Q. Why Anderson and what you have been up to this past year?

I came to Anderson to transition to technology, and spent last summer as a product marketing MBA intern at Intuit. During my second year, I enjoyed planning marketing workshops as Vice President of Career Development for the Marketing Association and mentoring first-year students as a Marketing ACT Coach.

Q. What would you say helped you the most at Anderson to obtain an internship?

A combination of Anderson resources, from Parker Career Management Center to Anderson Career Teams (ACT) and Interview Prep Teams (IPT), helped me prepare for interviews and ultimately land my internship at Intuit. The Parker Series was foundational in helping me craft and tell my story along with refining my resume and cover letters. I also leaned on my Parker advisor for guidance throughout the recruiting process. My weekly ACT group was a great supplement to the Parker Series by helping me stay on top of marketing industry trends and get valuable recruiting tips from my second-year coaches. We did interactive exercises in ACT to practice everything from the 30 second pitch to casing. Finally, IPT was a safe space for me to practice behavioral and case questions in a smaller group setting, and at the same time get to know my fellow classmates recruiting within the same industry. 

Q. Are there any specific courses that helped you build the skills needed for your career pivot?

The Customer Assessment & Analytics course was very helpful in providing me with the toolkit to conduct market and consumer research and make data-driven marketing decisions. For example, I learned how to create a conjoint analysis and as part of our final group project, collected survey data and analyzed the results to come up with a strategic recommendation. The coursework was directly relevant to my summer project at Intuit, where I developed and implemented customer surveys in partnership with the consumer insights team. I also enjoyed attending industry related events put on by the clubs, from the Alumni Speaker Series to casing workshops, which gave me a deeper understanding of the marketing industry and skills needed to succeed.

Q. How has the culture of UCLA Anderson lend to your career transition?

The culture at Anderson is very collaborative and supportive. Particularly through my ACT and IPT groups, I was able to develop close relationships with my fellow classmates recruiting for marketing. In addition to sharing research we’ve done on various companies, we relied on one another for interview prep. I had standing meetings with several first year classmates, where we set an hour aside to practice marketing cases and take turns asking questions and providing feedback. Second-years were also very supportive and generous with their time in giving company-specific advice and doing mock interviews. It was awesome having a close-knit community of Anderson classmates who were going through the interview process together and eager to help each other out. 

Q. Tell us more about your project during your summer internship:

I interned on the QuickBooks Live product marketing team at Intuit’s Mountain View headquarters. QuickBooks Live is one of Intuit’s newest offerings, where QuickBooks-certified virtual bookkeepers help small business owners with all of their bookkeeping needs. It was super exciting to be a part of such a high-energy and growing team. My project was focused around gathering customer feedback on the service and using those insights to inform future commercialization and long-term retention. I interviewed 15+ QuickBooks Live customers and synthesized key learnings to develop a recommendation on actionable next steps. I loved the opportunity to work cross-functionally as a product marketer at Intuit and put the marketing concepts I learned at Anderson into practice.

---

Student Blogger: Claire Fu ‘20

Undergrad: Columbia University 

Pre-MBA Company: J.P. Morgan

Summer MBA Internship: Intuit – Product Marketing

Post-MBA Career: Intuit – Product Marketing Manager

Leadership@Anderson: VP Career Development – Marketing Association; VP of Admissions – Women’s Business Connection; Marketing ACT Coach

Clubs@Anderson:  AnderTech, Marketing Association, Women’s Business Connection, Asian Management Student Association, Christian Student Fellowship, Outdoor Adventure Club