Graduation and Goodbye

MBA school is finished! I can't believe it's over already. The graduation ceremony was at 8 am in the Marriott Center and it was very special. Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles attended because he had a son graduating from the MACC program and he chose to take a few minutes to speak as well. He spoke of a fellow graduate from his program that he thought of at the time as the most spiritual person in his group (the most likely person to become an apostle in his mind) and how many years later this man ended up in his office having lost his family and his membership in the church due to choices he made. He reminded us that "where much is given (not much is expected) much is required". He also bestowed an Apastolic blessing upons us all that we would take his message to heard and be able to live lives that would be worthy of the blessings we've received. I feel so honored to have gone to BYU for my graduate school experience and look forward to a future of giving back to the church, my family, BYU, and society.

I now say farewell to most of my family and friends as I take off for Seattle this weekend. We just returned last night from a week of vacationing in Southern California where we had a LOT of fun. It was nice to get away and celbrate together before work starts. I will actually be in Seattle rooming with a couple of BYU friends with my family still in Utah as our home is being built. It will make for an interesting situation because I'll miss my family so much but we're going to make it work.

I hope this blog site has served to provide some insights into my experience as a BYU MBA student. This program has met and exceeded my expectations overall. Yes, there were things I wish I would have done perhaps a bit differently, I wish I would have been able to take some additional classes that didn't fit into my schedule, I would have liked to participate more in some of the extracurricular activities, etc. However, my family and I have grown so much through this experience, I have developed so many meaningful relationships that will continue throughout my life, and I've had so many opportunities opened up to me. I am very grateful to now be a BYU MBA alum and will continue to build on the gift I have been given. I am committed to being involved in the school and the program and hope you will let me know if there is anything I can do to help you.

The Last Final...

Walking out of the Marriott School after my last final (Business Japanese) was a surreal experience, bittersweet and yet fulfilling. Unless at some point I go completely insane (give me until my mid-life crisis), this will be the last time I'm in school. The last reading assignment, the last report, the last presentation, the last test, the last school lecture now behind me, I am now looking forward to the numeous opportunities and challenges that will become available through my new employment opportunity at Microsoft.

Did I mention that I received my role information for Microsoft? I am going to be working in the Developer Division ("the geeks of the geeks" according to my boss Tami) as a Learning & Organization Consultant. It is a POC (People & Organizational Capability) role and I couldn't be more excited. It looks like we have a great group of Trax members and interns that will be starting this summer. Pat and Logan are both working as HR generalists and Jason is working in POC as a Talent Planning Consultant.


Tomorrow morning I graduate- after two years of effort and a great experience it is finally coming to a close. Of course it seems somewhat anticlimactic as it will probably fly back too quickly and be time to drive to Seattle. It'll be fun seeing my family and friends come to celebrate the day with me and as I was walking from my last final I could see the little dots of people up on the Y getting it ready for lighting. They're finally lighting it for me!! I've seen that big Y all lit up for many years, it's just neat to finally have it be to celebrate something I'm a part of. Pretty cool stuff.

BYU MBA Networking: LinkedIn.com

Many students in the BYU MBA program are using the web site http://www.linkedin.com/ as a tool to keep in touch during and after graduation. I think it's a great resource to have and allows us to create an online resume that can be used to network and reach out to friends and contacts for future job searches and other needs in the future. There are also new functions that allow people to suggest and provide feedback on service providers and also ask questions to LinkedIn members.

Now that the program is wrapping up for me I have been updating my contact list in the hopes that I can remain in contact with many of my friends and hopefully be of some value to them in the future. You can find my LinkedIn site at http://www.linkedin.com/in/socialent and are welcome to connect with me if you wish.

Business Plan Competition

The Marriott School's Center for Entrepreneurship sponsors the Business Plan Competition each year, awarding approximately $130,000 in cash and in-kind service prizes to winning teams. I attended the final event last year and it was pretty awesome. I worked with a team in my Creating and Managing New Ventures class last semester to develop a business plan that we are going to enter into the competition. I'm also involved in the Marriott School's Net Impact club and we're developing a couple of business plans to enter into the social entrepreneurship category ($25,000 in awards) as well.

Not having participated in last year's competition means that the whole thing is going to be new to me but I'm excited about going through the process and the chance to participate. Someday I do want to start my own business and plan to work as a consultant for small and family businesses so this experience is going to be very helpful. I'll let you know how things go!

BYU MBA Ambassador Program

Jason Carson and Taber Rigg are working on developing an Ambassador program that will allow for potential students to have access to a rich network of current students and alumni. I remember that I had a lot of questions before I started the program and there were a few opportunities to connect with people and learn more about what I should do. I'm excited about the Ambassador program (and am an Ambassador myself) and think it will do a lot to help with the expansion of the MBA program in the next several years.

All 50 or so of the Ambassadors will have their pictures and profiles available through the Marriott School web site soon so interested parties can learn about students, their experiences before and during the program, and other valuable aspects of the MBA experience. Being in the MBA program is about so much more than the classroom, it's about building relationships, creating change, and helping to share the legacy with other people. I look forward to seeing the Ambassador program continue to take off in the near future.

Semester Recap

Finals are finally finished! I had about 6 different papers or project deliverables to complete by Thursday of this week and turned in my last one with about 30 seconds to spare. How's that for cutting it close? I keep thinking of those first-year students and the insanity they just passed through- it's so easy to forget how challenging the first year was. I'm looking forward to interacting more with the first years with their schedules opening a bit this next semester.

I had some great classes this semester: Group Dynamics, Creating & Managing New Ventures, Strategy Implementation, Management & Information Technology, Leadership, and Creative Strategic Thinking. I really enjoyed all of my classes, each one contributing such different dimensions to my educational experience. In group dynamics we did a lot of fishbowl exercises and worked with our teams to provide coaching and feedback for one another regarding an area of our choice (related to our group interactions). In my strategy classes, we did a lot of presentations and projects to develop new business ideas and assess existing organizations using the models and concepts we learned in our classes. I worked with a team in Creating and Managing New Ventures to develop a business plan that we will be entering in the school's business plan competition.

My favorite two classes this semester were Leadership, taught by Dr. Curtis LeBaron, and Creative Strategic Thinking, taught by Dr. Jeff Dyer. I admire both of these teachers very much and especially enjoyed the lectures, projects, and topics we explored in these classes. I believe that the "soft" skills we developed in these classes will have the largest impact on my future success in the corporate world and life in general. It was a great semester- it's hard to believe that I've only got one semester left. I almost wish the program was 2 1/2 years long just so I could cram more classes into my schedule because there are more classes I want to take than slots I have available. Anyway, one more semester to go in an incredible MBA experience!

I'm going to Microsoft- the job choice is complete.

I accepted my offer from Microsoft a couple of days ago and will be moving to Seattle to participate in their 2-year rotation program starting in May or June of next year. I received a total of 3 offers (Microsoft, Dell, & American Express) but in the end the Microsoft job is much more aligned with what I'm looking for with the company, opportunities, and roles available when I leave this program. Dell's offer was very 'healthy' but the biggest draw was not the job, it was the dream home we'd be able to live in right out of school. Amex is going to be an awesome opportunity but I'm not as interested in the financial services industry and don't think it was the best fit for my small family (at least at this time).

I've been talking with a number of people in various departments at Microsoft in the past couple of weeks to better understand the day-to-day work, roles, people, and other aspects of my future employment. Jason Carson and Logan Sutherland are both going to Microsoft as well and have been a big factor in helping me make my decision. I respect them both very much and am excited that Pat Brady will also be joining us (plus Jared Baker from Finance). The people that I've talked to at Microsoft have been awesome and it gets me even more excited to start. It's kind of crazy having the job search complete- after all the time and effort invested things finally paid off. I couldn't be happier!!

Fly-back Interviews Completed

After interviewing with 10 or so companies on campus this recruiting season, I was asked to fly back for final interviews at 3 companies: Microsoft, Dell, and American Express. I spent 3 days in Seattle, Washington with Pat Brady and a few 1st years, 3 days in Austin, Texas with 7 other 2nd year MBA students (what a fun trip!), and 2 days in New York City by myself (first time to the Big Apple).

After about 10 days of travel and about 12 interviews I have a job offer from Microsoft and American Express and am waiting for word from Dell; I expect it to come sometime this week. As the recruiting season got underway, my top picks were Microsoft and Amex, I was just fortunate to also have a chance to look at Dell as well. It is going to be a hard choice between Microsoft and Amex because they are both great companies and offering the type of role and global opportunities I am looking for.

I didn't get a flyback with General Mills or PWC, didn't even get an interview with Honeywell and Hitachi Consulting (what?!), and decided to turn down further opportunities with Amazon.com and Target. In the end I got the flybacks and am confident I'll get the offers I wanted the most. We'll see what happens.