Ep. 09 - Alumni Stories - Kameron Yagoobi

WBS Podcast #9 - Kameron Yagoobi

0:06
Welcome to the WPI Business School Podcast, where we catch up with incredible alumni to hear how their Business School experiences have shaped their careers and lives.

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I am your host, the Reverend Doctor Deborah Jackson, Dean of the WPI Business School, and today I'm excited to welcome Cameron Yagobi, an alumnus with a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering, class of 2019.

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Cameron currently works at Accenture as an AI strategy consultant.

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He is also a member of the Dean's Advisory Council for the Business School.

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Cameron, it's great to have you here with us today, and it's great to be here.

0:53
Thank you so much for having me, Dee Jackson.

0:55
I appreciate it.

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To get started, let's talk about your journey to WPI.

1:02
How did you land at WPI and in industrial engineering?

1:07
Yeah, absolutely.

1:08
So I always knew that I wanted to have some sort of engineering education and combine that engineering education with something that's fast-paced, rigorous and challenges me to do my best work possible.

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And funnily enough, so my dad works at WPI, so I always had that in the back of my head of this is cool, I know about I'm kind of interested in but maybe didn't know too much about at the time.

1:33
And next thing I know it was senior year to decide a school to go to.

1:37
And the logical transition was look at WPI and see what WPI does in terms of business, what WPI does in terms of engineering, and look for a path that can combine both of those interests for me.

1:48
And industrial engineering seemed like the best landing spot for me at the time.

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And no regrets.

1:53
Here I am and it's been been a fantastic journey.

1:57
Now your dad doesn't just work at WPI, he's quite a well known scholar here.

2:02
It's my job is to start to keep him humble.

2:04
But yeah, he is.

2:05
He does great stuff.

2:07
That's wonderful.

2:09
So how would you then define industrial engineering for those that might not be familiar with this discipline?

2:18
That's a good question.

2:18
I'm probably not the best person to ask that, but I think that my definition of industrial engineering is looking at business problems, logistical problems, looking at things like operations, looking at things like manufacturing, taking off that cover of a business and figuring out how it works, how we can make it more efficient.

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How we can drive success in the back and front end of the business and really look at the end to end flow of a company, of a process, of a procedure and drive efficiencies and scale and success throughout that whole life cycle.

2:54
I think that's a wonderful way to describe industrial engineering.

2:57
But you never really got to do industrial engineering because you went into consulting.

3:03
So tell me, how did you make that pivot and how did industrial engineering prepare you for a career in consulting?

3:09
Yeah, absolutely.

3:09
So I always knew that consulting was something that I was interested in probably from freshman year where I was looking at sort of what traditional and untraditional business paths are as a business major.

3:22
And I looked at consulting, I looked at investment banking, I looked like things like venture capital.

3:27
And what I'm most interested, what I was most interested in was management consulting.

3:32
And the great thing about WPI was that we have a big presence of alumni in a variety of consulting firms that are always willing and happy to help out and pick up a phone call and say how can we help?

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And so through that whole networking at WPI was able to get connected to a fabulous alumni, Joyce Klein, who is now currently a partner at Accenture and was sitting there willing to help me with every single question I had.

3:59
What is consulting?

4:00
What do we do?

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What do you like about it?

4:03
What do you not like about it?

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And she was really that driving factor and exposing me to what consulting is.

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And I knew that I wanted a career path that keeps me on my toes at no two days are the same, No2 projects are the same.

4:17
And consulting really ended up being the perfect landing spot for me in terms of how I like to be challenged, how I like to think.

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And I think that's one of the things that WPI does best is foster environments where we're challenged.

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There's a fast pace, and no two days really are the same.

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So it was almost a natural progression for me in terms of going from WPI to consulting.

4:40
That's great.

4:41
So now you're an AI strategy consultant.

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So what is that?

4:46
It's essentially helping clients understand what data, AI and terms like digital can do for them.

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So I think in the way that businesses are run now, there's so much data, there's so much information, and there's not really a clear understanding of what can be done with it.

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And that's where we as consultants deliver advisory value, where we work with our clients to help them understand how do we go from point A to point B?

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What is the best way to go from point A to point B?

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And even sometimes the challenge is so simple is how do we get started on that journey?

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And that's where we come to our clients and work with them to really help them understand what their business looks like now and what that, I mean, it's a huge consulting term, but Future State can look like for them of when they harness the potential of AI, machine learning, data and all of these sort of tools that we're hearing about nowadays to drive impact and success within their companies.

5:43
So WPI prepared you for that.

5:46
Funnily enough, I would say no better school could prepare me for something like that than WPII.

5:51
Think that.

5:52
So just to back up a little bit, consulting is something where you work on projects short term, mid term, long term, depending on what your career path is.

6:01
But typically I find myself during projects that are about two to three months in length and WPI, the way the quarter system is set up really pushes that maximum value out of a short period of time.

6:15
So I remember correctly, it's something like 7 week terms and those terms are fast-paced, rigorous and you have to make sure you're engaged and driven the entire time.

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And it's really similar for consulting where you have a problem, you really quickly need to figure out what's going on or else it's not going to go well.

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So WP is fast-paced, WP is incredible professors, WP is amazing alumni.

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They're always going to help out.

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That whole combination of factors and a very untraditional way, I would say, led me into a successful career in consulting based off I love it, I love it.

6:54
And since you've made a natural Segway, let's then shift gears to talk about your time at WPI.

7:01
Can you think of a favorite or memorable class that really had an impact on you?

7:05
I would say my most memorable class would have to be engineering economics with Professor Trap.

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So that was that one class that really brought together business and really brought together things like economics and industry and businesses and helped me combine my love and passion for math and analytics with how a business works and trying to figure out the value of certain segments of a business.

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And Professor Trap is phenomenal.

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He was always willing to take, I mean, every professor, it's really hard to pick just one, but every professor is really willing to work with their students outside of the classroom and sit with them and let them ask what I'm sure are crazy questions about what does this mean?

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What does that mean?

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Why are we doing this?

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Why are we doing that?

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And Professor Trap, I remember was sitting with me for hours and explained the why behind the concept and help really make sure I understood the concept because I think that was critical to understanding how to get the problem solved.

8:04
So I would say that would be my most venerable class at MPI.

8:08
Absolutely.

8:08
And I was going to ask you whether you had a favorite professor.

8:12
I don't know if that's Professor Andy Trapp or others.

8:15
You also did suggest that maybe it was hard to recommend one.

8:20
I would say there's so many professor that I I love truly.

8:23
I think of Professor Johnson, Professor Town or Professor Trapp.

8:27
Really everyone in the Business School is just phenomenal.

8:28
Professor Sabiri, everyone was just great and willing to help students out.

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And I think that let them remove from WPIA little bit and have interacted with other universities and other schools.

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I think that's what sets WPI apart.

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And the biggest way is that because we're a small school and we have that sense of pride that extends to faculty and professors as well.

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And I'd be hard pressed to find a faculty member that won't go for an extra half hour and sit down with you and help you understand things and even just be a life coach in a way and help you understand what their suggestions are.

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And I just sitting down and having coffee and getting to know them as a person, I think that's something WPI does phenomenally.

9:11
And I'm really realizing that value now as I talk to other folks.

9:16
At a century that went to maybe other institutions, I didn't have that experience.

9:22
Yeah.

9:22
And I appreciate the shout outs to Professor Sharon Johnson, Professor Wally Towner, Professor Sarah Saberi.

9:30
And I was going to ask if you've come across the time in your career where you said, wow, that class or what that professor said or WPI, that advice that I got really paid off.

9:44
Yeah, absolutely.

9:44
That's happened so many times in my in my career.

9:46
I think that it's not so much tactical details of what I learned that WPI that or those moments of why I wouldn't miss AWPI and it was great, but it's more so in how professors pushed me to succeed in the short term.

10:02
It's more so in the conversations I had with Professor Trapp and MPP and working with them to understand what's going on at a systems level in the world and applying all of those professors forms of thinking to problems that we're seeing in the real world are those moments of pride that I have as AWG alumni.

10:23
And I know that the century we have a small close knit group of WG alumni and variety of levels.

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And every time we step on campus to recruit or work with students, it's funny.

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We all have that sense of we go back through our mouse and we forever ago personalities of when we were 17/18/19 years old walk around that campus and we still have that incredible feeling of this was really that place that made us into who we are today.

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And we're also grateful to the school for it.

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Is that why you decided to become a member of the Dean's Advisory Council and what do you see yourself being able to contribute in that outside of working with a fabulous team?

11:03
I think that would be one of the one of the reasons I know that WPI, something that WPI does really well.

11:09
It's not a school that is reactionary in any way.

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It's not a school that waits to see what another institution is doing and then plays catch up.

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I think that in our meetings and deals Advisory Council, we're really driving reactionaries.

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But we're trying to be on the forefront of that change of where's the economy going, where's the world going?

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And how can WPI best position itself to as we're seeing a huge landscape of challenges nowadays and in the professional and even real world that you could say.

11:44
And I think that having that ability to work with you and other amazing members of the TEAMS Advisory Council has been an incredible experience to really see how WPI Business School specifically is positioning itself to succeed and embrace change in these times of unknown.

12:05
Thank you.

12:06
Thank you.

12:06
So glad about that.

12:07
Now we've talked about the academic side of WPI, what about the more social side?

12:14
What were you involved in on campus as a student?

12:17
Did you join any clubs or teams or fraternities?

12:22
So if my dad's listening, I would have purely an academic experience and they'll be purely, but outside of the academic side.

12:30
I was involved in Ato, so Alpha Talemega, one of the fraternities on campus, and then was heavily involved in IFC as well.

12:37
So served as the vice president of finance for IFC and her fraternity council.

12:43
Yeah, I'm, I'm interferatility Council and then was one of the members of the executive council of Ato.

12:50
So I would say those have been incredible experiences too.

12:53
I mean, just working with 40 guys, you have to quickly figure out how to solve problems.

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There's no room to just sit there and wait for something to happen.

13:01
It's a fantastic environment that WPI think does a really good job of allowing students to experience Greek life safely and then in a really wonderful way that is supported by campus, which again is something that I'm realizing is not necessarily true for other university.

13:18
But I think WPI does a great job of bringing out the power of the Greek life community that we have that is really deeply ingrained into the school.

13:28
So that was a huge part of my experience at WPI.

13:31
Absolutely.

13:32
I mean, that's everything that I understand from Greek life is that it's not the Animal House.

13:38
Yeah, Animal House.

13:39
It's nothing like that.

13:40
And it's just strong community.

13:42
And some of our top scholars are in our Greek houses because they're such a strong community of achievement in Greek life.

13:52
Yeah, absolutely.

13:53
Not a whole lot of the agree.

13:54
I think it's funny when I tell other people that I was in a fraternity and their first reaction is they think of something like Animal House.

14:01
But then what I think of what my experience was, it was just really a bunch of us just studying in a room together to to work through tests and work through challenges and having that network that are now my best friends today.

14:13
And I think, yeah, WTF does a really phenomenal job with that?

14:17
That's awesome.

14:18
So is there or was there a tradition that kind of stuck with you, something about the campus culture that you enjoyed or have continued to take with you?

14:28
Yeah, I think the thing that it's not necessarily a tradition, but more so a feeling or a sense.

14:35
I think it's that sense of pride.

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I think it's that deep sense of everyone at WPI is there for a reason and everyone there.

14:45
I've not encountered that one person that wasn't supportive at WPI, one person that wasn't willing to sit down and work with me or listen to any challenge that I was going through at that time.

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And that extends not only to students, but faculty and even alumni.

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I, I can confidently say that I can reach out to any WPI alumni at any point and they'll be willing to say that and have a don't call with me and help me truly understand where my career is and where it can go.

15:11
And that's something that I've used many, many times and leverage many, many times since I've graduated WPI.

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But I think that sense of camaraderie and pride and tradition of, I don't know, what's your biotechnic institute, It's just everyone is happy to be there and everyone is proud to be there.

15:26
And that's incredible.

15:28
I agree.

15:29
I agree.

15:30
So if you could go back and give your college self one piece of advice, what would it be?

15:38
Yeah, it's funny.

15:39
I was thinking about that.

15:40
I think that what I would say to my college self would be to just.

15:45
And it's, it sounds cliche, but it's just enjoy those times.

15:48
I think it's slow down.

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Don't get so worried about that midterm or that final or that event that you have coming up.

15:56
Just slow down, be present, enjoy it because all my friends, my best friends now are all from WPI and the fun of me sit down and we talk about how quickly that time flies and when you're in it, you don't realize you're like, I can't wait to get into the real world.

16:12
I can't wait to start making money.

16:13
I can't wait to live in a city or live somewhere and start building my life.

16:18
But all of us wish that we could go back for just one, one night or one day and just the WPS student again.

16:25
So I would say my biggest thing would just be enjoy it.

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Slow down, smell the air, enjoy the food and just be present because before you know it, it's gone.

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And all you can do is look backwards at that point in time.

16:39
So I would say just enjoy it.

16:42
Great.

16:42
It's nice, great advice.

16:44
So is there a college hack or a habit that you developed in school that still helps you today?

16:53
It's a great question.

16:54
College hag or habit that I can admit to on this podcast that got me through WPII would say harnessing the power of information that I got there.

17:05
So whether that information is another student, whether that information is online, whether that information is professor or whatever it may be.

17:15
I would say harnessing the power of the connections that you have at WPI to drive success.

17:20
Because there were so many times where I couldn't understand a problem set or test that I had to work on, but there was always someone that did.

17:29
And it was always a matter of, and it's funny, that extends to my professional world now of everything really is connections.

17:37
So harnessing that power of connections of working with others and asking others and not being afraid, I think it would be the biggest 1 is not being afraid to ask for help.

17:46
Don't wait on it.

17:46
Don't wait until it's too late.

17:48
Ask for help the second you know that you need to ask for help because there will always be someone willing to help you out.

17:54
But if you just internalize yourself in those situations, it's it's really hard to play catch up.

17:58
So I would say ask for help and learn is the power of the community to drive success with my hack.

18:05
Yeah that's awesome.

18:06
I remember the 9 words and we still talk about the 9 words being go to class, do your work, ask for help, and you'll succeed.

18:16
That's not just for WPI, but I really think that's for life, right?

18:19
100% agree.

18:21
I think having that humility to know I need help, it's such a simple concept, but it's so hard and practicality of just I've fallen down, someone help me get out, please.

18:31
And then someone will always be there to help you get out.

18:32
I can promise everyone is listening, but it's just having that ability to ask for that help is key.

18:38
Yeah, absolutely.

18:40
So you're busy person.

18:43
How do you keep your life balanced, Cameron?

18:47
So try to figure that one out.

18:48
I think that's one of the that's one of the challenges of working consulting is there'll be weeks where we're travelling Monday through Thursday, Monday through Friday onto the client's site, working plenty of hours on that week.

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And then there's other hours, there's other weeks where we'll be working from home and it's just a completely different, there's no two weeks that are the same.

19:07
So I think to keep my life balanced, what I like to do is find what I call a third place.

19:13
For me, a third place is somewhere outside of my home and my work where I can be with other people and have a space that I know I can not necessarily escape, but but just be present as well.

19:26
So for me, that's the great gym community that I have here.

19:30
It's called the Athletic Clubs in New York City, where is a social gym where we're all friends and we all hang out.

19:36
We'll go to the gym and go get dinner after.

19:38
So I'm having a sense of community.

19:40
Somewhere outside of work, somewhere outside of the office, somewhere outside of home is really how I keep balance.

19:46
I keep grounded and make sure that I'm disattaching myself from work as well.

19:50
Because I think that's a really important concept too, is not having work be a part of your entire life, figuring out how to balance life with work at the same time.

20:02
Absolutely.

20:03
Really good advice, Really good advice.

20:06
So many of the people that will be listening or students or prospective students or their parents.

20:14
What would you say to any of them who are considering becoming a business student at WPII Would say do it?

20:23
I would say the Business School is incredible.

20:27
The dynamic Business School, the Business School when I was there, it's not the Business School that it is now.

20:33
And the Business School five years from now is not going to be the Business School that it is today.

20:37
I think that's the beauty of WGS Business School is that we have an incredible community, alumni that are always willing to help, and incredible people like yourself, Dean Jackson, that are just trying to drive change and empower every single student at the Business School.

20:53
And I think that wholeheartedly is best reason to go to WGS Business School is that you know that everyone wants you truly, and I've seen it on the other side now that I'm not a student anymore, truly wants you to succeed and will do everything in the power to, to make sure that you're able to.

21:10
And I would say if you're interested in the business world, if you're interested in any, any career, whether it be investment banking, management consulting, even those non traditional engineering careers, WPI will prepare you for that in some way or another.

21:25
And the Business School will be the best place for you to do that.

21:27
So wholeheartedly recommend.

21:30
Just do it.

21:31
It's the best place.

21:33
That's what I love, a full throated endorsement.

21:36
If you're considering becoming a Business School student, do it.

21:41
You heard it from Cameron Yagubi.

21:44
So this has been an amazing conversation.

21:47
And Cameron, I'm so happy that you've taken the time to share your insights and experiences.

21:53
Thank you so much for having me.

21:54
It's been, it's been great.

21:55
I'm so happy to have been able to have the time with you and to be a part of this amazing community that you've developed.

22:01
So thank you, of course, and thank you to our listeners.

22:06
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and share it with someone who might be considering a WPI Business School program for the next step in their learning journey.

22:17
Until next time, remember STEM plus business equals impact.