Author: bcgradtechclub

This is the website for Boston College's MBA Graduate Technology Club.

Kori Kenerson — HIRED

Concentration: Business Analytics

Grad Year: 2015
Undergrad: Williams College ‘09
Summer Internship: FP&A Intern at Ocean Spray Cranberries
Target Role: Quantitative / Data Analyst
Key Skills: MS Office, SPSS, R, SQL
Fun Fact: One of my favorite summer activities is clamming, which is of course followed by shucking, frying and eating.

Kori is a second year MBA candidate with a passion for business analytics and a background in investment management. In her previous role as a Senior Investment Analyst at Permal Capital Management, a private equity fund-of-funds and secondary investment firm based in Boston, she was largely responsible for utilizing a strong analytical skill-set in constructing financial models and ad-hoc quantitative analyses to assist in the investment decision-making process. She learned that what she enjoyed most about her experience at Permal was being able to transform data into insight, i.e., putting a story to the numbers. Her passion for analytics stems from this realization, and returning to school has allowed her to further explore this area of interest. Kori’s academic project work with Zipcar, for instance, provided hands-on, practical experience working on an analytics initiative. Along with a team of four others, she designed a scoring mechanism that served as a tool for evaluating expansion opportunities into new locations as well as a step-by-step process implementation guide that directed Zipcar toward a universal model and data-driven strategy. Additionally, as the VP of Analytics for BC’s Graduate Technology Club, she’s hoping to create opportunities for graduate students to develop their data science “hard” skills through practical learning experiences and to gain exposure to Boston’s local analytics scene through networking and educational events. Outside of class, Kori is working on developing her programming skills with the goal of one day becoming fluent in a coding language. You can also find her playing basketball, soccer or flag football with the BC MBA folk.

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/kori-kenerson/17/351/bb2

Alexa Villalobos — HIRED

Concentration: Business Analytics; Dual Degree candidate in the Graduate School of Social Work concentrating in health/mental health planning, administration, and policy
Grad Year: 2016
Undergrad: University of Virginia ’13, Religious Studies and Spanish
Target Role: Strategy/Operations/Business Analysis/Product Management Internship, Summer 2015
Key Skills: MS Office, STATA, Atlas.ti7, ArcGIS, SPSS, draw.io
Fun Fact: In high school, Alexa cooked a turducken (a chicken inside of a duck inside of a turkey) one Thanksgiving. Because the Amish recipe she used called for 14 hours of roasting and basting every 2 hours, on Thanksgiving Eve she slept in the kitchen on a mattress and set various alarms throughout the night so that she could attend to her giant bird(s).

As a dual degree student in the Carroll School and the Graduate School of Social Work, Alexa is constantly applying the skills she is gaining at Boston College in ongoing professional endeavors that she balances with her schoolwork. Before starting business school, she worked at a local non-profit organization for a year supporting senior leadership with the planning for and introduction of new outcomes measurement software, the improvement of performance metrics, program development, and resource development. She has also worked in non-profit management consulting and is currently co-leading a feasibility study for a local organization culminating in the launch of a new social enterprise in January of 2015. Using technology to improve organizational effectiveness has inspired Alexa to pursue more technical skills with greater fervor and to explore opportunities in the tech industry.

Connect with me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/alexa-villalobos/48/848/28

Jackie Ouellet — Hired

Key Stats:

Concentration: Leadership and Management
Grad Year: 2016
Undergrad: Boston College ‘09 – Economics
Target Role: Operations/Strategy/Product Management Internship, Summer 2015
Key Skills: MS Office, Adobe Photoshop, RegOnline event management, custom database development and management, basic HTML.
Fun Fact: The first road race Jackie ever ran was the Boston Marathon.

Jackie is back at Boston College for Round Two. After four and a half years working for an Association Management Company located in Wakefield, MA, she is looking forward to adding to her quantitative skillset. Prior to entering the MBA program, Jackie managed a small team of individuals focused on launching, expanding, and improving the training and certification products for various clients. During her time as Product Manager she focused on eliminating process inefficiencies and developing new business for global clients. She has experience working cross-functionally, taking on roles assisting with marketing, event management, and client services. During her time at Virtual, Inc., Jackie worked closely with the PCI Security Standards Council, which grew her interest in the tech and data security industries.

Though she continues to deny her love of running, Jackie has completed the Boston Marathon three times, fundraising over $16,000 for the ALS Association of MA and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She tries to spend any free time she has outdoors and competes on a summer League Frisbee team called the Teenage Cavemen.

Connect with me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jackieouellet/

Zach Culver-HIRED

Key Stats:

Concentration: Product and Brand Management
Grad Year: 2016
Undergrad: Gettysburg College ’11 – Economics
Target Role: Sales/Marketing Internship
Key Skills: MS Office, Siebel, Salesforce (and other CRMs), STATA, StaaS, PaaS, CaaS, Mobile Device Management.
Fun Fact: While at Gettysburg, Zach participated in a reality show pilot with the premise of placing college students with Civil War reenactors and training them to participate in marching, camping, and battle formations. Unfortunately (fortunately?) it wasn’t picked up.

Zach is a first year MBA student with experience in sales and marketing. Prior to BC he worked for 3 years as an account executive on AT&T’s Business Integrated Solutions team, specializing in helping small business leverage mobile applications to improve processes. Though this experience Zach developed a passion for B2B technology implementation because of the way he was able to help operations managers and chief executives achieve results that they hadn’t thought were feasible. Outside of class Zach is currently working on sharpening his technical skills to better understand the language of the tech industry, with the goal of one day starting his own company.

Zach is an avid golfer, competing in Massachusetts Golf Association amateur events, and an ice hockey weekend warrior with the local Stinky Socks Hockey League.

Follow Zach – @zach_culver

Connect with me LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zachculver/

Grad Tech Summer: Bobby Gooch (MBA 2015)

E-Mail: goochr@bc.edu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/robert-gooch/6a/7a0/381
Twitter: @bobbygooch3

Hey Everyone – just wanted to post some quick thoughts and impressions from my summer internship. Contact info above; feel free to reach out with questions.

-Where did I work? What does the company do?
I spent my summer working for OrderGroove, a small software company (about 40 people) based in NYC. OrderGroove helps large retailers set up subscription services. For example, if you are shopping for vitamins on CVS.com and decide you want them auto-delivered every 3 months, we set up the software to manage that program and develop best practices to help improve acquisition and retention.

-What is my role?
I work as an Analyst on the Marketing Analytics team. Essentially, I organize and interpret data to help internal teams and clients get a better understanding of the metrics related to their subscription program. I use these insights to help the company run better A/B tests, make product decisions, and develop marketing content.

-How did I find the internship?
I met an OrderGroove team member at a startup fair down in NYC. We chatted for a few minutes about my past experience and what sort of role I was looking for. I followed up a couple of days later, was asked to do about 4 or 5 phone/video interviews over the course of a week, and accepted an offer about a week before classes ended.

Quick aside: These sorts of job fairs go on throughout the year and they are a great way to meet a lot of companies in a short amount of time (BC actually hosts its own event in the spring, and you can check out http://startupjobfair.org/ for events in other cities).

-What are the top 2-3 classes from BC that have been most helpful?
Market Research: My primary responsibility is to aggregate data, determine what that data is telling us, and use it to make recommendations to other teams in the company. Market Research was great prep for this.
Statistics: I spend part of my time actually conducting A/B tests and determining their statistical significance. Always good to have a grasp of stats basics.
E-Commerce: It’s important to understand the current state of the industry and learn more about where it may be headed in the future.

-How will my experiences this summer inform my final year?
I’ve decided to keep working part-time for the company during the school year, and I’ll be heading back down to work for them full-time in May.

-What energizes you about the Tech field?
It’s attracting a lot of smart, motivated people. Yes, that may make it more competitive, but I think it also makes it more exciting. There are lots of people out there with good ideas and a passion for technology, and I think it’s an exciting time to be involved in the industry.

-What advice would you give to MBA looking to break into Tech and/or your particular space?
“Can’t knock the hustle”…. Take the initiative to introduce yourself to people in the industry and expand your network. Learn as much as you can about companies, job functions and industry trends. Check out events like Cyberposium and various job fairs. You’ll find most of these internships, especially at smaller companies, by doing research on your own and creating your own opportunities. It’s a bit of extra work, but it’s worth it. Finally – be patient. While you should be doing research and building your network ASAP, many small tech companies won’t even be considering summer interns until April or May, simply because their planning is very short-term (consider picking up some part-time working during the school year for a Boston-based company). Don’t worry if you don’t have something locked up as the end of the year approaches; just keep putting in the time to find the right opportunity.

Bobby Gooch is a 2nd Year MBA at Boston College and a member of the Grad Tech Club

Welcome to the BC Grad Tech Club

The Boston College Graduate Technology Club’s mission is to educate students about the implications of technology in business and to create networking opportunities with successful executives in the high technology industry.

In the past, the TechClub has toured laboratories and manufacturing facilities, conducted networking sessions with successful alumni in the technology field, scheduled lectures with prominent industry executives and organized B.C.’s involvement in the annual Cyberposium conference held at the Harvard Business School.

To join the club or ask us a question, send an email to: bcgradtechclub@gmail.com

David LoVerme-HIRED

Key Stats:

Concentration: Marketing Informatics, Product and Brand Management
Grad Year: 2015
Undergrad: Columbia University ’09-History
Summer Internship: Product Manager MBA Intern-Continuum Managed Services
Target Role: Product Manager
Key Skills: Excel, SQL, PPT, SPSS, Agile Project Management, JIRA, CMS, Qlikview, CRM (including Salesforce)
Fun Fact: David was the 2006 NYC Patchy Beard Champion but was disqualified in his 2009 title defense because his beard had become “too full”

David is the Grad Tech Club President and an Alum of both BC Tech Trek West and Tech Trek NYC. The son of a software engineer and a teacher, David has a passion for Product Management for its unique blend of creativity and leveraging data. Currently launching a business grade file sync and share product and pursuing his MBA at Boston College, he spent the previous four years at EF Education, enabling high school students and teachers to see the world and gain cultural understanding while doing it. While he found his initial success as a Salesman, his history background kept him digging deeper into numbers and processes until he was eventually asked to take on an analyst role, building out the BI Sales Dashboards and spearheading innovation in internal systems. Working with developers and business execs alike, he cultivated skills in data analysis and agile project management while developing a passion for technology in business.

@davidloverme

linkedin.com/in/davidloverme

Welcome to the Tech Club!

To join the club or ask us a question, send an email to: bcgradtechclub@gmail.com