Gaining a big-picture perspective through a Marketing MBA

Q:Where is your hometown?

A:Boston, MA

Q:What are you studying at the D'Amore-McKim School of Business and what is your graduation year?

A:MBA '18, Marketing

Q:What do/did you do in your corporate residency? What are/were your responsibilities? How did you impact the business?

A:I will be starting my corporate residency at CIFC Asset Management in New York in June 2017. My role will be in Investor Relations as part of the Business Development team. I will be responsible for supporting the team on marketing efforts related to investor outreach. Prior to D'Amore-McKim, I worked in Investor Relations at a publicly traded company so I'm looking forward to learning how the function works at a private company. As a native Bostonian, I am also looking forward to living and working in a new city!

Q:What skills are you building at D'Amore-McKim that you are using in your corporate residency or will use in your future career?

A:At D'Amore-McKim, I'm learning how to think like a business manager. I'm gaining a full perspective on how to make the best decisions for a business—in every decision I make, I am learning to understand the impact to a company's overall strategy, what financial resources will be needed, if a supply chain would be effected, changes that would be needed in information resources, etc. As I look to move forward in my career, this understanding will be critical.

Q:What has been the biggest take-away from working toward your MBA at Northeastern? What can you do today that you couldn't do before you started your MBA?

A:Working towards my MBA at Northeastern has given me a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn alongside classmates from different parts of the world and different backgrounds—a classmate served in Afghanistan, another has her PhD, and several are preparing to take over their family businesses—this has enabled me to learn new viewpoints in classroom discussion and build a network that I will have for a long time. Now, I can say that I have connections in many industries and countries which I did not have before starting my MBA.

Q:What has been your most valuable experience so far?

A:My most valuable experience so far was my Learning Team. At D'Amore-McKim, students are assigned to a 5-person team for all group projects in every class for the semester. I was fortunate enough to be part of a team that worked extremely well together—even though we had many projects to get through, we also had many laughs! My teammates quickly became some of my best friends in the program. I think that the Learning Team model is a great format because I learned how to work with others who have different skillsets, industry backgrounds, and are from different cultures, which I am going to be experiencing in the real world as well.

Q:Why did you choose D'Amore-McKim?

A:I chose D'Amore-McKim because the learning by doing model really appealed to me. I am someone who learns best by a hands-on model so the decision to enroll in a program that not only educates me but gives me an opportunity to apply what I've learned in the Corporate Residency made the decision a no-brainer.

Q:What would you say to a prospective student considering D'Amore-McKim for their business degree?

A:It is very overwhelming and a bit scary to the leave the full-time working world to go back to school, but remember that an MBA is an investment in yourself. It is an education that you will take with you for a lifetime—whether you're working up the corporate ladder or starting your own business. The skills that you will learn here will be applicable for life.

Q:Where do you see yourself in 5 – 10 years?

A:In 5-10 years, I plan to continue my career track in Investor Relations/Marketing in the Financial Services field. I am not a career switcher, so pursuing my MBA is to accelerate my role in this field, hopefully one day becoming a manager and having P&L oversight.

Q:How has D'Amore-McKim helped you to become more?

A:Since my first day at D'Amore-McKim, I have been learning. Not a day goes by where I do not learn something new.