Humans of Tepper

Welcome to Humans of Tepper, a podcast that gives an insider view on the Tepper MBA student experience. We’re back with our hosts Rohit and Cynthia, who are chatting with Eleanore Marsh about her experience. Eleanore moved to New York City shortly after finishing her undergrad degree in finance. There, she worked for Wells Fargo for roughly 5 years, during which time she thoroughly studied MBA programs to evaluate the best next step for her career. Today, she’s a second year Tepper student. As a Pittsburgh native, she’s enjoying being back in the city of her childhood. 

Eleanore chose Tepper because she wanted something that would stretch her beyond her comfort zone and diversify her experience. She loves how the program examines modern tech and its influence on the business landscape, and the way that a smaller student body (roughly 200 students per graduating class versus some programs’ 1000) gives her a true community experience with fellow students and alumni. From the beginning of her time at Tepper, Eleanore has been closely involved in the Graduate Finance Association (or GFA) which focuses on disciplines such as investment banking, corporate finance, and corporate or business development. Their goal is primarily to prepare finance students for the interview and recruitment process. In addition, they foster supplemental finance education, open to all students. This involves practicums and discussions of interest to everyone such as a recent forum on the GameStop incident, thus dissolving the barriers that make finance feel inaccessible to many of us. 

As the current president of the GFA, Eleanore’s goal is to further the accessibility of financial education to the student body, preparing them with the vocabulary to truly understand key concepts. She’s passionate about the idea that a greater understanding of finance principles will help students become more effective leaders no matter what their position or emphasis. 

Eleanore also discusses the employment and recruitment pipeline in the finance landscape for Tepper students and alumni. While Tepper has been historically strong in placing finance students, there has been a recent shift in where specifically these students are placed, including a targeted focus on the ever-developing FLDPs (Finance Leadership Development Programs) within major corporations, which give participants rotating positions so they can understand different elements within an organization. 

Before we finished, we asked Eleanore for some insider info about her native city. Growing up, Eleanore’s father often told her that Pittsburgh has everything that a big city has to offer. While she felt skeptical of his words as a child, having lived in New York for 5 years, she can now attest to its truthfulness. Historic powerhouse investors such as Carnegie and Mellon ensured legacy arts programs (not to mention educational programs such as ours), and the up-and-coming nightlife and social scenes have even earned neighborhoods such as Lawrenceville the title of “the new Brooklyn.” Eleanore offers a few recommended highlights of the city, from the best views in town to the Cathedral of Learning’s Nationality Rooms. 

Things You Will Learn

1. Tepper’s long-established strengths and shifting focus on future avenues for students who want to specialize in finance. 
2. The focus and offerings of various finance programs and associations within Tepper’s MBA program. 
3. Insider information on Pittsburgh’s history, culture, and favorite haunts. 

Links 

https://tepper.campusgroups.com/gfa/home/

Welcome back to Humans of Tepper, the student-run podcast focusing on real stories from students and alumni of the Tepper MBA program. Today, our hosts Cynthia and Rohit are talking with Becca Kilburg, a fellow second year student, about student clubs, moving to Pittsburgh, and living with a partner during business school. 

Before starting at Tepper, Becca worked in software sales and account management in the Boston area. She loved working with clients and helping them problem-solve, but wanted to be able to do it on a higher level. Drawn to Tepper’s academic rigour, she and her partner moved to Pittsburgh to start her MBA program. As a woman in a majority-male program, Becca observes that the open and welcoming atmosphere of Tepper helps her to never feel like the odd-woman-out. While the program has yet to achieve gender-parity, the culture is very conscious and supportive. 

Consulting recruiting was extremely strenuous… especially as Becca was concurrently planning her wedding. Becca shares that it was an opportunity to learn from failures and be comfortable with discomfort. She had to lean on her advisors, classmates, and partner at home to stay motivated and focused. Consulting recruiting was also supported by her involvement in TCC - the Tepper Consulting Club. During the first year, she had the opportunity to learn from alumni working in various consulting firms through one-on-one meetings, in order to understand more about the work culture and unique strengths of all of her options before she actually began the recruiting process. Later, the club helped her to practice interviewing technique, polishing and workshopping the way that she talked about herself and her goals. 

In addition to her participation in TCC, Becca was a member (and will soon be president) of PBC, or Pro Bono Consulting. This club works together with the Net Impact Club to pair Tepper consulting students with local Pittsburgh businesses. For Becca, this was a chance not only to practice the skills she’d been learning in class, but also to step into the city of Pittsburgh. Her first year, she worked with an organization called Tree Pittsburgh, which sells native saplings to the community in order to promote urban forestation.  

A unique part of Becca’s experience was moving to Pittsburgh and starting the program with a partner. In her case, she was fortunate enough to have a partner who was able to easily transfer his work to Pittsburgh. However, there were still challenges with balancing school and her relationship. In Becca’s case, she made it a priority from the beginning to block out Sundays for time at home. Overall, Becca recommends that anyone starting an MBA program carefully evaluates their goals and priorities. It will be different for everyone, whether you want to focus on recruiting, networking, club work, or other things going on in your life. Be intentional about what you want to get from your time with the program. 

Things You Will Learn: 

1. What various clubs are available at Tepper and how they can support your goals
2. Balancing a home life during the program
3. How consulting recruiting is different and how you can prepare

Links: 

https://www.treepittsburgh.org/

https://tepper.campusgroups.com/probono/about/

Welcome back to the Humans of Tepper Podcast, a show about the MBA experience at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. Today, our hosts Cynthia and Rohit are chatting with Melissa Bizzari. She’s sharing why she chose Tepper, what’s surprised her most as a grad student, and how she went from Division 1 Hockey player and hopeful coach to finding a passion in data analytics and becoming a community leader. 

Melissa’s journey to Tepper started when she discovered a passion for analytics while working with the Women’s Hockey Team at Boston College. During her time there, she pivoted from a career path towards a head coaching job, to a more rigorous analytics environment. 

When she came to Tepper, she expected the typical MBA experience--classes, an occasional event, and things of that nature. What surprised her was the amount of collaboration and community that has found a home here in Pittsburgh. Even outside of the school, alumni are willing to lend a hand and share their experiences. The size of the program at Tepper allows that to happen--everyone knows everyone, and conversations become easy to have. 

The MBA track tends to lean towards a male population. The experience that you have on campus though, Melissa says, doesn’t necessarily reflect that. Leadership in the program is female, club leadership has promoted female figures, and though the numbers may be slightly lower, the presence is not lacking. Peers see the strengths women bring to the program, including the Tepper Women in Business Club. Melissa also was elected President of the GBA, further demonstrating her philosophy. 

A driving force to running for GBA president for Melissa was her passion to get involved and contribute in a meaningful way to her program. As she got more exposure to clubs and built relationships, she wanted to seize the opportunity to help her peers get what they need. The impact that she could have in the position became reason enough to run. Of course, with the pandemic, leadership has to pivot. Without the ability to interact in person, Melissa had to get creative and build online programming. Through working to overcome challenges, opportunities to connect continue to come to fruition. 

Melissa is a Schwartz Fellow, which is part of an entrepreneurship program in the Schwartz Center that is available to students of all disciplines. The cohort of 12 students from across campus host a seminar where prominent figures in entrepreneurship speak in fireside conversations with students. They share their successes and failures and speak on their experiences and lessons learned. (Yes, Mark Cuban).

Tune in to hear what Melissa is working on now, and more!

Welcome to the Humans of Tepper Podcast, a show about the MBA experience at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. Today, our hosts Cynthia and Rohit are sitting down with Frank Avino, a 2nd year MBA student and Chair of the Graduate Business Association Wellness committee. He’s here to share his journey to Tepper, and his experience so far.

Tepper is a school at the intersection of business and technology, which fit perfectly into Frank’s passion areas. Coming out of Northwestern, Frank helped Pepsico save huge amounts of money from IT outages. When he wanted to shift from the operations side to the strategic side, he found a home at Tepper.  

But, Frank’s involvement at Tepper goes beyond that, as he sits as the Chair of the GBA Wellness Committee, where organizes and hosts wellness events, such as snacks during reading periods and therapy dogs during exam weeks. From his perspective, supporting student's wellbeing is paramount. His passion for wellness is seated in his experience as an undergrad, feeling down as his college experience wrapped up. He spoke with a counselor on campus where he discovered that you don’t need to travel to the Himalayas to experience mindfulness. Now, he shares that understanding with his peers through events and educational opportunities. 

Frank’s experience this summer with his internship looked a little different because of the pandemic. He worked with, and is returning to Deloitte Consulting. This summer was fully virtual, which left him with free time which he spent getting involved with his community. He joined a group called the MBA Response. They have a program where they work with small businesses, offering consultation regarding the US Government providing funds to pay employees. This effort scaled into consultation for digital marketing and partnerships throughout the US to support these same businesses in as many ways as possible. 

Frank shares with us his philosophy for his own success and his advice for current and prospective students. Be sure to tune in to listen to Frank’s personal experience throughout the pandemic and his favorite areas, moments, and conversations he has at Tepper and in the broader Pittsburgh community. 

This is “Humans of Tepper,” the authentic, student-led podcast from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. We’re glad you’re here and we’re proud to be sharing the real stories behind some of the world’s up and coming business leaders. Whether you’re thinking about getting your MBA, a current student with a story to share, or an alumni wanting to stay in touch with the school, we hope you’ll sit back, relax, and enjoy meeting some of the “humans of tepper.”

In this inaugural episode of “Humans of Tepper,” we’re being introduced to, and hearing from our hosts, Cynthia Mills and Rohit Dayal. 

Cynthia is a second-year MBA student at Tepper. She’s originally from South Jersey, and before coming to Tepper, she lived in Miami, Florida. She worked in tech for five years, primarily as a system administrator and project manager.  At Tepper, she serves as the TWIB VP of Inclusion and Community Engagement, as one of the editors for the Robber Barrons, and as a B&T advisory board member.  She participated in a summer internship at Wayfair in Category Management, and now has accepted a return offer to return to Wayfair after graduation.  Personally, she’s a die-hard college football fan (Go Canes!). Most importantly, Cynthia and her fiancé own a Corgi named Hugo.

Cynthia decided to participate in the Humans of Tepper Podcast because meeting current students at Tepper was a crucial part of her decision to get my MBA at Tepper. Especially with the current pandemic, it’s difficult for prospective students to get an idea of what their future classmates will be like. While it sounds cliche, her favorite part of her MBA experience has been her classmates. She’s excited to be a part of this project and share diverse perspectives about what it means to be a Tepper MBA student.

Rohit is a second-year MBA student at Tepper focusing on Healthcare. He has an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering & Applied Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to Tepper, Rohit worked in consulting for 7 years in Washington DC and worked for clients like the Department of Defense, Johnson & Johnson, and the US House of Representatives. Beyond that, he loves playing soccer, making craft cocktails, and collecting foreign language copies of The Little Prince when he travels abroad.

He is excited to host Humans of Tepper because it allows prospective students hear the unique journeys and lighter side of Tepper students: not just their professional journeys, but what makes them tick. Over the last two years, Rohit has fallen in love with Tepper and the Pittsburgh community, and it was primarily the people in his class that made that happen. Rohit hopes that this podcast will show prospective students how Tepper is more than just a school: it’s a family.