April 25, 2019 Noon - 1 PM CST Pursuing a Career in Healthcare, Retail, Media and Entertainment

Guest: How long before you applied to Booth did you start the GMAT and application prep?

* Wyatt Lawyer: Hi, thanks for joining today! I began studying for the GMAT during the spring last year and took the test in the late-summer. After that, I switched gears to application writing so I could apply to Booth first round in September!

Guest: What resources does Booth provide to students who are looking to pursue a career in Media/Entertainment?

* Monika Robins: Booth provides a few resources through career services and the Media and Entertainment Sports Group. Career Services has an employer relations person, as well as a media adviser, so they manage relations with media companies and help students apply to media companies, respectively. The MESG is also an important part of the media opportunities, and we organize events to assist students, such as alumni conversations, panels with students, and Lunch’N’Learns to learn about the industry. MESG also organizes treks out to NYC and LA throughout the year to meet with the different companies. Recruiting for media is a specialized search process for the most part, which means that they don’t do on campus recruiting. About 37% of the class received offers through on-campus recruiting, so around 63% received internship offers through personal contacts, GTS contacts, job postings (specialized search), etc.

Guest: Are there any avenues at Booth for students who are looking into breaking into the music industry in particular?

* Andrea Sanchez: Hi, thanks for the question. Yes, there are students from various backgrounds that are interested in music industry and music tech. Our Employer Relations team actively works to build relationships in the space and post opportunities on the Booth job board. Most recently on one of the New York treks the students visited Spotify through the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital student group.

Guest: For those students who already have experience in the media/entertainment fields, do you plan to continue on that path, and how has Booth helped you in that process?

* Rish Santhanam: Hi, as a student who already had experience in media/entertainment, I plan to continue in this field in a more tech-centric role as data and technology continues to disrupt the industry. In this way, Booth classes have helped prepare me for interviews with more technology-centric companies in the space. The Booth Alumni network has also helped a great deal since media recruiting is quite specialized and self-driven. Beyond specialized search, Booth also attracts telecom companies and large tech companies doing media work to on-campus interviews, and in fact, my summer internship in media was through an on-campus interview.

Guest: Hello, thank you all for taking time out of your day to answer questions! My question is for the Media and Entertainment folks (and especially for Monika): How will you decide whether you go into consulting or entertainment? How and when does recruiting for entertainment take place?

* Monika Robins: I recruited for both media and consulting in the fall and ultimately decided to go to consulting for the summer. I’m going to consulting in Los Angeles, so hope to be on a Media & Entertainment related project. Part of my decision to do consulting was that I want to learn more about the specific roles in media before making a more final choice. Depending on how my summer goes, I’ll make a decision about consulting vs. entertainment. Consulting recruiting takes place in the fall/winter, whereas entertainment recruiting is more in the spring and just-in-time.

Guest: Wyatt/Dana, What opportunities have you had to get involved with the Healthcare community in Chicago?

* Wyatt Lawyer: Hi, great question! Chicago has a thriving healthcare community, both in start-up and more mature healthcare businesses. I have been interning since January with a venture capital fund, investing in healthtech growth stage start-ups, many of which are sourced from Chicago. For another example, as a co-chair with Healthcare Group, I helped lead a group of students on a company visit to DivvyDose, a Chicago-based healthcare firm, two weeks ago.  Those are just a couple examples, but the opportunities are wide, depending on your interests!

Guest: Hi everyone! Thank you for your time today. As Chicago is not a traditional media hub (compared to New York or LA), have you noticed that this impacts media recruiting on campus?

* Carol Winfrey: Hi! Thanks for joining! Despite Chicago not being NY or LA, we have a number of different ways to engage with the space. We have a student group focused on the industry; we undertake treks to the media firms in LA and NY, and we have an employer relations team member assigned to cover the industry, building relationships across firms. We work with companies such as Disney, Lionsgate, Paramount, Hulu, Netflix and many others. While not all come to campus for formal recruiting, they do post roles and actively interview our students.

Guest: Rish, entertainment is a very broad term and could have a lot of interesting focuses within it. What is your primary area of focus within entertainment and what classes have you taken related to that so far?

* Rish Santhanam: Before Booth, my experience in entertainment was mostly focused on the talent-transaction side in relation building new ventures. I want to focus more on actually building larger platforms, primarily built around video/media streaming technology. All businesses around these technologies are actually built on data and an incredible amount of marketing, and the space is very competitive, so classes such as Platform Competition, Competitive Strategy, Marketing Strategy and Data-Driven Marketing have proven extremely relevant.

Guest: Hi, all thanks for hosting this live chat today. My background is in strategy consulting, and I'm interested in pivoting to a career healthcare in the short term and healthcare VC in the long term.  What resources at Booth did you find most helpful in terms of helping you pivot to a career in healthcare?

* Dana Sun: Hi! I'll break this question down into 2 parts: 1) For the short-term goal of pivoting to a healthcare role, the Health Care Group (HCG) student organization does an excellent job of preparing you for understanding the different types of firms and recruiting (e.g. resume review, cover letter review, interview prep). Our healthcare community spans across all division of health, whether that means payer/provider to biotech/pharma to startups and VC. We have plenty of healthcare firms who come on campus to connect with students (Especially the mid-sized to larger organizations). 2) For your longer-term goal of healthcare VC, it's important to build up operational experience from startups and investing/finance experience wherever possible. To that end, Booth has many relevant classes (e.g. New Venture Strategy, Entrepreneurial Finance & Private Equity). In-quarter VC internships are also very common through the PE & VC Lab to get started early. Lastly, the Polsky Center has many experts from a VC background to advise you.

Guest: Wyatt and Dana - Are either of you in the GPHAP program and if so has it provided you with additional opportunities you wouldn't have received otherwise?

* Dana Sun: While neither of us are in the GPHAP program, we do have several friends participating. One aspect that friends enjoy is the opportunity to interact with classmates from the public policy school and law school (for example) throughout the healthcare-specific events. It's very dynamic and gives you perspective from multiple angles that you may not necessarily get normally. Additionally, there are GPHAP specific speaker events to get you more plugged in with the HC ecosystem and have deeper conversations. The most important part is that you're interacting with folks who not only have a healthcare interest, but also deep healthcare professional experience. Experience matters, since at the end of the day, the group is interested in understanding actionable ways to improve challenges in our ecosystem.

Guest: Thanks for hosting this! What kinds of healthcare companies most commonly come to campus to recruit, and is it dominated by companies that are in the Chicago area?

* Carol Winfrey: Hi! We have a range of companies covering payer, provider, biotech, pharma, medical device, health technology, and digital health companies. The firms include the very large organizations as well as very robust startup space, including Venture Capital and Private Equity. We work with companies across the country, with strong areas including the Bay Area, New York, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles. We also work with many firms hiring for their international offices.

Guest: Hi Monika, can you speak to how Booth prepared you for the consulting recruiting process and maybe any insights you gained that you wish you knew beforehand?

* Monika Robins: Booth prepared me well for consulting recruiting. The Management Consulting Group and career services are both very active on campus, so there is a lot of support. MCG walks you through everything from what to wear to how to network and prepare for interviews. Career services organizes Corporate Conversations with firms and MCG organized Lunch’N’Learns to see how different firms approach cases throughout the fall. MCG also teaches us how to case, and we practice cases with first years and second years. Overall, I felt very prepared and supported throughout the recruiting and interview process.

Going into it, I didn’t realize just how much time it would require, from attending the organized events to coffee chats and phone calls to casing and fit interview prep. But a lot of the interview prep transfers to other interviews as well, and it’s all manageable. You get very good at managing your time and Google Calendar very quickly.

Guest: How and when did you know that Booth was the next best step for your career?

* Wyatt Lawyer: As a management consultant for 5+ years following undergrad, I gained a lot of incredible experiences and built the foundations for my career. At a point, though, I recognized that I needed to sharpen my business acumen in other ways, as I felt I just wasn't growing at the same rate as before. In searching for new opportunities to help kick-start my learning and growth, I took a hard look at business school as an exciting opportunity. After talking to mentors and current students, I began to recognize beyond the nebulous "MBA" acronym, what a top tier business school really entailed. That began the search for the right one for me! I had a lot of conversations with current students, a ton of campus visits, and conducted mountains of research. In the end, I knew Booth was the best choice because it was a culture and community that I knew I could excel in, while getting the growth opportunities that I needed.

Guest: Hello, what’s the level of difficulty for quantitative courses for someone from a liberal arts background? Thanks!

* Rish Santhanam: There are students from all backgrounds at Booth and there are classes with varying levels of quantitative difficulty. As someone with a liberal arts background, I have not found the classes to be beyond my capability, though I have had to spend some time learning some statistical software and I spend my summer before school brushing up and reviewing on relevant math concepts.

Guest: You mentioned the Sports aspect in an earlier answer. What kind of opportunities do Booth students usually find in the Sports industry?

* Andrea Sanchez: Hi, thank you for your question. Most recently, students have received opportunities in the NFL, Major League baseball teams (i.e. Washington Nationals, NBA, NBA team/L.A. Clippers), Sports Equipment & Fitness. The roles range from Marketing, Corporate Strategy, and Analytics. There are also Chicago Booth alumni in the Sports industry. We have alumni at the Chicago Cubs and the Media, Sports and Entertainment group will be attending a Cubs game this spring.

Guest: Hi! What sort of business functions within media and entertainment do people tend to be hired in from Booth?

* Andrea Sanchez: Hi, thank you for your questions. Students go to a wide range of functions within Media and Entertainment, like Corporate Strategy, Product Management, and Finance.

Guest: Thank you all for your time today. Dana/Wyatt- What classes have you taken during your first year at Booth that have prepared you specifically for the Healthcare industry? As someone who is brand new to healthcare and interested in it, I'm trying to figure out which courses will best prepare me for interviews and the summer internship experience.

* Wyatt Lawyer: Great question and we're very lucky to have such great professors and courses here at Booth! While there are some industry-specific courses, most Booth classes are functionally focused as opposed to industry focused. That said, many of our professors have research focuses within healthcare. For example, Professor Shapiro, who taught us Marketing Strategy course on my first quarter. With that specific viewpoint within healthcare, functionally driven strategic skillset in marketing was maybe even more impactful than a healthcare-specific course would’ve been for me. My classes have been fantastic so far, and I believe they are doing an excellent job for preparing me for post-Booth roles in healthcare.

Guest: Healthcare VC internships during classes seems like a great way to get a lot of exposure to the local healthcare scene. Some students I've spoken with said these are difficult to get especially without a PE/VC background. How difficult is it to get these opportunities? What is the best way to prep for applying?

* Dana Sun: For VC internships, it depends on what type of VC firm you're looking at. The earlier stage of the VC firm, your role as an Associate would be focused on sourcing investment opportunities and conducting due diligence. As you get into the growth & later stage of VC firms, having a strong finance background will come in handy since you'll be working more on deals. For VC, it is NOT necessary to come from a VC background. That being said, throughout my VC recruiting experience, I've consistently heard from current Associates & Partners that the more startup operational experience you can get and the more investing-oriented skills you can build, the better. There is always the philosophical debate between what's more important, the investing or operational experience. Ultimately, recognize that both types of experiences will be teaching you valuable insights that you could transfer into any VC firm. Therefore, I'd suggest seeking opportunities to get involved in startups or investing activities wherever possible!

Guest: Rish, are you involved in any Technology student groups? If so, how are they equipping you for success in media/entertainment?

* Rish Santhanam: I am very much involved in the Booth Tech Group. I was just at the Booth Tech Conference last week and went on Tech Trek in the fall. Media/Entertainment is becoming a technology-driven industry. So for the areas I'm interested in, I've found that the Booth Tech Group has been very helpful in terms of interview-prep and understanding the technological trends that are driving change in entertainment industry specifically and in all consumer industries generally.

Guest: How does Booth foster diversity on campus and what is it actively doing to encourage it?

* Nicole Chen: Booth is committed to having a community of students from diverse backgrounds, industries, and experiences. Once students are on campus, they can take parts in initiatives organized by our various student-led clubs, including affinity groups. For more information, please contact Eddie Pulliam, Senior Associate Director of Admissions.

Guest: Good afternoon team. Hi Monika! Question: In your opinion, what is the most special aspect from the media and entertainment industry that many other industries do not offer?

* Monika Robins: To me, what sets media apart is that everyone, across all demographics, can touch and interact with the product.

Guest: Hello, thank you for taking the time today. My background is in Accounting and Financial consulting and I am interested in pivoting to a career in strategy consulting, if possibly healthcare or retail but with no prior background in either industries. What are some of the resources available at Booth which can help me develop some knowledge in those fields?

* Wyatt Lawyer: Booth has a culture of student leadership, and we see that manifest in second-year students doing a great job leading professional groups which help students understand industries, prepare for recruiting, and make decisions on employment. Speaking from personal experience, both the Management Consulting Group (MCG) and Healthcare Group (HCG) were incredibly helpful as I worked to understand the MBA recruitment process and opportunities available. Additionally, our Career Management team is fantastic. Career Coaches are always there to help you through your journey as you look for internship and full-time opportunities.

Guest: I'm a recently admitted student interested in healthcare (currently working in healthcare consulting). What do you think are the advantages of attending Booth compared to a program with maybe more structure around healthcare?

* Dana Sun: Good question! One of Booth's greatest advantages is your ability to really dig into healthcare not only from a business perspective, but also from the law, policy, social, and medical side. Booth is unique in enabling you to take courses from ANY of the other graduate programs (and the college if that interests you), which I find incredibly valuable because of how multi-dimensional the healthcare system is. Additionally, since Booth faculty focuses on teaching courses from a functional (Rather than industry) point of view, we have phenomenal professors across marketing (e.g. Professor Shapiro), strategy (e.g. Professor Bunch), and finance (e.g. Professor Rock), to name a few. Lastly, I'm a firm believer that having less structure enables you to explore and figure out what YOU truly want rather than follow the charted path. A path that's easier to take doesn't necessarily mean it's best for you. Booth encourages you to continuously reflect , evaluate, and recognizes that everybody's paths will look different.

Guest: Have any of you had the opportunity to get involved with local Chicago non-profits, and what was that like?  How have you seen Booth prepare you and other students to get involved in the non-profit community?

* Natasha Chan: Hi! Many of our students have a strong interest and passion for social impact. Booth is home to the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation - an on-campus resource fully dedicated to tackling social and environmental issues. Rustandy frequently puts on events and programming to help students explore and meet peers and professionals in social impact, as well as career opportunities. In addition to Rustandy, there are other opportunities to join student groups such as Net Impact, BoothEd that hosts conferences, employer treks, and events/programming. We also have members of the coaching and employer relations team. They serve as student group liaisons to career services to assist student group co-chairs with creating meaningful career education and programming directly targeted at social impact students. Lastly, there is also the Community Catalyst Fund, which offers stipends to students pursuing social impact internships in education, government or non-profits.

Guest: What kind of success rates are there for landing an internship in media/entertainment? How common is it to land a full-time offer after an internship?

* Andrea Sanchez: There are a few treks and events that will help you learn more about the space and connect with companies in the Media space. While there are about 50 members of the media/entertainment student space, however the number of students that are actively seeking opportunities in the space is much smaller. As far as success rates, there are students who are successful in landing internships and many of the roles are just-in-time. The ability for the internship to convert into a full-time offer is related to the company and department specific within the media and entertainment space. It is not uncommon, for students who intern in the space, to go into internships knowing they will likely need to re-recruit for a full-time offer.