The Riordan Programs

An Introduction

Hello blogosphere!

I hope that you are all doing well and want to thank you for taking a peek into my blog. My goal with this blog is to chronicle my experience applying to business school and to reflect on all the joys (campus visits) and sorrows (application essays) that I encounter during this journey.

By way of introduction, my name is Vi Nguyen and I am a Bay Area native. I was a Riordan Fellow with UCLA Anderson c/o 2010 and continue to be involved in the Riordan family as part of the Riordan Program Alumni Association (RPAA). I completed my undergraduate studies at UCSD in 2007, where I majored in Biochemistry and Cell Biology and minored in economics. Since graduation, I have worked in research in industry at companies like Pfizer and Genentech. Currently, I work at a company in the primary market research space, and cover the healthcare space specifically. I am applying to business school this year with the hopes of matriculating next fall.

So the first question that I often get when talking to my peers and mentors about my business school plans are… Why business school? Why an MBA? Business school is, after all, a huge undertaking – two years out of your professional life and a hefty chunk of change – not to mention the possibly need to uproot your life and move to a different city, state, or even country.

For healthcare-interested professionals like myself, there are a variety of different graduate level programs available, such as MPH (Masters in Public Health), MHA (Masters in Health Administration), Masters in Bioscience, etc. It’s easy to get lost in the diversity of options that you have, but ultimately, it’s all about pinpointing the skills set you are looking to attain from your graduate level education experience, understanding what each kind of education each program provides and, ultimately, what your career plans post-MBA.

After business school, I want to go into marketing at a biotechnology firm. My science background has found me work in lab research in industry, as well as to a role where I work with investment professionals and life sciences companies to do diligence on their current and potential holdings. All of it has been very interesting and has helped me realize my career ambitions in biotech marketing and management.

So please join me as I continue to work my way through the B-school application process and pursue an MBA that will enable me to increase my contribution to the healthcare industry!

Cheers,

Vi

P.S. If you have any comments/ideas/suggestions or there is anything of particular interest to you, please feel free to add any comments below! 

Welcome to Tales from an Engineer

This is the first entry from the Tales from an Engineer blog.  My aim for this blog is to explore the MBA application process through the eyes of an engineer (defined as an individual that comes from a standard engineering discipline or a related discipline like math or the physical sciences).  I plan to share insight (hopefully helpful insight) on my journey through the application process as it relates to other engineers that are also aiming to apply to business school.   

There are several factors that make the business school application process for engineers unique and these factors will be the subject o f the next few blog entries.

1)  The various stereotypes associated with being an engineer.  Some stereotypes may be simple misconceptions that don’t relate to many individuals, while other stereotypes may be more soundly grounded in truth and affect a substantial number of MBA-aspiring engineers.  Misconceptions typically center on the 51 GMAT quant scoring engineer working independently in a cubicle - more comfortable with numbers and algorithms than with human interaction.  There are however some generalities that may more realistically characterize a sizeable number of prospective applicants.  For example, engineers typically have less formal management experience than applicants from other industries.  During my next blog entry I aim to share, based on my experiences, how these stereotypes can be debunked or mitigated against by an applicant.

2)  The vast number of engineers that apply to business school.  Some school profiles cite engineers as comprising of nearly fifty percent of their class.  If one assumes that the applicant pool is comprised of a similar representation then that is an awful lot of bodies to compete against.  It becomes important to try to stand out against other engineers.  During my second blog post I hope to build on how the debunking of stereotypes for engineers will help an individual stand out.

3)  Application mistakes of Engineers.   From resume-writing mistakes to mistakes in formulating application essays, my plan is to share some lessons I’ve learned (and continue to learn). 

There you have it, that’s the structure for the next several blog entries.  Though the framework of this blog is structured toward offering insight to engineers applying to business school, I would be happy write on a suggested topic if I feel I may be able to meaningful speak on it. 

Why the Triple Bottom Line...

So you might be wondering  - why the Triple Bottom line is the title for this personal MBA application blog. The term "bottom line" in simple terms means - "is this business profitable or not."    What if major corporations started assessing their social impact on the local neighborhoods as part of their bottom line calculations and overall stock price?   What if nonprofits invested beyond the accepted 10% operational cost margin they are so harshly judged against to improve their infrastructure and increase their staff, ultimately enabling them to increase their social impact? What if the nonprofit and profit sectors merged their business practices to address sustainability issues resulting in innovative and cost effective entrepreneurial solutions?  These are some questions I've pondered through my 5+ years of working for a large government contractor and a lifetime of social service at local nonprofits.  With this blog, I hope to share my exploration of how the MBA curriculum is evolving in these economic times towards promoting the "triple bottom line" philosophy of "profit+people+environment" as performance indicators of innovative businesses.

I believe we are in dire need of more socially responsible and entrepreneurial business leaders in order to solve some of our generation's most pertinent social issues/needs through the application of sharp business acumen that promotes economic development  +  compels genuine corporate social responsibility + and fosters innovative sustainability solutions around the globe - thus ultimately highlighting the "triple bottom line" businesses should measure their "profit" against. 

I'll highlight specific schools, organizations, corporations, leaders, students, and ideas that are examples of such social entrepreneurship in action that have inspired me to pursue my MBA and ultimately share my journey to  B-school with you. 

Some Upcoming Blogs: 

- Day in the life of a "Sloanie" Social Entrepreneur : Spotlight on MIT Sloan School of Management 

- First week at HBS of an Engineer turned Entrepreneur: Spotlight on Harvard Business School  

- Doing Business in the Capital of the Business World: Spotlight on NYU Stern School of Business

- Curriculum Changes of MBA Programs+ Diversity Weekend: Spotlight on UC Berkeley Haas School of Business

- The Business Case of the Society and Business Lab: Spotlight on USC's Marshall School of Business

- Entrepreneurship Week: Spotlight on UCLA Anderson School of Management  

- "Socially Responsible Entrepreneur" Classes at the #1 Entrepreneurship Program  (US News & World Report): Spotlight on F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College 

- Ranked #1 in Nonprofit Management (US News & World Report): Spotlight on Yale School of Management

- Building Your Social Network of Young Entrepreneurs: Spotlight on StartingBloc 

- Doing Business in China: Spotlight on MBADiversity's Global Immersion Module in Shanghai, China 

- Social Enterprise Careers at  Acumen Fund, United Nations, Ashoka

- Real Life Struggles of Young Entrepreneurs 

Other general B-School application topics I'll cover as part of my journey: 

- To Invest or not to Invest in a GMAT prep course 

- First Round or Second Round, Full time vs Part time, Decisions, Decisions...

- Essays and Letters of Recommendations: Holistic view of Me and Not a "Cut and Paste"

- Diversity in MBAs: Spotlight on Consortium, NSHMBA, Forte

- More to come....

Also please feel free to comment and/or recommend topics you'd like me to dig into by emailing me at [email protected]

With that said  - Let the blogging begin!

Applying to Business School Blogs

The Riordan Programs Blog will feature a new series that chronicles the  Business School Application Process, of three Riordan MBA Fellow Alumni.