Meet Ohio State’s MBA Class of 2018

Barry Knight

 Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business

 Hometown: Ogden, UT

Education: Brigham Young University, Communications: Public Relations

 Employment:

Hager Sharp Inc., Washington D.C.

Account Coordinator, Account Executive, Senior Account Executive

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: If you can get past the sarcasm, I’m a pretty nice guy.

 Fun fact about yourself: I speak more Japanese than English throughout the day, but I would say I’m no longer proficient in either language.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Working with an education client, I supervised a successful digital ad campaign focused on getting teachers to test drive a new certification exam. The team before me had run a similar campaign in the previous year with moderate success. Unfortunately, there was less budget and less time for the campaign I managed. From the previous campaign, I knew the ads that we had already developed were effective. Thus, I needed to find another way to improve performance for the campaign. I saw that there was a lot of room to improve the client’s web form; the data showed that the users who clicked on the ads were getting lost on the form and leaving it unfinished. Using that data, I made the recommendation to focus efforts on improving the form rather than trying to reinvent the already successful ads. The campaign exceeded goals by 20 percent and afterwards led to more business with this client.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? Be yourself in the interviews and in your essays. You don’t want to get accepted to a school on a false premise. If you can’t act yourself around the people in the program, it’s going to be a long two years. ‘Fake it ‘til you make it’ shouldn’t apply here (no pun intended).

Also, when working with a recruiter or admissions staff and you say you’re going to do something (i.e., follow up with an alumni contact), do it! This is business school, not Craigslist.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? The admissions staff that I worked with did a great job in listening and responding to my concerns and needs. They treated me like an individual and showed me the great things about the program via alumni and current students versus just telling me. I’m also looking forward to having a class that is smaller so I can really get to know each person. I think this will allow us to collaborate as classmates rather than compete.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? I hope to manage a brand that strives to help its consumers lead better lives. I see brand management as an opportunity to take ownership of something within a larger structure, and I want to that something to help people. I’m not sure whether I’ll do this at a company that’s helping tired parents (like myself) by getting them a diaper that doesn’t leak or at a company that’s focused on promoting medical innovations to help the sick. However, I want to make a difference in the life of the consumers I serve. I also hope that my job allows me to live a better life by (eventually) providing me the autonomy to, when needed, improve systems and processes as well as give me flexibility to spend time with my family.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program? Barry’s perspective and down-to-earth attitude is able to bring together people with different backgrounds and agendas and get them to accomplish a common goal. Because Barry develops methods that are functional and is always open to feedback, I have no doubt that, if asked to repeat a task or project, he would be able to improve upon it. I never worried about Barry failing to do something he said he would do. Because of these reasons, I would love to work with him again.