This Is Vanderbilt Business

This week, our admissions team talks about cultural fit, GMAT vs. GRE, preparing for interviews, tackling the video essay, waitlists, scholarships, and other popular topics. We also dive into international-specific aspects of the admissions process at the end of the pod, including strategies for test-taking, essay-writing, and more.

Muhammad Miqdad, a junior at the University of Rochester, got so much out of Vanderbilt’s Accelerator Summer Business Institute that he became an ambassador for the program, sharing his experiences with students at Rochester and beyond. We talked with Muhammad this week about the impact Accelerator had on him and how it can shape students’ lives.

How do you turn a company around after every top executive and the board quit? What's the best route for a finance student with lots of passion and education but little experience? We talked this week with Clint Freeland, the Chief Financial Officer of Dynegy, Inc., a Houston-based Electric Company that owns and operates a number of power stations across the U.S. The MBA’92 alum talks about opportunities and challenges in today’s energy industry, his path to the C-suite, and overlooked skills that finance-focused professionals should develop.

The Career Insider series takes a very focused look at Consulting this week, with a view into Deloitte. Hear from Human Capital Consulting and Supply Chain/Manufacturing/Operations interns as they discuss the recruiting process, work streams, the importance of network building, and more.

We're offering a bonus Career Insider episode this week, featuring Robb Scott (MBA'18), a former Division I baseball player and Wyoming outfitter who's beginning a career in Private Wealth Management. CMC Director Brook Meissner talks with Robb before and after his summer internship at Brown Brothers Harriman.

Continuing our Career Insider series, we return this week to Finance, specifically Investment Banking. Brook Meissner of the Career Management Center talked with Tripp Salem, who interned at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, about what it takes to succeed in a banking internship and how to make the most of your time, a skill of particular importance in the field.

In honor of Veterans Day, our admissions team hosted a panel of 2nd-year MBA student veterans to talk about the application process, life in b-school, and the advantages of military experience in the business world. Bailey McChesney of the Admissions team moderates.

Tori Wycoff(Vanderbilt BS'11) is an alum of Vanderbilt Business' Accelerator program, as a student and operations manager. She’s spent the last 6 years working for Google, first as a recruiting coordinator, now as an HR business partner. We spoke with her about the value of the Accelerator program, career planning, and life at Google and the recruiting process there.

Earlier this year, Caroline Guenther(MBA'15)was named one of Forbes 30 under 30 for the year 2017. At an orientation event last month, she talked with Megan Nichols of the Career Management Center about her career path to Cisco, the future of technology, and the recognition from Forbes.

We take a second look at ops and general management career tracks. Ben Rasmus (Land O' Lakes, operations intern) and Yashar Pirasteh (Leaders-to-Executives Intern at T-Mobile) talk about their summer experiences and what they learned about their roles, companies, and aspirations.

Rich Postler, VP of HR for Global Business Services & Global Information Technology from Procter & Gamble, recently visited Vanderbilt as part of Owen's Leadership in Residence program, an opportunity for leaders from all industries to visit, inspire, and advise students. During his visit, Rich talked with Dean M. Eric Johnson about the workforce of the future and the skills and traits that leaders and employees will need to thrive in it.

Our Career Insider series continues this week! We check in with first-year students who embarked on marketing internships this summer. We spoke with Christiana Newcomb, who interned with Mars Petcare, and James Northcutt, who interned at Mattel, to learn about their internship experiences, highlights, and challenges. If you didn’t catch their initial interviews, check out the podcast “Career Insider – Marketing” to learn more.

The interns are back! How was the consulting gig? Did they get an offer? We follow-up on our previous conversations with Andrew Glover, who interned with North Highland, and Bennet Hayes, who interned at Boston Consulting Group, to learn about how their summers went and where they stand career-wise heading into their second year at Owen. If you didn’t catch their initial interviews, check out the podcast “Career Insider – Consulting” to learn about their internship searches.

David Zinsner (MBA'96) has spent much of his career at the top of large organizations, serving as CFO first at Intersil Corporation and later at Analog Devices, a Fortune 500 Semiconductor manufacturer. In April, David moved to Affirmed Networks, a venture-backed mobile network solutions provider based out of Massachusetts, to serve as the company’s President and COO. We talked with David about his career, changing titles and companies, the impact Owen's had on his career, and more.

Associate Professor Kelly Goldsmith is the newest member of the Marketing Faculty at Owen. During her time at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, she earned several awards for her teaching and research, which focuses on Consumer Decision making, specifically examining how consumers active motives and mindsets affect their choices. I talked with Kelly about her research, the move to Vanderbilt, and her stint on one of the most popular reality shows of all time.

Classes kick off this week at Management Hall, but for MBAs, MSFs, MAccs, MMarks, and EMBAs, the real work begins during the orientation period, which began a month ago for certain programs. Through math camps, networking sessions with classmates and recruiters, career management and interview training, students are acclimating themselves to the furious pace of Mod 1. Megan Nichols of the Career Management Center spoke with students from the MBA and career launcher programs to get their thoughts on the orientation experience. She also captured footage from training sessions conducted by author and corporate consultant Lindsey Pollak, who discussed the value of LinkedIn in the open. In the final segment of this week’s episode, we hear from author and coach Jaymin Patel, in a session he held with students and in a separate interview with Megan.

According to research by Steve Posavac, E. Bronson Ingram Professor of Marketing and Faculty Director of the Master of Marketing (MMark) Program, individuals with relatively elevated symptoms of Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder are more favorable to ads featuring concepts of home. We talk with Steve about his research and year 2 of the MMark program in this week's podcast.

Our Career Insider series continues with a look at two different internship paths – Operations and General Management. We talked with Ben Rasmus, who is interning at Land O’ Lakes in an operations capacity, and Yashar Pirasteh, a Leaders to Executives intern at T-Mobile. Sandy Kinnett and Emily Anderson of the Career Management Center conducted the interviews.

This is Vanderbilt Business, a podcast about the students, faculty, and staff at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. For first-year students looking to change job functions, mastering the personal story is critical -- finding the parallel between past experiences and future job requirements is essential to convincing employers you're right for the job. For MBAs with more "traditional" backgrounds, this can be a straightforward task. But how do the poker players and heavy metal musicians handle it? Our Career Insider series continues this week with a look at Consulting, a field that attracts a lot of career-switchers. We talked with two aspiring consultants that have rather unique backgrounds -- Bennet Hayes, who is interning at Boston Consulting Group, also known as BCG, and Andrew Glover, who is interning with North Highland. Emily Anderson and Courtney Fein of the Career Management Center conducted the interviews.

Healthcare, particularly the fate of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has dominated the political conversation for several months now. At the Owen Graduate School of Management, healthcare is a way of life – 24% of the 2016 graduating MBA class took a position in the industry, prompting Poets & Quants to feature the program in an article titled “Where the healthcare industry gets its MBAs.” Larry Van Horn is an Associate Professor of Management, Law, and Health Policy at Vanderbilt, and the Executive Director of Health Affairs at Owen. We sat down with Professor Van Horn to discuss discuss the healthcare industry at large, as well as the Center for Healthcare Market Innovation and the opportunities for MBAs in this evolving industry.