MBA Insider

Eryn Schultz is an HBS Alumna, and the Founder of Her Personal Finance, an online education platform focused on personal finance for women. Eryn started Her Personal Finance as a means to help other women learn the personal finance skills they needed to achieve their own goals, as well as from her own personal experiences with finance in her personal life and professional career. 

During our conversation, Eryn spoke about her career journey, what inspired her to start Her Personal Finance, and the common questions and topics that come up in the courses and coaching she does through Her Personal Finance, especially with MBA students and alum. She also shared with us her journey to entrepreneurship, and her experience with building her own business.

Andy Storch is a USC Marshall MBA Alum, an author, podcast host, and keynote speaker. He is also the author of Own Your Career, Own Your Life, a book he wrote about how you can take ownership of your career to achieve your own personal goals. Throughout Andy’s life, he has taken control of his career by following his curiosity, staying open to learning, and by proactively setting and working toward his own version of success. During our conversation, Andy spoke about his career, how his time in business school helped him further his career, and his journey to writing and publishing his book.

Links:

• Andy’s Book
• Andy’s Linkedin
• Andy’s Podcast

Lisa Rios is the Assistant Dean of MBA Admissions at NYU Stern. This past month, NYU Stern’s Full-Time MBA program announced that they received an 8% increase in applications and welcomed 338 full-time MBA students into the class of 2023. During our conversation, Lisa spoke about some of the highlights from last year’s MBA application cycle at NYU Stern and some of her reflections and learnings on the application cycle. She also shared more of what’s new at NYU Stern, what she is excited about for this year’s MBA application cycle, and why a full-time MBA is great career development opportunity for early and emerging career professionals.

Kristina Hu is a MBA Student at Harvard Business School (2022) and the Co-Founder of the Equity Network, a social enterprise she is working on while a student at HBS. After doing stints in Investment Banking and Product Management, Kristina is building a social enterprise aimed at democratizing access to professional networks for underserved and underrepresented populations to help them achieve their career goals. During our conversation, Kristina spoke about her journey to HBS, why she and her Co-Founders came up with the idea of the Equity Network, and how they are working on their social enterprise while students at HBS.

Links

• LinkedIn Profile
• Website
• HBS Profile

Gorick Ng is a HBS Alum and the Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Start Your Career Off Right,. The Unspoken Rules is now offered at multinationals, professional services firms, startups, and non-profits around the world for onboarding, training, and diversity and inclusion. In 2021, Harvard Business School offered The Unspoken Rules to every MBA student. Gorick has been thinking about careers and jobs since he started helping his mother prepare her resume and apply to jobs when he was only a teenager.

Since then, he’s gone on to help countless numbers of students and young professionals navigate their careers, and built his own career first as a management consultant and now as a career development expert. During our conversation, Gorick spoke about his learnings about careers over the years, some of the challenging events in his career that led to the ideas for his book “The Unspoken Rules' ' and a wide-ranging conversation around career development advice for MBA students and Alum.

Links:

• Unspoken Rules 
• Gorick’s Website
• Gorick’s LinkedIn

Becca Jordan Wright is the Founder of Piedmont Pennies, and a UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School MBA Alum. Becca focused most of her first year in business school finding a new career path after a stint in management consulting, but during the second year, she decided to pursue her entrepreneurial itch and founded Piedmont Pennies, a North Carolina’s handcrafted cheese snack. During our conversation, we spoke to Becca about her journey to pursuing an MBA, why she chose UNC Kenan-Flagler, and how she decided to take a favorite recipe from her childhood and turn it into an entrepreneurial venture. Use the Code “MBASchooled” for a discount at PiedmontPennies.com

• Piedmont Pennies Website
• Becca’s Previous MBA Insider Podcast Interview
• Becca’s Previous MBASchooled Article

Lindsay Sage is the CEO and Founder of Sage Admit, an MBA Admissions Consulting Firm where she specializes in helping MBA applicants navigate the MBA admissions process. After previously working on the MBA Admissions Staff at NYU Stern, Lindsay has seen MBA applications from diverse perspectives. During our conversation, we spoke about what’s new with the MBA admissions cycle for 2021-2022, some of the common challenges that MBA applicants face, and what MBA applicants can do to make sure they overcome these challenges to successfully navigate the MBA admissions process. 

Links

• Sage Admit Website
• Episode #53: The MBA Admissions Process with Lindsay Sage

Michael Vilardo (UCLA Anderson, ‘21) is a UCLA Anderson Alumni, and Co-Founder of Emile. During his time at Anderson, Michael used every opportunity to explore opportunities within entrepreneurship before finding the opportunity to join Emile as a Co-Founder and COO. During our conversation, Michael spoke about his journey to UCLA Anderson, his time in business school, and how he used the programs and resources at UCLA Anderson to pursue his desire to strengthen his entrepreneurial skills.

• Michael’s Twitter
• Consortium
• Emile
• Price Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Priscilla Weninger is a graduate from the Texas McCombs MBA program, a management consultant, and the Founder and Host of the Early Career Moves Podcast. Priscilla started her podcast because she wanted to use her learnings, resources and voice to help and guide first-generation students and BIPOC young professionals to help them build and grow their careers. During our conversation Priscilla spoke about her journey to an MBA, her time at Texas McCombs, and what she’s learned from hosting her podcast.

• Priscilla’s LinkedIn
• Early Career Moves Podcast

Shannon Reinard Demko is a Director & Senior Coach at Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) as well as the Founder at MindfulMBA. As someone who has coached and advised numerous MBA aspirants and applications, Shannon has seen all the highs and lows that applicants and students encounter.

From the dreaded rejection to getting off the waitlist to navigating the difficulties of the first semester, Shannon uniquely understands the ups and downs of MBA students and applicants. Additionally, Shannon is Founder of the MindfulMBA, where she uses her knowledge of these challenges to help students and alum manage the challenges of the MBA lifestyle with mindfulness, stress management and introspection. During our conversation, Shannon spoke about her own journey and background, why she started MindfulMBA, how Mindfulness can help MBAs at every stage of their journey, and her advice to using mindfulness to navigate everyday life.

• MindfulMBA
• Shannon’s LinkedIn profile