This post is a part of the Student Perspectives series – each post is written by a current UCLA Anderson student, and provides first-hand perspectives and experiences about being an MBA student at UCLA Anderson.

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Many top business schools are facing a serious problem: overuse of acronyms. Anderson is no different in that regard. Here at Anderson we have acronyms for everything: ACT, IPT, OB, STS, AA, ASA… and about 1,000 other things. That said, Anderson IS different from other business schools in a number of ways, and our ACT groups are one of them.

ACT — which stands for Anderson Career Team — is a part of our Parker Career Series that is led entirely by second year students. 

ACT at-a-glance:
Size: 8-10 first year students, and the 2 second year coaches who volunteer their time to support us
Frequency: 1 time a week for 1 hour during fall quarter
Activities: All ACT groups will help with resume reviews, application questions, interview prep, and general guidance from a peer who has just been through the process. The specifics of what ACT groups do will vary a bit different depending on the industry and coaches.

My Experience:
I might be biased, but I feel pretty confident that my ACT group, the HR and Human Capital ACT group led by Ali McCarty and Rob Kirkpatrick, is bar-none the best ACT group on campus this year. As a would-be consultant, I’ve been learning how to organize concepts into buckets, so here are three major buckets or areas where my ACT group and coaches have helped me so far:

Exposure:
Bringing in an incredible line-up of Anderson Alums to chat with our 10-person ACT group each week
-Jess Kimball ‘15 – Global Head of Diversity at Mattel (read more about Jess here)
-Britney Sussman ‘16 – Sr. Consultant in Deloitte’s Human Capital Practice (read more about Britney here)
-Lauren Yang ’17 – Capital Group CHARGE HR Leadership Development Program

Knowledge:
Sharing information to make sure we are all prepared for interviews and recruitment events
-Weekly presentations on industry trends: each week a different member of our group presents to the others on hot topics in the industry
-Resume reviews and interview prep: I’ve gotten great feedback on my resume from my group mates and coaches
-Highlighting on-campus events that we should attend: making sure that we don’t miss anything that’s really important (as an MBA student, you will get SO MANY e-mail blasts…it’s easy to miss things)

Support + Community:
All the other little things you’d want from a team:
-Ali answering panicked text messages from me about a case competition I was in
-Rob being around to offer encouragement and make sure I was meeting practitioners at a very large, very intimidating networking function
-ACT team Happy Hours at Wolfgang Puck (the only place on campus that can serve beer!)

TL;DR:
If you want to know whether an MBA program is really collaborative or just says they are — ask what the Second Years do for the First Years. The fact that our ACT coaches go above and beyond to support us through the recruitment process really speaks to our Anderson value of #ShareSuccess.

— Melinh Rozen ’19

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Student Blogger: 
Melinh Rozen ’19

Hometown:
Bethesda, MD

Undergraduate Studies: 
Emory University – English Literature

Pre-Anderson:
Everest Education and Teach For America

Post-MBA Goals:
Consulting

Activities@Anderson:
Section Vice President of Diversity, Admissions Ambassador Corps, IDeA First Year Director, Management Consulting Association, Net Impact, OUT@Anderson Ally

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