How has your career developed at HBS?
My career has developed fantastically. By travelling and working abroad prior to coming to HBS, I gained such grounded real life experiences and learned so much about myself, especially in terms of flexibility, perseverance, and dealing with uncomfortable situations. Since joining HBS in December 2008, I have added many tangible business skills and, more importantly, a strong business sense and passion for the work I love. It also doesn't hurt when you talk with folks outside of HBS, there is a certain cache about Harvard, especially the Business School. When I do transition outside of these walls, I also know that Harvard Business School means a lot to other employers, especially if you want to stay within Higher Education.
What is special about working at HBS?
The people at HBS make working here so special. If you look around at the other staff (especially those in MBA Career and Professional Development), they are smart, talented, and decorated professionally. They have backgrounds and skills to work at places where they could make more money or manage more people, but there is a passion for educating the students here and helping the students develop into better professionals and better people. When you work with people like that on a day-to-day basis, it makes you really enjoy coming to work.
What HBS accomplishment are you most proud of?
Just prior to RC interviews this January, my team (Career Education & Coaching) led a new program call Prep Days that was four days of intensive interview preparation. As the RC Program Specialist, I was the point person for the program and started my pre-program work in August to get everything for the weekend ready. Though the weekend was quite hectic, we had tremendous feedback from the students about their preparedness for interviews. Our programming numbers increased by over 400% and we did not add any staff members to capture this increase. Looking back now, I take a lot of pride in being a part of something that helped our students secure the jobs they wanted for this summer and to see outcomes on working on a project from start to finish.
What opportunities have you had at HBS that could have only happened here?
Having the opportunity to travel and lead a group of students to China and Vietnam on the IXPs is an opportunity that I will never forget and was tremendous!