Employment Reports | Focused MBA Stories

“While studying user experience design and entrepreneurship as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, I became captivated by the intersection of people and technology. I have since been able to explore and pursue this passion as a Venture for America fellow, working at a SaaS startup. I held numerous roles while working at the startup, which culminated with me beginning my career as a product manager. After several years, I realized that I needed to round out my business and technical acumen to continue growing as a PM. NYU Stern’s Andre Koo Tech MBA, through its balance of business and tech, offered the perfect way for me to achieve this goal. I saw the MBA as an opportunity for me to continue my professional growth and move into a product role at a larger tech firm. During my time at Stern, the Careers team was invaluable to my recruiting experience. It was with the Careers office’s help that I was able to focus my recruiting efforts, prepare for interviews, navigate offer negotiations, and ultimately accelerate my career as a Product Manager at HubSpot."

“My career has been profoundly influenced by my parents—my father, a businessman, and my mother, an artist. Growing up at the crossroads of the creative and the analytical, I naturally fell in love with luxury retail, which sits perfectly at the intersection of art and business. I always knew I wanted to be part of this world, and life has presented me with challenges that turned into opportunities, helping me start building my career in it. At 22, I launched a jewelry brand in Colombia and spent five years building its presence in the Latin American market. However, I realized I lacked the experience and business tools to grow it in the way I envisioned. That experience as an entrepreneur deepened my love for the luxury industry and fueled my desire to build something meaningful in this space, ultimately leading me to pursue my MBA. Discovering NYU Stern’s MBA Business: Luxury & Retail program was a moment of clarity—it felt bespoke, made just for my goals. My year at Stern has been the best of my life. The opportunity to dive deeply into the industry I love alongside leading figures in the field has expanded my skills and strengthened my vision, all while experiencing life in New York City. After graduation, I knew I wasn’t quite ready to start a new business—I still have so much to learn. To continue growing, I recently joined Fullbeauty Brands as a Digital Marketing Manager. The road ahead is full of opportunities, and I can’t wait to keep immersing myself in the fashion industry here in New York.”

“Throughout my time at Stern, I embarked on a journey to expand my expertise beyond the realm of small to medium-sized businesses in the retail industry. My initial understanding of retail was rooted in the context of smaller enterprises, and I was eager to broaden my horizons by delving into the intricacies of larger corporations, where I believed I could make a more significant impact on the industry's market value. Courses such as Data-Driven Decision Making and Retail Strategy played a pivotal role in refining my comprehension of the various levers that can be pulled to enhance and effectively promote products. I realized that, in today's data-driven world, a deep understanding of the customer lifecycle and the ability to make informed decisions across multiple channels were essential for any retail professional. These insights propelled me to immerse myself in networking opportunities within the Stern community. I actively engaged with Stern alumni who were employed at major retail corporations, leveraging big data to comprehend the customer journey and elevate their brands through strategic merchandising decisions and seamless omni-channel experiences. Building these relationships not only enriched my knowledge but also guided me towards a transformative career path. As a result of these connections and my dedication to personal growth,  I accepted an offer to join the Leadership Training Program at H&M. This role presents an exciting opportunity to apply my knowledge and contribute to a global retail giant's success while constantly learning and innovating. I am grateful for the support and guidance I have received from the Careers team at Stern, which has been instrumental in shaping my journey. They provided invaluable insights to my personal branding and guidance on creating my career path strategy that have enabled me to take this significant step in my career.”

“Technology is integrated into every facet of life, from the way we receive our news to monitoring our health to connecting with our loved ones. My fascination with technology started at a very young age; watching it evolve and change our world is inspiring to me. I loved understanding how things work and helping family and friends with technical issues they encountered. I knew that both teamwork and technology are the foundations on which I want to build my career. For that reason, being a Product Manager at a NYC startup was a great starting point for me. As my hunger for larger impact grew, I realized that I needed to expand my skills in entrepreneurship, management, and innovation on a global level. The NYU Stern Andre Koo Tech MBA program was exactly what I was looking for, as it focused on preparing me for ambiguous environments while creating career opportunities that allowed me to kickstart my development into the leader I want to become. When I received multiple job offers from competing companies, the Careers team was instrumental in guiding me through the delicate process of weighing each offers’ pros and cons, communicating with the recruiters respectfully, and negotiating the final contract. I eventually received a once in a lifetime opportunity to make a positive impact on billions of people as I joined Meta's Integrity team as a Product Manager.”

“My career journey has been anything but predictable. I initially thought I was headed toward the world of traditional public relations, but the pandemic had other plans! I ended up diving headfirst into social media analytics at Methods+Mastery, a digital marketing agency, where I had the chance to work with amazing brands like Google, Samsung, and IBM. That's where my fascination with tech really took off. Something about the energy and constant innovation of those companies hooked me – I knew I wanted to be closer to that world. So, I set my sights on NYU Stern's Tech MBA program. The program's blend of business and tech was exactly what I was looking for and going to school in New York City was a major bonus. I couldn't have done it without the incredible Careers team at Stern. They were my lifeline, helping me with everything from polishing my resume to navigating networking events. There were moments I doubted myself, but they were always there to offer encouragement and guidance. Thanks to their support and a whole lot of determination, I landed my dream role at YouTube as a Marketing Analytics Associate working on exciting projects with YouTube TV and NFL Sunday Ticket. Looking back, I'm so grateful for my time at Stern and the Careers team’s support – they were instrumental in helping me pivot from the agency world and land squarely in the heart of the tech industry.”

"Reflecting back on my career, I am amazed by the unique evolution it has undergone. While I have always had an interest in solving ambiguous and complex challenges in the financial services industry, my journey into the world of technology was an unexpected twist. Prior to embarking on the Tech MBA at NYU Stern, I was working in the consulting industry and genuinely lucked out on being assigned to a technology focused project. I was intrigued by the potential of technology – specifically, to solve problems in a more long-term, sustainable way rather than to just provide a temporary fix within organizations. As my career progressed, so did my enthusiasm for technology; however, I was eager to extend my understanding and skillset beyond the financial services industry – and knew that the Tech MBA at NYU Stern would offer me the breadth and scale of learnings across an intersection of industries, opening doors to a wide range of post-MBA career opportunities. Today, I work as a Technology Strategy Manager at American Express – a role that combines my pre-MBA experiences and the knowledge and skills I have learned during my time at NYU Stern. We do not know how technology will change over our lifetimes, but I am confident that the expertise and skills that I have gained during my time at NYU Stern will translate across a number of different domains and opportunities within my career, long-term."

“Growing up during the early 2000s, I was immersed in a world driven by technology. My passion for technology deepened when I joined Capgemini as a consultant. I had the privilege of harnessing technology to tackle intricate challenges for clients spanning diverse industries and international markets. In an era where processes and technologies evolve rapidly, I have held a strong belief in the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, which ultimately guided me towards pursuing an MBA. Enrolling in the NYU Stern Tech MBA program provided me with a hands-on education and invaluable networking opportunities with leading global tech firms. The Careers team played a pivotal role in preparing my resume for specific job roles and providing insight into the skills that recruiters at these firms are seeking. Thanks to Stern's unwavering support, I am now positioned to make a significant impact on billions of people as a Senior Product Manager at Amazon.”

"Prior to pursuing my MBA, I already had some work experiences as a product manager and a startup co-founder in consumer tech. Since I didn’t aim to change my industry or function in the short term, I decided to take my business school journey at NYU Stern with the Andre Koo Tech & Entrepreneurship MBA program. It was an incredible experience that allowed me to reflect, learn, and grow rapidly within just one year and in a world-class city. The vibrant tech scene in New York and the NYU Stern alumni community getting stronger nationwide have fueled a thriving tech ecosystem that’s driving success in this dynamic industry. All the knowledge, skills, and connections I gained from this program have been incredibly inspiring in my new role. One year ago, I couldn’t have imagined these many positive changes I’d make in my life and career!"

“I was a Product Manager before Stern and wanted to stay in Product after. I was often asked by my peers "Why are you doing this MBA, if you are already doing what you want to do?". In the words of Professor Nate Pettit, "What got you here, won't get you there." I knew I had strong execution prowess working across startups, but I felt I lacked the depth and grounding in broader business understanding in order to catapult me to the next level. The MBA for me, was a place of reflection, to more deeply understand my experiences from a new perspective so that I can make smarter and more intentional decisions. An example is in a past startup; I had to launch a brand new product, where I winged everything from pricing to go-to-market. I felt I had no idea what I was doing. At Stern, my classes in Pricing, Marketing, Leadership, Finance, and even unexpected fun ones at the Law school, taught me so much. My recruiting path towards Meta was an arduous 4 month process. The Careers team organized critical PM Tech Interview workshops which changed the trajectory of my interview prep. They also were there for me in whatever way I needed, from providing uninterrupted interview spaces to behavioral mock interview support. Recruiting can be a long, lonely path, and I couldn't have done it without Stern alumni, peers, and the Careers office. As a product manager at Meta, I need to exercise every arsenal in my toolkit as I engage with cross functional teams from design, research, data science, engineering, and product marketing. Every time I encounter a new problem such as making a decision on where to invest, there are lectures flashing in my head of what I can pull from. I am a better product thinker because of Stern. More importantly, I am a better person and citizen of the world.”

“From the moment I decided to pursue my MBA, I knew that I had to go somewhere where my differences would be embraced and empowered. On paper, I didn't feel like I fit the mold of an "MBA Student" - my undergraduate degree was in the arts, I was on the younger end of my class, and I was an out member of the LGBTQ+ community. However, what I ultimately found was that Stern's Andre Koo Tech MBA program not only welcomed all these differences, but also gave me the foundation to craft them into my greatest assets. Having held the positions of VP of Marketing at OutClass, Stern's Leadership Accelerator Fellow, and my cohort's Cohort Leader, I fine-tuned my marketing skills in an environment that strove to lift members of our community, facilitated trainings on storytelling, leveraged my artistic background in a way I had never done before, and exercised the importance of being a great people manager. These extracurricular activities allowed me to feel confident in who I was, while strengthening the skills I was learning in class. All of this paid off in my Digital Media Innovation class when the CEO of VidMob spoke to our class and said "We look for people who are both creative and tech-driven." It was a lightbulb moment I had been waiting to hear for years. And when I was offered the opportunity to take on a part-time internship during my fall semester, I immediately scheduled a meeting with a career coach at the Careers office, who heard the passion in my voice and said "Go for it, Scot." That internship turned into a full-time offer from VidMob, and now I work as a Strategic Client Manager leading our Tech and Gaming vertical, where I synthesize data from our proprietary Creative Analytics platform into actionable campaign strategies for clients. As I look back on my time at Stern, the day that stands out the most to me is when I was given the honor to be a Commencement Speaker at Madison Square Garden. That day, I had the honor to represent my Tech MBA cohort in front of thousands of people to testify that Stern is a community where every individual belongs, and every individual excels.”

“Prior to stern, I held various roles working in transportation and consumer electronics as an electrical engineer. Most recently, I was lucky enough to bump into some folks at a company called Cruise and got heavily involved in launching driverless vehicle programs to the public in the Bay Area. Over the years there, I worked in various capacities in operations, reliability engineering, and product as we scaled the fleet from 10s to 100s of driverless cars and scaled our team from 100s to 1000s of employees. After a few years, I decided it was time to hone in on my business and product skills with some formal education and was fortunate to find a home with the Stern Andre Koo Tech MBA program. For me, the Tech MBA was the perfect mix to get exposure to how businesses really work while allowing me to double down on my focus to become a broadly capable product manager. The Careers team was there at every step of the process to help me figure out where I fit in and how to pursue my dream role. They were there for the broad conversations as a sounding board when I was focusing on a handful of product roles in the fall. They were even there in the spring to get into the minutia with me on all of the things we students tend to worry about in recruiting: when and how to send the perfect emails, how best to negotiate an offer, etc. Now, thanks to the many people who have supported me, I’m working at an e-commerce startup in New York City called Order where I lead automation work to better enable our internal operations and fulfillment teams. It seemed like a big stretch for me to jump from autonomous cars into e-commerce, but Stern helped me bridge the gap and gain the confidence I needed to turn my experiences into themes that are easily relatable across many industries as a product manager.”

"Having spent 8 years of my career as an Art Director and wanting to move into the fashion e-commerce industry, I knew I needed to make three strong pivots: Industry, Function, & Geography. The MBA Business: Luxury & Retail was the only program that promised such a jump. While I was confident in my ability to navigate parts of this new industry, I needed to enrich my creative capabilities with tools of business such as data analysis, decoding consumer psychography, and strategizing digital innovation, specifically in the luxury sector. Courses such as Luxury Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Data-Driven Decision Making & Digital Strategy really helped me develop the functional skills I needed to be successful in the profiles I was targeting. Also, working directly with senior leaders at influential organizations during our three Stern Solutions Experiential Learning projects opened doors for me to network directly with prospective hiring managers and showcase my abilities first-hand. I leaned on the Careers team to streamline my recruitment strategy and leveraged their expertise to structure my approach as an international candidate. A career coach helped me create an action plan, explore relevant resources, manage my time, stay on track and she supported me through the ups and downs. From my resume review through networking and finally, to negotiating my offer to join as a Senior Manager for Digital Marketing & E-Commerce at The Watches of Switzerland Group, the Careers office, faculty members, and my cohort at NYU Stern were all instrumental in my success story."