MBA Insider Al Dea

Aaron Fung is a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Business Partner at Pinterest, and an MBA Graduate from the Vanderbilt Owen School of Management.

After starting his career in the banking and financial services industry, Aaron chose to go to business school to pursue his interests in people development. While he re-entered the financial services industry immediately after business school, Aaron did eventually transition into people development and now works in diversity, equity and inclusion at Pinterest, and serves as a Career Coach.

During our conversation, Aaron spoke about his journey and the topic of career transitions. He shared a number of reflections about what he’s learned from his MBA experience, and how it’s helped him navigate and grow his career.

Links
Aaron’s Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronlfung/
Aaron’s Coaching Practice; https://coachingaf.com/
Al’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/

Blessing Adesian is a UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA Alum, and the Founder of MH, a platform that is helping mothers build better careers and happier homes. During this conversation, Blessing shared her journey to pursuing an MBA, how she used her time in business school at UNC Kenan-Flagler to prototype and test her idea, and her ambitions for empowering women to build better careers and happier homes.

Listen today on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Links
https://motherhonestly.com/about/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/blessingadesiyan/

Note: this is a replay of episode #87
This episode is all about informational interviews, something that many students and professionals rely on during the course of their time in business school and in the everyday workplace. With help of Alli Jaeggi (USC Marshall, ‘20) we broke down everything MBA students need to know about the topic of informational interviews, tips for how to do them right, and mistakes to avoid, and actionable practices you can put into place for your relationship building efforts in the job search and in your career
Alli Jaeggi’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrajaeggi/

Welcome to 2023! In the first episode of 2023, Al Dea does a solo episode and tackles the following topics:
Big Headlines in the MBA space in from Fall 2023
Other underreported things that happened in the MBA space and their implications for the MBA and MBA degree
Mailbag questions from listeners around how to write and talk about yourself in MBA applications

Links:
Pay and Compensation: https://fortune.com/education/articles/mba-grads-from-these-6-top-business-schools-landed-200k-starting-pay-packages-in-2022/
Darden’s Pay Stats: https://poetsandquants.com/2022/06/08/2022-darden-mbas-get-21-jump-in-median-salary-over-previous-class/
GMAC Applications: https://poetsandquants.com/2022/10/26/gmac-says-applications-to-b-schools-dropped-3-4-globally-in-2022/
Wharton’s New Concentrations: https://www.wharton.upenn.edu/story/wharton-welcomes-two-new-majors-and-concentrations-dei-and-esgb/
NY Times and HBS: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/28/business/business-school-social-justice.html
WSJ and Berkeley: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-class-where-future-bosses-learn-how-to-deliver-bad-news-11669576727
GMAC’s New CEO: https://www.gmac.com/news-center/gmac-press-releases/graduate-management-admission-council-appoints-joy-jones-as-incoming-ceo
MBA Roundtable: https://www.diverseeducation.com/reports-data/article/15304369/report-testoptional-policies-result-in-increased-application-numbers-and-student-diversity-at-many-business-schools


Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Christina Wallace is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, an HBS Graduate, entrepreneur and author. As a self-described “human venn diagram,” Christina wears many hats, and has learned to embrace and lean into her unique talents and found ways to bring them to life throughout a multitude of different avenues in her career and in her life.

During this conversation, we spoke about Christina’s career journey to HBS, and her time in management consulting, as an entrepreneur and life now as an author and lecturer. We also spoke about the concept of a Portfolio life, and how this framework and language has helped Christina and others find more expansive ways to find meaning and fulfillment in their work and life.


Links
- Christina Wallace: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawallace/

Today’s guest host is Brad Vonick, a Texas McCombs MBA Graduate and friend of MBA Insider.

Today’s guest is Greg Labanowski,a Texas McCombs MBA Graduate from the Class of 2022. In college, Greg played Division 1 Tennis at USC, and was able to pursue his passion to work in sports prior to getting his MBA. After a few years in the industry, he chose to pursue an MBA and attend Texas McCombs to further his career.

During this conversation, Greg spoke about his journey to an MBA and how his time at McCombs and in business school helped him grow for his post-MBA career. Brad and Greg also talked in depth about the definition of career and professional success, and some of the steps Greg took to learn and grow in his career.

Listen today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/greglabanowski/