Meet The MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2017

Erik Mirandette

MIT Sloan School of Management 

Hometown: Grand Rapids, Michigan

Undergraduate School and Major: Air Force Academy, Political Science

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

• S. Air Force – Captain / Special Agent, Air Force Office of Special Investigations (2008-2014)
• Start Garden (Venture Capital) –
  • Investments Analyst – January-June, 2015
  • Venture Partner – July – present

Recalling your own experience, what advice do you have for applicants who are preparing for either the GMAT or the GRE?  Know what you need to be competitive for your target programs. Study hard, get your score, and then move on.

Based on your own selection process, what advice do you have for applicants who are trying to draw up a list of target schools to which to apply?  Don’t let yourself get stuck on the rankings.  Figure out what advantages there are to each respective program and then rack-and-stack your preferences to reflect your personal goals.

What advice do you have for applicants in actually applying to a school, writing essays, doing admission interviews, and getting recommenders to write letters on your behalf? No one knows what they will do post-graduation. Since applying, I’ve already shifted my focus and classes haven’t even begun yet! Before applying, explore every career possibility. Then draft a vision of your future that inspires you. That passion will come through in the essays and interviews.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? MIT has a rich history of pushing the frontier of what is possible in the sciences and technology. I wanted to be in a place where new technology was being created.

What would you ultimately like to achieve before you graduate? Walter Isaacson once commented that, “innovation can be sparked by engineering talent, but it must be combined with business skills to set the world afire.” I want to dig into the start-up community at MIT and help commercialize new solutions to long-standing problems.