Tianie Scott, MBA 26, has already made many successful pivots in her life. She is preparing for her next pivot as a student in the full-time MBA program at Berkeley Haas.
What could have been a rocky start in life—born to a teen-aged mother who became involved in drugs—took a turn for the better when Tianie and her brother were nurtured by their grandmother in Minneapolis. “She shaped me,” Tianie said, “giving me an impeccable work ethic and lots of love.”
Tianie’s next move was to the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she became the first college graduate in her family. Another turn led her to enlist in the U.S. Army. Selected to become a cryptological linguist, Tianie studied Farsi at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. “From our base in Augusta, Georgia, we kept a pulse on what was happening in the Persian Gulf, by listening to and reporting on Iranian naval communications,” she said.
Six years later, Tianie faced another fork in the road. By then an E-5 with the rank of sergeant, she could re-enlist in the Army, go to work for the National Security Agency, or make the biggest pivot of her career: securing a job as an investment banker. While considering those options, Tianie had researched the skills and aptitudes prized by investment banks, “I knew I could handle the fast pace, long hours, and attention to detail demanded of investment bankers. And I’m good at communicating up and down the chain of command without dropping the ball,” she said. “But my undergrad degree in business management was a long time ago, so I knew I had to strengthen my financial acumen.”
Although she considered business schools in the South, close to her last posting in Georgia, the people at Berkeley Haas tipped the balance. “They all had a pay-it-forward mentality that I didn’t see elsewhere,” Tianie said. “Everyone wanted to get to know me. And that is actually possible with the smaller class size here. I will know everyone by the time I graduate.”
I give back because I have been propelled forward in my own life by the efforts of so many people.
Tianie also knew that, because UC Berkeley is a public university, she could make maximum use of her Post-911 GI Bill benefits for tuition and expenses. “That is a huge relief,” she said. “As an undergrad, even with two jobs I had a lot of financial stress. Now, I can focus on academics and laying the foundation for my future.”
Deep into interviewing for a summer internship, Tianie is getting to know the people and expertise in the Career Management Group. She has tapped into the Peer Advisors for interview prep and met scores of people at traditional and “speed-dating” networking events on campus. In addition, treks to the Bay Area offices of major investment banks offered “time for deeper conversations.”
Indeed, the Beyond Yourself Defining Leadership Principle is central to Tianie’s character. From childhood to her participation in the Black Business Student Association (BBSA) to being a Consortium student, Tianie said “I give back because I have been propelled forward in my own life by the efforts of so many people. It is rewarding for me to give back by working with Consortium applicants on mock interviews and reviewing their application essays. And next year, I plan to run for the VP-Finance position in the BBSA.”
Tianie arrived at Berkeley Haas confident in her leadership abilities, yet she has found herself growing in unexpected ways. Admitting to some “skepticism” about Assistant Professor Erica Bailey’s Leading People class—part of the core curriculum, she found herself engaged in wide-ranging discussions with classmates about their varied experiences in being leaders and being led.
“I had always believed in the importance of leading by example, which is pretty common in the military. Now, I am more attuned to looking at leadership from the other person’s perspective. Take being on time, for example. In the military, being on time is very important. As well as helping things run smoothly, being on time shows that you are reliable, that are accountable, that you have integrity. I used to assume that people who were late were lazy or inconsiderate. Now, instead of assuming, I want to understand what’s going on that might cause someone to be late.”
Understanding has even put Tianie at peace with what she calls “Berkeley time.” She explained: “I noticed that a class scheduled to start at, say, 2 p.m. always started at least 10 minutes late. It drove me crazy. After a while I understood that those 10 minutes was a buffer, to allow people to complete that quick Courtyard conversation or stop by the Program Office for some reason. It’s important to flex your schedule, to give each other grace.”
Once Tianie has found her footing in investment banking, she has another longer-term pivot in mind: entrepreneurship by acquisition. “I’m just too risk-averse to launch my own start-up,” she said. “But the idea of running my own company, of taking a known quantity and improving it is powerful. By starting out in investment banking, I will have created a track record. I will have worked on a lot of deals, in different industries and in different roles. There is no better training ground for entrepreneurship by acquisition, and no better preparation than here at Berkeley Haas.”
