Tory Voight

Harvard Business School

“Politico and Silicon Valley transplant motivated to level the playing field. Rocks climbing gear.”

Hometown: Windham Village, Vermont

Fun Fact About Yourself: I participate in the Mechanics Institute Chess Club, where I have met a wide range of wonderful people through their women’s group and tournaments. I always bring my compact chessboard with me when I travel to challenge people I meet to a game, whether I am rock climbing in Yosemite, rafting the Grand Canyon, or on a work trip. I love the constant problem solving, creativity, and a broad range of relationships chess fosters, which also happen to be some of the reasons I’m excited to enter HBS. If it matters, my favorite openings in the game are Ruy Lopez and Giuoco Piano!

Undergraduate School and Major: Wellesley College, Political Science

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Google Augmented and Virtual Reality Team, Engineering Program Manager

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I’m very thankful for all the experiences I’ve had thus far in my career; every peak and valley has been an education. If I could split it between my past life in politics and current life in tech, it would be the following:

In Politics, the honor of working in the 2008 Obama For America campaign HQ in Chicago. The Obama campaign was transcendent because it united diverse people and channeled their energies to change the world for the better; that experience solidified my desire to work on policies and products that expand opportunities and experiences. It is what ultimately led me to pursue my past job at Google.org and current in AR. It’s also what made the HBS mission statement appeal to me from the start.

In tech, it was being an early member of the Google Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR VR) team. It started with a serendipitous side project, “Google Cardboard”, and soon developed into a small team that dreamed up a series of new, immersive VR and AR products. Early on, I focused on launching Tilt Brush, a VR creativity app that allows you to walk around the world you “paint” with your controllers and a headset. Since last year, I’ve been focused on incorporating Augmented Reality into Google Search, which my team debuted on stage at Google IO in May (with an AR shark demo!). Now, anyone could query a featured object in Search, like a skull, and interact with a 3D model in AR from the Search result. I’m excited to see the potential of this for our users (for example, a student studying anatomy and wanting to get a closer look of a muscle on their desk or shopping for furniture online and wanting a better forecast of how the piece would look in their home).

This sense of exploration into the unknown, expanding our knowledge of still-nascent technology, and furthering its capability has been an enriching experience, but it can also be messy. There may not be structured team operations or launch standards, but you roll up your sleeves and build it through trial, error, and feedback. Just like with chess and rock climbing, you grow to love the process. To navigate ambiguity and build new answers with my peers resulted in the most rewarding experience of my time at Google.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? They exhibit a lot of curiosity. They are eager to learn more about themselves and the type of leader they can be by challenging their assumptions, filling in knowledge gaps, and being around people unlike them. They want to better understand the world we are living in and develop into individuals capable of driving change at scale. I’ve been inspired by so many of their stories and their outlook.

What makes the case method so attractive as a means to learn and become a better manager? From what I’ve witnessed, the cases enable a simulation of real-world business decisions, putting the student in the “driver’s seat”. It forces students to think like a manager; sometimes making time-constrained decisions with limited information. This is particularly useful for budding entrepreneurs.

Sections not only learn from those who write the cases themselves but often get to meet the executives featured in them, providing further context and feedback. Having benefited so much from seeking out and learning from the examples of others, this access alone was a large factor in my decision to apply. I’ve heard stories from alums who’ve looked back on lessons learned from cases to guide their decision making. Additionally, participating in discussion with your peers in Section and in deliberating in study groups offer a connection that emulates a supportive work environment. My peers will challenge me in ways I can’t yet imagine and educate me on my knowledge gaps. In so doing, I believe the case method is instrumental in achieving the mission statement of the school.

Aside from your classmates and cases, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? A key factor was the sheer amount of programs that help students practice self-efficacy, translating their theories in the classroom into real-world practice. The Innovation Lab and the Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, for example, enable students to practice making better business decisions via projects they can collaborate on or new ventures they can run. Much like the case study method, these programs are founded and led by professors who have impacted these very fields, including Professor Michael Porter, who built principles of Social Entrepreneurship, and Professor Howard Stevenson, the driver of Entrepreneurship studies at HBS. Coming from the Valley, I was particularly excited about the opportunity to learn the principles of building a company in the Startup Bootcamp, New Venture Competition, and the President’s Innovation Challenge. I felt that Harvard was better positioned to help me fine-tune by being outside of the Valley and amongst a variety of experts and interests.

What was the most surprising thing you discovered about Harvard Business School during the application process? It’s easy to bucket schools into single expertise before you look closer at the curriculum and resources offered. HBS is neither a one-industry nor a one-note school. On top of the foundational education, you have a large variety of courses, programs, and student organizations that speak to every imaginable interest and career goal. This includes tech, VC, finance, fashion, consulting, nonprofits, and retail, and is reflected in the plethora of alumni roles, such as those of Katrina Lake ‘11 (Founder of Stitch Fix), Wombi Rose ‘15 and John Wise ‘15 (Founders of Love Pop), and Chase Carey (CEO of Formula One). As Dean Noria told the Class of 2020, “If you can find your true sense of calling, the way you uniquely want to make a difference in the world by the time you finish Harvard Business School, that will be a transformational career experience.” With the sheer amount of resources at your disposal, an HBS experience is what you want it to be.

On a personal note, another surprising aspect was meeting people who also faced self-doubt applying this round. Coming from a low-income background and having what I considered to be a non-traditional career for an HBS applicant, I wondered if I was qualified enough or would belong. Getting to see how authentic the HBS community was dispelled assumptions and gave me the confidence to move forward with the process. I remember entering the Spangler building and being greeted by students from all walks of life. I met members of the admissions staff at prospective student events. I saw how passionate they were about the school’s mission and how excited they were by the breath of each applicants’ unique experiences. If you have the opportunity, I would recommend sitting in on a class or signing up for a (remote or on-campus) prospective student event to better understand the HBS community. It reaffirmed for me that HBS is a place for everyone, that there isn’t one “ideal” candidate. Your own unique story, values, and goals matter. With that in mind, it made writing the application essay writing process even more rewarding.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school?

Club: Tech Club, Entrepreneurship Club, Women’s Student Association

Activity: Rowing Club (I hope to row at the Head of the Charles!), Outdoors Club, Chess Club at Harvard

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? Describing a time when I pointed out an issue and successfully made a case for leadership to change direction. That one was deeply personal and could have been a sensitive subject, but I loved how the interview process forced me to adopt the same approach to what I witnessed in my HBS class visits: succinctly identifying an issue, sharing your opinion and reasons, and proposing a solution. Being heads down in my process-driven job at Google, it was sometimes hard to look at the overall picture. The application process forced me to look into at least a few problems holistically and from multiple angles, revealing truth I hadn’t fully explored before.

Why Harvard? There are so many reasons! To be succinct, Harvard has the perfect balance of providing a foundational management education, fostering a large community of peers who will challenge, educate, and support you, and delivering a large volume of electives, clubs, and programs to your disposal. I was eager to surround myself with a diversity of industries and experiences unlike my own to ensure I don’t pursue my interests in a vacuum. This meant that I did not want to stay in the Silicon Valley area nor want a small or specialized school. Boston is also a very special place to study since you’re surrounded by 35 colleges. At Harvard alone, you have access to a variety of clubs, talks, and programs to further support your experience.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I felt like I learned as much I could on the job and there were many knowledge gaps I wanted to fill to become a better business leader. I also wanted the space to challenge my assumptions and fine-tune my career objectives to match my values. In the Valley, I witnessed a lot of budding companies and experimental teams in large companies and I wanted to better understand how to avoid common pitfalls and become an informed leader. This is especially important as I have an interest in working on health tech products that can negatively affect people if not managed correctly. The “build and break fast” method of approaching and conducting product feedback close to the office didn’t seem to make sense when applied to other use cases. As much as I loved my current role, I felt like I had learned and contributed as much as I could in my current set of skills and life experience. Having two years to obtain needed skills and experiences will truly be a gift.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? GSB. HBS was always my first choice and I put my heart into the application. Applying was a transformative experience in itself that I will look back on.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? I had known that I wanted to attend HBS for years. However, the initial factors that I determined fit for were: (1) understanding how the curriculum could fill in my knowledge gaps; (2) evaluating the diversity and size of the student body; (3) reviewing the variety of industries that were represented in the alumni roster; (4) researching on-campus clubs and programs that provided hands-on learning to complement the theory learned in the classroom; and (5) examining the variety of and access to faculty and staff. Again and again, HBS remained at the top of my list.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? Cleaning houses and doing other odd jobs from a young age with my mom while I was growing up and didn’t always have a stable home. These experiences have always been the grounding factor and compass in my career. Simply doing an undergraduate degree was an unknown path in my family and it wasn’t an easy one financially. I worked two jobs while studying full time.

The experience of rising above the circumstances I was born into was often confusing and isolating. In college and in my professional life, I harbored a sense of guilt and a feeling that I was bridging two worlds – a past life that taught me so much and a current world of opportunity. What pushed me to further my education was the desire to be a leader and be more capable of representing the needs of a diverse set of consumers and rethink how we prioritize and develop products. It taught me that I am most happy leading products that leave a lasting impact on the quality of life or that help us reimagine what’s possible. The luck I have had motivates me to see what user issues desperately need problem-solving and how I can help drive change in fields like health tech and education.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? One common insight I received from students was that HBS teaches you things about yourself you previously would not have imagined and therefore challenges your assumed career trajectory. I’ve heard stories of graduates pursuing fields they did not even acknowledge in their application essays. I am therefore keeping an open mind. Currently, it is leading a company with products capable of driving useful, delightful, and impactful solutions to everyday issues. In particular, I am intrigued to see what products can be adjusted or built from scratch to better help those in low-income backgrounds.

When I was at Google.org, I had the opportunity to visit Khan Academy (founded by Sal Khan, HBS ‘03) after our team supported it, which has provided quality, free education to the masses. His work helped highlight that education comes from a variety of paths beyond the traditional, including apprenticeships. Whatever it is, I aspire to be a wiser, courageous, and creative leader that is making a difference to real problems affecting a wide range of people in our world, like Sal. There is a lot to solve and I want to lend a hand.