With the start of Fall Quarter classes, my second year of business school officially kicks off today. I’m beginning my second year at Booth having already had a ton of eye-opening experiences, including everything from navigating internship recruiting and class selection to juggling student group activities and figuring out where on campus I can find the best cup of coffee. As I move into the second half of this amazing experience, I find it important to set goals for myself so I can truly make this time everything I want it to be. Read on to see what my goals are for the final year of my MBA!
Category Archives: Chicago
Life Beyond the Loop, Part 1
The majority of us Boothies call the Loop home, and for good reason—access to the lake, great restaurants and nightlife, and walking distance to Gleacher Center (Booth’s downtown location that houses the part-time and executive programs). But too many of us cling to our Booth bubble, going to and from Hyde Park then sticking to the Loop or taking a train straight to O’Hare or Midway airport to embark on a new travel adventure.
Fellow second-year student, Holly Smith, and I set out to discover life outside of this bubble. On cold days, sunny days, free days, and busy ones, we wandered through the neighborhoods of Wicker Park, Andersonville, and Logan Square, with a few more local destinations scheduled for this Fall. The result has been an immense appreciation for Chicago—and an equally strong wish to tell everyone (really everyone!) about it.
Beyond Booth: My Summer at Bain
I spent my summer interning at Bain. Through consulting recruiting at Booth, I was lucky to get significant exposure to the people I was actually going to work with as a Summer Associate in the Chicago office, as well as the 2Ys who had just been in my shoes. Between all the fall events and winter/spring meet-ups, I’d even been in the Bain office multiple times before my first day of work.
But despite Booth’s and Bain’s diligence to prepare our expectations, I still underestimated three aspects of the summer intern experience: the substance of the work I’d do, the fun we could have even back in the real (working) world, and how much my Booth network and first-year experience mattered.
Get to Know Bo Shi
I’m a self-described hometown kid—Chicago being my hometown. I grew up in the Northwest suburbs and attended the University of Chicago for undergrad, majoring in economics. At UChicago, I realized my passion for learning and my interest in using data to explain the world.
These led me to pursue strategy consulting, where every few weeks I learned about new industries and evaluated different business problems. After a couple years, I transitioned to a growth-oriented private equity firm, where I focused on software and technology investments.
Now at Booth, I’ve tried to immerse myself in new experiences and challenges. Through both professional and academic avenues, I’ve explored tech, startups, VC, innovation, marketing, and leadership. I’m spending this summer as an MBA Business Planning Intern at Microsoft, where I hope to learn how large technology companies innovate and bring products to market.
Get to Know Aliy Markowski
I’m from Chicago—from a proud UChicago family—and went to undergrad at Northwestern for Journalism. After college, I moved to Baltimore and joined Teach For America. I loved the excitement and challenge of work in urban schools, but realized after a few years I was more interested in the problem solving in a tough environment than the actual classroom teaching. I moved back to Chicago and became heavily involved in improving math programming in schools around the city.
That experience cemented my understanding that what I really enjoyed was leading a team, analyzing and improving processes, and capturing data to measure progress. Coming to Booth helped me land a consulting internship at Bain for the summer. I couldn’t be more grateful for the community and the Booth Experience that helped me get my dream career on track.