Leah Petr: A triple jump across the Atlantic from T.V. To Fintech

On today's Modern MBA podcast, we talk to Leah Petr, an Alliance Manchester MBA graduate who managed to secure her dream job - and sponsorship to live in the UK - at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Leah talks about all things fintech, making the switch from her previous career in TV, and how she managed a uniquely challenging job search.

Many students come to an MBA from banking, consulting, or MNC backgrounds, but what about those that don’t? The Modern MBA podcast with Marie Kirwan and Kristen Rossi shares the stories of those transitioning from or using their MBAs in unorthodox MBA sectors including the arts, healthcare, not-for-profit, academia, and more.

Links Leah referred to:
https://emboldenher.org
https://www.movemeon.com

Website: http://www.themodernmba.co.uk
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Podcast Music Credit:
Limit 70, courtesy of Kevin Macleod

Transcript

The Modern MBA :
Welcome to The Modern MBA podcast with Marie Kirwan and Kristen Rossi. Our mission is to help MBAs coming from going into or merely considering more unorthodox career paths. We're a community to find inspiration and share stories.
Today we're talking to Leah Petr, who after a career in television in the USA, pursued an MBA at Manchester Alliance and managed to make a triple jump into FinTech in the middle of Coronavirus.

The Modern MBA 
I'll just ask you to introduce yourself and tell us your name and where you did your MBA.

Leah  0:45  
Hi, my name is Leah Petr. I'm from the USA, from Tennessee. I did my MBA at the University of Manchester Alliance, Manchester business school. I finished up in April right at the pandemic was kind of getting going. So it's been an adventure since, but it was a really fantastic experience.

The Modern MBA 
First of all, let's just start off by talking about your career prior to the MBA. And can you tell us a bit about what you were what you were doing before you came to Manchester?

Leah 1:12  
Sure. So I got my start in television kind of by accident, I think it's a lot of people's like, kind of dream jobs. And it just happened to be there as a television network group headquartered in my hometown, and they were going to the place to do an internship in, in university, I went there and was able to get an internship. And that kind of took me it was a great company, Scripps networks at the time, it's now and by discovery, but was able to kind of work in a variety of marketing disciplines. And then within the company, I moved to Washington, DC, and worked for a few years, ended up doing some more consumer-facing social media stuff, which was really interesting, and started working specifically for the travel channel. And then went through kind of another stage, I moved to New York, also a travel channel and ended up working in creative production for a brand team. So essentially, I was making commercials, it was a pretty cool job, you know, being on set and getting everything organised. And so it was glamorous, a lot of it was a lot of spreadsheets, and getting on the phone at the last minute making sure everybody's arriving on time. But it was a great, great company. But it was, it's quite a limiting industry, actually, that's very small and kind of insular. And so I was kind of trying to start to think about stepping out of entertainment and was having a lot of trouble getting people to trust in my transferable skills since a lot of the work I was doing was quite a niche, you know, being able to say like, no, I managed budgets and projects and tight timelines, when what I was really doing was shooting, you know, video commercials, people just weren't really respecting that. And maybe I wasn't articulating it well, but I was having trouble trying to leave the industry. So kind of looked around and was like, What is an opportunity to learn more about what exists outside of what I know, and further my education, but not limit myself because I really wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. And that really led me to the MBA of it's such a great generalist programme of just making increasing all of your skills and helping you work on towards a broader knowledge of business across, you know, everything from accounting, finance, strategy, economics, marketing operations, the whole gamut. So that was really what led me to the MBA in general. And then I was ready for a new adventure. I wanted to leave the US so I was looking at British and Spanish programmes mostly and ended up excited to go to Manchester because of the longer course so I did the 18-month course, most of the British programmes are only 12 months. And I, since I knew I was going into it in a very exploring kind of phase and thoughts, I knew that I wanted as much time as possible to kind of figure out what I wanted to do. And Manchester ended up being the perfect choice for that. Yeah, that

The Modern MBA 4:09  
Makes sense. I think for me, I also went into going into it in quite an exploring type way. That was the one downside of the 12-month programme is it you know, you can it can be quite tough if you don't go in knowing exactly what you want to kind of have enough time to think it through.

Leah 4:27  
Yeah, I have friends that did 12-month programmes that were completely satisfied, happy, loved it because they were quite focused. And I knew that wasn't me and I wanted maybe some time to travel and do some other kind of life-enriching things, which worked out well as well. And of just being in addition to being like an incredibly enriching, like an intellectual exercise. It was just like, a life experience that was so valuable and amazing. It's hard to really describe it.  Manchester curriculum is really focused on group projects and group work. And at first, that could be quite frustrating, you get their point, you're like, oh, like, if I could just do it on my own, I can just get it done. And it would be fine. And we can move on. But then a probably wants you to kind of hit your stride halfway through and are more used to working in these diverse international teams then and everybody around you has kind of developed these skills as well of like, Okay, well, we're going to be incredibly transparent upfront, on the first day of our new group of like, who for everybody is this project, you're a priority, your priority is getting a job, and yours is this project. Okay? Now we have like kind of set and just being like blatantly honest of like where we all are. And so then that made all those group exercises, so incredibly enriching. And just, the idea of learning from your peers is such a tonne of all MBA programmes, and not really just kind of drove at home in a very real sense. And just getting to know people, that one step further than seeing them in a lecture hall was really, really great.

The Modern MBA  6:10  
What was the most challenging thing about your variance, given that you finished in April this year, I'm seeing that it didn't quite end, as you were expecting. How was that experience?

Leah
We really actually lucked out. So our official like last day, I think was April 1, and we went into lockdown, like a week and a half before that. So it was really only like the last final presentations with clients that we've been working with for six months that we really needed to do remotely. So in terms of actually finishing the course,  we were very close to it being really difficult, but it was not that bad. The hard part was it just kind of ending and the like social and cell operatory aspect not being there was really tough. And I was the president of our class Council. And I'm just standing by like, we're supposed to have a big fancy ball in a hotel that had to be cancelled or postponed at the time, we have this postponed. And I'm like, we will do this again, sometime it will probably be next summer or after like, we will all come back together and like, appropriately celebrate our accomplishment. So personally, that was tough. And then the job market was just a big bummer. Pretty much of I my initial target industry was traveling. So for most of the NBA, I'd been facilitating contacts and travel. And then we've all seen what has happened to the industry now. And so I thought was pretty known even before April that, that things were going to be quite slow in that area. So I'd started to pivot and my final project was in FinTech and I discovered a real interest in passion for that. Very Luckily, because then I was like, you know, I'd be completely happy being in FinTech. So kind of then pivoted and, but I hadn't really been trying to make contacts in that area. Throughout the NBA, I focus quite heavily on travel. So it was an interesting time and the visa clock running down through the summer. It was I think, probably one of the highest anxiety times I've ever had of, you know, telling yourself if you don't find something then like it wasn't meant to be. And maybe I'm supposed to go back to the US and all of these things and try to make yourself feel more comfortable. But luckily, it's worked out and I'm super happy in my new role, and very engaged and enjoying it. So it's turned out okay, but that was probably Yeah, April to August was a very stressful time.

The Modern MBA  8:47  
So TV to FinTech is a big change. What inspired it? And how did you position your skills and experience to employers?

Leah  8:55  
Yes, it definitely is a big change. And I don't know that I really would have been able to tell you what FinTech was, Aside from the obvious before coming into the NBA. So I've always been really interested in like, my personal finances like I've always been kind of an early adopter of different tools and things. And then into different types of investments and getting all the best credit card points and things. But I just enjoyed that never really thought of it as like that it was really like even a hobby. That's a weird word for but didn't really think of it as an interest of mine. It was just something that I enjoyed doing. And so then when that'd be like FinTech speakers started to come. And I would be like, oh, like they're the people making the products that I use and enjoy personally. And so things are starting to kind of click together. And then when it came time for our final project, which is the International Business project, we had, I don't know how many projects but a number of projects, and then we all had to pitch for, I think three or four of them and see how you got to brief and then had to write at the pitch and my team was Phenomenal, but we were very diverse. So we could kind of go many different directions. And weirdly enough, there was a creative production company was in the mix. And I was like, how I never thought my experience would help me pitch for something. But we had that. And then we had one of my teammates was in deepened finance, and, and markets. And we had a really great brief comment from a client that was focusing on these digital investment tools. And so we really wanted that. But it was, of course, the most competitive bid in the whole thing. So we were lucky enough, well, we worked really hard. But then we're also lucky enough to get selected, and to work on that project. And it was working that project that really kind of cemented my interests because we talked to people into Germany, Japan, China, and the UK talking to consumers about how they kind of manage their personal finances, particularly when it comes to digital tools and how they view these new apps coming up and all these new services and what would make their life easier? And what do they really want? And what do they not care about and having these really personal conversations with people that really connected with like, Oh, well, I do that now? Oh, never thought of that. And things like that, really, really, was very powerful. And a lot of it was focused on like, what are the stressors in this financial wellness, which is a very hot topic these days. And so I kind of started nerding out on all of that stuff. And so then when the company I'm working with now is called earned. And we are an on-demand pay solution. So we work with employers, to enable their users or their employees, our users to access their pay, and when and how they need it, rather than having to wait for payday. So it's just a new way of increasing the flexibility and the amount of control that employees have over their own pay. Because essentially, employees are kind of funding their employer helping with cash flow for the whole month when they're owed money. And so we're kind of trying to shake that up. And so ended up being a perfect role that combined I'm doing kind of b2b b2c marketing. So communicating to the employees within our company clients, and telling them all about earned and how they can use it and how it's beneficial to them. So it really combined my background in comms and marketing and project management because I'm building out the function and digital transformation stuff with my then interest in FinTech area and all this financial stress, financial wellness, consumer financial behaviour, decision-making stuff that I had kind of working on for the past, I guess, ended up being about eight months. And so it was just this, like, everything came together perfectly. And it was a great company that's owned by Greenville capital, which is a strong connection to Manchester Business School. So it was a referral actually from a classmate of mine that had been in the Greenville MBA programme, who heard of this. And so I was able to get into the pipeline, even before a job was posted. And so it's just things like that, that it was absolutely like, the experience of my MBA plus the context of my MBA got me this great role and have helped me make the next step.

The Modern MBA  13:20  
What was the biggest challenge that you faced in your job search aside from Coronavirus and that deadline?

Leah  13:26  
Trying to overcome the misconceptions about my background. And really figuring out how to communicate these transferable skills in a way that people would listen, I think particularly getting into tech, there's, they have a lot, there's a lot of talent already in tech companies. And they have very little incentive to take a risk on anybody that hasn't been in tech before. And so I think the NBA helped me a lot without particularly these projects that I got to work on. I also ended up doing a kind of pro bono consulting for a great new startup that's been it's been founded by one of our grads, it's called pause, look it up. It's a new streaming platform for independent film. So it was able through my connections and through my MBA experience to not faking it was really experienced in tech, but to just like, put get that on my CV, because that's what really was difficult was even getting a conversation started with people. Because they really, yeah, in tech, they seem to think that like we move faster than everybody we're more innovative like other people can't keep up and you're like to give other people a chance like their people want to learn and want to be challenged. So I think that was a really hard to overcome those misconceptions. And it was a bit hard like trying to kind of downplay some of my TV experience, like push it further down the CV and fewer and fewer bullet points. Like that was such an impactful part of my life. And I learned so much in so many those skills are clickable but yeah, it was a bit disheartening to figure out how to position it to get into these places and get the conversation started. was a big challenge. Wondering for sure.

The Modern MBA   15:01  
I totally understand that with your CV and putting it down but thinking, oh my god, but this was such a big part of my life. I worked in entertainment as well, doing some on the front end. did a lot of commercials but as the talent, but they also work in music. And it is true, you end up pushing that stuff down and part of his thinking. But that was so much of my professional experience and you feel bad about it.

Leah 15:32  
Exactly. And you're like, you don't want to minimise it because you want to shout from the rooftops of like, No, these industries have so much value and teach people so many skills and like they are businesses, they're huge businesses that make tonnes of money. And yet they're kind of seen as a bit fluffy. And I will say it was a big, slow-moving corporate that I came from quite traditional. So there were a lot of differences. But it is, yeah, I don't think that they quite get as much respect as interesting to get as much respect as they should I always always get so excited and like strategy when Netflix would come up or Comcast and be like, Oh, yes, I can talk to this. And like there are so many interesting takeaways from businesses like this. But they really don't get Netflix brought up again and again, of course, but some of these other behemoth behemoths like Disney, I don't think it's enough.  And it's really, really interesting. And there are so many good learnings from it. And I just yeah, that's my pusher well, and just get mercury isn't MBAs, I think it perhaps had more value for me because I had so much more to learn than it did for any of the accountants or finance people. It was all new to me. And all exciting. work was the thing. Some people it was just more of an extension of things they've already been doing.

The Modern MBA   16:54  
I totally agree. I was so excited. I thought, Oh, my gosh, this is also new. And, and I was just so hungry to find out everything I didn't know. 
And so you talked about how getting those experiences through the MBA really helped boost your CV so that you could show that you've had that experience. Other specific tips that you you could give people that maybe want to make a similar transition.

Leah 17:21  
I was interned at a startup the summer in the middle of MBA, and it was a tiny startup in Hackney, in London. They're doing the ticketing, they're kind of like an event bright competitor. And it was a great team to work with. And I just was brought in to just do an operations overhaul just look at every single part of the business. And I learned so much, but it was also just kind of introduced me to the London tech scene. And so the founder, he had a lot of friends, and we just go out for drinks afterwards and chat with people. And it was people that like a very tenuous connection, but just kind of starting to learn the lingo. And like how these people talk. And what they care about, I think was perhaps even more valuable than actually knowing them specifically. There's an organisation called embolden her, that is like women in tech in London networking, and you kind of put into this pool. And then every week, they'd randomly pair you with somebody else. And so then you'd have set up a coffee or do a call or a zoom after locked on started. And that was so great because it was just women across the tech industry that have really informal chats with and it was so valuable to just like, talk to a product manager and be like, Can you really tell me what you do? And that was really important. I think for me, it was just getting that foundation understanding. And I've now come into this role with such a better like, grasp of what the ecosystem is like and what the expectations are different roles are. Which, as an outsider was quite difficult to grasp.


The Modern MBA 
The idea of getting a job in the UK as an American, how did you find out that that company was set a sponsor? And what was the visa process? Like what was the sponsorship process like?

Leah  19:03  
Um, so this, luckily enough, as I mentioned to the parent company of the startup is very closely aligned with the business school, the Manchester Business School. So that was the main reason that I knew that they sponsored. And it like, every year, they take a cohort of MBA interns that then they hire automatically. So it's just a very strong relationship. That was really beneficial. And thankfully, it wasn't carried over to the startup I thought was really great. And I will say, I got advice from actually one of the women that I did that networking with, of if you're targeting. If you want to be in startups, and you need a visa to target the companies that are between, they're probably like round B funding like a to b because at that point, they're particularly in the UK, they're going to need to scale So much that there's not going to be enough UK talent to fulfil their needs most likely, particularly with Brexit. So like, they're going to have to be able to sponsor at that level, and they have enough funding to do it. And so that really helps also looking at that startup area to try to kind of try and call in that middle phase of like, that they're in this high growth and have some funding, I think was very important to, to that visa, the visa process, because there are a lot of people that were like, I will look into sponsoring, and a number of my classmates got burned by that of like, yeah, like, I think we'll be able to do it, and they actually look at it. And it really isn't that hard. It really isn't that expensive. But there's just a mental barrier that people have.

The Modern MBA  20:43  
You knew about the job because this of the school's connections that's really useful also targeting during a certain phase of the of the funding round?

Leah 
Yeah, cuz I hit some other ones, some a lot of the other finicky ones that were in that growth phase, like the ones that are starting to hit New cycles and are on this hiring spree, they were all quite open to sponsorship, and it didn't seem to be a barrier. The bigger organisations like Amazon, I think throws out visas like candy, if you can get in the door. But some of these other ones like sky was surprisingly very, very hesitant to sponsor that stopped me at multiple multiple roles there. And so like, I that was even pre COVID. So it is an interesting exercise and can be very difficult to being like, Am I being rejected because of the visa thing? Or because of something else? And so you're like, go back and forth of like, Is it me or the visa? I don't know.

The Modern MBA   21:38  
But I'm just curious to know, obviously, your classmates that graduated, at the same time as you, how's the job market been? Generally for people like us that have most people found it quite a struggle, or most people that didn't have things lined up before the pandemic have had quite a struggle? 

Leah
I don't know, our most recent numbers, actually, more people have found things than expected, actually, but it's still like, there's a lot of really talented, really smart people that just haven't found the right thing, or are waiting it out until they'll find a great thing. And so again, that's I think, where people had to make decisions of like, do I keep like, looking for the perfect thing? Or do I take something just to take it and I think that people have gone different directions on that. And, yeah, overall, it's been pretty tough. But then there's Yeah, some really great success stories that are really interesting and exciting. And I think a lot of our class had a kind of formal programme for my MBA programme offers prior to the pandemic. And so I know some of them were like, second-guessing that at first, like, did I decide too early, and then this happened? They're like, Oh, no, this is good. We'll just stick with this. So it has a way of reshuffling your priorities for sure.

AFTER THE CHAT

The Modern MBA 
I really enjoyed that one. She's just very engaging, isn't she?

The Modern MBA  23:10  
Yeah. really engaging, really easy to talk to. And I think at least for me, I felt like the experience her experience, and both workwise, but also the kind of the struggles, I felt. I really got those like, Oh, yes, I understand what.

The Modern MBA  23:28  
Yeah, when she was saying that stuff in the beginning about getting people to get your experience seriously, and things like that. It's just, it's like the perfect articulation of how I fell. I'm kind of why we started this in some ways as well. Yeah, no, I really enjoyed that one.

Unknown Speaker  23:45  
I found it really interesting when Leah brought up about the sponsorship and targeting sponsorship at the eight as a to be funding.

The Modern MBA  23:54  
Yeah, so the ones that are kind of in between, in between sizes.

The Modern MBA   24:01  
Yeah, that was a really good tip, because I wouldn't have thought to do that. And so I feel like if you can focus on that area, you kind of cut out the ones that are before, then it helps you just kind of to our target better, more efficiently.

The Modern MBA   24:15  
When you're I think when you're applying for roles, and you need sponsorship, it's so it can feel a little bit like a needle in a haystack. So being able to narrow it down a bit really helps. But yeah, I think it was interesting as well about the, obviously the way that the course and yes, they're very lucky to be able to get in almost everything before the pandemic here. But then it is so sad missing out on those final social things. And I know that in the context of everything that's happened, it's, you know, it's not the biggest problem, but also, yeah, it's

The Modern MBA   24:51  
a real shame for them that they didn't have like the end of their course that they were expecting. Absolutely. I mean, I even for our class, the ones that did it graduate in the winter and want to graduate in summer. I feel so bad because they missed. They missed the graduation noise. You know, it's not even it's not really at the social and we had a social month as well, I think in August, but the graduation is a special day, especially after all of that hard work.

The Modern MBA  25:19  
Yeah. And I think especially if you're not living in the UK as well, it's kind of that opportunity to kind of come back and see everyone and yeah, it's pretty sad. Yeah, I agree.

The Modern MBA 25:33  
That's all from today's modern MBA podcast.

The Modern MBA   25:36  
I'm Kristen. And I'm Marie. If you like this episode, remember to hit the subscribe button on Apple podcasts. You can get access to articles and more great content by visiting our website, the modern nba.co.uk, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram at the modern NBA, and Twitter at NBA modern.

The Modern MBA  25:55  
And aside from Apple podcast. You can also listen to us on Spotify, Google podcasts, amazon music or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Until next time, bye-bye