3 - Elevating Your Unique Skills at Tepper w/ Becca Kilburg

Humans of Tepper

Welcome back to Humans of Tepper, the student-run podcast focusing on real stories from students and alumni of the Tepper MBA program. Today, our hosts Cynthia and Rohit are talking with Becca Kilburg, a fellow second year student, about student clubs, moving to Pittsburgh, and living with a partner during business school.

Before starting at Tepper, Becca worked in software sales and account management in the Boston area. She loved working with clients and helping them problem-solve, but wanted to be able to do it on a higher level. Drawn to Tepper’s academic rigour, she and her partner moved to Pittsburgh to start her MBA program. As a woman in a majority-male program, Becca observes that the open and welcoming atmosphere of Tepper helps her to never feel like the odd-woman-out. While the program has yet to achieve gender-parity, the culture is very conscious and supportive.

Consulting recruiting was extremely strenuous… especially as Becca was concurrently planning her wedding. Becca shares that it was an opportunity to learn from failures and be comfortable with discomfort. She had to lean on her advisors, classmates, and partner at home to stay motivated and focused. Consulting recruiting was also supported by her involvement in TCC - the Tepper Consulting Club. During the first year, she had the opportunity to learn from alumni working in various consulting firms through one-on-one meetings, in order to understand more about the work culture and unique strengths of all of her options before she actually began the recruiting process. Later, the club helped her to practice interviewing technique, polishing and workshopping the way that she talked about herself and her goals.

In addition to her participation in TCC, Becca was a member (and will soon be president) of PBC, or Pro Bono Consulting. This club works together with the Net Impact Club to pair Tepper consulting students with local Pittsburgh businesses. For Becca, this was a chance not only to practice the skills she’d been learning in class, but also to step into the city of Pittsburgh. Her first year, she worked with an organization called Tree Pittsburgh, which sells native saplings to the community in order to promote urban forestation.

A unique part of Becca’s experience was moving to Pittsburgh and starting the program with a partner. In her case, she was fortunate enough to have a partner who was able to easily transfer his work to Pittsburgh. However, there were still challenges with balancing school and her relationship. In Becca’s case, she made it a priority from the beginning to block out Sundays for time at home. Overall, Becca recommends that anyone starting an MBA program carefully evaluates their goals and priorities. It will be different for everyone, whether you want to focus on recruiting, networking, club work, or other things going on in your life. Be intentional about what you want to get from your time with the program.

Things You Will Learn:

1. What various clubs are available at Tepper and how they can support your goals
2. Balancing a home life during the program
3. How consulting recruiting is different and how you can prepare

Links:

https://www.treepittsburgh.org/

https://tepper.campusgroups.com/probono/about/