What were you doing before SOM?
I spent the bulk of my time prior to SOM at the Export-Import Bank where I was the Budget Director. I was hired into the Presidential Management Fellowship which afforded me the opportunity to do two rotations at other federal agencies, first at the State Department working in the Economics Bureau and next at the White House's Office of Management and Budget. I really loved my time in government but ultimately left to gain private sector experience and used business school as a transition point.
Tell us about your internship during your MBA
I always wanted to start my own company and work in startups, so I used my MBA summer to explore this desire. I was fortunate enough to work at an SOM-founded startup called Hugo & Hoby where I was able to see firsthand what it takes to build a company from 0-1 and iterate on a product. This experience also gave me relevant private sector experience to talk about in my future startup interviews.
What did you do after graduating from SOM?
Through my summer internship I realized that to work at a startup I needed either position experience or industry knowledge. Since my background was finance (industry knowledge), I started to look at FinTechs and stumbled upon the Bitcoin white paper in that process at the start of second year. I immediately fell down the preverbal rabbit hole and knew I wanted to work in this space. I ended up accepting a job at a seed stage crypto startup where I was able to immerse myself in the crypto ecosystem, learning the technology and building a network.
I recently left that position and co-founded my own startup, Loop Crypto, to tackle the headaches that come along with recurring crypto payments. We recently closed our Seed Round, a dream and success that could not have been possible without that first step of attending SOM.
How was Tech Club a resource while you were a student?
Coming from government, I knew very little about what it meant to work in tech, from what roles are available to what options and RSUs are. The Tech Club created a safe space for me to meet and ultimately become close friends with individuals that were kind and gracious enough to educate me on this entirely new world. And now I repay them with constantly talking about crypto. ƒÿê Jk…. Maybe. In all seriousness, the Tech Club and its members were an important resource and source of my closest friendships and I'd love to give back. If anyone is interested in working in this crazy space or wanting to talk startups, I'm more than happy to chat! I can be reached at Eleni@loopcrypto.xyz.
What were you doing before SOM?
Prior to starting at SOM in 2018, I was on the sales team at Pinterest. While I've spent the majority of my career in tech, I had originally wanted to pursue a career in law—I ended up dropping out of law school in 2012 after 3 months (which felt like a lifetime!) before eventually making my way into tech.
Tell us about your internship during your MBA
I did my summer internship at Spotify as a Product Marketing Manager on the Ads Monetization team. I had a pretty strong hypothesis that I wanted to be a PMM coming into business school, and was lucky enough to confirm that during those 3 months.
What did you do after graduating from SOM?
After graduating, I returned full-time to Spotify as a PMM on the same team, then recently moved to Meta as a Growth PMM on the Business Product Marketing team.
How was Tech Club a resource while you were a student?
Tech Club was an integral part of my SOM experience and has continued to play a key role in my career. I came to SOM knowing that I wanted to further my passion for tech—Tech Club enabled me to do this by connecting me to peers & alumni with this shared passion, while also giving me the opportunity to help build the SOM tech community as a club leader. In fact, my current role at Meta came to me through a Tech Club event in Spring 2020 where we hosted a Facebook panel and provided a resume book of all SOM participants. As it turns out recruiters actually do hang onto those, and reached out directly through my Yale email almost 2 years later. It goes without saying how grateful I am to be an alumni of Yale SOM, and potentially even more so of Tech Club.
What were you doing before SOM?
Before SOM, I worked at Analysis Group, an economic consulting firm. At Analysis Group, I conducted market research and created economic models to understand how consumers and companies valued technology, product features, and intellectual property.
Tell us about your internship during your MBA
For my MBA summer internship, I interned at Google in Mountain View, CA on a team called Strategy, Planning, and Analysis ("SP&A"). This team provides analytical and strategy support to Google's future of work, hiring technology, and staffing teams.
What did you do after graduating from SOM?
After graduating from SOM, I decided to return to SP&A at Google as a Strategy and Analytics Associate. Most of my day to day work involves developing key metrics for teams, designing strategic frameworks, creating analytical and visualization tools, and tons of SQL/Python to conduct statistical analyses and investigate the impact of behavior and process changes.
How was Tech Club a resource while you were a student?
The Tech Club was truly invaluable to me in my path to Google. Tech Club equipped me with the knowledge and resources I needed to make the transition to the tech industry (particular resume and cover letter help, how each tech company conducted interview processes and how they differed culturally, and countless coffee chats). Additionally, I had (and continue to have) many fantastic mentors from SOM that continue to help me on my career journey beyond my time at school.
What were you doing before SOM?
Prior to business school, I spent four years in consulting at Deloitte. I had an opportunity to experience a variety of different industries and management challenges – primarily focused on public sector, non-profit, and payments clients. I was the most intellectually engaged by growth strategy projects, so I had a hunch I wanted to pursue a career at the intersection of general management and marketing post-MBA.
Tell us about your internship during your MBA
I received my internship through an SOM alum who was a senior marketing executive at Adobe. She encouraged me to apply for a product marketing (PMM) internship and I ended up with an offer to work on the Document Cloud business. My internship project was to scope and execute a competitive analysis for Adobe's flagship Acrobat product. My team was composed of ex-engineers and campaign marketers, so I was able to add new perspective on the market landscape by drawing on MBA frameworks from the Innovator and Customer courses. By the end of my internship, I delivered a few product requirements for the next development cycle and learned just enough about SaaS technology, the software industry, and Adobe's business to spark my desire to pursue a career in Silicon Valley after graduation.
What did you do after graduating from SOM?
The people and culture at Adobe are incredible, so I decided to return full-time as a PMM for Acrobat's mobile apps. I joined in 2020 when customer demand for digital documents and mobile apps was booming during the pandemic. My business turned into one of the fastest growing parts of Adobe! I learned how to define go-to-market and product strategy, scale up teams and marketing programs, manage the P&L for a business unit, and influence cross-functional stakeholders to prioritize customer needs and execute fast. I'm continuing my PMM journey at Stripe where I'm working to define and develop a market for an earlier stage product.
How was Tech Club a resource while you were a student?
The Tech Club helped me explore different job opportunities within the software industry. I had no idea what Product Marketing Management (PMM) was prior to SOM, so it was valuable to have a space to learn from the experiences of alumni and current students. And, of course, it didn't hurt to pick up a framework or two for tech case interviews!
What were you doing before SOM?
I graduated from Vanderbilt in 2020 and immediately enrolled in Yale SOM's Silver Scholars Program, which takes students directly from undergrad. Silver Scholars complete their 1st year of MBA, then work for between 1 and 5 years before beginning their 2nd year. I studied engineering and history at Vanderbilt and completed internships at Nissan (data analytics) and JPMorgan (banking). However, I was also involved in design-thinking organizations at Vanderbilt and wanted a job that would allow me to work directly with users to solve problems. So, I decided to focus on product management recruiting when arriving at Yale.
What are you doing now?
Since finishing my 1st year at SOM, I have been working full-time for Microsoft as a product manager in their Edge, Devices, Gaming and Security organization. I did not have any experience in security but found the steep learning curve to be rewarding. I cannot recommend Microsoft more as a company. I enjoy its focus on personal and career growth and emphasis on collaboration instead of competition. The interview process was super smooth, and I felt that all my interviewers genuinely wanted me to succeed and made product cases feel like casual conversations rather than a test.
How was Tech Club a resource while you were a student?
Recruiting was super daunting in undergrad. I spent about half my time and energy simply trying to figure out how to recruit. So I was relieved to discover that the Tech Club provided a super straightforward path and interview curriculum that allowed me to focus on the relevant parts of recruiting. Tech Club also helped me find alumni at the companies I was interested in. Even before starting at SOM, I was able to connect with a few rising 2nd year classmates that were interning at companies like Tesla, Microsoft, and Adobe.
