Tell Your Story: Yiran Huang

Tell Your Story: Yiran Huang

“Tell Your Story” is a regular series that features one of our Booth community members. In his or her own words, the contributor details their path to Booth and other interesting personal highlights.

Where are you originally from? And what did you do prior to Booth?
I grew up in Henan Province, China. Prior to Booth, I was a product developer and manager at UBS Asset Management in Hong Kong. I led cross-functional projects to develop fund products, generated new product ideas, and researched the asset management landscape in China.

What made you want to go to business school?
I enjoyed the nature of my role as a product manager, but I want to switch to the technology industry. An MBA degree will fill in the gaps by equipping me with knowledge in strategy, marketing, technology management, as well as develop leadership skills.

What specifically about Booth was attractive to you and what do you hope to do afterwards?
I always wanted to learn business analytics in a systematic way. After researching into the methods of different business schools, I found the Chicago Approach highly intriguing due to its emphasis on solving problems with tools and frameworks. In addition, the flexible curriculum allows me to skip some finance and statistics courses, which I already learned through my undergraduate and work experience. Post-grad, I hope to become a product manager in the technology industry.

Describe your Booth experience thus far.
It’s amazing! My Booth experience started with Random Walk to Argentina. It’s hard to describe how much fun I had, moreover, I became close friends with a group of brilliant people. Then Orientation and LEAD started – both are really well-designed with clear objectives. I also enjoyed my classes very much as they offered whole new perspectives, even if I had previously learned the topic in undergraduate.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I like sketching, water color, and oil painting. I’m also a big fan of Hispanic art and movies. There are so many nice restaurants and cool bars in Chicago and I’ll definitely check them out!