Paul Peterson served in the United States Army for eight years before deciding to pursue an MBA. With a goal of working in the sustainability and cleantech industry, Paul found UT-McCombs as an ideal place to pursue his degree while allowing him to stay in his home state of Texas. In this interview, Paul spoke about his decision to choose McCombs, what makes McCombs a unique place, and his advice to prospective MBA applicants.
MBASchooled: What did you do before business school, and why did you choose to apply to business school?
Before business school, I served in the US Army for eight years as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot. During my time in the military, I had the opportunity to live and work in South Korea and Honduras, and I traveled to over 30 other countries both for work and leisure. As an avid outdoor adventurer, I was exposed to the gamut of air, water, and land pollution and the deleterious impact human activity has had on our planet the world over.
Seeing this growing devastation drove me to transition my career to focus on clean technology to be part of the efforts to mitigate, prevent, and ideally reverse anthropogenic destruction of our planet.
MBASchooled: What were the most important criteria to you when selecting MBA Programs to apply for?
With my goal to work in sustainability and clean technology, I looked for MBA Programs that both had a focus on these areas as well as opportunities within the larger university ecosystem to learn about other STEM research and new technologies that businesses will need to tackle the complex challenges of curbing climate change and pollution.
MBASchooled: Why did you ultimately choose UT-McCombs?
I chose UT-McCombs as an ideal intersection of my background and my key clean tech goals. Being from Texas originally, most of my family had attended UT, and the massive size of the university and research engine across the campus provides access to a wealth of exciting and cutting-edge clean technology ideas to explore.
I’ve also participated in and become a leader in our CleanTech Group, which offers a wealth of outside-of-class education, networking, and career opportunities for both the students specifically pursuing clean tech as their post-graduation target industry as well as those with any curiosity to learn more. Further, both UT and Texas are very pro-veteran, so this added an additional incentive to come to McCombs.
MBASchooled: Talk about the experience so far. What are some of your favorite parts of the MBA experience?
McCombs has been an incredible learning journey to build my business and clean technology knowledge base. Even during crunch times when the workload feels unmanageable, I’ve greatly enjoyed the opportunity to learn so much from my intelligent and engaging professors and classmates.
My favorite experiences have been working on case competitions; doing exciting group projects for classes like working with local startups or other community organizations; participating in “MBA+” micro-consulting projects supporting real work for sponsors; and my work with the Austin Technology Incubator.
MBASchooled: Oftentimes, the word “culture” gets thrown around when talking about MBA programs. Can you characterize the culture at UT-McCombs?, and share an example of an experience that you think personifies this?
As a member of the McCombs Ambassador Committee talking with prospective future students regularly, I get asked this question a lot. From the outside of an MBA Program, it’s difficult to decipher which touted values and cultures are genuine and which are more aspirational than real. At McCombs, we pride ourselves on truly having a collaborative, welcoming, and service-oriented culture of giving back while also growing as future business leaders. I have seen this firsthand in the willingness of both students and faculty to give time to one another regularly outside of required classwork to help with career discussions, interview and resume prep, and personal endeavors like pursuing one’s own startup.
The impressive amount of community service performed by the students and faculty both through and outside of McCombs also speaks to the give-back culture of the school. Lastly, the friendships I’ve made with both classmates and faculty are real and will endure beyond this program, offering a network that is more than just a professional support group.
MBASchooled: It’s a bit more challenging for prospective MBA students to get to know MBA programs this year as a result of COVID-19. When MBA applicants are engaging with schools, what should they be looking to learn?
While COVID-19 has prevented our admissions group and student ambassadors from hosting in-person events on campus, we have been just as active in offering opportunities to learn about McCombs through webinars and virtual chat opportunities. MBA applicants may not be able to tour Rowling Hall as they did last year, but they can still engage with our students just as much.
We encourage applicants to take advantage of these opportunities to truly learn about our offerings, culture, and what makes McCombs stand out compared to other MBA Programs. We want to attract both talent and enthusiasm to become the next classes of outstanding students who will carry on the culture we pride ourselves in maintaining.
MBASchooled: What advice do you have for candidates who are interested in UT-McCombs?
The advice I give to prospective students that was key to my own application and selection process is to truly understand where they are trying to take their life and career post-MBA. Prospective students trying to decide between the myriad options in graduate schools need to first understand their own background, goals, personality, and what is most important to them in a program.
Knowing these things will help guide their research to better decipher whether McCombs offers the right culture, educational opportunities, experiences, and access to the careers they are seeking after graduation. We want future students to make their application decisions fully informed and excited to come to McCombs because they know it will offer the absolute best MBA experience they could hope for given their interests, fit, and aspirations.