Meet Foster’s MBA Class of 2018

Troy Strandquist

Foster School of Business, University of Washington

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Self-starter with an appetite for innovation and a proven ability to execute in high-stress environments.

Hometown: Washington, D.C.

Fun Fact About Yourself: I once played a doubles tennis match on the President’s courts at Camp David.

Undergraduate School and Major: Virginia Commonwealth University, Political Science

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

Jones Day, Project Assistant – Antitrust/Competition, 2011-2014

U.S. Department of the Treasury, Special Assistant – Office of the Chief of Staff, 2014-2016 

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: While at the Treasury, I led the preparation of Secretary Lew’s briefing materials ahead of his trip to Beijing and Shanghai for the 2016 G20 Meetings. Having worked to obtained buy-in from multiple offices within the Treasury, I was able to successfully overhaul the preparation process from start to finish, improving the efficiency at which briefing materials were drafted and reviewed, and creating flexibility for our ultimate deadline. This flexibility proved critical in helping my team react when a stop in Hong Kong was added to the Secretary’s travel itinerary.

Given my work on the preparation, I was tapped to travel in advance of the Secretary and staff him once on the ground in Hong Kong, serving as the mission’s lead coordinator. Both the preparation and trip went off without a hitch, and we ultimately adopted the process improvements for the Secretary’s future travel.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants?  It may seem trite, but I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to talk to as many current students, alumni, or admissions staff as possible when considering a program.  Not only will these conversations pay huge dividends for you when you begin to write your essays and partake in interviews, but also they will reveal what the school’s culture is really like.  So much of what the MBA experience is about is growing or building a professional network, and this is a great opportunity to begin this task and see if you could see yourself as a member of the community.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? Like most prospective MBAs, I started with a shot-list of programs I was considering, which I ultimately narrowed down to three top schools.  When I think about my final decision, I feel Foster really separated itself from the pack based on two key factors: 1) the program’s location and network, and 2) the interest the admissions staff placed in me as an individual applicant.

Given my professional interest in the tech industry, Foster’s location in the heart of Seattle’s burgeoning tech scene was a huge draw.  While visiting Seattle for the program’s admitted student’s weekend, I was able to speak with students and staff who were able to expand upon Foster’s connections in my specific area of interest.  Knowing the school had recently placed students in positions that I was specifically interested in was a big draw. Depending on the program, you could be spending as little as two years or as long as entire career in the city or region where your program resides, so it’s important to make sure you consider your long-term goals before deciding on a program.

On the second point, I feel that applicants typically focus too much on a school’s rank, and fail to consider how invested the school may actually be in them as an applicant.  You’re investing in a school as much as they are into you, so the personal attention the Foster admissions staff paid to my professional interests was a big selling point for me. At a certain point, it becomes really difficult to separate top programs, so the people really played a huge role in my decision-making process. 

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? My dream job post-MBA would be in product management with a company producing virtual and mixed reality hardware, such as Microsoft or HTC. I have been fascinated by this technology since first reading about the Oculus Kickstarter in 2012, and I think the industry is about to expand dramatically. Thus, one of my big draws to Foster was the school’s connections and recruitment rates within Seattle’s high-tech community. I hope to use my time at Foster to expand my network and tap into this rapidly growing industry.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program? I would hope that my peers would think that I was someone who really embraced the MBA experience.  You only get one crack at this, and everyone says it goes by in the blink of an eye, so I don’t want to look back in two years and regret having not dove head first into everything the program offers, from leadership opportunities with clubs and associations, to social life and networking activities.