Advancing MBA Students

My Summer Internship at IBM

written by Elizabeth Castaneda

As I entered my first year at the Rady School, I prepared to hit the ground running in search of my summer internship. It is true what the Careers Connections team warns about during orientation – the recruiting season is well underway by the time first year students start at Rady. It is important to start the job search early! In October of 2017, I attended an on-campus IBM panel featuring IBM employees in different roles, including distinguished engineers, offerings managers and Summit Program representatives. After the event, I used LinkedIn to connect with the Summit Program panelist to set up a call to get a more detailed perspective on what the Summit Program entailed. The Summit Program representative had gone through the program and was able to answer my questions and provide guidance on how to apply for the internship successfully. What I was not aware of initially was that this representative had direct access to the program’s recruiting team and recommended me on the back-end for a position.

Assignment

A few months before the start of the internship an IBM in San Francisco, the Summit Program managers paired me with an industry leader for the State of Washington. My assignment was to conduct a sales prospecting analysis to help implement best practices for the territory sales team. Working closely with each team member was valuable in that I got 15 different perspectives on what it is like to be an IBMer and learn about the company culture simultaneously.

Travel

The Summit Program sponsored travel to Dallas for orientation and to your host region for summer assignment purposes. Since the territory I was assigned was Washington State, my host manager and I planned for me to fly to Seattle twice, one for client-facing meetings and the second for internal planning meetings. The opportunity to travel was a nice perk to have as an intern and it also gave me a taste of life at IBM.

Takeaways

Participating in a summer internship is an invaluable experience for an MBA student pursuing the corporate track. What better way to “test drive” a new industry, company and geography? My experience this summer allowed me to explore the tech industry and live in the Bay Area where tech is king. While my summer was filled with travel and a heavy workload, I was able to find networking opportunities inside IBM and in the San Francisco area. Needless to say, it was nice to have a month off before my second year at Rady commenced!

Elizabeth Castaneda is a member of the Rady School of Management Class of 2019 MBA cohort. She is also the president of the Women of Rady student organization.

September 20, 2018 0 comment

Advancing Faculty MSBA Startup Students

The Benefits of Completing a Specialized Master’s Degree in San Diego

written by Joanna Hughes

The MBA may be the most well-known choice for people looking to enhance their career prospects in business. However, it’s far from the only option. In fact, many students are choosing specialized master’s degrees over the traditional MBA path.

Here’s what you need to know about this increasingly popular option, along with one San Diego school helping students position themselves for career success with specialized master’s degrees.

More Expertise, Less Time

If you’re interested in gaining expertise in one particular aspect of business studies, a specialized master’s may be in your future. A recent US News & World Report article on the uptick in interest in specialized master’s degrees highlighted the allure of specialized master’s degrees for candidates who want to hone in on and deepen their knowledge of a specific subject.

Consider the case of Swagata Chakraborty, a recent graduate from the Master of Science in Business Analytics program of the Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego. After working for two years on Citi’s Global Decision Management team in India, he’d reached an impasse.

“Towards the end of my tenure at Citi, I was trying to figure out whether I wanted to pursue an MBA or wanted to hold on to my engineering roots. On one hand, I loved working with datasets and writing codes to come up with analytical insights and on the other hand, gaining a formal degree to prepare for the business side of industrial problems seemed imperative to me,” says Chakraborty.

Rady School of Management UCSD

Enter the Business Analytics specialized master’s degree at the Rady School. “When I learned about the Business Analytics Program at the Rady School, I realized that this is exactly the specialization I was looking for,” continues Chakraborty.

Not only do specialized master’s degree programs support the acquisition of advanced knowledge, but they often do so in less time and for less money — without the extensive work prerequisite.

Another appeal of specialized master’s degree programs? They can be tailored to respond to financial, environmental and other global disruptions,” according to The Globe and Mail. In other words, if you want a degree that will enable you to hit the ground running as an authority in an emerging area, specialized master’s degrees provide exactly that.

One other thing to keep in mind about specialized master’s degrees, recently declared by Forbes to be “the hottest new MBA [that’s] not an MBA at all?”, is that they do not preclude the possibility of continuing on to an esteemed MBA degree in the future if and when career advancement or a shift into general management mandates it.

Rady School of Management

Introducing Specialized Master’s Degrees at the Rady School

One school with uniquely compelling specialized master’s degree programs is UC San Diego’s Rady. Specifically, its Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAc), STEM-designated Master of Finance (MFin), and Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) programs offer invaluable skills for students aiming for the inside edge.

MFin program executive director and instructor Michael Melvin says, “The MFin program is a one-year quantitative program aimed at giving the students the skills required to be competitive in today’s financial industry. It is more technical than an MBA program and specializes in finance with an emphasis on data analysis.”

Meanwhile, MSBA executive director Raymond Pettit insists, “Our graduates learn not just how to code, for example, but also how to take results and relate them to business objectives. In addition, the program exposes the students to all the major areas of business where analytics play a key role. This cross-fertilization of learning and techniques across multiple business dimensions actually strengthens the insights and methods that our students can bring to the table when they do arrive on the scene of their respective jobs.”

This mindset of customizable curriculum and hands-on industry experience is also being rolled into the Rady School’s most recent specialized program, the Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAc), which is currently enrolling its first cohort. In addition to preparing students for the CPA exam, networking and career services are a key component to helping MPAc grads get a jump on their careers.

No mention of Rady is complete without mention of its extraordinary location. Chakraborty says, “The location and the culture of California serve as an advantage. Proximity to the various companies in the Bay Area as well as the several startups that are booming in California just make networking and collaborating in the professional frontier easier for us.”

Pettit adds, “Data and the ability to make sense of data is endemic across nearly every facet of business today. Our students have outstanding local assets in the biotech, health sciences, communications, government, and analytical services industry, and our network and reach of possible experiences, internships, capstones, and job placement is rapidly extending further to include key US business centers, such as San Francisco, Boston, and New York.”

And while these programs may be shorter than their MBA alternatives, the intensive curricula are designed to pack in a lot, including sought-after practical experience.

“Every student gets a chance to work with a company to implement a real project. We get to interact with companies and solve real-world problems. This provides students with the experience and confidence required to navigate through the new field of analytics,” enthuses MSBA alumnus Snehanshu Tiwari.

Tiwari is also quick to point out Rady’s extraordinary faculty. “Each and every professor has a very strong research background. Profs [professors] go out of their way to help the student succeed in the program. They are always open to discussions and open to feedback. In fact, “Every staff member in the school wants us to succeed and do well,” Tiwari says.

The takeaway for everyone from recent grads to mid-career employees hoping to level-up? A specialized master’s degree may make sense from an advancement perspective.

But it is also important to note that all specialized master’s degree programs aren’t created equal. According to Forbes, education consulting firm Eduvantis founder Tim Westerbeck recently cautioned that “among the many useful programs are a few that were ill-conceived, and are less likely to give graduates the outcomes they want.” Because of this, choosing to pursue a specialized master’s degree is only part of the equation.

Also critical? Choosing the right school — which brings us back to Rady. If you’re looking not just for a degree, but also for the quality assurance that goes along with a degree from a top-ranked institution, Rady’s specialized master’s programsmay be the perfect fit.

September 17, 2018 0 comment

Advancing Alumni Careers Students

Negotiating is an Art: Tips from Rady Graduate Career Connections

written by Terra Saltzman-Baker

Negotiating for what you’re worth can be a challenge even for seasoned professionals. Typically, people don’t like this part of the interview conversation or talking to their boss about a raise, yet they still fixate on it. Negotiating is an art, not a trick. At the UC San Diego Rady School of Management, graduate students learn these helpful tips from their Careers Team:

Forget about the money. Too much time is spent “researching” salaries and anticipating a low offer. Focus on getting the interview, then winning the interview. Without this, you won’t have an offer to negotiate. It is when the hiring manager determines that you’re the right person for the job that you now have leverage. Focus on what’s important.
Understand your worth. That’s right, it is about your history, what you’ve learned in grad school, and how that all matches with what the employer is seeking. Also, all candidates are not made equal. Specific skills and experience are worth more to certain employers — it’s not only about the degree or years of experience. It’s best is to talk to someone close to the industry or the hiring market to get real time input on realistic salary expectations.
Be careful when doing the research – size of the company, the industry, where the job is located all factor into the numbers. A small public company in the southwest will pay differently than a public company in the northeast. Use validated compensation data tool, such as Payscale.com, which includes the complex factors, or again talk to someone close to the industry to help set your expectations.
Be a good judge of your counter negotiation. It’s not about the dollar difference, but the percent difference. If someone offers you $80,000, I’d strongly advise that you don’t counter with $100,000. You may be thinking “it’s only $20,000 more” but it’s really a 25% increase. I doubt anyone is going to try and lowball their offer to you by that much. It’s not logical. So take emotion out of it and think about what a reasonable response is (I suggest starting with a “thank you for the offer…can we discuss” approach). And remember, if you like the offer, it is ok to accept without negotiating. Some companies start with their best offer, knowing the market is tight and the best talent is important for the company’s success.
Last, set yourself up for a non-emotional conversation when it comes to compensation. Build a spreadsheet of either your last or current compensation package in one column (line item specific – base salary, bonus, 401K, vacation, benefits, stock, etc.) and then the offer in the adjoining column. This side-by-side comparison opens the conversation up to a simple business discussion and allows both sides to come to an offer that is fair.

Yes, it can be that simple! Remember, both sides want the offer to work out and to start you out as a happy employee. Keeping this in mind should decrease some of the stress you’re already feeling. Good people want to hire good people – the rest is simply a professional conversation. Happy negotiating!

April 9, 2018 0 comment

Advancing

Alumni Spotlight: Amy Bernal

written by Rady School

Amy Bernal (MBA ’14) is the Vice President of Customer Experience at Aira.io, a local startup that is changing lives of individuals who are Blind or Visually Impaired through the interaction of smart wearable devices, artificial intelligence and real, remote people, called Aira Agents. Founded just over two years ago by CEO Suman Kanuganti (MBA ’14), the company has grown quickly, with almost 200 users, and plans to scale to over 2000 this year. Aira was recently awarded “Best New Technology” from PCMag, “Bet Accessibility Tech” from CTA, as well as “Most Innovative Product” by CONNECT San Diego.

Prior to Aira, Amy was a Senior Program Manager at Intuit in the Consumer Tax Group. Before moving into tech, Amy worked for West Health and the Gary and Mary West Foundation, partnering with organizations to reduce the cost of health care for older adults through technology or preventative care. She is a proud alumna of UC San Diego Rady School of Management, Flex Evening class of ‘14. In her personal time, Amy promotes women in technology through her involvement with Athena, Women Give San Diego, and the Rady Alumni Board. During her time at Rady she was part of the first US/Israel Center for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship trip.

What impact has Rady had on your career progression?

Rady has changed my career path in three major ways: allowed me to break out of the “non-profit” sector, something I felt was going to be extremely challenging to accomplish without a new network, it brought me into tech, and most recently, it brought me into the Startup Sector.

Has your Rady MBA enabled you to change industries or functional areas or even achieve a promotion?

All of the above! My first answer covers the high points but I would say when I started Rady I intended to get into the marketing field, however in the Evening program it is hard to swallow when someone’s advice is to quit your job and get an internship with the hopes you get hired on. I didn’t find a path to marketing, and when I graduated felt a bit dismayed with the ability I would have to radically change my career. It took almost 3 years but I did just that through joining Aira.

What event or realization served as a ‘turning point’ for you during your Rady School and/or professional career?

Half way through the first year I went from a Foundation to Intuit- that transition helped class material come alive for me, it felt relevant from operational costs to innovation frameworks.

Why did you decide to come to the Rady School?

I knew it was the best, and if I was accepted, I needed to challenge myself and go. I seriously feared how math and science heavy I perceived it to be, and I felt that it would be the only way I could actually challenge myself to get the new skills I was seeking.

What was your favorite class and why?

Strategy Planning — I had never thought this way before. I felt like a whole new world was opened up, a new conversation, that clearly had always been happening without me participating. I was fascinated by the ability to see industries a decade ahead, and the balance in planning for that future state and current state.

What is the best thing about being a Rady alumni?

You go to school to become an Alumni — you get an MBA to connect yourself to the best and the brightest, the Rady School offers deep, meaningful connections and resources that I would never achieve on my own.

Tell us a fun fact about you, or something people may not know about you.

I am from a really small town outside of Yosemite National Park, the elevation is higher than the population.

July 14, 2017 0 comment

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