Cynthia Maletz

MBA Class of 2015

Undergrad Carnegie Mellon University

How did Bentley help you get to where you are today in your career?

Apart from academics, Bentley’s Career Services team was integral to my post-degree success. They worked with our cohort throughout the year to make sure we were making the most of networking and interviewing opportunities along the way. Even though I landed in my current position through my own network, I learned so much about the interviewing, hiring, and the search process through the Career Services team that I’ll continue to use in the future.

What are the top three skills you gained in your program at Bentley?

• An understanding of financial realities. Although I innately understood money before the MBA, I now fully understand the repercussions of missing a margin, of weakening sales, or the value of a home run product.
• Business fluency. Before my MBA, I could talk confidently about product development, but now post-MBA, I can extend that conversation to multiple parts of the business.
• Understanding complexity. This isn’t a super tangible skill, per se, but I can now more easily consider a problem from multiple points of view, helping me come to a more thorough conclusion or solution.

“I learned to find comfort in complexity.”

What would you tell someone considering your program at Bentley?

With so many MBAs out there, I think it’s important to do some reflection to decide what you want to do post-MBA, as this will affect which type of program is right for you. Someone who is considering the Bentley MBA should be sure that they are willing to continually work through the collaborative nature of the program. At Bentley, you can’t be complacent and expect to learn a lot. You should be ready to do some digging on your own to get the most out of the experience.