Alumni Spotlight: David Liu, Recruiter for Dropbox

David LiuDavid Liu, BHP Class of 2013, is a recruiter for the Austin office of Dropbox. He loves the challenge of finding the best talent for the company and has enjoyed interacting with BHP students at recruiting events over the past couple of years. Dropbox will be hosting the BHP junior class social at Easy Tiger on April 30. Juniors can register for the event here.

Why did you choose to go in to HR and recruiting?

I was thinking about consulting and investment banking as a freshman, but after reflecting on what I wanted to do after graduation in terms of community involvement and work/life balance, I decided I wanted to follow a different path. I started off with an internship that I found on OCR with AMD in their Global Benefits & Mobility group. I stepped into the HR world, and it was eye-opening to learn how diverse of a world HR was and how many high-impact business problems there were to work on. I enjoyed being the “people behind the people” and seeing the impact my work had on AMDers as a whole and how that translated into them being able to make greater impact for the company.

The next summer I went to National Instruments and did some learning and development work, mainly around training for employees in their marketing communications group, and then my last semester I had an internship where I helped out with new employee onboarding among other HR functions at Samsung.

I actually had an offer lined up with a very early-stage startup after graduation that fell through due to the vicissitudes of startup life, but in ending up at Dropbox it all worked out for the best. An acquaintance contacted me about Dropbox letting me know they were looking for people to join their recruiting team in Austin, and I signed with them the summer after graduation. I say it worked out for the best because in joining this team I had the privilege to be among the first six people to help start the Austin office and actually found out later that I was the first person to be hired for the Austin office. While I’ve definitely had to learn a lot and very quickly, and I’ve made my fair share of mistakes along the way, it’s been an honor and a pleasure to have been part of building this office together.

What skills were most transferable to your role?

The Art & Science of Negotiation Class (MAN 337) I took has been really helpful. I’ve had to navigate my way through some fairly complex offer situations, and many of the concepts that I learned in that class have been directly relevant to those situations. More generally, having had to work in many diverse groups and learning to proactively think about how people will respond to different situations has been very valuable. I’ve learned to examine problems from different perspectives, objectively weigh the merits of those perspectives including my own, and work towards a common goal. Finally, I make it a central focus of my work day to be proactive rather than reactive, and having had multiple commitments to juggle while in school has helped me a lot in making sure I’m taking care of the different responsibilities I’ve been entrusted with now.

You have worked on several initiatives to increase efficiency in your role. Can you talk more about this and how your BHP degree has helped you in this work.

When you have an open role to fill, the goal is to fill it as fast as possible with the best possible person because the business impact of that role isn’t actualized until someone fills the role. That being said, there are a lot of steps to get right in the process, and we care tremendously about making every hire the right hire at Dropbox. I have had many opportunities to figure out ways to decrease the time it takes for that process to run and to find more efficient ways of identifying if a candidate is a good fit earlier on in the process to save both candidates and us time. Finally, the case competitions and projects I did in BHP helped me learn to look at a problem in a systematic fashion, break it down into all the relevant components, and identify the areas of highest impact. In short, I learned how to find the low-hanging fruit, go after it, and work your way upwards.

What do you love about working for Dropbox?

It comes down to the people. I know a lot of companies say that having heard it a lot in college from a lot of different companies, but I can confidently say that the collection of people here in terms of their caliber (what they have done in the past and are doing now), how helpful and genuine they are, make them a pleasure to work with each and every day. While we may not always agree on the best way to do everything, we have a tremendous amount of respect for each other and are able to get a lot done.

The other thing I really enjoy is the type of work we are doing. We have a lot of interesting challenges here to address. We aren’t as young of a start-up as we used to be, but there is still a lot that needs to be figured out and could be done better. There’s a lot more that could be said here, but suffice it to say that I couldn’t have imagined going into Dropbox how much I’d learn and experience in less than two years.

Lastly, a question on what I love about working for Dropbox wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the benefits and perks that Dropbox gives to its employees to make life easier and more enjoyable. The whole range is pretty incredible: free breakfast, lunch, and dinner, unlimited vacation, a $100/month wellness subsidy that can be used on everything from fitness equipment to massages, a cell phone subsidy that basically takes care of that bill, and of course as much Dropbox space as you need/want. I’ve said this many times before to new grads, but having Dropbox as a first job out of college makes it pretty hard to imagine a second job.

Dropbox has almost completed construction on the new Austin office. Describe what that office is going to be like and how you think that will impact your Austin recruiting efforts.

We have a space at the corner of 5th and Congress and will eventually be on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors. We will have an exclusive on-site gym, on-site food as I mentioned, and a private rooftop patio. Being so centrally located will be a huge draw. We are right in the thick of things downtown, and I’m really excited for all the ways it’ll really showcase our culture. There will be a lot there, and I’d go so far to argue that it’s going to make us the best workplace in Austin in terms of what we’re going to be able to provide.

What should students do in order to be successful in recruiting with Dropbox?

This won’t be earth-shattering revolutionary advice, but as BBA Career Services says do your company research and be able to clearly and succinctly articulate a specific interest in the job. Also, while we’re absolutely looking for people who are high achievers, it’s a non-negotiable for us for that the people we work with are people we look forward to working and collaborating with each and every day. Be real and genuine and help us to see that you’re one of those people.

Alumni Spotlight – Mark Rogers, Class of 2007

 

Mark RogersMark Rogers, BHP ’07, followed his passions as they led him from banking in London to opening a charter school in Austin. He held on to the confidence and inspiration he received from his BHP peers as he made various career changes and has now become an award-winning teacher. Mark will deliver the keynote address at Discover BHP, an event for all newly-admitted BHP students, this coming Saturday.

Could you take me through your career path since graduation, and how you ended up teaching at Meridian World School in Austin?

I had an internship at Morgan Stanley in London after my junior year at UT. Living in Europe was a dream of mine ever since my best friend moved to Europe when I was 16. He moved to London and I visited him and became entranced by the city. My goal was to live and work there ever since I was a sophomore in high school. When internship time was coming around, I emailed various managing directors within Morgan Stanley and sent them my CV and lots of cover letters. By the end of the process, they decided to give it a shot. The summer went really well and it was everything I hoped it would be both personally and professionally. I got to travel, meet a lot of very interesting and diverse people, and I fell in love with the idea of moving abroad. I received a full-time offer, and it was only then that I began to consider what that meant – leaving all family, all friends, and being 6,000 miles away. That was very tough because I think the gravity of it never hit me until I got the offer. I accepted the job and moved, and despite how difficult the process of moving that day and saying goodbye to my family was, as soon as I landed and as soon as things started to get going, it did feel right. It did feel like I made the right choice.

The two years go by, and I’m ready to move back, and I go to a friend’s wedding and that’s where I met my wife. It was there, for the first time ever, that someone opened my eyes to education as a full-time career choice that could be so fulfilling and still economically viable. I decided to get my teaching certificate and see what happened. I did get a job in education and helped open a charter school in 2011. I still teach Calculus, Statistics, and Theory of Knowledge there today.

When you were in college, did you think this is where your career path would lead you?

No way. I wouldn’t have felt confident enough to take these risks if I didn’t surround myself with people in BHP who took calculated risks like these, and the teachers who encouraged risk-taking and creative thinking. There was a good entrepreneurial spirit about the program. Even though I left to go to Morgan Stanley, I feel like I would still be in a job that I felt like I had to be in if I hadn’t been exposed to those calculated risk-takers in BHP.

Did you experience any culture shock, starting out your post-graduate career in London

Oh yeah. Going to work at a bank, you need a suit. I had my two suits from college – one was a holdover from high school, the other I had gotten in college. I had these two suits and then I had maybe 10-11 dress shirts. I go into the office wearing my college suit and one of my colleagues says “Rogers, you’re wearing your dad’s suit today, huh?” In America, especially men wear baggier suits and so every time I came in in that suit, he called it my dad’s suit. I maybe lasted two weeks before I took my first paycheck to buy myself a suit that wasn’t baggy so my colleague would stop saying that I was wearing my dad’s suit.

How did your BHP education prepare you to succeed in such diverse industries?

The smaller class size promotes discussion, and it’s that type of exposure to different ideas and student engagement, especially, where it’s just better to learn. In classes that get above 40, it gets tough on the teacher and that type of conversational learning doesn’t scale. In small classes, you had a relationship with your peers and your teachers.

What are some of the challenges and rewards of a career in education?

The challenge is that I know exactly what an education can do for you, and on the other side of that coin, I know what missing out on education can do for you economically. So the biggest challenge for me is helping students who need significant help getting to that point where they have the skills necessary to be successful. And that’s incredibly challenging because you, at times, are making up knowledge and skills gaps that span years. I know how important it is, specifically with math, especially with their finances as they get older. I think about that when I’m working with these kids and we’re trying to close gaps. It’s on the front of my mind.

When you actually fill the gap, when they gain the skill, and when they start performing on grade level, rising to challenges, and gaining confidence, there’s just no better feeling. You get these success stories. I have students who were two grade levels behind, and now they’re performing a grade level above. It’s a two-way street. They just do such a good job of staying the course.

Do you have any advice for current BHP students?

Small changes made over a long period of time can yield the most incredible impact. I guess the advice is: think about something you want to change that’s really small, that you can tackle, but do it every single day. You’ll look back in a year or in two years, and you’ll think back to that day you decided to make the change, and it will amount to something that has greatly improved your life.

*This post was written by Rachel Solomon, a BHP senior and co-chair of Discover BHP 2015.

Alumni Spotlight – Mitch Kreindler, Class of 1984

Mitch and his daughter, Erin, who is a sophomore at UT Austin.

Mitch and his daughter, Erin, who is a sophomore at UT Austin in the College of Natural Sciences.

Mitch Kreindler, BHP ’84, JD ’87, is the founder of Kreindler & Associates, a Houston law firm representing whistle blowers pursuing the recovery of taxpayer dollars from fraud perpetrated against the government. Mitch practiced law for several high profile firms before starting his own. He serves on the BHP Alumni Advisory Board.

How did your business degree prepare you for law school?

I knew early on that I wanted to go to law school. My BHP degree helped with law school and law in two ways. First, it gave me an understanding of basic business concepts and how business works, which is a lot of the law. It is important to understand all the business components of cases. In law school, there were students who had no business background and felt lost in classes like contracts and corporations. Having a business background helped me feel comfortable with principles that underlie the law. Second, BHP helped me develop a lot of basic skills in terms of analytical thinking that apply throughout life, but especially when practicing law.

Describe what you do.

I represent whistle blowers who are trying to stop companies and individuals from ripping off the government and return money to the federal or state treasury. There are federal and state statutes that create a public-private partnership between the government and private parties. Through that partnership an individual and an attorney can file a lawsuit on behalf of the government, asserting that someone has committed fraud against the government. We work with the government to investigate these allegations with the hope they will join our suit and obtain a recovery. If the government doesn’t join the case, the whistleblower can pursue the case on their own, and we engage in litigation with the bad guys. These are very unique statutes. There are really no other statutes like them.

The statutes provides that the whistleblower will be rewarded for their efforts with a bounty that is a percentage of what the government recovers, historically around 17-18 percent. The lawyers, working on a contingent fee, take a percentage of that percentage. These cases take 3-7 years to resolve. Whistleblowers really have to believe in the mission of what they are doing. In my twenty years of doing this, I only have had one client who came to me saying he was motivated by money. Every other client has been concerned about the public harm, fraud or retaliation for complaining about the fraud.

What is it that you have enjoyed most about practicing law?

I am always representing the underdog who is trying to do what is right against strong, powerful, corporate resources that are doing what is wrong. It is in the public good and it is feel-good work. Most people won’t think of being a lawyer as a helping profession, but it really is because you are helping clients fix a problem, and I like that. Students who are considering law school need to think why they want to be a lawyer. What is it that really is interesting to you? It is important to pursue your passions and interests, but don’t pursue them blindly and close yourself off to other opportunities that present themselves.

Why the decision to start your own firm and focus on whistleblowers?

I had always thought about starting my own thing. My father always said make sure by the time you are 40, you are controlling your own destiny. That was his mantra. When I started doing this whistleblower work, there were a lot of small firms engaged in this area of the law, so it was easy to have my own small shop and was a good fit for me.

Is there any case that really stands out to you?

The cases that stand out most in my mind are the ones where I have been most able to help the client. They might not be the ones where we recovered the most money, but the ones where the clients were really serious about their claims and by filing those claims, we were able to put a company out of business or stop a fraud and obtain a righteous result. The client put themselves on the line in a significant way. They did what was right and because of it, they did something that was for the public good.

It takes a special person to be a whistleblower. We all know the difference between right and wrong, but not everyone will stand up to do what is right. It is a difficult path. They decide they need to do the right thing, not the easy thing. They have a strong moral compass and are willing to do what is right, even though it subjects them to a lot pain. It is a part of our culture that we value loyalty, sometimes more than honesty, so whistleblowers are frequently ostracized and in a lonely place. It amazes me that people want to do this, but thankfully there are people who have a strong moral compass because there is a lot of fraud that would not be stopped without them.

Empowering whistleblowers has become government policy in the last 15 years in a big way as a result of Enron and the mortgage fiasco in the late 2000s. The Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd Frank legislation greatly advanced the cause of the whistleblower. We now have an SEC whistleblower office. They are now recognizing that it’s the people on the inside who know what is going on and who we need to stop the fraud that is occurring. There are now more tools and protections provided for individuals who report their companies.

You were student body president at UT and president for the Business Student Council. Why have you remained involved with campus, particularly the BHP Advisory Board?

Since I was young, I have had a sense of wanting to get involved so I could help get things done. I am interested in policy-related issues and governance types of organization. Nothing gets done unless someone does it, so I wanted to help make things happen. You have to pick your niche. After you get out of college, it is hard to get involved in organizations. Pick what is important to you and where you want to spend your volunteer time, which is why I am still involved in BHP, because it has always been important in my life.

Do you have a favorite memory from your time at UT?

I have a lot of favorite memories and most involve experiences with people. It really does come down to relationships and not just relationships with fellow students. My fondest memories are in the dealings I had with professors, particularly a business law professor and math professor I kept in touch long past graduation, as well as a few key administrators. I sat on the committee that chose Bill Cunningham as dean of the business school, then again on the committee that selected him as president. I joked with him that he owed his success to me since I was the common element in the selection processes, which obviously wasn’t true, but I had a great relationship with him. I keep in touch with many fellow BHP students and have really valued those relationships.

For students interested in law after BHP, what advice would you have for them?

If they stay at UT, they should immerse themselves in the law school as though it was at an entirely different university.

Alumni Spotlight: Vivek Shah – Class of 2003

VivekShahVivek Shah, BHP 2003, will be honored with the McCombs Rising Star Award this coming Friday at the McCombs Hall of Fame dinner. The award is given to two McCombs alumni annually who have been successful professionally and have helped strengthen the McCombs Alumni Network. Vivek serves on the BHP Advisory Board and is the co-founder and managing director for Consortium Finance, based in San Francisco, where he manages $200 million of capital for investors.

Take me through your career path since graduating and tell me more about the new company you founded, Consortium Finance.

Since graduating, the first company I worked for was Simmons & Company as an analyst for two years. My boss at the time left to join D.E. Shaw and called me a few months later and asked me to consider joining so I actually followed him there to the firm’s Houston office in 2005. There I was focused on direct investing in companies, everything from venture capital to private equity and lending across industries. At the time, I was in a long-distance relationship and my girlfriend at the time (my wife today) really wanted to be in California, so even though it was hard for me to leave Texas, D.E. Shaw wanted to open a SF office and I went out there to help open that office for the firm in 2006. I was there until 2012 investing directly in companies. D.E. Shaw decided to spin our group out into a new firm called Stellus Capital Management, so I ran the West Coast operations for Stellus from San Francisco. I always had a dream to have my own business; in 2013, I was fortunate to partner with my business partner to raise our own capital, which we were successful doing bringing on two investors, raising $100 million from each of them.  This allowed us to start our own firm, Consortium Finance which is my primary focus today.

How has it been different for you running your own business?

There is a lot of healthy anxiety. I am dependent upon myself and my business partner to perform, but what we are really excited about is we have a substantial level of autonomy and transparency. We are a lean firm and there are no politics or organizational bureaucracies. We are having a ton of fun together and for me enjoying work is essential given most people spend almost 70% of their awake hours at work. I am excited about work every day and fortunate to be in such a situation. Things are within our control which is also unique, but with that also comes healthy anxiety.

What are the challenges and rewards of a career in investment management?

The challenges are you are investing other people’s money, so there is a lot of pressure in wanting to do the best possible job to generate positive returns for others. When you don’t have positive outcomes on investments, it is taxing emotionally and financially. The other challenge is that it is a very competitive business, so to set ourselves apart is difficult. It is rewarding in that we do have the ability when we perform well to generate returns for others that is allowing for creation of wealth that goes towards different purposes. There are also a lot of things occurring that positively affect the economy from the capital that we are providing for businesses.

How did you start lecturing at the University of California at Berkeley and what are you teaching there?

I have always been passionate about education. At one point I called and emailed about a dozen professors in the business school (Haas) at Berkeley and offered to teach and there was one professor who responded to me and took me under his wing. I helped him directly at first and then that exposure opened doors for me to do more. I have guest lectured on several occasions over there. I lectured on Hedge Fund investing and grad level micro-economics. I was also a supplemental lecturer for an undergrad intro to finance.

You co-founded EDge-UCATION a few years ago to develop a business curriculum for students. What has been the progress of that business and where are you headed with that endeavor?

The focus of it is to help students in business and other curriculums learn how to value companies, assess businesses, and learn how to be efficient in modeling in Excel. We actually came to UT and taught two classes at McCombs that were one-day, full-day lectures. We will be back this October to teach again. It stems from my passion for education and what I saw as a need to teach students practical skills that supplement what they are learning in class. When students are interviewing and taking on jobs, they are more prepared. We have taught in multiple universities. We aren’t really trying to grow it, it is just something I want to keep doing on the side to educate others.

You have volunteered to do admissions interviews for BHP for many years now. What do you enjoy most about interviewing applicants to the program?

I enjoy the discussion with future potential classes of the BHP. I hope these future classes are a good group and will take the program to the next level and reflect well on the brand of the program and the university. I enjoy assessing their capabilities and the value of what they might bring to the program. It is great to hear their background and stories and see how they might be a fit for the program.

Why do you think it is important for alumni to get involved with McCombs and BHP after graduation?

I attribute a lot of my personal success and the growth of my career to BHP and the business school, so I want to give back. It is easy to take things for granted and I try really hard to be cognizant of people, situations and experience that have led me to where I am today.  With McCombs, the education I received was unparalleled and was critical in my personal development.

What advice do you have for current BHP students?

Follow your passion and in whatever you do, give it your personal best.  Always give what you do 110%. Don’t regret any mistakes or misfortunes. Try not to repeat them and try to learn from them. I have had a lot of challenges professionally and personally. Everyone has their own unique set of problems and all things really do heal with time. From every tough experience, there is something to be learned from it. Something I have learned personally is that a genuine level of internal happiness comes from overcoming challenges, rather than getting something really easily. If you work hard to achieve it, you have a different level of appreciation for it.

Alumni Spotlight: April Underwood, Class of 2001

AprilApril Underwood, BHP ’01, is Director of Product for Twitter. She leads product strategy focused on harnessing the power of Twitter’s data through a diverse ecosystem of partners and developers.  April previously led product management, product marketing and business development teams at Twitter, focused on advertising products and Twitter’s API. Before joining Twitter, April held product roles at Weatherbill (Climate Corp), Google and Travelocity, and was a software engineer at Travelocity and Intel.

Tell me about your career path and how you ended up at Twitter.

After I left McCombs I moved to Oregon where I took a role as a software engineer at Intel, where I worked on internal software. I found I wanted to work more on a consumer-basing product, and I missed my family and friends in Texas, so in 2002 I took an opportunity with Travelocity in Dallas. I joined as an engineer, but my McCombs background made me well-suited for a variety of tasks aside from writing code. I was soon asked to be the point of contact on the technical side working with partners like Yahoo! and AOL. I transitioned into a product management role building out a platform to allow Travelocity to power travel experiences on more partner websites. I left in 2005 to get my MBA from Haas at University of California at Berkeley after which I went to work for Google. At Google, I worked on scaling how we brought new types of content to products like Google Maps and Product Search, and how to monetize those Google properties with advertising. After a few years of learning within Google, I was eager to take my experience to a startup, and I spent some time at a small startup. Unexpectedly, I got a chance to join Twitter (a product I already loved and a team I admired), and I took the leap. McCombs opened the door to the early roles in my career, which have consequently led to my current role at Twitter for the past 4 years.

When you were in school, Twitter didn’t even exist. Where did you think your career was going to go back then?

I graduated as the dot-com bubble was bursting in 2001 and it was a tough time in the job market. The first decision I made was that I wanted to go into an engineering role with the thought that I would go into a management or business role down the road. While I was in school, I had a part-time job working for a company that provided technical support for internet service providers, so I already had some experience in tech. I was pretty sure I would want to work in technology in some way, but the number of and types of opportunities has changed so much since that time. There are different types of products, technologies, and roles now than there were in 2001.

You have held various roles at Twitter. How did those transitions happen and do you have a favorite project you have worked on there?

I joined when Twitter was a much smaller company in 2010. It has been really special to be part of the growth of the company, and it’s given me the opportunity to develop products and teams from scratch. I really enjoy what I am working on right now, which is helping businesses understand how they can use Twitter data to make better decisions. I really enjoy the intersection of partnerships, product and technology — and building platforms. My experience at Twitter just keeps getting better and better as we grow our portfolio of products and more opportunities for leadership emerge. Perhaps even more importantly, I get the chance to work with smart and funny people who are not just co-workers but also friends. That’s a very high priority to me because we work hard and it makes busy or hard weeks less burdensome.

What are the main functions of the role you just moved into?

I run a team of product managers. We identify opportunities that exist, and focus a lot on defining the “why”, “for whom” and “what” of our products. We don’t do this alone – we partner closely with business teams, our engineering team which drives the “how” our products work, and spend time with customers and partners to inform our strategy and plans. We operate as a business within Twitter and have to make hard choices about which opportunities to go after since the possibilities are so unlimited.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

The thing I enjoy most is the scale and uniqueness of our opportunity. With a billion Tweets produced every 2 days, we and our partners have only scratched the surface of what’s possible. I enjoy working on Twitter data because you can think of Tweets as the pulse of humanity. It is amazing to think of what kinds of problems can be solved with our data  – some have business impact and some make the world a better place.

How do you think your BHP and Management Information Systems (MIS) degrees have prepared you for your career?

MIS coursework was great preparation for what it is like to work on a team to build software. I learned how structure is required to build process and I learned the communication and interpersonal skills I needed to work well with other people. From the BHP side, I learned to not just focus on what you are building, but on why, who it is for, and ultimately what problems you are trying to solve That breadth of perspective made it possible for me as a 21-year-old new graduate to be able to join strategic conversations and ask the right questions of my peers and leaders in a work setting.

Do you have advice for women going into the technology industry?

For women going to work in any field where they are the minority, I would encourage them to reach out and connect with other women within their company, and that definitely holds true for the technology industry. We have two organizations at Twitter that help women connect with others within the company, and it’s a hugely valuable network (and also a lot of fun). You can start similar groups within your company where they don’t exist.  Ask to have coffee with the senior women in your company. Usually they are happy to build those relationships.

What advice do you have for current students in the program?

Number one thing – take a shot at starting a company. I didn’t do it myself, but I think school is a great time to try. Alums, executives, and investors are more willing to help you out while you are a student than they may be after you graduate. For students not looking to make that kind of a leap, I would recommend taking on as many internships as possible. I had two internships and part-time jobs and I learned so much from those experiences. It is the best way to figure out what you like and don’t like.