Sal Caruso MBA 2011
As the Academic Representative for his class, Sal Caruso discusses issues of the Berkeley-Columbia curriculum with his fellow students, faculty and staff. He also discusses his studies with his professional team at Symantec. “My direct reports are often wondering what I’m going to surprise them with after each course block,” he says. “I even share course readings if they relate to what we’re doing at work.” “It is truly two great schools in two great cities.” “It’s a really well-put-together curriculum. I like how the courses build on one another and depend on one another. I remember the first term, learning how to do regressions in Statistics, then learning to use them the next class in Marketing.” “I’m constantly thinking about how I can take what we learn and apply it in the workplace. Leadership and management-oriented courses, in particular, have a lot of material I can use right away.” “My study group adopted a friend of mine starting his own business in the fashion industry and did one of the marketing exercises using his business. It helped us out on the project and was something he could use in the real world.” “It’s competitive to get into the program, but once you get in, it’s very collaborative and supportive. It’s all about teamwork.” “We tend to socialize a lot together. We try to arrange in-block social events, even just dinner or drinks. There’s a great deal of camaraderie.” “My study group is extremely diverse. Guadalupe does fundraising for the Nature Conservancy; Matt is a vice president in his family’s car and truck rental business; and Thor has the most exciting job in the class—directional oil drilling from a rig on the North Slope of Alaska. I’m the techie in the group. We complement each other very well and help each other through our different styles.” “The balance of school, work and family is very challenging. Sometimes I don’t know how I do it. I just try to do a little bit every day, and somehow it works.” “We’re able to take advantage of both campuses, spending time with Columbia students, even those who are in different programs. And there’s so much going on at the Berkeley campus that we’re able to take part in. We’ve also been to basketball games and football games as a class.” [+] to top |
Vice President for Information Technology, Symantec Corporation, Mountain View, California