Student Perspectives

Student Perspective

Brian Lee

Brian Lee

MBA 15

VP Technology Investment Banking
Barclays Investment Bank

Making the Move to Investment Banking

After 7 years as a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy, Brian Lee realized he had reached an inflection point in his career: either stay with his current career for the next 10 years, or try something new. He opted to enroll in the Berkeley Haas Evening & Weekend MBA program to reposition his career in the financial sector. It worked. He is now a summer investment banking associate with Wells Fargo.

Haas had some of the most respected industry professionals

Questioning the Status Quo not only refered to innovation; in my case it related to re-inventing my career outside the government into a completely new industry.

As a career switcher, the Career Management Group helped me craft my résumé into something that showcased my project management and engineering skills in a way that appealed to a bank.

The core Accounting and Finance courses were both essential to repositioning my career. I also took several finance electives. Haas had some of the most respected industry professionals in finance who can not only teach you the material but how things work in the real-world. One of the best courses I took was M&A and Turnaround taught by Peter Goodson, an early pioneer in the private equity industry

You could immediately apply what you learned

I wanted an part-time MBA program because you could immediately apply what you learned in class to real-life situations, which reinforced the learning. Plus, your peers brought their experience into the classroom, which created a rich learning environment.

I enjoyed the opportunity Haas@Work gave us to work with a real client with a real-life problem to solve. My team’s project with Nissan drew on my project management skills and allowed me to be a consultant for a semester. You really don’t know until you do a job that you begin to fully understand what it takes to be successful at it, so this kind of experiential learning is very important.

The people were one of the best resources the school has to offer

The people here were one of best resources the school has to offer. You could sit down and talk with anyone and everyone was happy to share their knowledge, expertise, and their connections to help a classmate.

A classmate set up a Trek to Israel on spring break. We went far beyond the tourist stops to visit startup companies in Israel’s vibrant tech sector, and to get to know the country and its people.

If there was a theme to my experience at Berkeley Haas it was that the program opened doors to new experiences and provided you tremendous resources to achieve your goals. It was a springboard that allowed me to accelerate my career in a new direction; for others, it took them deeper into a career they are passionate about or provided the resources to launch the next startup idea that would change the world.

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