After working in consulting for five years, I knew I wanted to switch careers. But I wanted to first take some time to assess my choices and broaden my skill sets. I’d done a lot of research into the options, and business school made the most sense.
I chose Yale SOM for its mission of educating leaders for business and society. I was also drawn by its community, location, and size. I was looking for an immersive experience and a set of diverse people who would be good thought partners.
Our student body is very diverse, as are the careers pursued post-MBA. This is a good place to do a reset—to reflect and learn and discover a new direction.
My learning team was made up of a set of individuals who were very different in every respect—pre-MBA career, country of origin, work style, etc. Orientation was really all about feeling our way through the dark and trying to respectfully figure out the best way to work with one another. We had our challenges, but ultimately we were able to talk through them and work together.
That kind of teamwork has been a big part of my time at Yale SOM, and it’s been incredibly enriching. I’ve learned tools and frameworks to think through business problems from new angles and in a more methodical fashion.
The integrated curriculum strikes a good balance between theoretical and practical work. It provides you with foundational knowledge, then gives you opportunities to apply those concepts. The concepts also present themselves across different courses, so you can understand their applications in different contexts. And our raw cases are such a strength. They’re the most realistic in depicting how work situations truly play out.
