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Growing up, I learned fairly quickly that TV does not perfectly reflect real life. Grad school for me hasn’t been much like it was for - where are the video essays? So, when I landed an internship at a high tech company, I was surprised to find that it reminded me a lot, like a lot a lot, of . Snacks? Check. Bring your dog to work? Check. Jeans and T-shirts? Check.

Beer on Tap? Check plus. From my cubicle view, this internship was already looking drastically different my previous career as a teacher.Ìý

I realized quickly that as someone marketing data storage software, I sure didn’t know anything about . I needed to learn, and fast. I started seeking out meetings from anyone who would patiently explain technology to a non-technical person. I read and re-read blog posts about virtualization, DevOps, and service providers. In the beginning, it was frustrating having multiple Wikipedia articles open for all of the different tech acronyms that I was learning, but looking back, I wish that I had been more patient with myself. I underestimated the time that it takes to learn the different processes and products of a company. I had to patiently be a student of NetApp before I could be a contributor to . Now that I understand (sort of) what a virtual desktop infrastructure is, I’m able to add value. I’ve been working on a project to enhance the storytelling and communication of internal sales wins with the end goal of enabling the sales team to win with our new products. If I didn’t know the difference between compute and storage, I wouldn’t have been able to even start my project.

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Additionally, the combination of all of the different MBA core classes helped me to more broadly understand the background strategy behind product marketing. I needed to know the reasons why a company would rather incur an operating expense than a capital expense or how to assess the market potential for a new product, understand the channel's influence on our sales, and how to measure our performance given the data. Further, I needed to be able to take all of those different pieces into account to create a cohesive marketing strategy. The MBA provided me with the skills to take a more comprehensive view of business activity-- an essential skill for my role in product marketing.

Overall, I think that taking my MBA learning out into the world didn’t mean that I necessarily knew everything that I needed to know to be successful in a business job. I still needed to learn about the company, the people, and the products before I’d be able to add to the team. What I have gained at Leeds is the ability to take an intentional learning approach when joining a new organization. Leeds has prepared me to ask the right questions, listen for when something seems out of place, and view the organization with a broader scope.