In the weeks leading up to business school, Jeff Ellington (Wharton, ‘16) moved across country, got married, and went on his honeymoon with his wife (and fellow Wharton Classmate, Katie) In our interview, Jeff shares on his first impressions on business school, his transition to Philadelphia, and all the reasons why Wharton has exceeded his initial expectations.
MBASchooled: You’ve been in business school now for a few months. What was the transition like and how does it feel to be back in school?
Jeff: My wife (Katie Blach, also a Wharton First Year) and I had a unique transition to business school. In mid-July we packed up our apartment on a Wednesday, got married on a Saturday, headed out on our Honeymoon in Iceland the following Tuesday, and landed in Philadelphia to start Wharton’s Pre-Term two weeks later. While we had an amazing few weeks, I don’t recommend changing so many variables at once!
Looking back at the past quarter, the transition to business school is challenging for one simple reason: everyone is new. I have a story that captures both the awkwardness and the beauty of making these new friendships. During Pre-Term, all 864 first years gathered in Wharton’s largest auditorium. I sat down next to someone I hadn’t met and introduced myself. Being in the huge theater reminded me of the play, “Book of Mormon”, which I’d seen a few weeks prior. Needing an ice breaker other than “Where are you from?”, I led with “Have you seen the ‘Book of Mormon’ play?” He said no, and we got to chatting about other things including that he was from Utah, married, had children, and had worked at Steve Young’s PE firm. I connected the dots, and realized I’d put my foot in my mouth! Luckily, we’ve since become good friends and have had a multiple-hour-long conversation about his Mission experience and what it taught him about leadership. This story captures the most important lesson in transitioning to business school — it’s impossible to get to know someone in five minutes.
Luckily, Wharton, led by the famous Kembrel Jones, does an amazing job of fostering community. Pre-Term fosters an environment where it’s encouraged to be open, be vulnerable, be curious, and be able to laugh at yourself. The key is to be patient and hold judgment. There are amazing people sitting next to you, but they take time to get to know. Don’t be afraid to ask personal, deeper questions, even if you embarrass yourself in the process. The people you do bond with make it so worthwhile.
MBASchooled: What’s an assumption you had about business school that you were right about?
Jeff: I had doubts that business school is as good a career changing tool as it’s marketed to be. Observing the first few months at Wharton, I am now positive that business school is more career reinforcing than it is career altering. Let me explain.
My experience before Wharton was in venture capital and venture debt. I’d spent the past five years providing capital to startups in the Bay Area. Coming to business school, I wanted to double down on a career in the innovation economy. I pursued a number of VC related activities at Wharton, including Dorm Room Fund, Wharton Venture Partners, and Venture Capital Investment Competition. Fortunately, I received a leadership role on each of these. However, many of my smart, capable, motivated classmates with a genuine passion for tech applied for these roles and didn’t get them, mainly because they didn’t have prior experience in this space. Talking with friends pursuing investment management or PE, I heard the same stories.
I want to challenge prospective students to think differently about how to best use business school. Unless you are from a nontraditional background, like TFA, non-profit, or the military, business school by itself is not the best mechanism to pivot. The good news: it is a great place to reinforce traction you already have. If your dream is to work in VC or PE, yet you don’t have experience there, quit your job once you get into business school and convince a firm or portfolio company to let you intern for free for 3 or 4 months before coming to school. This will provide a much better chance to get industry facing roles on campus that would have been tough to secure without experience. It shows a commitment and hustle that convinces career services, second year club leaders, and most importantly, potential employers that you a good fit. Business school is a great place to snowball existing momentum, but I’m not convinced it’s an easy environment to create momentum from scratch.
MBASchooled: What’s an assumption you had about business school that you were wrong about?
Jeff: I naively imagined Wharton to be the melting pot of the entire UPenn ecosystem. Unfortunately, it’s not. Business school students tend to roll in business school circles. One of my big motivations in coming to business school was to get exposure to undergraduate and other graduate students, primarily engineering and computer science students given my interest in VC. Creating these relationships is very doable, it’s just something I’ve had to prioritize on my own.
MBASchooled: It’s only been a few months, but have you learned anything interesting or gained additional knowledge that you didn’t previously know?
Jeff: The most awe-inspiring experience I’ve had at Wharton so far was trying on a Virtual Reality headset. This is the future. For anyone who hasn’t tried one, stop what you are doing and order Google Cardboard on Amazon. It’s the best $15 you will spend this year. I guarantee it.
MBASchooled: How would you describe Wharton to others?
Jeff: Wharton is so much more than a finance school. On a program level, I really admire the curriculum they’ve built for three reasons.
- Data Driven: All of the classes force students to incorporate data into their analysis. This is so useful from a career standpoint, as all companies are moving this direction as well.
- Instruction Format Matches Instruction Material: The case method works great for management classes. It’s terrible for statistics and accounting. Wharton recognizes this and matches the instruction style to the material of the course. The blend of lectures, cases, and simulations keeps class engaging and fresh.
- Leadership: Management 610, the first class at Wharton, is the best class I’ve ever taken. How they distill so many leadership lessons into a weeklong intensive course is baffling — yet, I constantly find myself referencing the material in my approach to other classes and activities. Furthermore, all students get a personal executive coach and take two public speaking courses where all the speeches are videotaped. This feedback is invaluable. The Leadership program at Wharton is unparalleled.
MBASchooled: What’s been your favorite class so far?
Jeff: My favorite classes so far have been statistics and accounting. Most people are going to dismiss this response, however, I think there’s an important lesson here. Classes like Negotiations, Entrepreneurship through Acquisition, and anything Adam Grant teaches get tons of hype, and deservedly so. Those classes challenge students to think in new ways. But thinking in new ways is only valuable if you understand the fundamentals. In statistics class, our Professor (Emil Pitkin) does a wonderful job using statistics to debunk the “garbage statistics” often cited in the news. He’s challenging us to be more analytical as we evaluate any business situation, and I find this to be hugely beneficial.
Similarly, Accounting Prof. Luzi Hail ties accounting concepts to real cases like Enron and Lehman. The current accounting scandal in the news is Valeant Pharmaceuticals. I now have the tools to see how they manipulated the books to increase leverage and buy additional companies. For someone who wants to be an investor, this education is foundational. My advice to prospective students is to wrestle with the application of the core material. Forget your grade, it won’t matter. Spend an hour instead either applying the concepts you learn in accounting to understanding how Valeant created its acquisition machine or challenging the recent study that processed meat causes cancer. Unlike business school, business isn’t graded on a curve. It’s quite the opposite. In business, you are often rewarded in a relatively binary fashion for making the insights others miss. Doing this well requires accurately applying the fundamental concepts learned in most business school’s core curriculum.
MBASchooled: What has been the most enjoyable aspect of business school?
Jeff: Hockey. It’s a Wharton tradition unlike any other. For anyone coming to Wharton, just do it! For prospective business school students in general, the deeper message is to participate in the defining activity of your school, even if you are not that interested in the activity itself. There is something special about being involved with an activity steeped in tradition. The relationships and camaraderie it enables are awesome.
MBAschooled: What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to deal with so far in business school?
Jeff: The biggest challenge so far has been spending quality time with my wife. Katie and I are lucky to be experiencing Wharton together, both as students. Still, we underestimated how filled our calendars would be and how much effort we’d have to make to spend quality time together. We’ve created a new phrase with each other: “play defense”. Playing defense means defending some calendar real estate for time with each other. For anyone coming to business school with a partner, calendar in time together. You have to make one another a priority, or other people/activities will end up prioritizing your life. This same principle has helped me personally. As an introvert, I need time to reflect and recharge. Literally blocking off time on my calendar do this has allowed me to have more energy and be more productive in the other things I schedule. For the extroverts — god bless you — business school will probably be the most fun time of your life. There’s ALWAYS something to do!
MBASchooled: What opportunities ahead are you most excited about?
Jeff: The opportunity at Wharton I’m most excited to be involved in is Dorm Room Fund. DRF is a student-led VC firm investing in student-led companies. We are live in 4 cities — Philly, SF, NYC, and Boston. The mission is to help entrepreneurs still in school successfully launch their company without having to drop out. I see three clear benefits from DRF. First, the ability to help entrepreneurs launch and scale their business is so rewarding. Second, the DRF Team is incredibly diverse and bright. Interacting with them constantly sharpens my investment skills. Finally, I hope to work in an operating role at a startup after business school. Assisting DRF portfolio companies will be great training over the next two years.