Before deciding to come to Yale SOM, I was interested in finding out more about overseas recruiting, so I reached out to an MBA student whom I had met during the application process. Within the span of 48 hours, I was put in touch with a student club leader and another student who had recruited overseas. Despite their busy schedules and the time zone differences, they were kind enough to share their respective experiences, and provided me with invaluable insights. I was an admitted student at that point. I hadn’t yet decided to enroll at SOM, but people were already so passionate and willing to help me. I was sold on the Yale SOM community.
You never know what opportunities may present themselves in the future, but you want to be ready when they appear. My goal coming to business school was to develop an all-around skillset. Coming from an accounting and finance background, I wanted to get additional exposure to various areas of business, and I think I’ve achieved that through the core and through elective courses. We have really great courses across the business spectrum at SOM, in topics such as strategy, marketing, and supply-chain management—things I had no experience with. Look, I might not be running a factory or a large corporation anytime soon, but at least I’ll know how to approach it when the time comes.
I’m taking on additional leadership roles and trying to step out of my comfort zone more this year. I’m helping out with the Finance Club, participating in case competitions, and getting involved with nonprofit consulting work through the Global Social Entrepreneurship program. I’m also trying to leverage my experience to help the first-year students with recruiting—I’m meeting with them, working on their stories, their résumés, their technical skills. One fascinating aspect of SOM is that it allows you, through various extracurricular activities, to push yourself to try new things, to travel to new places, and to take on new roles and responsibilities. I don’t necessarily think I would have done a lot of these activities a year or two ago.
