Rady School of Management, Micro-MBA Program

The Micro-MBA program is offered by UCSD’s Rady School of Management. It was a great opportunity for graduate students and postdocs with technical backgrounds to be introduced to business concepts. The program is loosely based on The Ten-Day MBA by Steven Silbiger. The lectures included basics of business along with valuable resources for further exploration.

This was only an introduction to aspects of business and related concepts, however, I quickly realized that I was motivated by the idea of working for a company with the goal of growing beyond a small business. While I am trained as a theoretical physicist, I desire a position in industry that goes beyond just being a research scientist. I want to be a scientist and a businessman. I never want to end up in a position that is routine, and the challenges of operating a business seem anything but routine.

I realized I had a strength that could be applied outside academia: my ability to simply explain difficult ideas. As a tutor, I was well aware that this was a profitable skill, but I never considered the skill to be sought after by employers. After attending the program, I made the decision to further develop this tutoring skill into something a potential employer can utilize. As the techniques of data science and machine learning become more obscure to those outside of the fields, appearing to be “black-box” techniques to some, employers will require employees with skills beyond technically proficiency. There will be a need to communicate technical aspects in a manner that can be understood by those who lack the academic training. I believe my ability to aid the understanding of others will be a skill sought after by recruiters.