By Kartik Jain

Last Spring, Judy Pham and I launched a new Tech Education initiative called Tech Bytes. Tech Bytes are peer-led technical skills-building workshops featuring bite-sized topics that can be taught in 1 hour. Instructors are current UCLA Anderson students who have prior experience in technology roles and are passionate about sharing knowledge to help their peers break into tech.

In our first Tech Bytes of the 2018-2019 school year, Jon Helman (FTMBA 2020) introduced students to the technology stack, using Tinder as a clarifying example. Since many product decisions require a baseline understanding of the product's tech stack, this edition of Tech Bytes was designed to be especially helpful for students exploring careers in product management or strategy at companies with web, mobile, or cloud-enabled applications.

Jon began by describing the various technological components that enable an iPhone app to run. Then he explained step-by-step how the client app communicates with the server when two users swipe and match. Finally, Jon tied it all together by discussing examples of hypothetical technical challenges that a Tinder product leader may face in the real world, and explained how to tackle the problems using the new concepts covered in the session.

Our next Tech Bytes, All About APIs, will be held on Thursday, January 24th at 11:30am. AnderTech members can register using CampusGroups.

Future Tech Bytes will be announced on the website calendar, in CampusGroups, and in the Andertech WHAT newsletter! We look forward to seeing you at our events!

If you are interested in teaching a Tech Bytes workshop or have workshop topic suggestions, please reach out to AnderTech’s Tech Education team: Kartik Jain, Judy Pham, Melissa Wong, and Jonathan Helman.

by Shelby DeGroot

I spent my summer at Rinse, a laundry and dry-cleaning startup. The company was founded in 2013 and currently serves 5 cities across the United States (SF, LA, Chicago, Boston, and DC). Rinse allows customers to schedule pick-ups for their laundry or dry cleaning through the website or app. Rinse employees (called Valets) pick the product up from the customer between the hours of 8-10pm and return the clothing within 3 days. 

This summer I learned a lot about how to how to deal with ambiguity and go with the flow in a start-up environment. I started the summer in Operations and was initially reporting to the COO/co-founder. A week in, I was moved to Marketing and told they didn’t have the bandwidth to give me a manager. The project they assigned me involved designing a field marketing strategy to grow their share of current markets. Because I didn’t feel this project was helping me build the skills I was looking to build, I took it upon myself to create a new project while also doing what was asked of me. That ended up being my favorite part of the summer.

I designed and analyzed the annual customer satisfaction survey and presented findings to the leadership team, highlighting product strengths and potential areas of improvement. I determined which questions to ask by collaborating with the Product and Marketing teams and made recommendations to the CEO about changes to make moving forward.

Anderson prepared me for this role by giving me the tools to figure out what to do when you don’t know what to do. I learned how to make an impact even when I have no experience in a given function. I also learned how to build relationships in a short period of time. I would love to continue to work in Tech after school, and my exposure to Marketing this summer has opened my eyes to a new function that I hadn’t previously considered.

Name/ Year: Anika Sharin / FEMBA 2020

What is your current job? Senior Product Operation Manager

Why MBA? I chose to pursue my MBA because I wanted to develop my leadership skills to lead companies who are working on socially responsible products while creating a meaningful impact in human lives. I wanted to practice leadership skills and try new responsibilities in the collaborative environment of business school. Also, coming from a tech background, I felt business school would be perfect place to understand business strategy and the financial decision making process.

Why AnderTech? What is your role in AnderTech? I joined Andertech because I wanted to be surrounded by a group of people who want to think outside the box. AnderTech members are challenging themselves to humanize technology for social impact. For this reason, I joined AnderTech. I am currently working with the FEMBA/EMBA relations team and I want to help identify opportunities for part-time students in tech to leverage their background to take their first step into tech.

What are you most excited about for AnderTech this year? I am excited about the IPT training series and the Big Data Conference where I will get to listen from industry speakers

by Parth Shah

I’m Parth and I’m a 2nd year FT MBA candidate at UCLA Anderson. This summer I had the incredible opportunity of interning with NFL Sunday Ticket (NFLST) at DirecTV/AT&T as a Product Manager (PM). Given the recent events with NFL athletes protesting the national anthem, NFL viewership has declined YoY. So, I was tasked to evaluate NFLST holistically and recommend how we can increase user engagement in short and long term – quite a daunting task considering I’m transitioning from a small early stage startup to a company with 250K+ employees and into a new role that can impact 300K+ subscribers. Nevertheless, I was ready for my summer challenge!

Much like any new PM, I spent the first several weeks getting to know my team, the product, and the market. I met with marketing, design, engineering, QA and even other product owners to understand how and why certain features were built. I evaluated other sports and video apps to see what new features we could add and then ran customer focus groups to see how NFL viewers to react these new features. In fact, I even met with one of the pioneers behind AT&T and Magic Leap partnership to see how AR/VR could augment the sports experience. However, my favorite experience was participating in a live focus group (with the 2 sided mirror) with design team to see how real NFL viewers interact with fantasy and watching games. I was surprised to how learn how important the audio experience (i.e. sound played when clicking a button, etc.) is to the customer experience. 

Once I decided on what features I could implement in the short and long term, I spent the next several weeks building wireframes using Sketch and Proto.io (never used them before!), writing feature stories, and negotiating with engineering and QA team to understand how to prioritize the development of the feature in Agile sprints. In 11 weeks, I not only recommended features we could incorporate in the long term but implemented several features to increase user engagement and improve our user’s journey within NFLST.

Today when I’m watching my Bengals play on Sunday with my friends, I take every chance to point out the my features in the NFLST app! I wouldn’t been able to gloat without the support of Anderson and AnderTech. The PM class at Anderson gave me product development knowledge and strategy class gave me the frameworks to evaluate competition’s next move while AnderTech introduced me to the alumni who hired me for this internship. I’m grateful for the opportunities my MBA experience has provided me.

by Taylor St Clair

Hello AnderTechies!

While it seems like October is forever away, once the fall quarter gets rolling, time simply zips by. Before you know it, it’s December and recruiting jitters are suddenly a very real thing! The purpose of this post is to quell a few of those anxieties and give you a roadmap of AnderTech programming, as well as a general recruiting timeline, during the fall. The club is here to support you throughout the recruiting process. We promise to make sure you are ready to knock interview season out of the park!

Some of these dates, especially for case competitions, are subject to change. Don’t worry, we will keep you fully informed along the way.

Thursday, 9/27: First Year Club Fair- This on-campus fair will feature all the clubs offered at Anderson.  You can get information, swag, and sign-up for the club in person. If you haven’t officially joined AnderTech yet through CampusGroups, stop by our booth to join, grab some swag, and say hi! We will be sending out membership information a few weeks before the fair, so keep an eye out.

Monday, 10/1: Etiquette Night- All professional clubs are joining forces for this required professionalism and etiquette training session.

Tuesday, 10/9, 7:00-9:00PM: AnderTech Kick-Off Night- Headlined by a special guest speaker from AT&T, join fellow AnderTech members for a spectacular introduction to AnderTech! Drinks and food will be provided, and many second-year members will be in attendance to answer any questions you may have about the club or Anderson as a whole.

IPT: Interview Preparation Teams, Three Mandatory Workshops

IPT Session 1: Wednesday, 10/10 5:30-7:30PM

IPT Session 2: Thursday, 10/18 5:00-7:00PM

IPT Session 3: Wednesday, 10/24 5:00-7:00PM

Organized by four second-year leaders, these required sessions launch our formal recruiting and interviewing preparation series. Each session will cover a different aspect of the recruiting process, and attendance is mandatory if you plan to participate in the small-group interview prep teams. Small-Group IPT begins in November and continues through interview season in January/February.

Thursday, 10/25, 5:30-7:30PM: Speed Informationals with 2nd Years- Learn from Second Year AnderTech members about their recruiting experiences, internship roles, and tips for interviewing success.

DOJ Week (Seattle & SF/Silicon Valley): 10/29-11/2- You’ll learn a lot more about DOJ Week and the Seattle/ SF Tech Treks in the coming months, but this week provides first-year students with the opportunity to visit a wide variety of companies, as selected through a bidding process, in the technology industry. The purpose of these excursions is to get a real feel for company culture and lifestyle, and determine which companies may be the best fit for you for the summer and full-time. This will not be focused on recruiting, but can guide your company selection decisions.

Tuesday, 11/13, 7:00-10:00PM: Career Night- One of AnderTech’s biggest fall events, Career Night provides first years the opportunity to meet with representatives from 20+ technology companies. The event features round-table discussions throughout the evening, as well as a networking happy hour.

Thursday, 11/29, 7:00-9:00PM: Beyond Campus Recruiting Panel- While many Anderson students utilize on-campus recruiting resources to find internships for the summer, understanding how to navigate the “Beyond Campus Recruiting” landscape is can be helpful in landing summer or school-year internships. You’ll hear from second years regarding their approaches to identifying and engaging with target companies to secure internship opportunities.

Sunday, 12/2: NEW AnderTech Minimum Viable Product Competition- This is a brand new AnderTech initiative this year. This competition pairs teams of Anderson students with Computer Science students to build and launch a minimum viable product. You’ll receive more in-depth information regarding the required workshops and networking sessions later this summer, but this competition will provide a phenomenal, unique opportunity to own a product and work cross-functionally Plus, will provide you with great topics to highlight during interviews!

Case Competitions- Dates Tentative

AT&T, Friday, 10/12

Microsoft, Friday, 10/19

Cisco, Friday, 10/26

Amazon, TBD

T-Mobile, TBD

General Recruiting Timeline

October: Company Visits to Campus Begin

October: IPT Sessions Begin

November: Tech Treks to Seattle and SF

November: Small Group IPT Begins

November/ December: Resume and Cover Letter Drops Begin

December: Continue networking/ interview prep

January: On-Campus Interviews Begin, right after Winter Break!

I hope you enjoyed this outline of the awesome recruiting-related events we have planned for this fall. Of course, we will have many other events focused on alumni engagement, club socializing, and interesting technology experiences- so get ready! The fall quarter is undeniably busy, but we are here to make it as fun, and as helpful, as possible.

Xo TSC

by Margaret Yu

Hello incoming students! Hope you are all enjoying your summer.

My name is Margaret Yu, and I am one of the VP’s of Marketing & Communications in AnderTech. Fittingly, I am spending the summer here in Santa Monica at ZipRecruiter as their Marketing MBA Intern. I am loving my internship experience so far, especially since summertime for me means that I get to work on this beautiful rooftop deck at any time of day!

My role is pretty unique - it’s a mini-rotational internship where I get to work with five different teams within the marketing department, from SEO to customer insights, on real-time business problems with a meaningful impact on the success of the organization. I have just finished my first couple of projects, and am gearing up for the next phase. The internship program here is still pretty new, so I am excited that the internship class here has 100% Anderson representation including myself and Tom Christenson (‘18)!

Because a 10 week internship is such a short amount of time, it feels like the orientation process never stops. We have lunch-and-learns scheduled every other week with key leaders across the company as well as weekly SQL classes with our VP of Analytics. Additionally, I make sure to schedule at least one coffee chat a day with someone I have not yet met in the company to continue to learn as much as I can about ZipRecruiter in my short time here.

As someone whose prior experience is from a different industry and function, this internship is exactly what I came to business school to pursue. I don’t just get to learn about one specific function within tech marketing - I am really getting to experience a lot of different initiatives the marketing department at ZipRecruiter is prioritizing as it scales, which is really exciting! I cannot believe how quickly the summer is moving, but I am happy to say I have learned a ton so far, and can’t wait for what’s next.

Name/ Year: Herman Chan / FEMBA 2020

What is your current job? Product Marketing Manager, Hulu

Why MBA? I chose to pursue my MBA because I wanted to develop my leadership skills by challenging myself to take on new roles and responsibilities and make an impact on Anderson. I also chose to pursue an MBA to learn more about new industries and gain more general business knowledge.

Why AnderTech? What is your role in AnderTech? I joined Andertech because I wanted to be surrounded by intelligent, curious, and ambitious people who are excited about the technology industry. I want to be able to learn as much as I can from others and also share my experience in the industry so far. I am currently the VP of FEMBA/EMBA relations and in this role, I want to ensure that I am connecting FEMBA/EMBA students with full-time students to share knowledge, resources, and opportunities for mutual success.

What are you most excited about for AnderTech this year? I am most excited about the speaker series and company visits this year. As a FEMBA, I want to learn more about other tech companies and industries so I can continue to expand my knowledge and potentially explore careers outside of what I currently do.

by Judy Pham & Kartik Jain

AnderTech's Tech Education team has launched a new initiative called Tech Bytes. Tech Bytes are peer-led technical skills-building workshops featuring bite-sized topics that can be taught in 1-2 hours. Instructors are UCLA Anderson students from the MBA and FEMBA programs who have prior experience in technology roles and are passionate about sharing knowledge to help their peers break into tech.

In our first Tech Bytes, Sarah Zou (MBA 2019) taught the basics of software development, including the differences between frontend, backend, and APIs. Students then had the opportunity to apply these concepts to building an Android mobile application using AppInventor.

Everyone’s computers are set up and we’re ready to build some apps!

Screenshots from the app created by Shu He (MBA 2018) during the session.

Sarah (left) answering questions about using AppInventor.

Future Tech Bytes will be posted on the website calendar, in Campus Groups, and in the WHAT newsletter! We look forward to seeing you there!

If you are interested in teaching a Tech Bytes workshop or have workshop topic suggestions, please reach out to Kartik Jain or Judy Pham.

by Josue Enriquez

I cannot believe that nearly a year ago I joined Anderson in hopes of changing industry and function. Although I enjoyed my career as a Civil Engineer, I longed to be at the forefront of innovation. Admittedly, I did not believe the transition possible, but nearly a year later, I am in Austin taking advantage of an incredible learning opportunity as a Product Development Intern at Dell. In this blog, I will give you a small glimpse into my internship experience to date. 

First, there is no such thing as a typical day. It might sound cliché, but the only thing I can say with certainty is to expect the unexpected. On any given day, my schedule is filled with informationals across all levels of the organization to understand the inner workings of the business, but my day can quickly spiral out of control with impromptu lunch invitations and meetings. Every interaction is unique, but I quickly learned the value of making an impression. Those meaningful interactions lead to many warm introductions who are critical to the success of my project. 

Additionally, there are also numerous intern specific events. One very popular event is the executive speaker series, which is exclusive to interns. Each week we interact with either Michael Dell or one of his C-level executives who share an incredible wealth of information on numerous topics ranging from company insights, career advice, and keys to success. In addition to the speaker series, the intern programming includes scavenger hunts, happy hours, and baseball games at Dell Diamond. Each event is an opportunity to meet incredible individuals across schools and foster long lasting relationships beyond the summer internship. In the coming weeks, we will continue to explore Austin and dive deep into their famous food and music scene.

Unfortunately, time is moving much too quickly, but I cannot wait to see what the next day has to offer…

by Amanda Unterreiner

Bo Kjaer joined 7 Anderson students for a D48, or more formally known as a "Dinner for Eight". A graduate of our 1997 Anderson class, Bo has had an interesting career across business development roles, founding his own company, and most recently holding a position in product management at eHarmony. This informal setting was a great way for students to connect both with each other and an established alum over some casual tacos.

Bo embodied the Anderson culture, opening up about the ups and downs of his career path. Bo reminded us that startups are a gamble, each with different leaders and in various stages of development. He shared some of his struggles and helped set the stage for things we might face 5, 10, and 20 years out of Anderson.

I attended to learn more about Bo’s journey and functional transitions across smaller companies around LA. Other students shared insights about their own company ventures underway and got some quality feedback from an established industry professional. An added bonus was that he was classmates with our very own Regina Regazzi in Parker!