March issue of Asian MBA newsletter. We are glad to bring you rich content around internship, career management, cultural diversity and upcoming events with Asian MBA, 2011.
Ride the Storm: Navigating Through Unstable Periods / Katerina Rudko (Belka G...
Kelley Asian MBA Newsletter March Issue
1. ASIAN MBA MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
March 2011
This Issue
Editorial P.1
Passing the Baton P.2
Internships Success Story P.3
Network based job search P.4
Financial Crisis Chat P.5
Chinese New Year P.6
Vision 2011 P.7
Upcoming Events P.8
EDITORIAL Our newsletter is intended to present you with lat-
est happenings, cultural events, new initiatives, and
The Asian MBA leadership team is proud to present you
share vision and ideas. We encourage you to share
the March edition of Asian MBA newsletter. Our team
your ideas, impressions and thoughts via articles to
took over the Asian MBA leadership at the beginning of
facilitate us to offer richer content to the Asian MBA
the spring semester and we are excited to continue the
members. We look forward to your active participa-
initiative of the Asian MBA newsletter started by the
tion in the days to follow.
earlier Asian MBA team.
Present edition, brings you some of the initiatives
As your new leadership team, we want to continue to
Asian MBA has undertaken. You could read more
focus on the Asian cultural aspects of the association;
about Asian Snack Breaks, upcoming cultural and
however, we are also interested in facilitating a dia-
professional events and article on career manage-
logue across various cultures and bring in business per-
ment. Lastly, we would like to thank you for your
spective to the activities of Asian MBA. Our goal is to
support and expect the same in the future.
further integrate Asian culture at Kelley and engage
non-Asian students as well. We wish you a Happy Reading and a great Spring
break !
2. Passing the Baton
TE
AM
20
10
Upon election the last year, our vision for Asian MBAA was to make it truly pan-Asian and pursue events that
seek representation of all students. Besides activities such as cultural/movie nights and food/dessert fair, we
thought that magazine/blog could be a good free channel of communication among all Asian MBAA members. I
am confident that if I am going to travel to China someday I would touch-base with Jieru Yang, or if I am going
to try a Thai recipe someday, Panisara’s phone would ring! This vision helped us build your awareness in more
than just two or three cultures and befriend fellow classmates whom you wouldn’t have got to know other-
wise. In fall semester, we added internship experiences of 2 nd years (across academies) to help 1st years antici-
pate their future experience and reflect it in their interviews.
Moving forward, I would like to congratulate this year’s leadership, which has done a good job so far of intro-
ducing Asian snacks in Monday Morning coffee hours and carrying the magazine concept further. I would highly
encourage ALL Asian MBA members to proactively share their creativity with the leadership, so that they can
include it in the next version. Treat magazine as an opportunity to bring your unique self forward. Further, if
you have any other thoughts, please do reach out to the leadership. Remember, they were elected by you, for
you. And, if you haven’t already, do add yourself to Asian MBAA’s Facebook page. It will be interesting to see
the Asian MBAA network getting bigger, as 1st Yrs move to 2nd Yr and 2nd Yrs become alums.
Last but not least, I wish the new leadership team all the best for their future endeavors in adding value to
your Kelley experience!
Arpana Prajapati—President, Asian MBA Association 2010
aprajapa@indiana.edu
3. Internship - Success Story
Hello everyone! This is Brenda Zhao, first year
MBA student. I am from Shanghai, China. I’d like
to share some of my thoughts about internship
search and I will be very happy if I could be of
any help to fellow Kelley students in their career
management.
Before I joined Kelley, I worked for 3 years in a
sales function with GE and a couple of years as
product marketer at Pentair. Like some other
student, at the beginning I wanted to switch my
career from marketing to finance. However, I
wasn’t sure what exactly in Finance. Sometime
we want to do a job not because we love it but
just because we don’t know it very well. I did a
lot of research to analyze myself and how best
to position myself in the job market right now.
My suggestion is to figure out what you want to
do. Be realistic, not romantic. Knowing what
you don’t want to do, can be a very good starting point.
I think what works best is being always prepared to capture any opportunity that may come your way! As an
international student, Networking was the biggest challenged I faced. While I did my best to network with
Cummins, I didn’t see my efforts result in any success. Just as when I was disappointed and doubtful about the
whole networking regime, I had an unexpected break through.
During the academy week arranged by Business Marketing Academy, fortunately, my mock interview was
scheduled with Jeff Caldwell, from Cummins. It was the mock-interview that really gave me an opportunity to
take my networking to the next level and make inroads for my internship. Eventually, I chose DuPont over
Cummins. However, the experience taught me to be patient and persistent.
I think what helped me was to be passionate, and be concise but convincing in the interview. CAR Template is a
very good tool to prepare your stories. I started with 10 CARs which cover almost every aspect in the interview.
After each interview, I would review my performance and improve my CARs. Whenever I didn’t perform up to
the mark, I analyzed my failures in depth. I wasn’t shy to ask for help from GCS Coach and classmates. My ad-
vice would be to keep polishing your story and keep thinking. Always making it better and better.
Hope this could give you a little bit help!
Brenda Zhao - Business Marketing Academy, Class of 2012
meiyzhaoroweric@indiana.edu
4. Network-based Job Search
You may be surprised to discover that the steps for a successful network based
job search (or off-campus job search) are quite similar to the steps utilized for
the on-campus job search. If you are pursuing a network based job search, you
should still explore opportunities to understand your goals and be able to articu-
late them to others, network, and ace your interviews. If you are pursuing an off
-campus job search, here are six steps for you to pursue.
Step 1: Conduct a self-assessment
Before you get started, create your own personal SWOT analysis. This will help you understand what you
can bring to the table and can also help you identify your interests, as they are commonly your strengths.
During this stage of the process, you should also make sure your LinkedIn and Kelley Incircle profiles are
complete and up to date.
Step 2: Develop a marketing strategy
That’s right! Just like in marketing class, you should focus on the 4 P’s:
Product: In this case, you’re the product - so, what can you bring to the table?
Place: What companies and locations are you targeting?
Promotion: What are you doing to promote yourself? Are you speaking with those in your net-
work? Are you applying to positions?
Price: This will come later, but essentially this is the overall compensation you seek.
Develop a list of 30 companies to target. Then, begin researching the companies and work to identify
warm contacts that you could reach out to.
Step 3: Launch your marketing campaign
Now, put your marketing plan to work! Develop your SWOT analysis into an elevator pitch and practice to
ensure you are highlighting your competitive advantages. Then, create and refine your written correspon-
dence. I encourage you to share these with others before you send them, as they may be able to point out
errors you don’t see or opportunities to make your communications even stronger.
Step 4: Assessing and retooling your marketing plan
During this step, determine what’s working well and what isn’t, then reach out to others to help you. One
factor that can make a huge difference in your success is keeping those within your network informed
about your goals and progress – you may be surprised how willing people are to help you if they under-
stand what you want to achieve. Also, don’t forget to take time to thank those who have helped you along
the way by writing thank you notes.
Step 5: Tracking your progress
Throughout this process, take time to reflect on the progress you’ve made and thoughtfully consider next
steps. This step sounds simple, but you should allocate adequate time and effort to this step.
Step 6: Be persistent
The network based job search takes time. So, be persistent and continue networking, tracking your pro-
gress, and setting goals that you can work towards. Know what you want and go after it!
5. Financial Crisis Chat- Summary
If you are interested in learning more about the causes and mechanics behind the
global financial crisis then Professor Shockley’s financial crisis chats are essential.
We had 3 such chats where the professor spoke passionately about how banks
were able to achieve such high leverage ratios, how the ’shadow banking system’
use repos and short selling, and most recently, how Government Sponsored Enti-
ties (GSEs) such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginny Mae were developed, and
how they in along with Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs) contributed to the
crisis. Before reading on it is important to know what GSE’s and SIVs are.
A GSE is a financial company created by the United States Congress whose main
purpose for existence is to enhance the flow of credit to specific sectors of the
economy. Sallie Mae is a GSE designed to target the education sector, and in-
crease the flow of funds towards this area of the economy. GSEs are publicly
traded companies and investors can purchase up to a certain percentage of a GSE.
Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs) were the second part of our discussion. SIVs are not well known, nor are
they well understood. The professor
talked about the history of SIVs, and why
they are no longer in existence. SIVs were
financial products that invested in asset
backed securities such as mortgages or
car loans. These products are bad be-
cause SIV managers were allowed to ex-
change these investments without pro-
viding details on the assets it owned,
which were in many cases essentially
worthless. They were invented by Citi-
bank in 1988 and have not been in exis-
tence since October 2008.
The big lessons for MBA students are first
that the GSEs did not cause the crisis:
loans to low income families do not nec-
essarily equate to unpaid loans. Secondly,
the GSEs will continue to be an important
component of the financial services in-
dustry.
While the GSEs themselves did not cause the crisis, the implicit guarantee that investors took for granted
caused the banks’ asset valuations to become out of proportion, resulting in lower liquidity and reserves re-
quirements, which did contribute to the crisis. Regulation of the GSEs is still being implemented and only time
(or Tim Geithner) can tell us how the GSEs will be changed in the future.
Eric Brown - Class of 2012
broweric@indiana.edu
6. Chinese New Year - The Year of the Rabbit
Chinese New Year, also known as Spring
Festival, is the most important of the tradi-
tional Chinese holidays. Within China, re-
gional customs and traditions celebrating
the New Year will vary widely. People will
pour out their money to buy presents,
decoration, material, food, and cloth-
ing. Firecrackers will be lit all along the
street to signify a joyful time of year and in
old times, to drive away evil spirits. It is
also tradition that people thoroughly clean
their homes to sweep away any ill-fortune
in hopes to make way for good incoming
luck.
February 3, 2011 marked the beginning of the Chinese New Year celebration, the year of the rab-
bit. The rabbit is the fourth sign of the Chinese Zodiac, and is considered to be a symbol of luck. Peo-
ple born in the year of the rabbit are friendly individuals who make good teachers, counselors, and
communicators. In our most recent edition of Asian Snack Break, we celebrated the end of the Chi-
nese New Year festival, or Lantern Festival. Traditionally, candles are lit outside houses as a way to
guide wayward spirits home. We couldn’t light candles in the Atrium so we decided to do the next
best thing, serve our classmates free traditional Chinese cuisine from Chow Bar. Thanks for making it a
huge success, we hope you enjoyed the food and we at the Asian MBA want to wish you a very suc-
cessful and prosperous 2011!
7. Vision 2011
Welcome to Year 2011 with Asian
MBA Association,
It is indeed an honor and great
pleasure to be elected as the
leader of an organization as di-
verse as the Asian MBAA. First of
all, I would like to thank Arpana
and her entire leadership team for
having created a very strong pres-
ence for the Asian MBA Associa-
tion within the Kelley community.
Taking on from where Arpana’s
team left, we have a two-fold focus
for 2011 – Engagement & Professional Growth.
Within the engagement bucket, we want to leverage the passion of our current members to engage as many
diverse culture enthusiasts as we can, through our chain of events planned for this year. We are banking on all
of you to make this association a bigger stage for cultural diversity! Some of the events we have introduced this
year include the monthly snack break during Monday morning coffee hours and Asian festival celebration (once
a semester) both of which have already been a huge success.
For the professional growth part, we are keen on increasing the depth of interaction between the 1 st and 2nd
year Asian MBAA members. As an organization, we want to be the channel to extract lessons from the valuable
experience our 2nd years have had either in their internship or will have during their full-time jobs. Our 2nd
years have been one of the most supportive groups and therefore, Asian MBAA is very keen on establishing a
stronger Asian alumni community to keep all our 2nd years very closely knit to Kelley for the years to come. We
have taken initiatives such as the ‘Little Asia internship dinner’ (in Spring) and ‘Little Asia orientation dinner’ (in
Fall) to kick-start an informal yet professional development-focused interaction between the members.
Last but not the least, I would like to re-emphasize the fact that we are an organization whose core lies in all of
you and your interests. Hence, I would strongly encourage you to share your ideas, suggestions and vision with
us. Your interest is our priority and we are absolutely geared up to mobilize all available resources to enhance
your Kelley experience.
Khushboo Garg—President, Asian MBA Association 2011
8. Watch this column for more…...
Little Asia-Internship Dinner : 31st March 2011 @ CG 1040
Where opportunity meets experience !!!!
This event is aimed at giving the 1st year Asian MBA members a chance to interact with the 2nd years and leverage their
experience as we all enter the internship mode—the first test of our skills and all the lessons at school…...We would en-
courage all of you to join us at this event and make the best of it. A big thank you to all 2nd years who have volunteered
to participate in this event and help the 1st years.
For any questions on this event, please do not hesitate to contact: Brian Cheng - VP, Professional Development (chengb@indiana.edu)
Culture Night - Desi Discovery : 20th April 2011 @ The Atrium
We invite you all to enjoy the culture, food and the true roots at the Spring Culture night dedicated to the country to
India. Please feel free to write to us about your interests because we would love to hear from you !!
For any questions on this event, please do not hesitate to contact: Khushboo Garg - President (kgarg@indiana.edu)
Contact us:
If you have suggestions or would like to contribute, feel free to write to us.
We would love to hear from you.
Nachiket Kale
VP, Marketing- Asian MBA Association 2012
nrkale@indiana.edu