LinkedIn Alumni offers powerful tool to leverage your alumni networks

Sara Jones, TMMBA Associate Director and 2012 alumnus

According to John Hill, 85% of job opportunities will come through someone that’s a 2nd level connection on LinkedIn. John is LinkedIn’s Higher Education Evangelist and last week he came to the Foster School to share tips and strategies for getting the most out of LinkedIn.  Although it wasn’t all new to me, John was a great presenter who could really tell a story and make his message stick.

The three big points of the night were:

  1. Build a network before you need it.
  2. Build a quality network not a quantity network.
  3. Dream big.

The rest of the talk was on how to use LinkedIn to manage relationships and help accomplish these big points. He shared several great tips, but I want to highlight one feature that you might not be as familiar with: LinkedIn Alumni.

Here’s a screenshot:

linkedIn alumni

If a fellow TMMBA or Foster alum reached out to me, I’m likely to take the call. Why? Because we have something in common. With LinkedIn Alumni, you can now find fellow alums of your university or b-school AND you can filter by where they live, work, what they do, skills, and several others.

For example, if I was looking at relocating to the Bay area and interested in Google, I can drill down and see that I have 19 fellow Foster alums that graduated in the past 5 years.  Or maybe you’re sick of the Seattle rain and ready to move to the islands.  In my case, I have 87 fellow alums that I could reach out to in Hawaii.

That’s a pretty powerful tool to help you leverage your alumni networks. Check it out and let me know what you think.


Posted by Sara Jones - February 26th, 2013 - 0 comments - Permalink


If true wealth is discretionary time, how rich are we?

Sarah McCaffrey, TMMBA Student, Class of 2014

After reading Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss, I considered a point he reiterated several times as it applies to the TMMBA. In his book, Weiss identifies his true measure of wealth: discretionary time. The idea is that wealth should not be measured by a bank account balance, a stockpile of resources, or the difference between monthly income and monthly expenses. Weiss asserts that the only way to measure our personal wealth is by measuring the amount of time with which we can do whatever we like.

MDCImage courtesy Amazon.com

Executives making seven figures, who work eighteen hours a day? Not wealthy. Small business owners who set their own hours and do what they love? Filthy rich. Parents who want music lessons and summer camp for their kids? That depends. If we must budget so closely to reach our goals that we sometimes require an injection of overtime pay, extra cash from babysitting or listing items on Craigslist, we may be doing just fine, but we are not rolling in discretionary time.

Assume that Alan Weiss has it right and this is the way we should measure our success: what does that mean for the TMMBA? Now that Class 13 has adjusted to the rigors of the program, how might we apply this concept to our new reality?

Working toward the TMMBA is a major investment. Not just of our finances, but of our wealth… our time.

clock

Image courtesy Wikipedia Commons

As we invest our time in the TMMBA, what type of return on investment will we see? Remember, we’re still thinking in terms of wealth as discretionary time. For the hours that we put into the program, what kind of hours will we get back?

With Immersion Week and half of our first quarter under our belts, I can already see some of the time coming our way. As we continue in Financial Reporting and Analysis, I see a future in which I do not have to chase down an accountant, or plug an income statement line by line into a search engine to make sure that I understand what it’s telling me. I look forward to seeing how much time I save in future workplace conversations as our classes in professional communications, negotiations, and ethics prompt me to communicate exactly what I think, as opposed to hacking away at my point as I struggle to carve closer and closer to what it is I really mean but can’t quite get across. Finally, the knowledge we are accruing, every lesson we take home, will result in days when we have the answer to a problem, days without hesitation or desperation.

I see the TMMBA paying dividends.


Posted by svgrow - February 11th, 2013 - 1 comment - Permalink


TMMBA Student Resources 101

Ally Wewers, TMMBA Program Coordinator

Today, TMMBA Class 13 students (who began at the beginning of January) have their first Saturday of class at Paccar Hall. TMMBA typically hosts one class per quarter on the Seattle Campus, which gives students an opportunity to see the other Foster Facilities and experience the campus environment. All morning, I’ve been listening to students ooh and ahh over Paccar Hall. “It’s like I’m back in my undergraduate days…” is a common comment from most.

Being on campus gives students a hands-on look at many other resources that TMMBA and the Foster School of Business provides for them.  Oftentimes, the 18 months of a TMMBA student go by so quickly that they forget to take a look around them and see what else is available outside of their classes.  I encourage all students to take advantage of these many benefits and resources:

  • Lounge for Foster MBA Students at Paccar

    Lounge for Foster MBA Students at Paccar

    Foster MBA Lounge and Access at Paccar Hall: With an activated Husky Card, students are able to access Paccar Hall, Dempsey Hall, and the MBA Lounge. Even when the Paccar Building is not open to the public, students are welcome to use the space for studying and group meetings. There’s even a dedicated space just for MBA students- the T-Mobile MBA Commons. This was a popular tour stop for our students today, and no- it does not come equipped with cigars and smoking jackets. It’s a study lounge- not to be confused with students other after-class haunts.

  • IMA (Intramurals Activity Building) – I was happy to hear today that a few students have already been working up a sweat at the IMA (only prompted in small part to the TMMBA ice cream cooler I’m sure). With a Husky Card, TMMBA students are allowed access to their fitness center and courts. UW Recreational Sports programs also provides the WAC (Waterfront Activities Center) where there are discounts available on canoe and rowboat rentals.

Husky Stadium

  • While we’re on the topic of fitness and sports, TMMBA students are always eligible for student tickets to Husky Athletic Events.  Some sporting events (baseball, volleyball, soccer) are free with a husky card, while others (men’s basketball, football) are subject to additional, discounted costs. Student tickets go fast for these events, so make sure to plan ahead for season or single-game tickets.
  •  UPass: Every UW student has a UPass which comes with their Husky Card. The U-PASS provides students with a variety of low-cost transportation options—from buses, commuter train service and light rail, to vanpooling and discounted carpooling. No activation required- once you get your Husky Card you’re ready to ride.
  • Foster Centers and Events:  The various Centers, including the Business and Economic Development Center, the Center for Leadership and Strategic Thinking, The Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, and the Global Business Center- all welcome involvement from TMMBA students. Foster also hosts events, like the Leaders to Legends Breakfast Series and Meet-the-Firms. For an updated list of events, take a look at the Foster Calendar.
  • Finally, one of the advantages of being a student at the University of Washington is the world-class library system available for use. Today, a representative from the Foster Business School library came to speak to students about the amenities at their location in Paccar Hall. Available to students are recent business publications, database access, librarian assistance and much more. Whether it’s the Foster Library or one of the many other University Libraries, these student resources are not to be forgotten.

Husky Card

As you can see- many of these resources require a student to have their Husky Card. Getting a Husky Card is free to students, and only requires a visit to the Husky Card Offices. Other Husky Card benefits include discounts from a variety of merchants, free admission to UW Museums, access to UW Zip Cars, and many more.

In writing this, I know that there are still many other UW/Foster/TMMBA resources that I am not mentioning. From business cards to MBA clubs, to TMMBA Career Services and sponsorship affiliations, there’s always more to get out of the TMMBA experience. Hopefully, sometime between classes and homework and team meetings, our students will find time to take advantage of them all! Because TMMBA students always need one more thing to add to the to-do list…


Posted by Ally Wewers - February 2nd, 2013 - 0 comments - Permalink


Business Plan Competition past participants offer advice for students

Sara Jones, TMMBA Assistant Director

Last summer I interviewed a group of TMMBA students that competed in the Business Plan Competition and won 2nd place for their concept, Xylemed. They had a lot to share about the experience and gave some great insights into the various competition stages.  Here’s the video:

Now that the 2013 Business Plan Competition activities are getting under way, I went back to the interview transcripts and pulled out a few final thoughts and pieces of advice that they have for someone considering the competition.

Marc: It is going to be really tough if you don’t have something that either has traction or you can gain traction quickly.  All of the teams that had some success either had a contract signed, product in development, or started a kick starter campaign and had some sort of traction. We heard from multiple people that it is almost less of a business plan competition than it is a business competition.

Jason: Use it as an opportunity to really push yourself.  You probably go to work and do a few things that are very specific, whereas when you are trying to launch a company with only a few teammates, you really have to have a much broader perspective on things.  You are going to learn a lot from just having to think through so many questions and in different ways than you have probably had to think before.

Also, if you are trying to identify an opportunity for the business plan competition, look at examples within your own company or try to find pain points within your own work or life.  Those are probably the most relevant to you that you will be able to be passionate about and hopefully create a product or service that really resonates with a target audience.

Ben: If you really want to make it into the final four, you have to have a product which exists, which is in a way too bad, because it is less of a business plan competition and more of a startup competition. But I wouldn’t let that defer you from entering the competition if you have enough of an idea that you want to see get off the ground.  The harsh reality is that you probably won’t make it into the finals, but you will get so much more out of the competition than you ever think you will entering it that it is still very much worth it.

Anoop: It does take a decent amount of time, adding that to the class workload. You really have to be willing to dedicate time to it, but it is definitely worthwhile and I think the benefits far outweigh the time you put into it.


Posted by Sara Jones - January 25th, 2013 - 0 comments - Permalink


TMMBA Acts: Taking Immersion Week Ethics to Heart

Sarah McCaffrey, TMMBA Student, Class of 2014

I have an ethical dilemma.

By pure chance, I subscribed to a Facebook page for a student veterans group that recently shared a link to an upcoming event. This link took me to an announcement of an enticing opportunity, an all-expense-paid weekend summit with one of the most sought-after technology employers in the United States. During this summit, the company will celebrate core military values, offering a small group of undergraduate and graduate business student veterans a chance to network and learn about their company culture.

As a Marine veteran and TMMBA student, I want to attend this summit. Every business student veteran reading this post wants to attend this summit, and every non-business non-veteran student reading this post wishes they met the criteria so they could attend this summit. I want it so much that I can feel the temptation to become secretive.

top secretImage via handpickedcollection.com

Several other veterans attend the TMMBA program; countless others study at the Foster School of Business. If they apply, how will that affect my (already slim) chances? Why should they benefit from my Facebook group subscription diligence? Am I under any obligation to share this information?

Fortunately, we took an Ethics seminar with Dr. Scott Reynolds during Immersion Week. I have the tools to resolve this dilemma.

If every person in the world withheld information to suit their goals, would that be a good thing? If every veteran withheld information to suit their goals, would we find that admirable? Would I personally benefit from such a standard?

Lost in thoughts

Image via 123rf.com

Which choice would add more value to the world as a whole? At its simplest, to withhold the announcement of a veterans summit, I gain the value of reduced competition, while each veteran who does not hear about the opportunity loses the value of a chance to apply. To share the news, I lose the value of better odds, while many more veterans gain the value of a chance at being selected. Lastly, the tech company, Google, gains the value of a diverse, competitive group from which to select their summit participants.

I hope every eligible person bookmarks this link to the Google Student Veterans Summit; applications open in the spring of 2013 with the summit to follow in July. If any University of Washington student finds a place in this select group, I will celebrate with justifiable pride in our entire veteran community. Good luck to all of you – just not too good.


Posted by svgrow - January 11th, 2013 - 0 comments - Permalink


Eight TMMBA Highlights in 2012

    1. Students make it to the Final Four Round of the Business Plan Competition.

      Xylemed took the $10,000 second place prize and GroBox won $2,500 for the Best Consumer Product Idea. Read about the TMMBA teams that entered the competition and hear from Xylemed participants about their experience.

      TMMBA students at the 2012 UW Foster Business Plan Competition

    2. We admitted our 13th class into the TMMBA Program.

      The newest class is made up of 72 students representing 44 organizations from 13 countries averaging 12 years of work experience. They kicked off their journey in a packed 7-day Immersion Week in December. The immersion courses covered teamwork, negotiation, communications, and ethics. Students also got to practice their business etiquette at our annual Etiquette Dinner.

    3. TMMBA joined the WTIA.

      Through the Washington Technology Industry Association membership, students and alums now have access to a wide array of benefits. This is just one more opportunity for them to expand their network and get access to a great mix of events and continuing education opportunities.

    4. Alums hit the fields on second annual TMMBA Ultimate Frisbee team.

      We played against teams from Microsoft, Google, Tableau, Boeing, and many other local companies in the DiscNW summer league. There were 24 players representing the Classes of ’03, ’09, ’10, ’11, and ’12. Read highlights from season.

    5. TMMBA held its first local company visit in the fall.

      Students visited Boeing in Everett for a VIP tour of the factory floor. They got to see first-hand how one big company puts into practice the operations and supply chain strategies they were learning about in the classroom.

    6. Students visited Singapore and Beijing on the International Study Tour.

      From hot and humid to cold and snowy, Class of 2012 students ventured out to explore these cities, the local culture, and visit a mix of companies spanning healthcare, energy, telecom, luxury goods and many other industries. Students shared their takeaways in these blog posts.

      TMMBA Class of 2012 at Singapore Airlines

    7. TMMBA added two new courses into the curriculum.

      In Social Media for Managers, students were introduced to successful social media programs and took a broad look at social media – from tactics and tools to how to use social in their business strategy. The new Venture Capital Investment Practicum is a two-day course that synthesizes the TMMBA curricula with a refresher of marketing, finance, and management through the lens of venture capital investing. The output is an all-day competition where teams analyze two businesses and present their analysis and investment decision to a panel of entrepreneur judges.

    8. “TMMBA Contributes” turns five.

      Once a year for the past five years, TMMBA has invited students, alumni, and staff to take a break from their hectic lives and lend a helping hand in the community at our TMMBA Contributes event. Whether packing food at Food Lifeline, helping out at the Treehouse store, or pulling invasive weeds at the Seattle Youth Garden, we come together for a few hours of service. View photos from this year’s volunteer event at Food Lifeline.


Posted by tmmba - January 7th, 2013 - 0 comments - Permalink


The predicted end of the world has passed, now what?

Alden Erickson, TMMBA Student, Class 13

According to the Mayan calendar, the world was to have ended two days ago. As we are still here, it is fairly safe to say that their theory was incorrect. This is the latest in a series of reminders for me that our paradigms can be wrong. It took 5,125 years to disprove the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Fortunately, feedback in business is more rapid but still we can subscribe to theories for years without knowing if a better way exists. There are of course many ways to challenge one’s paradigms but I would suggest replacing them with new ones through TMMBA.

When I arrived home from immersion week, I was dog tired. My exhaustion was due in part to the intense schedule and late nights reading, but there was more. Over the week I had been exposed to a number of new ideas and my mind was swimming with the possibilities of how to integrate them into my work and life. I thought of the Team Performance Model and how to utilize the concepts of the Intangible Resource Base, Value-Related Processes, and Team Performance Context. I considered viewing my future negotiations through the lenses of Interests, Power, and Relationships. I pondered ethics and Edward Freeman’s Stakeholder Theory for Organizational Management. Yes, I was tired, but I was also happy as I stumbled through the door after a busy immersion week.

I have not fully absorbed these ideas yet. If anything, I have more questions now than when I started. In the next 18 months of the TMMBA program, I expect that countless more theories will be introduced and I welcome every one of them. It will take time to form new paradigms. However, as the end of the world does not appear to be imminent, my fellow classmates and I have time!


Posted by ae03 - December 23rd, 2012 - 0 comments - Permalink


Experience, Explore, Entertain

By Pritam Das, TMMBA Student, Class of 2014

Experience,
Explore,
Entertain

That’s the Tagline of Novelty Hill Januik Winery.

We surely did experience the bottled poetry called wine from one of the world’s ten “Masters of Merlot”,
We surely did get entertained by the award winning building design of the Novelty hill that rhythms with the geometry of linear rows of grapes in vineyard, and
We surely did explore the perfect food with local, sustainable ingredients, including organic fruits and vegetables.

But that’s not all. The two hour holiday social organized by the TMMBA staff on 18th of Dec, 2012 at the Novelty Hill Januik Winery exposed us to a ton of opportunities these networking events hold.

Within a frame of two hours, I was able to explore what it takes as an entrepreneur to launch a radio station in Seattle, debate over a supply chain issue of recycled raw materials for a manufacturing company, discuss the possibility of a future HBR case study exploring the famous delay in the delivery of the 787 airplanes, find out how a doors and windows manufacturing company have a lot in common in launching a new product when compared to that of a multinational software company…. The list is endless.

I used to think that who would match the variety of our class 13 that has 72 students from 13 different countries with an average 12 year of work experience from 44 different companies. But after meeting TMMBA seniors and alumni at the social, I was just mind blown with the brain power, diversity, and breadth the UW’s TMMBA program has to offer us.

Last but not the least; it was great getting advice from seniors and alumni who have gone through the same intense MBA program (probably the most rigorous in the state of WA) in the past.

Ending with a famous quote from Robert Kiyosaki -

“If you want to go somewhere, it is best to find someone who has already been there.”


Posted by tmmba - December 20th, 2012 - 0 comments - Permalink


Bullish on TMMBA teams

Alden Erickson, TMMBA Student, Class 13

Teams… Whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, they are a part of our business life. Given that, how does one transition from merely surviving to thriving in a team? TMMBA students came together as part of immersion week to answer that very question.

Right from the start, we were each assigned to a study team of 4 to 6 people which was formed based on geography, background, and personality type considerations to ensure a broad range of skill sets. After all, what better way to learn than by doing? As a team, we will be responsible for completing a variety of assignments together over the next nine months and, more importantly, helping to get one another through the program. Interestingly, at random, I asked several classmates over the week how they liked their team, and they all responded that their team was terrific! We are off to a great start.

In addition, we attended three half day sessions taught by the incredibly engaging Professor Bigley who is a master of Socratic questioning and draws his classes into lively discussions. Together we reviewed a number of articles exploring the pitfalls of teams, decision making, and how to create high performance teams. For example, we learned about the downside of Groupthink by studying the Bay of Pigs decision-makers. We talked of decision making as a process rather than an event. We were introduced to the idea of inquiry in decision making which generates multiple alternatives and fosters the exchange of ideas. We studied the Army’s high performance OPFOR team which uses after-action reviews to continually learn and thereby regularly bests numerically and technologically superior opponents in training competitions. It was an incredibly packed week and yet it was only the beginning.

Now, we bring these concepts into practice as we go forward and continue to build upon our study teams. My team, the Red Bulls, is off to a great start and I for one am bullish on TMMBA teams.


Posted by ae03 - December 9th, 2012 - 0 comments - Permalink


Your Resume is a Reflection of Your Personal Brand

By Susie Buysse, TMMBA Associate Director, Career Services

Students enter the TMMBA Program with diverse career goals.  We recommend outlining plans in the first quarter followed by subsequent milestones and actions to realize this change upon graduation.

Often, the best place to begin is ensuring that your resume is contemporary and easy-to-read while capturing your best relevant strengths.  Two benefits of this:

  • As a TMMBA student, you will expand your network and a great fit opportunity may surface without an active job search.
  • Your resume can be tuned-up before a career focus is set, and it can certainly be further tailored at a later date.

In November, the TMMBA Program delivered two workshops on crafting a polished resume.  These articles highlight the importance of including your accomplishments (impact) in order to stand out from the crowd and get noticed:


Posted by tmmba - December 5th, 2012 - 0 comments - Permalink


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