Kathryn Uehlinger
What was it like to be in business school?
Attending business school was one of the best choices I could have made, both personally and professionally. I had the opportunity to expand my education—taking classes like Competitive Strategy and Pricing Policy & Strategy—and build my soft skills like public speaking and leadership through career development programs and extracurricular involvement.
Business school is a great opportunity to take a step back from your work life, and really evaluate what you want of your career. I appreciated having the chance to learn from my peers and my professors, and think critically about where I wanted to go in the future. Given the chance, I would do it all again!
How has the BC MBA shaped your career goals?
I can truly say that without BC, I would not have pursued my current career path. When I started the program, I wanted to go into human resources, specifically working with large corporations to create development and leadership programs for women. During the first quarter of the program, I had the opportunity to take Marketing with Professor Jon Kerbs, which completely changed my outlook on the field, and introduced me to potential careers that I had never truly considered.
From there, I took electives in Market Research, as well as Strategic Brand Management, which opened my eyes to the field of brand management, and the unique way that it marries both the creative aspect of marketing and the analytics of strategy.
These classes, and BC’s extensive alumni network, ultimately led me to Ocean Spray, and I’m so grateful for that.
What stood out to you about the BC MBA Program?
I would love to give out a shout-out to the data analytics core. All BC MBA students are required to take data analytics courses, which were developed in response to feedback from both students and employers. While the courses have evolved since they were introduced about five years ago, they always include a focus on model building, management skills, and practical skills, including learning SQL, R, and Tableau.
Coming from getting a liberal arts degree in undergrad, and then working in finance, but primarily in client servicing and client relationship management, I didn’t truly understand the importance of good data analytics skills. BC gave me a toolkit that I had been lacking, and the opportunity to leverage it to my advantage.
When I left my summer internship, I had let the company know that I would be open to returning in a part-time capacity during the school year. Based on the strength of my analytics work that they had seen over the summer, they brought back as an e-commerce sales and marketing analyst, allowing me to hone my skills even further, and add unique experience to my resume. It’s a position that I would not have been qualified for where it not for the Data Analytics courses at BC.