When You're a BYU MBA, What Happens in Vegas...

... can be readily posted on the internet without anyone getting embarrassed. Recently a group of MBATS (MBA Tech Society) members took a trip down to Las Vegas for the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). In addition to enjoying a brief escape from pure cold into just a mild chill, the venture was a very memorable experience.

CES is hard to summarize. 140,000 participants walk around for 2-4 days to see as many as they can of the 2,700 technology exhibitors. It's really difficult to give a sense of the scope of the place if you haven't been there. Needless to say, by the end of our second day, my feet were sore and the exhibitors with massage chairs became very popular. You'll never see more large LCD displays in one place in your life. You'll likely never be able to practically afford most of the cars. You'll possibly even see a good number of products you couldn't imagine using. If it's shiny, gadgety, or over-the-top, you'll find it at CES.

My personal top picks during the trip were:

1 - Nvidia's tent which featured their Tegra chip used in the new Tesla Model S. The display that the Tegra drove was nice and all, but I was personally attracted more to the car itself. I'm a huge fan of the move to electric vehicles and Tesla just makes a pretty car. It's well worth checking out when you get a chance.

2 - Glasses-free 3D. I'm pretty opinionated on the 3D fad right now. I'm all for progress in entertainment technology, but I don't like having to wear uncomfortable glasses for the minor value-add of watching something in 3D. That said, LG, among other companies, was displaying some early prototypes of working glasses-free 3D TV. The viewing range is limited, but the effect was awesome. LG expects the technology to be consumer-ready in 3-5 years and I'll seriously consider upgrading at that point.

And, of course, the greatest takeaway of the whole experience was getting to know my fellow MBAs better. I learned about Barney's adventures as a pop star on his LDS mission in Thailand and Mike's experience as a walk-on for BYU's football team. We survived smoking heaters in a cheap motel and a less-than-exciting continental breakfast. We clinked glasses with the president of HTC in Caesar's Palace on HTC's dime (and were the only ones drinking seltzer water with lime). Most importantly, though, we formed memories that will last much longer than the gadgets we went down to Vegas to see.

-Lewis Gunter, Class 2012, Marketing

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Using the "Force" of the OBSA

Not so long ago, and not so far away there was a techie gone HR, a.k.a. me. I was a career-changing madman trying to land an internship then, and now, a full-time career in the vast and broad field of Human Resources. I began the MBA experience knowing that the ambiguous, the challenging and dare I say mystic world of HR and Organizational Behavior was for me, but I had no clue as to HOW to turn that into reality. The answer came in the form of a student organization, the Organizational Behavior Student Association (OBSA).

The reader needs to know a little bit about the author to fully appreciate the magnitude of the change. I worked for over 8 years in technology, and at the end of that career was exposed to some advanced org design issues that transitioned my interest from the binary to the strategic. I quit work and began the school year full of optimism and hope, sure that despite the drastic shift in career fields I would quickly find success (this is where the evil Sith Lord laughs).

The OBSA provided support on all fronts: networking, resumes, interviewing, and more (for only $19.99 plus shipping and handling – payable to George Lucas). Armed with positive criticisms and feedback, I took to the job search like a techie at a Star Wars convention. Informational interviews, networking, resume submissions, but in the case of this wayward “Jedi,” the chance to interview never materialized.

As I watched my fellow classmates interview and enjoy fly backs, I felt as if I had not only failed to “use the force,” but had been encased in an “occupational carbonite block,” eat your heart out Han Solo. So I put on a brave face and tried to commiserate with my peers as they shared stories about how hard their interviews were, or how frustrating their fly backs had been, and rejoice in their individual successes. As December began, and I felt like I didn’t even have an Obi-Wan Kanobi for an only hope, the OBSA stepped in a had a few second years speak to us at a ProSem. These particular second years had found their internships late the year before. Their words of encouragement, sympathy and faith were exactly what this “Padawan learner” needed.

Because they took the time to share their emotional, difficult and sometime miraculous stories, I found the courage to keep searching for any chance I could find. My family made it a matter of much fasting and prayer and in the end I found my internship through a connection in the OBSA. As the school year rapidly neared its end, a member of the OBSA presidency reached out to me about an opportunity a connection of hers had in her organization. This company (in the fortune 50) was looking for an HR intern with a technical background, you don’t need to hear the voice say, “Use the force!” to realize that this was the perfect opportunity.

To summarize this epic story, the OBSA is focused on training and preparing the students in the HR track to be successful in the job hunt and in their future careers. This it does extremely well, however, the most valuable asset that this organization has provided me is a network of dependable, successful, and supportive friends. It has helped me build lasting relationships that will be a treasure to me both professionally and personally.

Josh Kruse, OB/HR, Class of 2011
Interned at: Northrop Grumman

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Trip to the Big Apple

One piece of advice: Join MBA clubs and take advantage of club activities. I am a declared Finance major so I will focus on the Graduate Finance Association (GFA); however, other track majors have great clubs as well. During this past year, one of the most valuable aspects of being involved in the GFA was the relationships that I formed with my classmates. These relationships were strengthened on the GFA New York trip that takes place each fall. The trip took place October 21^st, 22^nd, & 23^rd with approximately 70 BYU students (both MBA and undergraduates) having the opportunity to meet with 40+ financial services firms that are located in New York. Our fearless mentors on the trip were Jim Engebretsen and Kim Smith and they provided a first-class experience for all of us.

Students paid their own way on the trip and were richly rewarded with unbelievable exposure to finance professionals that were happy to meet with us and talk about their respective firm. We divided up research on the firms beforehand so that we could create research material that was distributed to all students in attendance. The purpose of the organized research was to ensure that quality questions were asked after each presentation and all those in attendance represented BYU extremely well. Each day of the trip was spent at one firm’s headquarters and then all of the presenting professionals made the trip to visit us. This eliminated the logistical nightmare and lost time of 70+ students trying to make their way to and from different locations in New York. Below is a brief summary of each day of the trip and names of firms that presented:

October 21^st – Stamford, CT – We started off the first day of the trip in Connecticut at the offices of US Trust and heard from professionals in Private Wealth Management, Private Equity, Investment Management, and Hedge Funds. (Starwood Hotels, Merrill Lynch Private Wealth, Portfolio Advisors, Millenium, Columbia Management, US Trust, RSB Greenwich Capital, & FE Clean Energy.)

October 22^nd & 23^rd – Manhattan, NY – These days were spent at the headquarters of Cerberus Capital Management on Park Avenue. We were hosted extremely well in two large boardrooms throughout both days. Again, Private Wealth, Hedge Fund, Private Equity, Investment Banking, Investment Management, and Corporate Finance professionals presented to us. (Cerberus, Citigroup, Lazard, Lightyear Capital, Clearlake Capital, Oppenheimer, DE Shaw, Bernstein Global, Morgan Joseph, NYSE, Prudential Capital, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, GE Commercial Finance, Houlihan Lokey, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Credit Suisse, Deloitte, American Express, Wells Fargo, Moelis & Co., Bank of Montreal, Partners Group, Barclays, JPMorgan, SAC Capital, Corinthian Capital, HSBC, Nomura, and Morgan Stanley.)

Summary: The key takeaways are exposure to many different types of financial services firms and the opportunity to build relationships with professionals and your classmates. (A number of internships were a direct result of this trip, but those internships came from relationships.)

Jeremy Burgon, Finance, Class of 2011

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Majoring in Finance, minoring in...Broadcasting??

The BYU MBA program provides students with one opportunity that to my knowledge no other program offers: the chance to anchor or guest star in a business news video segment filmed in an actual television studio.

Morning Market Call is a program that was started by BYU MBA Finance professors with the purpose of providing MBA students opportunities to discuss financial topics in front of a television camera. Once you become the CFO or CEO of a Fortune 500 company, you've gotta be comfortable for your appearances on CNBC or CNN Money! Don't worry, participating isn't mandatory for students, but is something I've found to be a lot of fun.

One segment is filmed for each school day, with topics ranging from global business news, to government legislation, to BYU MBA specific events such as the Business Plan Competition and case competitions.

You can check out the Morning Market Call at http://mmc.byu.edu

Morning Market Call: one more way the BYU MBA program is taking things to another level. Look out Jim Cramer, here we come...

Doug Mumford, Class of 2011, Marketing

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