Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes Breanna Atkinson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kokada, whose mission is to create good-tasting and healthy food with ingredients from around the world. After her undergraduate career, she spent some time in consulting. She was inspired to pursue her MBA early on, and applied to Wharton while launching her first company. Another large influence has been in her time as an athlete, playing as a student athlete at Duke, and then going on...

Right now, many MBA students are in the thick of internship interview season, navigating preparing for interviews, finding opportunities and building relationships with hiring managers and recruiters all while managing all the other academic components of business school is no easy task! In this episode, Al Dea, walks through some common challenges that MBA students face during internship recruiting season, and provides some tips and best practices for staying on course and focusing on your...

Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes from 2023 This week, we’re flipping the format on the MBA Insider Podcast, with the help of a former guest and friend Eryn Schultz, and putting Al Dea (MBA Insider Host) in the guest chair. In this episode, Eryn, a fellow entrepreneur, talks to Al about his own entrepreneurial journey with building MBASchooled. Al spoke about his motivation for creating MBASchooled, why he recently left his corporate career at Salesforce to focus on...

Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes from 2023 Paul Millerd is an MIT Sloan MBA Graduate, and the Author of the Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story for Life and Work. Like many hard-working and driven college graduates, Paul entered the corporate world after college ready to work hard, achieve success and climb the corporate ladder. But through a series of events before and after business school, Paul ended up taking an alternative path, and evolving his views on life...

Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes from 2023 Many MBA students cite that networking and building relationships are two of the most valuable parts of the MBA experience. But how does that play out, and how do MBA graduates cultivate their relationships with their peers and classmates during business school and beyond? In this episode, we spoke to three MBA alums, Margaret Nealon (USC Marshall, ‘22) Ethan Siegel (Owen, ‘22) and Jill Toner (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘22) about...

Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes from 2023 Christina Wallace is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, an HBS Graduate, entrepreneur and author. In her most recent book, The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card, Christina makes the case for how employees are multi-dimensional individuals, and can re-think and reframe their relationship with their job and career, and to use portfolio...

Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes One of the questions that is top of mind for any professional who is considering an MBA is around value - what is the ROI of an MBA degree, and is it worth it for me? In this solo episode, Al talks about how an MBA is one of many potential accelerants for career growth and learning, and why someone might value an MBA degree. He walks through key questions around figuring out if an MBA is worth it to you, the common reasons why people...

Mentorship is a critical element of success in the career journey of many leaders. So how can mentorship facilitate learning and transformation during business school so that an MBA student can achieve their unique goals? Founded over a decade ago, the Executive Connections Program at the ASU W.P Carey Business School was designed to provide MBA students with relationships, knowledge, and confidence personalized to their unique career goals In this episode, you’ll hear from Jenny Tang...

Stephanie Movahhed is Business and Mindset Coach, and an MBA Graduate from the Michigan Ross School of Business. Prior to her time in business school, Stephanie spent time at Google before deciding to pursue an MBA to get formal business training. In her time post business school, Stephanie found ways to follow her interests and curiosities, even if it meant taking her down a path that she didn’t always expect. This has allowed her to create a life and career that she finds fulfillment and...

MBA students go to business school to achieve their career goals. But how does that actually happen? In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Simone Bayfield and Joey Kimes about the MBA program at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Consistently ranked as a top MBA program in the United States, W. P. Carey offers MBA students the benefits of a community-driven MBA program with the scale and opportunities of the broader Arizona State University brand...

A common question that career driven professionals have is “how do I know if I am ready for an MBA?” In this episode, Al walks through how by taking stock and reflecting on where you are in your career, you can determine if an MBA could be the next step. Make sure to listen in to learn How the workplace and careers are changing, and why an MBA could be valuable Common reasons why MBA students choose to go to business school Common scenarios for when you might be ready to pursue an MBA as...

In this episode, we explore the opportunities that come with MBA rotational programs. This episode features Jack Brynes (UNC Kenan-Flagler) Cindy Zheng (Wharton) and Adam Tomasiello (UNC-Kenan-Flagler) three MBA graduates who pursued MBA rotational programs after graduating from business school. During this episode, we’ll unpack what a rotational program is, some of the benefits of rotational programs, and hear from Jack, Cindy and Adam about how their experiences in rotational programs and...

In this episode, Al shares four specific actions that all professionals can take in order to grow their career today.

Jess Stokes is an MBA Graduate from the Wharton School of Business. Prior to going to Wharton, Jess was a teacher, and decided to get an MBA to broaden her business knowledge and find opportunities to learn and grow. During our conversation, Jess spoke about her decision to attend business school and how she took a non-linear approach to learning, experimentation, and growth while an MBA student. Jess also shared how she was able to turn her interest in education into a career an EdTech,...

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Kathy Oneto is a UC-Berkeley-Haas MBA Graduate, and the Principal Strategist at the Agency Oneto. She is also the host of the Sustainable Ambition Podcast. After starting her career in advertising, Kathy decided to pursue an MBA to continue learning and growing and finding other opportunities to explore new paths and explore more opportunities. During our conversation, Kathy spoke about how after graduating from business school she went from working in the consulting and CPG industries to...

In this episode, Al walks through 5 key lessons about work and careers that nobody ever teaches you. Al’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/

One of the most common career related questions we get is around how to get promoted at work. This episode walks through some suggestions for how to both strategically and tactically get promoted in your workplace. Links https://alsnewsletter.substack.com/p/new-year-new-promotion https://www.fastcompany.com/90832084/how-get-noticed-promoted-working-remotely

Betty Tran is a MBA Candidate in the Class of 2024 at the Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business. After starting her career working in tech and startups, Betty decided to pursue an MBA at Tuck to further her business acumen and explore other career opportunities. During our conversation, Betty shared how she landed at Tuck, why she chose it, and how she has used her time at Tuck to advance in her career. Betty also shared some of the fun and challenging parts of the MBA experience, and...

Taylor Clark is an MBA Graduate from the Class of 2023 at Harvard Business School. During our conversation, Taylor spoke about her journey to deciding on pursuing an MBA at HBS, why she wanted to go to Harvard specifically, and some of the memorable and impactful moments from her time at Harvard. Since her childhood, Taylor has always pursued opportunities to lead, and during our conversation, Taylor spoke about her desire to use her time in business school at HBS to continue to build her...

Are you looking to advance in your career? Trying to build relationships or advance towards a career goal? Here are five practical tips for standing out so you can build better relationships and find more ways to grow your career Links: https://al-dea.medium.com/10-ways-to-stand-out-in-the-workplace-be95efc65c88

In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Rebecca Mallen Churchill and Elvis Diaz about the MBA program at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Consistently ranked as a top MBA program in the United States, W. P. Carey offers MBA students the benefits of a community-driven MBA program with the scale and opportunities of the broader Arizona State University brand and network. During our conversation, Elvis, a W. P. Carey MBA graduate shared his...

Britt Hunter is an MBA Graduate from the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management. Prior to pursuing her MBA at Owen, Britt worked in education and now currently works in HR at Microsoft. During our conversation, Britt spoke about her pre-MBA work in education, and how her students motivated her to apply for an MBA. She also shared some of the reasons why she chose to attend Owen, her favorite memories from business school, and her own journey with public speaking....

Lindsay Sage is a former MBA Admissions Director at NYU Stern, as well as the Founder of Sage Admit, and an MBA Admissions Consultant. To kick off this fall’s MBA application season, we asked Lindsay to come on the podcast to talk through some of the things she is seeing through her conversations with MBA programs and MBA applicants. During our conversation, we spoke about some observations and learnings from the previous year’s MBA application cycle (2022-2023) , some recent events and...