USC Marshall Women are ‘Stronger Together,’ and More – Los Angeles News
Happy Friday! Let’s dig into some of the biggest stories coming out of Los Angeles this morning.
USC Marshall’s’ ATHENA Conference Honors Women Entrepreneurs – USC Marshall News
USC Marshall School of Business’ second annual ATHENA conference, focusing upon women entrepreneurs, kicked off at USC’s Town & Gown with more than 500 guests to celebrate the theme “Stronger Together”.
With such guests as USC’s Interim President Dr. Wanda Austin, GOOP Founder and popular actress Gwyneth Paltrow, and Dr. Sumun Pendakur, Chief Learning Officer of the USC Equity Institutes, the event took place over a day and also featured a pitch competition and panel sessions.
Dr. Austin said, “I want to thank all of you for celebrating women leaders and their entrepreneurial journeys, which as I’m sure you have heard today, are not easy journeys, but they are tremendously rewarding… It’s an uplifting experience to hear from so many smart, talented, bright, innovative, inspiring women, and all of you should count yourselves in that group.”
Willow Bay, USC’s Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism dean, presented Paltrow with an award to honor her accomplishments as an entrepreneur, noting of GOOP, “A newsletter that she hit the ‘send’ button on in 2008 now reaches a reported 8 million people. And it’s really the starter fuel for what has become a significant global lifestyle brand.”
The Female Founders Pitch Competition, open to USC students, faculty, staff or alumni less than five years from graduation, awarded a prize of $10,000 to winner Thea Knobel. Knobel beat out 44 other entrants for her pitch, ‘Cool Cube’.
You can read more about the USC Summit event here.
Chapman University’s Argyros School’s MBA Mentor Participants Celebrate 10th Anniversary – Chapman Argyros News
Chapman University’s Argyros School of Business‘ 10th Annual MBA Mentor Program kicked off at the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business with a welcome reception that honored 2018’s participants.
The program features 30 graduate students who will be mentored by 34 executives from such organizations as Johnson & Johnson, Disney, Taco Bell, and Experian. Stacey Moynahan, Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Programs and Career Services and Joel Pearson, Assistant Director, Argyros School Career Services are responsible for recruiting mentors and making appropriate matches with students.
Pearson and Moynahan interview participants at the end of each year to make improvements upon the program and to discuss the strengths and challenges involved in each of the mentor and student relationships. October’s welcome reception served as a foundation for students as they embark upon their career journeys with their mentors’ guidance.
You can lear more about the Argyros MBA Mentor Program here.
CSU Fullerton’s Mihaylo College Sales Leadership Center Welcomes New Director – Mihaylo News
The CSUF Mihaylo College Sales Leadership Center, which seeks to assist students in their pursuit of careers in sales leadership roles, recently welcomed Brad Anderson as the center’s new director.
Anderson hopes to develop new initiatives at the Center, including a new minor in sales, as well as expanding its reach with further connections with leaders in sales positions.
A look inside the Cal State Fullerton Sales Leadership Center / Photo via business.fullerton.edu
Discussing his own aptitude for selling, Anderson described how his career evolved when he realized his passion for cultivating relationships.
“I discovered that I had a proficiency for sales and relationships [and interacting with people],” he says. “My first offer came from Carnation Company to sell quality products to local grocers. I developed relationships with store managers and solved problems for them while earning a good living. I also had a flexible schedule and work/life balance.”
He proceeded to spend the majority of his 30 year career with Nestlé Purina Pet Care Company.
The CSLC has proven to be a hub of career development for Mihaylo students, through its sales competitions and events that connect students with numerous opportunities for their careers. “The sponsoring companies see our students shine as they present the scenarios in realistic settings with presentations to buyers. The students compete for scholarships and bragging rights, along with trophies, which are great résumé builders,” Anderson says.
You can read more about the Leadership Center here.
Getting Paid: Highest MBA Salaries in Los Angeles
The transmissions Los Angeles sends back out into the ether are those culled from the desires of its inhabitants but also from the people who romanticize it from the outside. As Joan Didion once wrote, “The city burning is Los Angeles’s deepest image of itself.”
Los Angeles is, admittedly, polarizing. While some may find the not-so-authentic atmosphere of Hollywood to be a downtrodden, morose landscape, the city’s expansive diversity and subtle natural wonder is enthralling in its own right. In a way, it feels alien and utterly familiar all at once.
It’s this kind of uncertainty that makes Los Angeles an ideal place to pursue a business degree for a prospective MBA open to a bit of ambiguity. While Silicon Valley up north has traditionally been romanticized as a place where we can re-write the rules, LA has been catching up recently—and fast. Los Angeles has embraced the tech boom in a big way, with many Valley bigwigs and new startups alike moving their operations to Silicon Beach on the West Side. With that in mind, the new era of LA innovation is creating some lofty starting salaries, particularly for MBA graduates.
The Highest Los Angeles MBA Salaries
UCLA Anderson School of Management
Recent UCLA Anderson graduates earned an average starting salary of $121,250 with a $25,000 signing bonus, according to statistics released by the school. Over 92 percent of Anderson MBAs received job offers within three months of graduation. The top five industries to employ Anderson MBAs are in tech (30.6 percent); financial services (21.6 percent); consumer products (13.4 percent); and consulting services (13.4 percent). Top employers for Anderson graduates include: Amazon, Deloitte, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Amgen, BCG, EY, Mattel, McKinsey & Company, Nike, PwC, Apple, AT&T, Autodesk, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Epson, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Disney, among others
UC Irvine Merage School of Business
MBA graduates from the UC Irivine Paul Merage School of Business posted record employment numbers for the school. Over 90 percent of recent MBAs received job offers within three months of graduation. The most popular industries to attract Merage graduates were in technology (33 percent), finance (31 percent), consulting (24 percent), and marketing/sales (27 percent). Merage graduates with tech industry positions earned starting salaries of $105,000; consulting, $100,000; consumer products, $85,000; and financial services, $100,000. Top employers included: Amazon, AT&T, Bank of America, Cisco, Dell, Deloitte, Gap, Hulu, Hyundai, IBM, Mattel, NBC Universal, Taco Bell, Twitter, and Volcom.
USC Marshall School of Business
According to employment statistics surveying the most recent USC Marshall School of Business MBA class, the average starting salary for Marshall graduates is $115,309 with a $23,431 signing bonus. The top three industries that employ Marshall graduates are within consulting (34 percent), where MBAs start at $132,000; marketing/sales (27 percent), where MBAs start at $99,497; and financial services (18 percent), where MBAs start at $112,087. Top employers of Marshall’s 2016 class include: Adobe, AT&T, Apple, Citigroup, Deloitte, Disney, Facebook, Film Roman, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Morgan Stanley, Johnson & Johnson, Samsung, Taco Bell, Warner Bros, Starbucks, PwC, Sony Pictures, Nestle, and PepsiCo, among others.
USC Marshall grad salaries, broken down by industry.
Pepperdine Graziadio School of Business and Management
Pepperdine Graziadio School of Business and Management graduates earned an average starting salary of $120,000, according to school statistics. Around 82 percent of Graziadio MBAs accepted job offers within three months of graduation.
Financial services, entertainment, technology, and consulting were the top industries to employ Graziadio MBAs.
For more information on the best Los Angeles MBA programs, check out our guide to the city. As well, learn more about which LA schools do not require GMAT or GRE scores here.
USC Marshall Hosts First Summit on Future of Tech and Entertainment
On Thursday, March 23 at Shutters Beach in Santa Monica, over 400 people gathered to celebrate leaders in fields vital to Southern California’s thriving entertainment industry. These fields included: Augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, digital media, gaming and e-sports. The summit featured robots, holograms and a variety of other unique tech displays.
Dodgers President Talks Strength Of The Franchise AT UCLA Anderson
Speaking with a crowd of over 400 Anderson School of Management MBA students last month at Korn Convocation Hall, Los Angeles Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten talked about the strength of the organization and the turnaround since purchasing the franchise five years ago for $2 billion.
Top MBA Employers in Los Angeles
Los Angeles is an attractive city for young professionals for a number of reasons—and that’s not even to mention the weather or proximity to the beach. As the center of the nation’s entertainment, however, MBA graduates may be inclined to think the city is more a home to actors than business leaders. Nevertheless, Los Angeles is a thriving center of business for a wide variety of industries, from entertainment to healthcare to energy.
When one also considers the recent growth in employment in California—with almost 60,000 jobs added in just one month in 2016—Los Angeles is an appealing new home for an MBA graduate.
We’ve rounded up some of the top employers in Los Angeles for MBAs. Representing a wide variety of industries, these and a number of other top employers in the LA metro area make the city a perfect place for MBAs looking to get to work.
Walt Disney Studios
One of the most recognizable brands across the globe, the Walt Disney studios were founded 93 years ago and headquartered in Los Angeles County. Today, the Disney Corporation is one of the top employers of MBAs in the nation. In employees, Disney seeks many of the same values that are taught with an MBA degree—innovation and global thinking.
Disney offers several opportunities for MBA students looking to join the team, such as recruitment efforts at a number of schools in the country, summer internships and even a program which allows students to rotate recent grads through several different departments.
DirecTV
Headquartered in the Los Angeles metro area, DirecTV is a provider of direct broadcast satellite across the country. In 2014, AT&T purchased DirecTV, expanding its reach across the country in the pay-TV sector. AT&T currently employs more than 280,000 people in its locations and stores around the world.
There are a number of benefits in working for AT&T/DirecTV, which ranks fourth in DiversityInc’s Top Companies for Diversity. There are currently at least fifteen jobs available at DirecTV’s El Segundo location which require or prefer applicants to hold an MBA.
Amgen Inc.
Headquartered in Thousand Oaks in Southern California, Amgen is a multinational biopharmaceutical company and the world’s largest independent biotechnology firm. As of December of 2015, the company employed roughly 17,900 people with a net income of $8.47 billion.
Amgen is a top employer of MBAs in California and offers a number of MBA-specific opportunities through their internship program. Available for students who have completed the first year of their MBA program, Amgen offers internships in finance, global strategic sourcing, operations, sales & marketing and international sales.
Mattel, Inc.
Mattel is an American multinational toy manufacturing company and 403rd on the Fortune 500 list. Based in El Segundo, Mattel had a net income of $498.9 million as of 2014 and roughly 31,000 employees in 2015.
Mattel is consistently recognized as a top company for its employees, with a comprehensive benefits program and several career development opportunities in place to cultivate and retain talent. In addition to available jobs, Mattel offers an MBA specific internship for students in both full-time and part-time program. Several divisions within the company, such as marketing, finance, supply chain and human resources have available internships for MBAs.
AECOM
AECOM is an American multinational engineering firm offering services such as design, consulting and management to a wide variety of clients. Placing at 156 on the 2016 Fortune 500 list, AECOM currently employs roughly 95,000 people and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.
AECOM is always looking for new and passionate employees, and focuses on recruiting both current students and recent graduates for internships and new careers. According to their website, AECOM is the place for you if “you are driven and love to work with creative, fun professional teams” and “you are looking for a career and career growth, not just a job.”
