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HTC News: Stay Engaged!

  - Thursday, April 22, 2021
 HTC in the News 
HTC News

Stay Engaged!

Hi [FIRST_NAME], this week we have lots of exciting events and news for you, so stay engaged and keep reading.

First, have you ordered your HTC t-shirt yet? Last week we announced our exciting new t-shirts, designed by the amazing Moon Kim. Check them out below and you can get it in 2 beautiful colors at the HTC store. All proceeds from the sale of these t-shirts will go to Tech For Troops. 

New HTC t-shirts designed by Moon Kim!


Tim's reaction after ordering the new HTC t-shirts!

~!! Calling ALL HTC Alums !!~

Thank you for continuing to read this newsletter! We have heard from some of you that you are interested in staying engaged with the current HTC community. Please fill out this super quick form so that we can keep you in mind for upcoming events this year! Please reach out to Rosa (rosahuang@berkeley.edu) if you have any questions!

Fresh New Jobs For You

Please check out the following useful links for upcoming internships and full-time roles!

Internships: Full-time: And last but not the least, don't forget to check out our Notion Job Board which includes job postings from HTC Alumni!
 
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Lets go, keep at it!

Upcoming

  • 4/22, What's Hot - AI/Machine Learning:  Berkeley Entrepreneurship Association presents What's Hot Virtual Panels - Speaker series where startup founder, VC/investors, researchers, and industry SME come together to shed light on the hottest trends and innovations in the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
  • 4/22, Crypto Roundtable - How Crypto startups can be the next driver of Fintech:  Feeling that you're late to the game of blockchain? Having a great startup idea about blockchain? Wondering what's the buzz about NFT and skyrocket price of bitcoin recently? Join us with 3 founders from Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator and Ycombinator to discuss their startup journey, and perspectives on how blockchain is impacting the fintech industry. 
  • 4/23, HTC Alumni Chat Series: Demystifying Compensation Packages with Alex O'Reilly: Come listen to Haas Alum Alex O'Reilly ('19) break down what he wish he knew about salary and overall compensation when he was full-time recruiting while at Haas. Alex will give insight to overall packages offered at (general) tech companies as compared to their non-tech counterparts. Q&A to follow.
  • 4/23, HTC Lunch & Learn: Data Visualization w/ Corrine:  Join us for lunch as our very own Corrine Marquardt ('21) teaches us about Data Viz! Get to know Corrine and learn about her experience in health tech. She'll cover the most important things to know about data visualizations as an MBA, and she'll show you how to get started in tools like Tableau.
  • 4/26, Does Digital Advertising Actually Work?: Come join the Haas Data Science and Marketing Clubs for our first hybrid (in-person/virtual) event featuring our esteemed professors, Steve Tadelis and Przemyslaw Jeziorski as they share industry insights using analytics and data science to dispel myths regarding digital advertising. Professor Tadelis was featured on Freakonomics last November discussing this topic.
  • 4/28, Berkeley Data Science Virtual Happy Hour / Speed Networking: Haas Data Science Club is excited to host a networking event for students across Berkeley on Wednesday, April 28 at 5PM! We welcome you to join us and connect with folks across graduate and undergraduate programs interested in tech and data science. Plus: $15 reimbursement for snacks/drinks! 
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It's gonna be an exciting events packed week!

Brain Power

Podcast of the Week: TechStuff, Machine Learning 101: Why is it so hard to define concepts like artificial intelligence and machine learning? What do those even mean? And how does it work? Lets take a very high level look at AI and machine learning.

Book of the Week:  Cyber Privacy: Who Has Your Data and Why You Should Care: Amazon, Google, Facebook, governments. No matter who we are or where we go, someone is collecting our data: to profile us, target us, assess us; to predict our behavior and analyze our attitudes; to influence the things we do and buy—even to impact our vote. April Falcon Doss, a privacy expert and former NSA and Senate lawyer, has seen this imbalance in action. She wants to empower individuals and see policy catch up. In Cyber Privacy, Doss demystifies the digital footprints we leave in our daily lives and reveals how our data is being used—sometimes against us—by the private sector, the government, and even our employers and schools.

Career Tip of the Week: HBR, A Five-Week Guide to Getting a Job: As a job seeker, you may feel powerless right now, but this is not entirely true. Yes, your competition has increased, but so have your remote work opportunities. Here is a five-week strategy to fast-track your job search.
 
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So many amazing resouces out there!

Spotlight on Chloe Kauffman

 

Chloe Kauffman, EWMBA 23, Business Development & Partnerships - Cisco 
(Also our EWMBAA EVP Finance)
 
1. How does your day to day look like in Business Development & Partnerships at Cisco?

Okay to start, Cisco is a big company, and I’m on my third role there. In January, I rejoined the Collaboration group, focusing on Webex. This includes the SaaS platform Webex Meetings, but additionally our complementary persistent messaging app, deemed simply Webex, and our video conferencing devices portfolio, Webex Devices. 

One component of my role is to manage one of Webex’s large strategic alliances. My every day usually involves something that pertains to that partnership. Alliances generally involve two companies coming together to bring new capabilities and user experiences to their customers. This can be in the form of an offering, product/product features, or a combo of the two. If you think of all the cross-functional efforts and requirements to bring something to market, my day involves something with one of the various stakeholders - product, marketing, legal, channel and sales, you name it. 

In addition to this alliance management, lately I’ve been spending a lot of time talking to companies that have interesting or complementary technology for smaller (in comparison to alliances) partnerships. I talk with counterparts at other companies almost daily. Together we figure out what types of activities we could do jointly that would complement us both. And then, I work to make it happen, bringing all the right stakeholders and pieces together. 

2. What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced in your role?

Communication - It is a bit ironic as I am working in the communication and collaboration space. Working with external companies has reminded me that with so many modalities and applications for communication, it can really complicate things.

Market pressures - The SaaS conferencing space is incredibly competitive. Externalities from 2020 have generated all-time high demands, and pressured faster innovation and feature velocity. I think that everyone in the business unit feels those effects, and specifically I see that playing out  in my role as we need to keep focus on longer term goals associated with alliance and partnership work. I think that pairing of rapidly changing existing conditions with longer term goals is a delicate balance I have to work through almost daily.  

3. Cisco was named #1 World’s Best Workplace by Great Places to Work and Fortune Magazine for the second year in a row! Can you please share your experience and what you like about Cisco’s culture?

This is a tough question for me, there are so many components of Cisco that have made it a great place to work. I think the Great Place to work survey encompasses a variety of topics in their metrics, one of which that really stands out for me is a sense of pride working for the company. In 2020 our company purpose statement changed to “power an inclusive future for all”. This gave me chills when I first heard it. In addition to the collaboration suite , Cisco also builds internet infrastructure, the idea of ensuring the technology is inclusionary and accessible should be a part of what we strive for, and I see that play out in how we approach the work that we do, down to the features we look at adding. The mission statement also plays out in Cisco’s CSR initiatives. There isn’t enough space here to list all the initiatives and reasons why I find them so amazing. From affordable housing in the Bay Area, to partnering with organization to fight racism and discrimination, to this last week pledging $100 million to fight climate change. Our CEO, Chuck Robbins, and the Executive Leadership team have not only taken firm stances on political topics, they have also provided learning resources and brought in experts in the respective fields to create a tone of learning and foster empathy. The evolution of the leadership team’s intentionality about culture and values has propagated throughout the company. And lastly, I will add, I get to work with such amazing, talented and intelligent people daily. Many of us hold this same sense of pride, which results in a strong sense of community and accountability in what we do. 

4. Any advice you have for students who are interested in Business development roles or Cisco?

Cisco is always hiring! I think that Business Development roles can have quite a bit of variation between companies and even within. I’d make sure you understand what the success metrics are for the role or organization. We have Business Development Managers within our sales organization, which often have sales quotas or bookings. My role is not predicated on sales revenue, although an important holistic metric, it is not defining for the role.

5. What do you like to do in your spare time (when you’re not juggling being a student a full-time employee!)?

Work on the EWMAA! Also, I spend time working in the Santa Clara County foster care system as a Court Appointed Special Advocate through a non-profit called Child Advocates. I moved to the East Bay in January, so I’m hoping to continue some community work in the area once it is safe to do so. 

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Very impressive Chloe. Thanks for sharing! ­ƒæÅ

If you would like to be featured in an upcoming HTC Newsletter or would like to nominate someone else, please reach out to Sachi Holla or Pulkit Agrawal!

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See you next week [FIRST_NAME]!