Enjoying winter break.
Final grades are in; I am officially done with my first quarter of business school–woohoo!
For those that don’t know, I am currently pursuing an MBA at UCLA Anderson through their fully employed hybrid program. Like any average 30 year old returning to school after a decade long hiatus, I had some reservations.
How would I balance a full-time job, course work for two classes, and maintaining some semblance of a personal life?
How would I do in a classroom setting? Would my career as a creative contribute or inhibit my performance?
For anyone interested in my journey, or in need of advice before they embark on their own, below are reflections and lessons I took from this first quarter.
Buoyancy, not balance
The last ten weeks were tough. Take everything you know about a healthy work life balance and toss it out the window. There are simply not enough hours in a day to do it all. The best thing you can do is try to remain buoyant. What I mean is learn to prioritize, and delegate the rest. Be flexible; take things as they come. And, most importantly, give yourself grace to make mistakes.
After three months of juggling competing initiatives, I’d like to say that I have it all figured out. But the truth is, I am still adjusting. Although I hit a stride towards the end of the quarter, I have a long way to go. This was just the first quarter of nine! I’m holding space for myself, that I will probably have to revisit my approach [again] along the way. And that is completely okay.
…to go far, go together
There were many stretches of time in which both school and work demanded an impossible amount of attention. My ability to push through, even when running on empty, was partly grit, but also in large part due to the support of my partner. From small things like making coffee in the morning to larger, less enjoyable, tasks such as taking me to the airport at 5am. Having someone to lean on, allowed me to repurpose that time and energy.
The Protégé Effect
The biggest benefit of a part-time MBA program is the opportunity to apply what you learn in the classroom almost immediately. As a new manager working across two domains, three time-zones, and four teams there were many occasions for this. Case studies on decision making, interpersonal biases, and modes of motivation provided helpful guidance and insight when I was at an impasse.
Of course, there were topics that didn’t have an immediate application. For those, I used the chance to share what I had learned with my peers. Blurring the line between work and study by teaching others, allowed me to absorb the content more intuitively. It also opened the door for collaborative dialog and made the whole experience of learning much more enjoyable.
Confidence and humility
Working in Tech, more often than not, I am the only Samoan woman in a room. Because of this, going to business school as a creative professional, I was less worried about being a minority, and more concerned with how my skills as a designer would translate to the classroom. Much to my surprise, the bulk of my contribution to my learning group came from my experience as a Product Designer: facilitating discussions, aligning stakeholders, and writing clear succinct copy.
But I’d be lying if I said I could have made it through Statistics just on that. Having a dedicated learning group, made up of professionals with complimentary skills was absolutely priceless. Thank you Alex Mao, Rob Wrightson, Salonee Gupta, and Tom Wathey for a phenomenal first quarter. I couldn’t have done it without y’all. I would bet good money that if we took the subarctic survival simulation again, this time around we’d get rescued, or better yet make it to town on 3 pairs of snow-shoes, maple syrup and a tarp.
From left to right: Rob Wrightson, Alex Mao, Salonee Gupta, Tom Wathey, and me. August 2022.