Daria Gonzalez, Stanford GSB graduate and MBA Strategy client, told us why she had chosen Stanford, how to win an MBA admissions process if you are a non-traditional applicant, DOs and DON'Ts about financing, and how to find a job in Silicon Valley.
In fact, I was going to start doing things that are completely different from what I do today. I had two options. The first was to join a creative agency, which appealed to me, in a position of a Producer or a Project Manager that would be on the intersection of business and creative industries. It turned out, however, that for most of the positions I was overqualified as an MBA graduate. Besides, people did not want to hear me: “Wait, I am applying for a lower position, but my MBA experience would be really applicable to the next career level”, and that was true.
So, I was a 26-years-old professional with the Stanford MBA, but still too young to apply for top and middle-top positions in my desired fields. The majority of job postings either never required an MBA or highlighted work experience in the USA as a key criterion. Even though I had a broad professional network, my job search was taking too long.
However, there was the second parallel option: I worked with several companies and private individuals, conducting nonprofit activities to help the private sector development in Cuba. Besides, we invited the first Cuban entrepreneurs to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford, and so on. Nevertheless, as a Russian citizen, I could not apply for an Entrepreneurship Visa in the USA, hence being not able to run my own business and live in the country legally.
By a lucky accident, my former classmate from Russia, Rostislav, introduced me to a group of Russian enthusiasts, who had established a small, but promising investment fund in the Silicon Valley about a year before we met. I was asked to help them organize an event at Stanford, and this is how we met. They offered me to build the fund together in a position of a Special Projects Manager. Now we work with startups, which is very exciting. This is what I was doing a lot at Stanford, helping small companies to devise a strategy and tell their personalized stories.
At one particular moment, you simply realize that there is a perfect image that you have BEFORE you actually start doing something, and another perfect image that you create, taking the real chance to bring it to life. I believe it is important to know that, while you are studying, you need to learn how to see such a perfect image. As a student, you never realize how complicated it is to devise this image, and the thing is – to learn how to achieve your goals with given prerequisites. Overall, this was one of the most essential lessons I learned at Stanford.
We will continue publishing more inspirational stories from our clients. If you want to become or hero, start from a free consultation.