Josefa Riveros, MBA 2019
- Hometown
West Nyack, NY - Undergraduate
School: Babson College
Major: Business, IT Mangement - Previous Company
Security Program Manager, Veracode - Post-MBA Company
Product Associate, Synk - Specializations at Stern
Product Management, Strategy - Student Clubs
Association of Hispanic & Black Business Students, Focused MBA Liaison
Entrepreneurship and Startup Association
Stern Adventures
Stern Technology Association
Stern Women in Business
What is your most treasured NYC spot?
What has been your favorite class at Stern?
From a hard skills perspective, Dealing with Data, Product Management, and DevOps are probably all tied. These classes were part of the Andre Koo Tech MBA core and super valuable in giving me the foundation for my pivot into product management. The Tech Solutions class we took in the fall (which was also part of our core) was also critical as it essentially served as a replacement for a summer internship. I got to work on a project that involved building out Alexa voice skills from scratch for a television news channel. It was an awesome project and every time I talked about it in job interviews, people were really impressed and always had follow up questions.
On a soft skills side, it's a tie between Leadership in Organizations and Power & Politics. Both classes teach you things that you typically have to learn on the job with a lot of trial and error. You learn a lot of valuable lessons in these classes that you can take forward for years and years down the line in your career.
How has Stern's Office of Career Development prepared you for success?
How have you found a sense of community and support within Stern?
While I regrettably didn't get as involved in this group as I would have liked until my final semester at Stern, the other group that means a lot to me is AHBBS. They work tirelessly on ensuring that Stern is creating the most diverse and inclusive community possible. Between diversity weekends to help prospective students build the strongest applications possible and on campus events for current students, the impact they have on the Stern community is a force that cannot be ignored. They also have the BEST energy. It's impossible to spend time with AHBBS and not end up in pain from either laughing (or dancing) harder than you thought was possible. I learned this lesson pretty quickly on a Spring Break trek organized by AHBBS and SIA that involved 50 Sternies taking on Tanzania together in what was one of the most memorable weeks of my life.
Why did you choose NYU Stern?
When I was looking at what business schools I wanted to apply to, I was specifically focused on schools with strong technology offerings, which was surprisingly hard to find. When I came across the Andre Koo Tech MBA program, I knew immediately that it was exactly what I wanted. It was the perfect blend of Tech and Business that would provide me with a unique experience that would give me a leg up when applying to Product Management roles.