The CMC gets lots of questions about the “hottest startups” and companies that are hiring. With thousands of new companies – it can be hard to know where to look. Building a target list of companies in your area of interest is an important part of focusing your job search.

MBAs at Stanford can get a free account with their Stanford email. Email support@datafox.co with “Stanford GSB” in the subject line and they will set you up with a free account.

Update. Video. – DataFox Co-Founder and CEO Bastiaan Janmaat was invited onto Bloomberg TV last week to discusses the origin of DataFox and the application of big data to ranking private companies.

Alumni Mike Dorsey and Bastiaan Janmaat started a company that is a great resource!  DataFox has consolidated information on companies from sources like Crunchbase, AngelList, Indeed.com, Twitter, and others.

• Track Top Companies – DataFox

Create a watch list and you’ll get news of the industry or topic, see the Twitter feed, and see people in your LinkedIn connections that are employees of the companies.

Other resources: Vault.com (Link to paid subscription found on MyGSB)

>> Read more about DataFox

By now you may have completed one (or many) internship interviews, whether as a part of On Campus Recruiting or not.  For this we want to say Congrats! You’ve survived so far! And if you still have more interviews to go, hang in there, you will find your summer internship, even if you know you have a long road ahead.

Whether you’ve received an offer/offers or you’re just beginning your search, never fear, we, at the CMC, are here to help! And we’re also here to shed a little light on the offer consideration deadline.

Take note: The MBA1 Offer Consideration deadline is February 20th.

ALL organizations who recruit GSB students, whether as a part of OCR or not, are bound by the CMC’s Recruiter Conduct Policies. This includes offer consideration deadlines and incentives or changes in offer terms.  It’s important to remember that communication and positioning with the employer are key and that the CMC can help coach you through any challenging situation. 

The policies state: “Offers to first-year students can be made at any time after the AAP. The offer must be open in its entirety until February 20, 2015 or at least two weeks after the student receives the written offer, whichever is later.

Longer time frames for considering an offer are acceptable. Extreme informal pressure to accept an offer is considered a violation of these policies.”

The policies regarding incentives, start dates and changes in offer terms are:

“A job offer containing incentives such as base signing bonus, cash bonuses, performance bonuses, and tuition reimbursement must remain open in its entirety until the offer consideration deadline. Changes in offer terms including start date, job location, job function, and base salary are considered violations of the recruiting policies.”

If you’re getting pressure from an organization to accept an offer I recommend the following steps:

1. Be honest with yourself – do you really want this offer/job? If not, decline the offer. Employers are balancing many factors and don’t appreciate being strung along.  Declining an offer can be done in way that leaves doors open for you. Click here for more information.
2. Ask for time to consider the offer. Be appreciative and straightforward. Thank the employer for the offer, tell them it’s a big decision and you will need some time to consider.
3. Remind the employer of the GSB policies.  There are times when employers are unaware of the deadlines or confuse them with other schools. As a FYI, Harvard’s and Wharton’s offer consideration deadlines are also February 20, 2015.
4. Ask the CMC to get involved. As the Director, Employer Relations & Recruiting, I manage any employer policy violations.  I will confront employers with policy violations only with a student’s permission; in no way do I want to intrude on a employer-student relationship. I can be vague with an organization (meaning I don’t mention any student names) and lightly remind them of our policies, or I can be direct and warn them of their infraction.  I appreciate hearing about employers who pressure a student to accept an offer. This allows me to better coach employers and students.

Good luck! Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

I had the honor to lead a group of 20 GSB students from the F&I Club to visit Berkshire in January. We had a 2 hour Q&A with Mr. Buffett, had lunch at his favorite steakhouse Piccolo and also visited three Berkshire subsidiaries. Below are what we took away from the trip.

On sourcing investment ideas

• “Nobody will tell you a good investment idea”
• “At my first job at Salomon Brothers, I sold securities during the day and read Moody’s manual at night. Kept studying companies page by page. Found my first investment on page 1443 of that manual (Western Insurance). Nobody knew Western Insurance. Nobody would tell you about it even if they knew it. But Western Insurance was trading at 0.5x earnings!”
• “Found Berkshire in Moody’s Manual for Industries. You may think that today competition has increased and information is easily available but I used the same approach to find Korean stocks a few years back. Read the Korean stock manual one Sunday afternoon and found 15-20 stocks that way”
• Long Term Capital (LTCM) – “they were right about everything except human emotion”

On importance of EQ in investing

• “Emotional stability rather than emotional intelligence are important in investing”
• “You don’t need more than a 130 IQ to succeed in investing. If you have a 150 IQ, sell the 20 points”
• “LTCM weren’t good at controlling themselves. Doesn’t help if you’re smart and overrate yourself”
• “You’re destined to get rich over time if you’re reasonably intelligent and investing in the US”
• “If your neighbor doing well by investing in technology stocks tempts you, you will never make money”
• “There are lots of smart people on Wall Street that fail in investing and reasonably smart people that succeed”
• “Operate in your circle of confidence, know what you know”
• Tom Watson, IBM “I’m no genius but I’m smart in spots and I stick to those spots”
• “Not a tough business in terms of IQ but a tough business in terms of emotions”

On whether the best path to success is meticulous planning or seizing opportunities as they come

• Has to be both. “I was purposeful about going through Moody’s manual but I also jumped at the opportunity of working for Graham”
• “Do believe in being purposeful, I think it can get you places”
• At your age the best way you can improve yourself is to learn to communicate better. Your results in life will be magnified if you can communicate them better. The only diploma I hang in my office is the communications diploma I got from Dale Carnegie in 1952”
• “Without good communication skills you won’t be able to convince people to follow you even though you see over the mountain and they don’t”

On investing in technology if he were sixteen today

• Would definitely learn about tech, doesn’t mean he would invest in it.
• The auto industry has been the one of the most important industries during Buffett’s investing career. He has extensive knowledge of auto. Despite that he doesn’t feel comfortable buying auto stocks. Instead he chose to buy an auto dealer with 78,000 dealerships across the US. Simply because five years from now, he doesn’t know which model will sell but he does know that the auto dealer will sell it. This is the same story in tech, Buffett does not know who the leader will be.
• “I like businesses that I can predict doing well. Who knew how big Google would become and how well they would do, nobody!”
• “Every year I go the Microsoft Summit and face people with 180 IQs and tell them that if you asked me to choose between giving up a $10mn airplane and a $100 computer, I would choose the airplane. Why then, do you still charge me only $100 for the computer. You 180 IQs are not that smart.”
• Unclear how monetization will occur

On trying to work for people you admire

• “I told Ben Graham that I’d work for him for free. He said I’m overpriced. I kept myself on his radar screen, kept sending him investment ideas. Finally he agreed to take me on. You have to pursue it the same way you pursued your wife for marriage. In the process you will also improve yourself.”
• “Don’t just see the investment record of the person you admire but also his character”
• “Find the job that you’d take if you were independently wealthy. It may not happen immediately post school, but it should happen soon after. The idea of sleepwalking through life awaiting retirement is tragic. There is something out there for you. Don’t give up.’

On people outside the business world that inspire him / and what matters most

• “I have 12-15 heroes in my life who have never let me down”
• Father, Susan (wife whom he married at the age of 21), Dave Dodd, Ben Graham, Tom Murphy
• “It is very important to associate with people who are better than you, you will move in that direction. It’s just smart to do that. Not just people who are better in terms of IQ but also people who are better in terms of character”
• “Not sure I’ll go to Wall Street and find people I admire”
• “I advise people to marry up, not in terms of money but in terms of character. Who you marry is going to be the most important decision in your life. Your talents, your family are things you are born with. But marriage is something you can choose.”
• “The most important job in the world is raising a child. There are no do-overs in that job. If you do that right, irrespective of the amount of money you have, you will feel right at the age of 65-70.”
• Quote from a friend who was in Auschwitz during World War II and got sent to concentration camp, “If you get to 75 and have friends who will hide you, you are a success”

On how he thinks about business problems that haven’t happened yet

• If you have a city of 330,000 people (the number of people Berkshire employs) there are bound to be some people who are doing wrong. Try very hard to set the tone at the top. Send a two page letter to all employees every two years :

“We have all the money we need. We also have the best reputation one could possibly have. If you lose money, that’s something which is easy to earn back. But if you lose reputation, it is extremely difficult to earn that back. Act in a way such that if your actions were published in the local newspaper you would not be ashamed of your neighbors and friends reading that story. Play in the center of the field. I am old and cannot see the boundaries at the edge, don’t venture there”

• If a problem does occur there are four things you need to do
  1. Get it right – get the facts right
  2. Get it fast – move to action swiftly
  3. Get it out – get it completely out of the system
  4. Get on – move on
• Never let a problem sit unattended to (think if a trader – Moser – at Salomon that almost bankrupted the company after doing repeat offenses because no one had the guts to confront him)

On what he learnt from the recent financial crisis

• Most severe panic he saw in his lifetime. The worst thing that happens during a time of panic is that people start selling what’s good, because that’s the only thing that can be sold
• Bush did a great think by putting very qualified people in the right place and allowing them to do their work
• At a time like that, you need strong people at the top. The three people who helped us emerge from it – Hank Paulson, Time Geithner and Ben Bernanke. Give credit to Bush for handling the crisis. The ten words that Bush said that were more important than what any economist said in history, “If money doesn’t loosen up, this sucker could go down.” Everybody (including Berkshire) was in the domino line.
• Only way to stop a panic in today’s times is to have someone say with absolute authority, “I will do whatever it takes to make this right.”
• “The next panic will most likely come from a cyber/nuclear/biological or chemical attack on the US. The ability of psychotics, religious fanatics etc. to impact people has tremendously increased since 1945 (atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki)”
• “The US will always bounce back. Our system really works, if you have cash during a time of panic, BUY”
• Wrote an op-ed in NY times in October, 2008 advising people to buy America

On philanthropy if he didn’t have the resources and connections that he has today

• Best way to engage in philanthropy if you don’t have the money is to offer your time. It is enormous when somebody has confidence in you. Bring your time, energy and empathy and impact someone’s life.
• “David Dodd treated me like a son, spent his energy teaching me about the markets and was one of the first people to invest in my fund.”
• You have talents in sports or music or some crafts. Don’t be afraid to use those if they’re not at world-class level.

On how does he read as much as he does and why it is important?

• “No other way of learning about the things you want to learn about.”
• Try to keep reasonably well-versed with the ~100 companies that are in my investable universe
• Read 5 daily newspapers, 2-3 trade magazines, 10Ks and annual reports and also for pleasure
• Try and read bios. You will always get something out of reading about successful people. Highly recommend reading Katherine Graham’s bio.
• “Never stop reading”
• Read biographies, it’s a great way to learn from successful people and they are typically more interesting than novels

On Charlie Munger

• Met in 1959, when he was 35 and Buffett was 29. Two years earlier a doctor had given Buffett $100,000 to invest at a time when his total fund size was $500,000. Buffett thought that the doctor seemed really nonchalant about the investment. On being asked why, the doctor said, “You remind me of Charlie Munger.” Was introduced to Munger by the same doctor
• “We disagree a lot, but we have never had an argument. His clincher to me is, “Warren you’ll end up agreeing with me because you’re smart and I’m right.” He is usually inclined to less action than I am. And he usually turns out to be right. However, once I do anything, he backs me up a 100%. We don’t even need to talk to each other anymore.”
• “If you have 12-15 heroes in your life and good health, you will have a lot of fun in life.”

On women at the workplace

• “If you take the people who have done a lot for me, 50% have been women.”
• “Talent is so rare and precious that when you find it, you would be foolish to not capitalize on it because of gender”
• “Surprising how the US did so well historically despite harnessing just 50% of its talent”
• If you want to take on the cause, start at a place that has done some good work so far; otherwise you might be around to see your efforts come to fruition

On management incentives

• Made sense to offer stock options to Heinz management because they would be responsible for the turnaround of the company
• Offering Berkshire stock to the CEO of See’s Candies just because he increased profit from $70mn to $80mn does not make sense to me. As See’s is such a tiny portion of Berkshire that it is essentially a lottery ticket from See’s management’s prospective
• “A lot of times management gets incentivized for simply retaining earnings in the business without regard to the return on capital they generate”
• I own businesses that are easy to operate, tough to operate, require more capital, require less capital. Doesn’t make sense to have the same incentive structure for everyone

Planning vs Execution

• You should always have a plan that you’re working accordingly to
• You should in parallel always be listening to see if you need to update your plan or if there is a new plan out there that’s better for you

Choosing your direct manager and your job

• Your direct manager is almost as important as the person you marry
• Make sure you eventually end up in a job that you’re happy about. It’s fine if you don’t find it straight out of school but make sure not to lose track and start sleepwalking through life

Interested in Google as your future employer? Have you started researching the company? This may help you think about their hiring process and culture. Fortune published an article with an excerpt from the book “How Google Works” which talks about how they interview candidates.

They suggest interviewers should prepare and interview candidates:

Your objective [as interviewer] is to find the limits of his capabilities, not have a polite conversation, but the interview shouldn’t be an overly stressful experience. The best interviews feel like intellectual discussions between friends (“What books are you reading right now?”). Questions should be large and complex, with a range of answers (to draw out the person’s thought process) that the interviewer can push back on (to see how the candidate stakes out and defends a position).

When asking about a candidate’s background, you want to ask questions that, rather than offering her a chance to regurgitate her experiences, allow her to express what insights she gained from them.

Get her to show off her thinking, not just her resume. “What surprised you about…?” is one good way to approach this, as it is just different enough to surprise a candidate, so you don’t get rehearsed responses, and forces her to think about her experiences from a slightly different perspective. “How did you pay for college?” is another good one, as is “If I were to look at the web history section of your browser, what would I learn about you that isn’t on your resume?” Both of these can lead to a far better understanding of the candidate. They are also quite specific, which helps you gauge how well someone listens and parses questions.

Have other insights on Google? Share them with us!

CMC LINK is a unique customized job resource provided by the CMC. So just what is LINK exactly? Read on to find out!

What is LINK?

LINK stands for Leveraging Insider Networking Knowledge. A few years ago the CMC Employer Relations team brainstormed ideas for how to better support students who were finding their jobs outside of OCR and the job board. After further discussion with the career advisors and a few alumni contacts, LINK was born!

Who is LINK for?

LINK is open to all MBA and MSx students, including dual/joint degree  and international students. We make a point of clarifying with companies that we can be a resource for filling their internship as well as full-time roles. We also ask them about processes for international students and experienced hires.

How does LINK work?

In a nutshell, LINK uses student company and industry preferences to guide the CMC’s outreach in uncovering desired job opportunities. We use this student data to conduct outreach with alumni and recruiters to get the scoop on job opportunities and recruiting processes within companies of interest. The Recruiting Relationship Managers (RRMs) work really hard to bring you, the students, the most relevant and up-to-date information about the companies where you want to work. We close that feedback loop through a number of channels including, email distribution lists and direct emails, newsletters, and small group forums called LINK Cafes. We also try to facilitate personalized interactions with popular companies through Hot LINKs, which are on-campus small group lunches with the company that are preceded or followed by coffee chats.

We rely on student feedback to drive our outreach efforts, so don’t be afraid to reach out to an advisor or RRM with any questions, new interests, or updates on leads that you’ve uncovered. The data we refer to also shows us which students expressed an interest in which companies, so we are able to follow-up with students individually, as needed, regarding visa sponsorship and experienced hire processes.

Can you further explain the difference between a LINK Cafe and Hot LINKs?

Sure! LINK Cafes are informal forums led by a RRM and focus on recruiting updates for a particular industry. Topics can include new job opportunities and recruiting insights. We can’t guarantee that a job is always going to be available at a hot company, however. LINK Cafes are also an opportunity for students to ask questions about where we are with our outreach, or to gain more clarity about an open role. In keeping with the relaxed, informal vibe, the CMC also provides light cafe fare (snacks, coffee, and tea).

HOT LINKs are company-specific small group lunches (provided by the CMC), designed to give students a more personal interaction with the company. Hot LINKs are typically limited to no more than a dozen students. Before or after lunch, the company will usually hold coffee chats as an opportunity for one-on-one dialogue.

This is sounding really interesting. When does LINK start?

We will be launching LINK in winter quarter. MBA2s and MSxers will start seeing LINK related announcements in early January. MBA1s will start receiving LINK communications towards the conclusion of winter OCR, at the end of January. LINK communications will continue until the end of June for MBA1s and MBA2s, and until the end of August for MSx.

LINK Cafes usually happen weekly. That is, a LINK Cafe may take place each week, but not every industry will be represented in each LINK Cafe.  Hot LINKs are bit more infrequent as they are subject to company and student availability.

Where do I go to find out when LINK Cafes and Hot LINKs are happening?

Great question! This year we will be promoting all LINK activity via the dashboard. If you have signed up for LINK, you will see announcements for when LINK Cafes and Hot LINKs will be taking place. The RRMs will also send announcements via email using industry distribution lists that we create when you sign up. If you don’t sign up for LINK, you will not receive these announcements or be able to view them on the dashboard.

What else can I look forward to as a LINK participant?

The benefits of LINK are many! For starters, LINK will give you access to jobs that won’t get posted to the job board. Often the jobs we uncover are new, and/or the hiring manager wants to be selective, so they request that the jobs not be posted to the job board. We will use LINK to promote those opportunities to students instead of posting more widely. As part of that request, we also will not be posting jobs to the club leaders. The clubs will certainly be able to continue forwarding jobs they uncover, but any roles sourced by the CMC will be posted to the LINK participants using LINK distribution lists.

Another perk is inclusion in the LINK resume books. Last year, we compiled industry-specific resume books that were shared with over 5,000 GSB alumni. We do this to give alums a heads up and reminder that we have this great talent pool they can tap to fill any hiring needs. If you’re not in LINK, you will not be included in the resume book. Note, these resume books are not the same as the class resume books that employers buy. So if you gave permission to be included in the employer resume database but do not opt-in to LINK, your resume will not be included in the LINK resume book(s).

Finally, participating in LINK will heighten your visibility within the CMC, which is key for job referrals. Oftentimes, alums will reach out seeking referrals from RRMs or advisors for specific roles. Naturally, it is easiest for us to refer students that we have interacted with regularly – which means that LINK participants tend to be top of mind for such roles.

This sounds *amazing*! How do I sign up?

LINK is opt-in only via the Career Dashboard. In the Permissions section of your profile, you will find the “LINK Communications?” question. Answer “yes” if you wish to participate. If you answer “no” or do not answer the question at all, you will not be part of LINK. You can opt in or out at any time. However, LINK is only open to students who are still seeking a position (yes, we will check!).

We also pull your company preferences from your profile.  You can update your company information in the Career Targets section of the profile. List your top five companies of choice, and we’ll handle the rest!

Anything else I should know?

CMC LINK is just one more resource you can use in your job search, but it’s not the only one. We fully expect that you will continue to utilize your personal and professional networks to connect with contacts within your companies of interest.

More information about LINK, including the overview that was presented last week, can be found here, on MyGSB: https://mygsb.stanford.edu/mba/career/your-career-campaign/job-search-pathways/just-in-time/cmc-link

Please do not hesitate to reach out to the CMC with any additional questions!

Hello MBA1s – welcome to recruiting! Now that the AAP is over, I’m sure you’ve been inundated with a wide variety of career search information. From job postings, to workshops, to advising appointments, the recruiting process can be quite overwhelming. This primer is geared towards students interested in working for a large company that has a structured recruiting process, particularly those that do not recruit on campus at the GSB. I met with many of these companies at the National Black MBA Association Career Expo in Atlanta, GA this past September. Below are my findings, as well as some general tips to keep in mind as you move forward in your job search. The bulk of the companies I spoke with are in the CPG and Retail industries.

Interest in a career in consumer products (aka consumer packaged goods aka CPG aka FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) is common for MBAs, therefore most companies in the space have pretty straightforward and formalized processes for their summer and full-time hiring. That said, navigating the space and process can be a challenge for GSB students.  All companies requested that interested students (a) submit their resumes online on their respective company career sites, (b) set up a job search agent on the company career site to alert them to new postings, and (c) designate NBMBAA as the “source” when submitting an application. This conference is a key recruiting resource for companies to bring in candidates from non-core schools. Therefore, even though GSB students were not present at the conference, they are encouraged to cite the conference as the source for their application to ensure a timely review. On a final note, it can also be beneficial to join the National Black MBA Association, noting the membership on one’s resume.

Please note that the typical recruiting cycles for these companies is to target non-core schools at the diversity conferences in the fall (September-October), and then do their core school recruiting in the winter. Therefore, application windows for non-core students will be closing this month, so apply as soon as possible. Do not wait until the last minute to apply to a posted role – many companies do not remove the posting until all slots are filled, and slots can fill quickly (so if you see a role posted today, it may not be posted next week). Students can reach out to me directly for additional information on the companies listed. Please check the company’s career site first. If you do not see a role of interest posted online, just let me know and I will follow-up with the recruiter. For all companies listed, I will be checking in with the recruiters early next quarter to get a status update on their hiring.

Here are the companies I spoke with (in alphabetical order):

American Express

Bristol-Myers Squib

Campbell Soup Company

Chevron

Coca-Cola – Sustainability internship forwarded to clubs

Colgate-Palmolive

Diageo

Kellogg

L’Oreal

Mars

PepsiCo – planning to participate in OCR for Marketing

Proctor & Gamble

Unilever

Of course, the CMC has a number of longstanding relationships with other CPG and Retail organizations. Please feel free to reach out to myself or Grace Yokoi if there are particular companies of interest that you want to learn more about (you may want to check out our blog from our CPG/Retail outreach this summer, here).

There are also some companies that are new to GSB OCR to keep an eye out for. I did not speak with them at the conference, but have been in touch with them since. Expect to see job postings and/or on-campus appearances from them in the coming weeks:

Heinz

Sephora

Starbucks

The CMC looks forward to working with you on your job search! Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.

Two weeks ago, a group of ten-second year GSB MBA2 and MSx students trekked up to San Francisco for the third annual CMC tech crawl. We visited Dropbox, ZenPayroll, and Tilt – all of which were great hosts and very welcoming. The day was informative, interesting, and a lot of fun!

The bus left the GSB bright and early, at 8am! While we know GSBers often have early mornings and crazy schedules, we were impressed with their willingness to be up and at ‘em early on a Wednesday, when classes don’t start until the afternoon (if at all!).

Dropbox was our first stop of the day. Adam Nelson (MBA ’12), the Head of Channel Partnerships for Dropbox, greeted us. He rallied a great group of MBA Dropboxers to give us an office tour and then sit down for a Q&A. Sameh Elamaway (MBA ’12) and Kindra Mason (MBA ’14) also joined and gave great perspectives on coming from the GSB and joining Dropbox. We were grateful to also have two non-GSB MBAs to share their experience working at Dropbox and the benefit that having an MBA plays into their roles. The vibe in the Dropbox office was this cool intersection between techy and artistic.

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco (hello October in SF!) so we walked the few blocks from Dropbox to Tilt. It was nice to get some fresh air and stretch our legs. Mike Duboe (MBA ’13) was our kind and gracious host. He is a Growth Team Lead with Tilt. Before the group left for an office tour, we grabbed some drinks and snacks to fuel us for the next hour. Mike walked us around the office and even took us out on the Tilt roof deck; I think a few of us could have stayed all day. We ended the tour in a conference room where James and Bryan, the CEO and COO of Tilt, joined us. James and Brian gave such great perspectives on starting and running a company. They were cool, funny, and inspiring.

Our final stop of the day was at ZenPayroll. ZenPayroll was the smallest of the companies we visited and we immediately felt at home when we walked in. No really, we took off our shoes and left them by the door. ZenPayroll provided a delicious lunch for the crew and then we sat down with Tomer Cohen, the co-founder and Chief Product Officer. Tomer told us more about ZenPayroll and then allowed the students to ask questions about founding a company, entrepreneurship, and the state of the industry.

We hopped on the bus and drove south after ZenPayroll so that students could get back for compressed courses. One of the highlights of the day was hearing the animated chatter on the bus ride back about the different companies we visited. It wasn’t long, though, before most of the bus was asleep for a pre-class snooze.

All three companies that hosted us were incredible. They provided delicious snacks, cool swag, and such great insights and opportunities to ask questions. It was a wonderful day all around. We’re already looking forward to the next trek!

Vestaron makes an eco-friendly pesticide derived from spider venom. Bagaveev uses 3-D printers to make rocket engines for nanosatellites. Transatomic Power is developing a next-generation reactor that runs on nuclear waste.

They all have one thing in common: money from Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

After years of shying away from science, engineering and clean-technology start-ups, investors are beginning to take an interest in them again, raising hopes among entrepreneurs in those areas that a long slump is finally over. But these start-ups face intense pressure to prove that their science can turn a profit more quickly than hot tech companies like Snapchat and Uber.

NY Times article

Jana Cain and I (Grace Yokoi) spent a few days in LA over the summer meeting with companies and alumni in consumer retail. Company sizes varied: very large /public, large/private, medium-sized/growing, very small. Below are our insights.

THE HONEST COMPANY

We met with the head of HR and Facilities, who gave us a company overview. As of July, the company was 235 employees across LA, Ontario (fulfillment), and Austin (call center). Their original line was “essentials”, comprised of 17 products. They have been growing product lines (oral care, vitamins, cleaning products). In June 2012 they launched as an ecommerce/subscription business, but in April 2013 started a push into retail (Target, Costco, with limited products).

They’ve been focused on senior-level hiring to build out some of their functions. They look more for skills and functional capabilities than they do a CPG background. The interns they’ve had so far have gotten connected either through their investors, or through referrals from friends. This summer there was a Wharton intern in the operations team who focused on two things: potential expansion, and processes/procedures for sourcing materials. This intern had this locked down in February.

They are looking into expanding into a more formal recruiting program, but will still rely heavily on word-of-mouth and internal referrals. Recruitment for any new opportunities will begin in late January.

MOONFRYE

(See the latest news on them) Kara Nortman (MBA ’04) welcomed us to the Moonfrye office, showed us their products, and talked to us about the business. What was important to her in starting the company was to work on a technology-enabled business that allowed women to do things that are most meaningful to them. They target the “party city snob”– moms who want to have high-quality parties for their children but are short on time. Their competitors are Party City, Oriental Trading, and Party Express. This meeting was important to us not only because of the potential for internships, but also because we know Kara to be an amazing mentor and manager. This was apparent in how she treats her 15 employees: she has recognized their talent and promoted them very quickly into big roles.

NESTLE

At Nestle we met with a recruiter to learn more about their MBA hiring. Nestle as an entity is broken out into five divisions that all recruit and operate autonomously:

• Nestle Purina
• Nestle Nutrition/Life Sciences, which includes Gerber
• Nestle Water
• Nestle Professional (which services restaurants and other commercial accounts)
• Nestle USA (pretty much all of the food)

The bulk of Nestle USA’s recruiting effort is focused on internships. It has just one graduate program, in Marketing. The great news for GSB students is that Nestle has moved away from core versus non-core recruiting and now takes a more digital approach to attract talent. They post to approximately 19 school job boards as well as host webinars. Recruiting gets in full swing from November to January, with final round interviews taking place in February.

Interns are placed in one of the three US hubs – Glendale, CA, Ohio, and Oakland, CA. Internship candidates must have US Work Authorization. For full-time hiring, interested candidates should check the Nestle careers website. They are open to hiring new MBAs that did not do a CPG internship.

ROLL GLOBAL

Roll Global is a privately-held business of POM Wonderful fame (they do a lot more than that). We started our morning by meeting with the Director of Strategy from Roll Global’s strategy consulting group – the group in which all new MBA hires start. The  group is largely comprised of ex-consultants and is used as a pipeline to supply to talent to the other business groups in the company. Once candidates have spent roughly 2 years in  the group they can then move on to brand-based projects throughout the company.

New this year will be opportunities for MBAs in the marketing function. Interested candidates will need to have an extensive marketing background to be considered a good fit.

BEYOND MEAT

After a full morning of traveling back and forth across the valley, we were thrilled to meet with one of the co-founders of Beyond Meat. Founded as an 100% plant-based meat alternative, this is a truly innovative company that is growing quite rapidly. They launched their branded product in 2013 and were already getting picked up by Whole Foods and Safeway as of early July 2014. Their focus continues to be exclusively on meat (no prepared foods).

They don’t have any full-time MBA hires yet, though they did have two MBA interns (gotten through networking/referrals). They are likely to begin recruiting in the spring.

TIEKS by Gavrieli

Although Tieks have been a bit too pricey for Jana and me, we were excited to reconnect with the founder, MBA ’08 Kfir Gavireli. We were inspired by his story of bootstrapping (to this day) his company and being very focused on the web-only fashion brand. He spoke to us of the early days and all he had to learn, as well as the challenges of manufacturing and building relationships with factories. He works with his sister and brother-in-law, and have 42 employees. He hasn’t thought it makes sense to hire on any MBAs without direct, relevant, applicable experience, but he is a wealth of knowledge on the industry and was very generous with his time. It was one of my favorite meetings.

NASTYGAL

Grace and I were quite impressed when we arrived at the Nastygal offices. Truly a hidden gem in a classic (read: nondescript) highrise in downtown L.A., the Nastygal offices looked and felt more like a Silicon Valley startup than an apparel manufacturer. We met with a member of Nastygal’s People and Culture (HR) team to get the inside scoop on how the company attracts and retains talent. 

First and foremost, all hiring at Nastygal happens just-in-time, including internships. Internships are paid  but they’re not MBA specific and are only part-time (2-3 days per week). The team is looking into the feasibility of a more formal program that could incorporate a full-time offer at the end. On the full-time side, they do have a year long strategy externship for MBAs, which can be a good fit for an ex-consultant. Once inside the company, the People and Culture team runs the “Summer School Program”, which encourages employees to hold skills training workshops for each other.

Nastygal sources most of their hires from LinkedIn and internal referrals. They’d also be happy to accept resumes from the CMC, so if you’re interested in learning more about open opportunities, let Grace or I know!

TOMS SHOES

The HR folks we met asked us many questions on how a summer internship might be structured to be valuable to MBA students. They have just started thinking this through, and want it to be a great experience for students. They talked about the company as very fast-moving, where priorities change quickly. They had 9 summer interns (not MBA) this year. Each intern worked in a specific area (supply chain, sales, marketing, ecommerce, etc) and they also all did a group project together. We look forward to seeing where they will go with regards to MBA recruiting.

NEUTROGENA

We met with Megan Williams (GSB ‘09), who is currently a Brand Manager. Megan provided some valuable insight into Neutrogena’s recruiting. First and    foremost, the company relies heavily on their internship classes to fill their full-time hiring needs. Once on board, however, interns are not guaranteed to get a full-time offer for the same location where they did their internship.

Neutrogena recruits heavily from the diversity conferences, so it is recommended that candidates connect at one of the large fall conferences in advance of applying. The application process begins with the online application to Johnson & Johnson, indicating a location preference. The company will look outside of their intern pool for full-time roles if they have more open roles than qualified intern candidates.

DISNEY CONSUMER PRODUCTS

We met with our recruiter at the Disney Consumer Products corporate offices in Glendale. After touring the offices and viewing the upcoming product releases, Joel shared information about Disney’s consumer products group and their recruiting process.

Disney Consumer Products works closely with their publishing group to leverage Disney storylines into consumer products for the public. The product portfolio not only includes toys, games and apparel, but also additional books and publications as well as digital media (apps, online games, etc). MBAs hired into the Consumer Products group could work in any one of those product categories.

All of Disney’s hiring from the GSB will be handled through one central point person. This will be for all roles (corporate, studios, ABC, ESPN, etc). Full-time roles tend to be just-in-time hires. Internship recruiting will begin in late fall into winter.

MATTEL

Ashley Lewis (MBA ’12) is on the global brand team for Barbie at Mattel. She loves the job as it’s a blend of creative and analytical. The global brand teams set the strategy for the product, and pricing, and think about what the line should look like. They work with the design team and engineers to create the line. Ashley got the fulltime job by networking with a friend of a friend who worked at Mattel. Mattel does not seem to have much of an on-campus presence anywhere; they buy the resume books for Anderson, Booth, Marshall, and Vanderbilt (likely because they have strong alumni representation there). Our advice would be to talk to Ashley if you are interested in Mattel.