5 Things My Life at UCLA Taught Me

I remember writing down 5 lessons that I learned in my freshman year. College had come as a shock, and all I wanted was to reflect and document those reflections.

I didn’t reflect as much for the next years that came after. Sophomore, junior, and even senior year flew by, and I almost didn’t realize it. I put a pause in reflecting as I tried to keep up with my ever-increasing commitments and my Google Calendar that kept getting more and more packed every year.

Now that I am sitting here locked in my apartment in Westwood due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I find myself reflecting again. This time, I reflect on the growth I’ve experienced over the last 4 years – as a professional and as an individual.

Only now that I look back and compare what I was as a person when I first stepped foot at UCLA, to what I am now, I realize that I have learned so, so much.

Among many things, I learned…

1. How to cold-email and cold-call, with no shame

In high school, I was so scared to pick up the phone and call someone (aka I had “phone anxiety”). I distinctly remember being told to call a restaurant and order the family some pizza, and the ensuing anxiety and fear that I had to go through to make that call.

Fast forward several more years. I have now cold-emailed and cold-called countless of places, from malls and restaurants to professionals and companies I have found online.

I learned to deal with my fear from my part-time job at the school newspaper, where I had to call clients and ask them to pay their invoices.

I learned how to pitch and sell ideas to many different kinds of people through my role as Sponsorships Director for large-scale events hosted by Bruin Entrepreneurs – first through emails, and then through follow-up calls. Each time, I had to put on my most confident voice and channel my passion for the club, hoping that it would be the factor that swayed the cold contacts to want to sponsor our events.

I also learned how to dig for information through real-life sources for my multiple consulting projects at 180 Degrees Consulting and class projects, which all required a lot of market research. Stalking relevant people on LinkedIn, shooting them short emails and messages, and then boldly asking them for informational interviews about the topic that I needed to learn about somehow became second nature.

I’ve probably “hopped on a call” more than 50 times with complete strangers. If I had told my younger self (who had rehearsed what I wanted to say before actually calling the pizza guy) that I would be calling 50 strangers in a few years, I probably would not have believed it. But I did, and I didn’t even realize it.

2. How to believe in the “ask, and you shall receive” mentality

When I first got to UCLA, I was baffled by the concept of “networking calls”. This is when a student reaches out to a professional and asks for a 10-15-minute call to “learn about their role and their company”. Essentially, it’s a way for students to gain warm contacts within a firm, which will boost their chances of getting interviews.

My first reaction was to ask - why would a random stranger want to waste their time talking to a random student? What could they possibly get out of it?

When I had to start doing it for my own job search, I was surprised by how willing people generally are to help out students. I found many people willing to take hours of their time helping me with my various research, sharing what they know from their years of experiences. Even though I was just a random student who found their email address.

I attended a career workshop back when I was a freshman, where someone had said: “People want to give back and help others, because they got to where they are with some help as well.”

I didn’t believe this until I had seen it myself – and until I got to the other side of the table. This year, I found underclassmen reaching out to me to ask for advice on how to navigate the consulting scene on campus, and how to "break into consulting".

I have never said no to anyone and always offer the limited knowledge I have, because I remember when I was an overwhelmed freshman, I met a really nice sophomore who offered to sit down with me and give me guidance, literally with no other agenda besides to help out. And I was really thankful for it. So, I decided to pay it forward.

I learned that people do want to help. So ask away, and most of the time you’ll receive. If not, there’s not much to lose anyway.

3. How to work smart and hard

I’ve prided myself as a hard worker all my life. I attribute all of my accomplishments to the fact that I put in the extra hours to get where I want to be. In my eyes, I have to “catch up” with many people around me (especially at UCLA where everyone seemed to be super smart) and the only way to do that was by investing the extra hours.

This also means I try to be extremely comprehensive when I study or carry out a task. I think this might be an inherent trait because I remember trying to read aloud the “Introduction” part of my textbooks when I was in elementary school to study for the end of year exams. When my mom found out, she yelled at me because it was stupid.

I guess sometimes it is stupid, since I soon found my “hard work” and my “comprehensive” work methods didn’t always give me the best results. College is way too fast-paced, especially with UCLA’s quarter system. I tried to do all my assigned readings, but it’s impossible to properly read 50 pages a day while also having a full schedule of meetings and classes from 9AM to 8PM, as well as finish homework that needs to be turned in, all at the same time.

Then I realized that people don’t read all the readings – they skim it, because it is almost impossible to read everything word by word. In college, I no longer have the luxury to write a comprehensive summary of the whole class – If I have three days to master the content AND to answer math questions on the subject, the smarter way of working is to dive into the questions and learn on the go. I was also told that if I didn’t have time to read the assigned 70-page chapter, I could read a few sections in-depth so that I could bring something to the discussion the next day.

So yeah – I eventually succumbed to the mindset of “working smart”. But… I do want to add my own caveat here. I’m also still a big believer of working hard. I believe in still doing the readings when you can, even if it doesn’t do anything for your final grade. I believe that we’ll eventually get to a certain level where everyone is doing things in a smart and efficient way – and what better leg up can we get by also investing the extra hours of hard work on top of the ‘just enough’ work?

I ended up taking more from my degree and my college experience than I ever expected - I even earned a scholarship from the Economics Department based on merit in my senior year. And that wasn't because I was working smart all the way - I also worked hard.

4. That people grow at different paces, and it’s okay

This is mostly something I learned about myself. I wondered for a long time, and felt inferior because of it, why it takes a long time for me to feel comfortable with my new environment. Why growing confidence takes longer for me than some others.

For a lot of things, fear of failure hindered me from doing what I wanted to do. As a freshman, I didn’t feel like I was ready to join in case competitions with complex, terrifying prompts, so I didn’t. I didn’t think I was ready to run for executive positions in my clubs as a sophomore, so I didn’t. I didn’t think I was ready to lead anyone, so I didn’t run as a President for any of my organizations until my senior year, while some sophomores and juniors had the courage to start new clubs, start companies, and do other amazing things.

Meanwhile, I marveled at the people I met. I saw someone who entered the entrepreneurship scene on campus without knowing anything about startups step up to be the president of the biggest entrepreneurship club only a year later, then go on to launching her own startup shortly after.

In my first year, I was in awe of people who did multiple internships during their first year, all while I was still struggling with classes and trying to join school clubs.

 I met people who decided that they would graduate one year early, and in their second year grew to do all the things a junior student would do such as being student leaders, recruiting for internships, and more. These people grew so well into their new identities that after a while, I even forgot that they used to be my underclassmen when I spoke to them.

I’m not really saying that there’s a huge gap between sophomores and juniors in college. It’s just when I thought about my journey, who I was as a junior was completely different compared to who I was as a sophomore. I needed the extra year to gain experience, and most importantly, the confidence to be able to step up into more demanding roles and put an end to the impostor syndrome I experienced on a regular basis.

So, I worried if I would never really feel “ready” to do the things I wanted to do.

But suddenly, this year I felt like I was ready to do everything I had hesitated to do. I felt ready to run a club as a President. I felt ready to be seen as a mentor rather than the other way around. I felt ready to now give workshops rather than be a participant. 

This taught me that it’s fine to have taken the extra years to just sit back and absorb and learn. To nurture the confidence as I go through the motions, until it’s sufficient. People just grow at different paces. Some people can dive headfirst into a role that they’ve never done before in a completely new field, and trust in their abilities that they will grow into it. I learned from them that that was possible. But I also made peace with myself – finally – and learned not to rush things. 

If I’m not ready now, as long as I still take steps to learn every day, I’ll feel (more) ready eventually.

5. And a bunch of different things

This is kind of cheating – I know. I said I learned 5 lessons, but this last lesson is going to be a random list of learnings. My dad once said to me: “When you feel like you’ve learned a lot, but you don’t really know what you’ve learned, that’s fine. Your head is like a bowl that can hold knowledge. When this happens, this just means the bowl just got bigger.”

Well, I feel like UCLA had transformed a small teacup of a head into a fish tank. This list is my attempt at naming what that fish tank may hold.

I learned about human-centered design, and UX – which fascinates me because I no longer feel whiny when I complain about things having bad design. I learned tons about business, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and the startup world. I learned about consulting, and what it entails, and how it can fit into my next career trajectory. I learned how to make effective PowerPoint slides since I must have designed over 50 PowerPoints in the past four years (not exaggerating). I must have learned something about economics, given that it was my major, although I wish UCLA had done a better job in teaching it in a more engaging way.

I learned how to manage my time, and how to juggle three to four classes, three student organizations, a part-time job, and sometimes even an internship on top of that. I guess I also learned that you will make do with the time you have, if you really tried. I mean, in freshman year I was doing nothing but my three classes and I still felt like I didn’t have enough time to study. As I am writing this, I am only taking two classes and I’m under lockdown but I still feel like I don’t have enough time during the day. Yet, at one point in sophomore year I juggled many, many more things than this… and I somehow managed (although my sleep schedule suffered a bit, I must say).

I learned what leadership means – from the constant anxiety that you can feel from it, the different styles that it can take shape as, to making tough and painful measures and choices as a leader.

I learned what it means to work with others, and realized that there are two kinds of problems in attempting teamwork: (1) when no one else in a team is doing stuff except for you, so you have to carry everyone else, and (2) when everyone in the team is driven and feels strongly about their ideas, so you end up clashing with others.

I also finally realized that some people just talk a lot and sound very impressive, but their work might not actually be as impressive as they come across. So, no need to be intimidated all the time.

And… that’s it. I know this is very long – but what can I say? It was four years of a roller coaster ride. If you made it to the end, congratulations for reading almost 2,500 words (but also wow, I’m glad it was interesting enough to read all the way through. I literally wrote a paper).

Final words.

Thanks for everything, UCLA. I’m sad that I can’t experience my last quarter in its entirety due to COVID-19, but hopefully I’ll be able to buy coffee from Kerckhoff one last time – as I did almost daily for the last four years of my life.