To MBA or NOT to MBA: Roxana Ruvalcaba, Operations Finance Specialist @ Intel Corporation

Latinos Who Tech

In this episode, Hugo welcomes Roxana Ruvalcaba, a Mexican-American industrial engineer born in LA, working as an operations finance specialist at Intel Corporation. Roxana went to Berkeley University to study industry engineering and operations research, and at the time, had her first exposure to business school in an intense summer venture at Harvard Business School. Once graduated, she joined the Pacific Gas and Electric Company through the Energy Procurement Rotational Program. Dive in as they talk about her decision to apply to an MBA while living at home and having a fulltime job, the programs and processes she went through and the experience she had being a mexican-american female engineer.
Show notes:
* 00:18 – Welcoming Roxana Ruvalcaba* 00:30 – About Roxana * 03:03 – About Yale and people who attend their Pre-MBA Programs* 03:57 – Programs and application process for business school* 09:56 – About MLT program (Management Leadership for Tomorrow) and what comes next* 12:32 – Balancing full time work and MLT* 13:36 – Why UCLA?* 13:50 – Applying to an MBA through consortium program and what it is* 18:59 – UCLA and MBA experience* 23:57 – MBA internship at google and what it was like working there* 25:45 – Two things to be considered in any MBA program* 28:09 – Mexican-American, female and engineer getting in MBA. Different experience to others?* 29:29 – Job searching process. Balancing between MBA classes and interviewing for companies* 33:00 – Roxana’s parting words for the audience
Key Takeaways:
* Taking time off and focussing on course leads to a better outcome* Depending on the style of studying, taking on a tutor will attend personal needs and be more intensive * “Having solid foundation in finance will help no matter what she decided to do after; it is important to know how to manage a company”* “Even though you are not prepared,do it, you will learn later on”* “GMAT good for five years, so if you have time, get it out of the way; there are ways of funding”* “Doing an MBA is a great. You gain a lot of personal and career experience”
Mentioned resources:
* MLT Program (Management Leadership for tomorrow) – programs that start in college to help set milestones to apply and get ready for an MBA program* GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) to gain entrance into an MBA program* Manhattan Prep > GMAT Prep courses
Connect with her via linkedin:
* Roxana Ruvalcaba
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