KTech Alumni Spotlight
KTech Alumni - Where are they now?
Here are profiles of Kellogg alumni who are now working in the tech industry with advice on how current students can pivot into the industry and make the most of their time in KTech and at Kellogg more broadly!KTech Ambassadors are second-year students who have successfully navigated their way through Tech recruiting and share their words of wisdom for current Kellogg students interested in Tech.
Our Alumni
Maria Alvares Ribeiro
1Y 2020
Current Role: Strategy & Operations Manager, DoorDash
Pre-Kellogg Industry: Retail
Summer internship: N/A
What skills and attributes are most important for your function?
Firstly, analytical skills - ability to use and manipulate data to understand patterns to define goals and improve results . Secondly, working cross functionally, no team can do it all, and leveraging the best skills and expertise from other teams is crucial to making the final "product" better. Being able to set expectations, cadence and a productive working culture with multiple partners that are from different teams and backgrounds is crucial. Finally, being flexible to experiment new things. Having this mindset and being open to doing this in a scrappy way to get quick "reads" to learn and iterate fast.
Looking back at your time at Kellogg, what course(s) were the most helpful?
Customer Analytics (Prof Mc Shane) and Retail Analytics (Prof Andersen) were hands down my favorite classes and i translate a lot of the learnings from them to my day to day.
In these classes, I understood how marketers, retailers and manufacturers were using analytics to investigate datasets and propose recommendations with real world cases. I was able to recognize advantages and limitations of different types of data which today help me think about experiments. Finally, I learnt the importance of communicating with analytics and data science teams to increase the relevance of data findings.
What specific Kellogg experiential learning experiences have been the most valuable in your post-Kellogg career?
I took Growth Strategy Practicum with Prof O'Connor and Marketing Consulting Lab with Prof. Hennessy as experiential learning classes. Coming from an international working culture, experiential classes were important for me to get closer to the US work culture and mindset as I looked for a job in the US.
What tips do you have for someone interested in pivoting into the Tech industry?
Be prepared to enter a fast paced culture where experimenting, testing and iterating is part of your day to day! Be sure to portray that you are flexible and agile in interviews by showcasing entrepreneurial endeavors you have led with startups, projects, experiential classes as well as club roles.
Rohan Rajiv
2Y 2016
Current Role: Group Product Manager, LinkedIn
Pre-Kellogg Industry: Consulting
Summer Internship: Business Operations Manager, LinkedIn
Why did you choose to join your current company?
(1) A powerful vision/mission - creating economic opportunities/helping members become productive and successful - that resonated
(2) The opportunity to work with people I respected and liked
(3) Great culture + values that felt real vs. being words on a wall
What specific Kellogg experiential learning experiences have been the most valuable in your post-Kellogg career?
Leadership roles in clubs - by a distance. Working on CIM, KTech (we used to call it "High Tech Club" or HTC - KTech is definitely cooler), The Good Life Sessions, among others, were the highlight of my experience. They helped me synthesize my perspective on leadership (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leadership-1-page-rohan-rajiv/) and also ensured I walked away from the experience with lovely friendships
What tips do you have for someone interested in pivoting into the Tech industry?
1) Successful pivots tend to benefit from 3 ingredients - a) relationships and/or great storytelling that help increase the chances of an interview, b) (over) preparing when you get that chance, c) dumb luck.
2) Optimize for 5 year time horizons vs. attempting to get the dream role in the dream company as soon as possible
3) Expect plans A, B, and C to not work (there are 26 letters in the alphabet). What is delayed is not denied.
Is there anything else that you want to share about your Kellogg experience or your career path since graduating, especially as it pertains to a career in tech?
Lessons learnt at Kellogg that are applicable beyond:
1) The only way to combat FOMO is by clearly understanding our priorities and committing to spending time on what matters to us. We can do anything, but not everything.
2) There is no such thing as work-life balance. There are just work-life trade-offs and those trade-offs are real. It is on us to be intentional about them.
3) We are incredibly privileged to take a year or two in the middle of our lives and invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in our education and careers. It helps to take stock of that privilege - ideally every day...and make it count.
Lauren Fragoza
1Y 2019
Current Role: Senior Product Manager, Revenue at Tinder
Pre-Kellogg Industry: Tech
Summer Internship: N/A
Why did you choose to join your current company?
Based on my previous work experience and projects with Chicago-area startups at Kellogg, I knew that I wanted to join a growth-stage consumer tech company. Tinder has high brand awareness and revenue growth with a small product team, so it was a great opportunity to take on a lot of responsibility and make a big impact.
What skills and attributes are most important for your function?
Product Managers need to be structured thinkers who can keep track of many projects in different stages of development at the same time, all while quickly making strategic decisions to move the team forward. Empathy is also critical for PMs, both for the people who use your product and the people you work with across your company.
Looking back at your time at Kellogg, what course(s) were the most helpful?
New Product Development and Leader as Coach were both very helpful for me. As part of New Product Development I co-founded a startup that I still advise today, and Leader as Coach provided useful frameworks as I transitioned into managing a direct report.
Tania Bhattacharya
2Y 2018
Current Role: Product Manager, Google
Pre-Kellogg: Tech
Summer Internship: Product Technology Manager, Google
What tips do you have for someone interested in pivoting into the Tech industry?
The tech industry has a lot of exciting roles that allow one to experience tech without diving deep into technical work. I recommend researching available opportunities in companies of interest and networking with relevant people in these positions to learn more about the various roles tech has to offer. For anyone who has made their decision to move into tech, it's a great idea to share stories that showcase transferrable skills and analogous projects from the past industry.
What's something that's surprised you about your career path or general post-Kellogg journey?
I was surprised to find how important networking continues to be in post MBA world - connecting with hiring managers to change teams or move to different location, to find smaller side projects or volunteering opportunities etc. The whole recruitment process at Kellogg prepares the students really well for these situations and networking eventually becomes organic.
How did KTech play a role in your recruiting journey or general Kellogg experience?
I was involved with KTech right from my first quarter at Kellogg and it was an integral part of my overall Kellogg experience. KTech has been instrumental in preparing and reviewing my resume, helping me present my stories well for interviews, conducting mock interviews, sharing preparation materials and most importantly connecting me with peers on the same tech-recruitment-journey. The tech trek conducted by the club was a great way to network with alumni and to learn more about the culture of different tech companies.
Harsha Dronamraju
2Y 2014
Current Role: Director of Product Management and Head of Growth, Emeritus
Pre-Kellogg Industry: Consulting
Summer Internship: New Product Management, Bose Corporation
What specific Kellogg experiential learning experiences have been the most valuable in your post-Kellogg career?
StartupNU during our 2nd year was/is a wonderful practical in the entrepreneurship, early stage venture process. Pitching, receiving feedback from investors, and then iterating helped me stay customer focused and distill an idea into a manageable MVP - all great skills for any product person at an early stage company.
What tips do you have for someone interested in pivoting into the Tech industry?
Figure out your current state and desired state, and work backwards to map out your MBA gameplan. Most career switchers to tech have to switch both function and industry, and it is difficult to both in one career move. So, use your internship to pivot once, and then leverage that internship to pivot again during your full time job search.
Is there anything else that you want to share about your Kellogg experience or your career path since graduating, especially as it pertains to a career in tech?
Great product managers are problem-obsessed empaths, analytical thinkers, and great communicators. None of these traits require the MBA degree, but all three can be developed during business school. I would recommend focusing less on your credential, and more on building demonstrated examples of these skills when recruiting in tech.
Marc Sella
MMM 2020
Current Role: Sr. Product Manager, Wayfair
Pre-Kellogg: Financial Services - Product Manger, Capital One
Summer Internship: Product Manager, Wayfair
Looking back at your time at Kellogg, what course(s) were the most helpful?
Introduction to Software Development (non-MMM) / Digital Design & Development (MMM) - getting an introduction to writing code / building applications will make you a better product manager, even if you never roll up your sleeves and write code on the job.
The Rookie General Manager - Product Management is a generalist role, and this course gives you great grounding in terms of how to identify / prioritize the problems you'll face. You also spend a lot of time thinking about how to onboard in a new organization, which can is critical in a role as cross-functional as Product.
What specific Kellogg experiential learning experiences have been the most valuable in your post-Kellogg career?
Being a KWEST leader. In product, it's your job to create an inclusive environment where engineers, designers, and marketers can all solve problems and get their ideas heard. The little of skills of looking out for who's dominating the conversation / who might need some 1:1 engagement are incredibly important in product.
I also led "Special Projects" for Charity Auction Ball. I led interviews to understand pain points in the auction discovery process and partnered with the marketing team to find low-effort ways to solve them on the website. It's the same work I do every day as PM. You can find an opportunity to do this in any of the clubs you participate in!
What tips do you have for someone interested in pivoting into the Tech industry?
Everyone dreams about getting their dream role in a new function, new industry, at a Big Tech company, but it can be challenging to make all three transitions at once. Don't be discouraged! Figure out steps you can take to get closer to that dream job even if it doesn't check every box. For instance, I knew I wanted to stay in product management. I looked to 2 options as stepping stones if I couldn't land a "Big Tech" role: 1) larger FinTech companies (leveraging my Finance background) or 2) focus on smaller firms / start-ups in a new subindustry (e.g. Travel).