Randall Metting on How Role Model Father Inspires Marketing Career

In Chapter 2 of 16 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, Randall Metting answers "What Childhood Experiences Have Been Most Fundamental in Shaping Who You Are Today?" Metting shares how his father Roger Metting exposed him to the world of music and hooked him on live performance, including an early Bruce Springsteen show in 1978. From there, Randall's father supports his interests in branding and promotion and, as the music industry changes, pushes Randall to pursue a career in agency and event management companies.

Randall Metting is a brand development and marketing manager at Dulce Vida Spirits in Austin, Texas. Over 17 years, he has built brands in spirits, luxury real estate and lifestyle, music, and sports industries. He has been a radio personality at KGSR Radio and a marketer at a hyperlocal startup acquired by NBC Universal. Metting earned a BA in Advertising from the University of Florida and started his career at The Coca-Cola Company. 

Anatole Faykin on Planning a Career Change into Biotechnology

In Chapter 15 of 16 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, Internet entrepreneur Anatole Faykin answers "When You Think About Where Life Sciences Has Gone in the Last 15-20 Years Since You Started as an Undergraduate, What Gets You Most Excited About Re-immersing Yourself in That Field?" Faykin shares that in the nearly 20 years since graduating college, the worlds of biosciences and technology have come together to create new ways to solve problems. Data sharing and analytics are breaking down silos between disciplines and creating new market opportunities. Faykin prepares himself for a career change from consumer internet to biotechnology by applying for entrepreneur-friendly graduate school bioscience programs.

Anatole Faykin is an Internet entrepreneur and digital marketer exploring new career options. A passionate world traveler and problem solver, Faykin plans to return to graduate school to earn a biosciences masters degree. Previously, Faykin has started multiple companies, including Tuanpin, a Shanghai startup he sold in 2011. He holds an MBA from NYU and a BS in computer science and biology from the California Institute of Technology.

Michael Olsen on Choosing a Career in Health Care Management

In Chapter 3 of 20 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, management consultant Michael Olsen answers "When are You at Your Best?" Olsen finds he is at his best when working on something important that directly impacts people he serves. He finds working in health care a more direct way to help people than, for instance, working in finance or insurance, and consequently earns his MPH MBA degree and commits to health care management consulting.

Michael Olsen is a management consultant at Accenture. Previous to Accenture, Olsen earned dual MBA and MPH degrees at Emory University in Atlanta. Olsen earned a BA in symbolic systems from Stanford University and spent the next five years founding an IT consulting company, Redwood Strategies. 

Michael Olsen on Studying in a Dual Degree MBA MPH Masters Program

In Chapter 7 of 20 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, management consultant Michael Olsen answers "What Were the Benefits of Studying in a Dual Degree Graduate Program?" Reflecting on his time as a dual graduate degree student in business and public health, Olsen finds two benefits. The first is that he is able to bring project management business skills into the public health work his team does on a Paraguay assignment. The second is that studying public health makes him think beyond MBA student goals of getting that job after school and more about lifetime impact he wants to make in his career.

Michael Olsen is a management consultant at Accenture. Previous to Accenture, Olsen earned dual MBA and MPH degrees at Emory University in Atlanta. Olsen earned a BA in symbolic systems from Stanford University and spent the next five years founding an IT consulting company, Redwood Strategies. 

Michael Olsen on Using an Interdisciplinary Education in a Job

In Chapter 11 of 20 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, management consultant Michael Olsen answers "How Has Your Interdisciplinary Education Proven Valuable in Your Development?" Olsen shares how his interdisciplinary education gives him and others a fresh perspective when doing business and researching. He also finds that interdisciplinary learning has helped him apply different processes to solve problems and communicate more effectively.

Michael Olsen is a management consultant at Accenture. Previous to Accenture, Olsen earned dual MBA and MPH degrees at Emory University in Atlanta. Olsen earned a BA in symbolic systems from Stanford University and spent the next five years founding an IT consulting company, Redwood Strategies. 

Bryan Law on Finding Great Value in a Liberal Arts Education

In Chapter 4 of 23 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, business strategist Bryan Law answers "Where Has Your Liberal Arts Education Been Most Valuable in Your Career?" Law finds his liberal arts education from Georgetown University has prepared him well for an international career in business consulting. The diverse education helps him adapt as he moves from country to country and project to project. It also helps inspire him to build a Angola University, a liberal arts college in Africa.

Bryan Law is a Principal in the Global Business Strategy Group at Google and a board member at Angola University. Previously, he was a manager at Monitor, a management consulting firm. He has worked in consulting roles at Watson Wyatt and Mercer. He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Business and a BA from Georgetown University. 

Bryan Law on Using a Psychology Degree in Human Capital Consulting

In Chapter 5 of 23 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, business strategist Bryan Law answers "How Did You Get Involved in Human Capital Consulting and What Did You Learn in That Job?" Graduating Georgetown University with a BA in philosophy and psychology, Law searches for business jobs that value psychology. This leads him into HR consulting and teaches him to build skills on how company human resources and human capital shape strategic business planning.

Bryan Law is a Principal in the Global Business Strategy Group at Google and a board member at Angola University. Previously, he was a manager at Monitor, a management consulting firm. He has worked in consulting roles at Watson Wyatt and Mercer. He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Business and a BA from Georgetown University.

Why to Major in Broadcast Journalism

In Chapter 5 of 22 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, education technology entrepreneur Adam Geller answers "Why Did You Choose to Major in Journalism and Mass Communication in College?" In college at UNC, Geller chooses to major in broadcast journalism. He minors in chemistry to round out his skills of focusing on business, science and medical journalism. He finds studying journalism helped him be a better learner and more effective communicator.

Adam Geller is founder and CEO of Edthena, a video platform enabling online teacher coaching, peer review, and group learning. He is a recent Education Ventures fellow at the Kauffman Foundation and the founder of Teach For Us, a network connecting Teach for America corps members and alumni. He earned a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a MA from the University of Missouri-Saint Louis.

How to Use a Journalism Degree to Teach Middle School

In Chapter 9 of 22 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, education technology entrepreneur Adam Geller answers "Where Has Your Journalism Work Experience Been Most Useful in Your Education Career?" Geller finds his journalism degree is most useful on a day-to-day basis as a teacher. He finds the daily test of clearly communicating what he knows so his students can absorb the lessons similar to journalist work articulating information so an audience can internalize the information. As a science teacher, journalist training also helps Geller tailor teaching to learning styles to best engage students.

Adam Geller is founder and CEO of Edthena, a video platform enabling online teacher coaching, peer review, and group learning. He is a recent Education Ventures fellow at the Kauffman Foundation and the founder of Teach For Us, a network connecting Teach for America corps members and alumni. He earned a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a MA from the University of Missouri-Saint Louis.

Mark Graham on the Career Benefits of a Liberal Arts Education

In Chapter 7 of 15 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, media executive Mark Graham answers "Where Has Your Liberal Arts Education Been Most Valuable in Your Career?"  Studying liberal arts at the University of Michigan exposes Graham to a wide array of subjects. Graham takes this approach in his career, building a broad set of experiences working in marketing and digital media before transitioning into television and editorial publishing jobs. Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at MTV Networks. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English. 

Conrad Doucette on the Career Benefits of a Liberal Arts Education

In Chapter 10 of 17 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, musician and digital strategist Conrad Doucette answers "Where Has Your Liberal Arts Education Been Most Valuable in Your Career?" Doucette finds not specializing at college (e.g., engineering, business) gives him a broad palette of tools to apply in a range of team-based environments. He is able to translate the openness he receives studying at the University of Michigan into confidence he uses working on creative project teams in music and at Internet startups.

Conrad Doucette is a Brooklyn musician and the drummer for the band Takka Takka. He has performed with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, The National, Alina Simone, and many other leading acts. When not performing music, Doucette is the communications and brand director at music licensing and publishing startup Jingle Punks. Doucette earned a BA in History from the University of Michigan. 

Stacie Bloom on Planning a STEM Career in Scientific Research

In Chapter 18 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "What Opportunities Do You See to Better Encourage People to Careers in the Sciences?"  Bloom notes the push toward promoting STEM - science, technology, engineering, and math - careers.  She also notes the need for role models.  She then details the distinct challenges presented in scientific research careers, from the competitive education constraints to the financial constraints of National Institute of Health (NIH) early career salaries. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What opportunities do you see to better encourage people to pursue careers in the sciences? 

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  So, you know, in this country, I think there’s a big emphasis now on trying to improve STEM: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in younger people. I think that in order to pursue a career in research, there have to be role models and incentives, it’s not the same as law or finance or business where you know that you can go out and become a very successful person. A life in scientific research is unbelievably daunting and challenging, for a lot of reasons, I mean first of all, it’s hard. You go to school for a very long time, but when you get out of school, after 5 years, for doing a PhD, at that point, you’re generally about 30 years old, sometimes older, sometimes younger, you still have to go and do a postdoc, and postdoc salaries are really dictated by the NIH, by the National Institutes of Health. And those salaries are very hard to live on. 

So a starting postdoc, a 30-year-old person with a PhD might be making $42,000 a year, and you can see why many people maybe wouldn’t choose that path, but even if you do choose that path, and you are gonna live on $42,000 a year in a place like New York City, which—a lot of people do it. Obviously I did it. And at the time, not even making $42,000 a year, I think my salary was $33,000 a year. You know, you still have a very challenging future ahead of you if you’re on the track that where you’re pursuing the traditional scientific career, where you do a postdoc, maybe you do a second postdoc, and then you interview for an assistant professor, tenure track assistant professor job, and get on, you know, the path to a tenured full professor position, maybe even a chairman position. 

There’s a big drop off at the postdoc stage because making that transition to the next phase is really, really difficult because you have to be unbelievably successful scientifically, you have to publish your work. It would be great if you were funded independently as a researcher, and then those positions for assistant professors, associate professors, full professors, they just don’t come up very often. So it’s hard to be positively reinforced I think, and it’s hard to succeed. I mean it’s hard to compete with the giant pool of postdocs that are out there.

Erik Michielsen:  Where’s the inflection point, how do you make it easier?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  I don’t think it’s going to become easier until the NIH changes their funding structure. The budget for the NIH has been basically flat for a while, which doesn’t give you a lot of incentive to go that route. I mean the success of your grand proposal is not very promising. I think there have to be big changes in the way that we support scientists and fund scientists in this country.

How to Apply Psychology Passion in Business Work - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 3 of 22 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "How Do You Apply Your Passion for Psychology in Your Business Career?"  Stallings' undergraduate education in economics and psychology help him learn how the world works.  For Stallings, his psychology passion helps him generate new approaches and ideas to better understand people and human behavior in a business environment.  This is Hammans Stallings' Year 2 CYF interview.  Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design.  Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens.  He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia. 

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen: How do you apply your passion for psychology in your business career?

Hammans Stallings: Psychology has been my -- my secret weapon of sorts, so if you go back to my -- my undergraduate where I spent time to studying economics and psychology, two fields that have not always kind of gotten along. And I spent a lot of time in kind of a state of cognitive dissonance where I was comparing and contrasting how the two fields thought about people and thought about explaining the world.

If you recall, I was very close to going to graduate school for psychology and I'd decided not to because I didn't quite yet know what I wanted to be or how I wanted to make an impact, so -- spent five to six years kind of in the wilderness wandering around before getting to come back to a role where I can work directly upon my background in psychology. That said, when you study those things, those ideas change kind of how you see the world and change how you frame up any situation, as well -- I spent a lot of time studying decision making, cognition and learning and memory.

So, it was always something that I could benefit directly from myself and so I can -- I could always understand that there were any heuristics and biases that might be kind of falling but from a less, say selfish introspective kind of use in psychology toward using them, using those tools and frames as a way to kind of understand other people. I find that business tends to -- to lack I would say, that kind of theoretical framework around people and tends to use one of oversimplification, say marketing is a field. It has people do a lot of self-reporting. We know from psychology that that's really quite bogus yet the entire subcategories in marketing really rely on that assumption being true and it's not. So, I would say that my passion for psychology allows me to -- to sort of see through that, and to see through the self-report and other kind of assumptions like that as bogus. To create new things that maybe are in better fitting with what I know about people.

So it means creating new tools. It means creating a new way of framing up how people are responding, and how they're using things. So, having a background and a passion in psychology for me means that I'm able to generate new things, generate new ideas, whereas, a lot of people I think accept the tools of their field as kind of a given and they don't understand the -- the limitations of those tools. So having a background in a field that, I'd say, should be like a lingua franca for -- for applied social science means that you could actually do cutting edge, you know, creating new tools and new perspectives on -- on people.

How to Choose a College Major You Can Use All Your Life

In Chapter 11 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "How Did You Choose What to Study at College and How Has It Remained Relevant as You Have Gotten Older?"  Cohen references his time at Tel Aviv University and his shift in studies from computer science (CS) to physics and art history.  He takes a physics class and loves it.  As the math gets more complex, Cohen complements the physics classes with art, photography, music and architecture classes.  He finds apprenticeship or on the job learning the best ways to learn techical skills and recommends using the college experience to build useful day to day life skills and tools. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How did you choose what to study at college and how has it remained relevant as you’ve gotten older?

Idan Cohen: So I chose to study physics and art history, and I got there in a pretty weird way, because I started off—I started off studying—I did one semester in CS, in Computer Science, and I just—I already knew how to program and it was a lot of math, and it was just like very theoretical programming, and I was just not interested and disengaged, and then I said, okay, I’ll switch to—I actually did a semester in chemistry, and I said, okay, this is also interesting but then I saw that actually what’s interesting for me is physics, then I did a semester in physics and I said, this is great. I enjoy it. It’s a little bit of like a manual for universe, you suddenly understand how things work, from very big things to very small things, to just this thing moving on the table and friction between the table and whatever, and gravity, I loved it. 

But I needed something a little bit more for the soul and as I saw the math getting more complex, I took art history in addition, and that was great because suddenly I was in the university, I was going to these very, you know, technical theoretical math and physics classes but then going and studying about art and photography and music and architecture, and it was awesome. 

Looking back at it, then I think it’s all just tools for life, and I think that that’s what most people should look at when they’re going to college, if you are going to go to college, I believe a lot in just apprenticeship, you know, a little bit like, we—like the path that I took, I mean going for instance into the army then having someone to learn from, how to code, or how to, you know, whatever we did there just—but someone that works with you, so you don’t need all of the theoretical knowledge but someone will help you get into it, and I really believe in that, just learning on the job. 

And on the other hand, there’s very few real professions that you can come out of academia with, so, you know, if you wanna be a medical doctor, probably you need to go there, although, as well, by the way, they learn a lot of theory and then they learn a lot on the job. If you wanna be an accountant or a lawyer, probably you need to go there ‘cause there’s a lot of theoretical material that you should learn. But then there’s so many things that just have nothing to do with sitting in class and studying. 

So if you are going to go there, just make sure you’re gonna study something that is very broad, very shallow, but is gonna give you tools—thinking tools that you can apply later in life. So from, you know, just understanding history or how things were made, and why, and being able to appreciate a work of art or, you know, physics, and just even though I probably forgot a lot of what I studied, and just being able to look at things and understand better how the—you know, what they’re made out of, and how exactly they function, I think that’s great, it’s just—it’s really useful day-to-day tools, and I wish that people would focus more about that. 

I think that when they go to college, they are so obsessed with what they’re gonna do in life, and we’re so privileged compared to our parents for instance, that probably we’re gonna—every 10 years, we’re gonna change what we’re doing, like there’s something about today’s environment that just allows us to do that, so don’t focus on that, just focus on what theoretical knowledge you can obtain now that will serve you through life, and not necessarily through the next 10 years.

How High Schools Can Teach Entrepreneurship - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 13 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "How Can the Education System Better Prepare Entrepreneurs?"  Rubin details how middle and high schools should promote entrepreneurship curriculum that focuses on practice in addition to theory.  He compares entrepreneur skill development to that of a basketball player, highlighting LeBron James as an example of how practice shapes skills and how schools might use this concept in their curriculum planning.  Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview.  As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding.  He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer.  He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How can the education system better prepare entrepreneurs?

Slava Rubin: Yeah, to me entrepreneurial thinking is just as important as teaching Math or Mandarin or Spanish or even coding. I think it’s a new language that kids should be learning. I think that an innovative idea is we should actually create a entrepreneurial class and add it to the curriculum where starting in 7th grade until you graduate high school or college every student had to run a business a year. See to me, when Lebron James was learning to play basketball, he didn’t just watch Michael Jordan on TV. He actually played every day with a basketball and we ask our students and our young people to be entrepreneurial with their thinking but we ask them to do with theory, which means without a basketball.

So, I would think that the best way to bring entrepreneurial thinking to our students, have them become innovative, have them – have the opportunity to go to the workplace or start something new very quickly and without as much fear and risk is give them the opportunity starting in 7th grade to be able to be entrepreneurs. This really goes back to kindergarten when your teacher taught you about what you aspire to be, she probably used words like lawyer and doctor and fireman and the word entrepreneur was never used and I think that needs to change.

How Parents Influence Journalism Career Choice - Yoav Gonen

In Chapter 8 of 11 in his 2011 interview, education reporter Yoav Gonen answers "What Role Has Family Played in Shaping Your Career Aspirations?"  Gonen notes how he was a late bloomer and was uncertain where to take his career in the years after college.  Gonen's father sees his passion for writing and suggests Yoav apply to a journalism graduate program.  The rest is history.  Yoav Gonen is the education reporter for the New York Post newspaper in New York City.  He earned a Masters of Journalism degree from New York University and a BA in English from the University of Michigan.

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen: What role has family played in shaping your career aspirations?

Yoav Gonen: I was a late bloomer. I remember quite vividly when I was on the phone with my - it might have been both my parents, I definitely remember my mom was on the phone, my parents pretty much paid for all of my undergrad college, and I told my mom that I was signing up for a pottery class and she said, "You're gonna be paying for that class, because I'm not." And, you know, they were always - they pressured me a little bit but not too much, I mean, they were trying to help me figure out what to do.

It took me a long time, interestingly, it was my dad who - I don't really know - it seemed kind of out of left field at the time but he's - I was, I think in my mid-20s, and he's like, "Maybe you should go to journalism school." And, you know, I enjoyed writing but I wasn't on my college newspapers staff or anything like that. He kind of threw that out there over dinner one time and it struck me, you know, I don't know why I hadn't considered it but it seemed like a good idea and as soon as I got to journalism school, I knew that was I wanted to do.  

When to Pursue a Career That is Not Your College Major - Julie Hession

In Chapter 6 of 21 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, food entrepreneur Julie Hession answers "After majoring in hotel and restaurant management in college what made you decide to shift away from that in your career?"  Studying in Las Vegas, Hession finds the glamorous picture of hotel management career does not meet what she experiences.  With advice from her father, she decides to make a change to find work outside her college major.  Julie Hession is the founder of Julie Anne's All Natural Granola Company.  Passionate about food since childhood, Hession has developed her career by food blogging, cooking contests, and starting fine food companies.  Hession earned an MBA in Marketing from Duke University and a BA from UNLV. 

Transcription: 

Erik:  After majoring in hotel and restaurant management in college, what made you decide to shift away from that in your career?

Julie:  Well, the fact that about three months into my first job out of college I decided that I hated hotel and restaurant management, that was my first clue.  And it was interesting because, you know, when you’re an undergrad and you’re taking four years in this curriculum and all you’re learning about is you know hotel and restaurant management, hotel and restaurant law, hotel and restaurant marketing, you know 'cause – I had casino management.  I mean, my life was surrounded, and it was Las Vegas, UNLV, so the city revolves around hotels and restaurants. 

So I kind of had tunnel vision and I was thinking, "Well, this is what I've chosen to do, I'm tied to it.  This is gonna be my life."  And I got my first job with Windham Hotels.  They don't tell you where they’re gonna put you when they hire you.  You make no money when you graduate with a hotel and restaurant management degree.  They basically tell you that the first day of school when you’re a freshman.  You sit down and they say, "You're gonna work 100 hours a week and you're gonna make no money.  Welcome to college." 

You know, I should have just you know headed for the door just then, but the idea of it still excited me at that point.  I still had this whole -- there's this show called Hotel on, this drama that was called Hotel like back in the 80's that created a very glamorous picture of what it was like to work in a hotel.  And I think that kind of, in some way, when I got to college I thought I was gonna be like that, you know?  This glamorous Connie Sellecca lady that you know ran the hotel.  So it was a rude awakening when I was like crawling around taping wires to the floor for like a food and beverage banquet, you know?  So anyway I got the job with Windham, they put me in Annapolis, Maryland, which I had – you know great city but I had no friends there.  You didn't really make a lot of friends working in this small hotel in the city and I was just – I was so unhappy. 

I wasn't happy at work, I wasn't happy with what I was doing and this was an instance where my dad came down to Annapolis.  He drove down to Annapolis, took me to lunch and he said, "You know this isn’t right for you.  You need to figure out, you know, and you don't need to do it tomorrow, you don't need to do it the next day but I think you need to figure out what you want to do and make a change and figure out how you’re gonna get there."  So that was like such an "Aha!" moment for me that I could do something else.  You know, my major -- I didn't have to do my major.  So – and that was huge because then I started just kind of looking around and I think kind of opening my mind a little bit.  You know, back then I knew I loved food but I wasn't at all thinking like food career 'cause when I thought food I thought, "Okay restaurant management," so that wasn't clicking.

Why Study Electrical Engineering - Ben Hallen

In Chapter 4 of 21 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, business school professor Ben Hallen answers "What Made You Decide to Study Electrical Engineering in College?" Hallen notes his childhood aspiration to pursue a business management career and how he saw electrical engineering as a means to that end. He also finds studying electrical engineering allows him to study his passions for mathematics. Hallen is an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. Previously, he was Assistant Professor of Management and Organization at University of Maryland. Hallen earned his PhD from Stanford University and its Stanford Technology Venture Program (STVP). He has been a startup CTO and graduated from the University of Virginia with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Computer Science.

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen:  What made you decide to study electrical engineering in college?

Ben Hallen:  I wanted to be an executive, and so the experience I had growing up, I had seen a lot of companies and managers, junior executives, who came from an engineering background, so engineering seemed to be an appropriate place to start if I wanted to do that.  You know, now I would have to say, given more of what I know, there’s a whole variety of paths to do that, you know, ranging from the liberal arts to I particularly think business schools can be very good at that but I happened to choose engineering. 

And then, why electrical?  You know, a couple of reasons.  One, I was interested in computers; they were taking off.  That was before they had computer engineering as a major.  That’s effectively what I ended up majoring in but that wasn’t quite around yet.  But, more broadly, it was – it involved a lot of the math that I really liked, and I think at the time I would have justified it as very instrumental, that this makes sense because these are skills I can use. 

I think in retrospect, what it afforded was an opportunity to really study in something I was passionate about.  You know, do I use that math at all?  No.  Not a whole lot.  You know, yes, I do a lot of computer programming.  I do a lot of discrete mathematics from my time at graduate school but, you know, in terms of differential equations and, you know, Fourier transforms, that’s not something I use every day, but to have that opportunity to really get passionate about the mathematics, just for the essence of the mathematics itself, I’m really glad I had that experience, and so I learned a lesson that I didn’t think I was going to learn there in retrospect.