Hello world!

Hi everyone! My name is Wei and I am a first year student in the Kelley Direct MBA program. I'm halfway through my first year right now and definitely loving the experience. I was given the opportunity to contribute to the Kelley Direct blog and I am really grateful for the opportunity. I wanted to quickly introduce myself in my first post so you can get to know me and hopefully, at least for prospective students, be able to relate to my experiences and how it got me to where I am now.

A little background about myself: I graduated from the University of Washington with a BFA in Industrial Design and a BA in Comparative Religion. I found out during the ID program that I wasn't passionate enough to be a designer for the rest of my life, and somehow by chance fell into consumer goods product development. It was a career path I'd never heard of, but something I've fallen in love with since I started my professional career. I spent the last 3 years in the toy industry mainly working on Disney products and have some great memories from those experiences. However, I soon discovered that if I wanted to continue moving forward in my career, I would need to build up my business skills and knowledge. This is why I decided to pursue my MBA and I most certainly don't regret the choice!

For all the creative minds out there, you do have skills to contribute to the MBA program. You don't have to be a numbers person at all to succeed. You certainly may need to put more time in to the quantitative courses, but there are other skills you can offer to the program, to your cohort, and to your team mates. For people who have been trained in design, for example, you can offer your creative problem solving skills. You can also offer your persuasion skills, as designers are often required to sell their concepts to their coworkers or superiors. I can guarantee you that your classmates will appreciate you for it and for your unique perspective.

In any case, thanks so much for reading! I look forward to posting more in the future and sharing with you my experiences.