Kaylan Young

University of California Los Angeles’ Anderson School of Management

“Former engineer, free-spirited Houstonian passionate about mentorship and making the tech industry more accessible and inclusive for minorities.”

Hometown: Katy, TX

Fun Fact About Yourself: I watch dogs on Rover as my side-hustle. My favorite so far was a Golden Retriever named Tucker.

Undergraduate School and Major: Howard University, Chemical Engineering

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: AkzoNobel, Process Analytics Engineer

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Helping lead the implementation of a new digital control system across all of our North American chemical sites.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Humble and brilliant. The people that I have met in the program have far exceeded my expectations; they are some of the smartest and most accomplished people that I have met but they are also the most approachable and kind. The number of things that they have managed to accomplish (starting businesses, reaching the highest levels at companies) is extremely impressive but you would never know it because they have so much humility. I am so happy with the friends that I have made here thus far.

UCLA Anderson is founded on three pillars: Share Success, Think Fearlessly, and Drive Change. Which pillar resonates most with you and why?  Anderson students live and breathe the ‘Share Success’ pillar; it is a huge part of our culture and one of the reasons that our school thrives so much. Anderson is very student-driven and student-run, meaning that we take on a lot of the initiative to get things done on campus. As such, we become very busy very fast. A huge part of sharing success is taking on the burden of our fellow classmates when life gets to be too hectic, whether that be helping each other prep for interviews and sharing our past experiences with a company, or helping a classmate study for an exam where they don’t feel ready. Everybody is always ready and willing to help each other out in any way possible.

Aside from your classmates, 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? I chose Anderson for its amazing LA location and strong placement within the tech industry. The Parker Career Center is amazing at helping us prepare for and land jobs and internships. I was able to secure my internship before even beginning school thanks to the prep work that they laid out for us as part of our Consortium Orientation Program.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I am really looking forward to joining the Technology club (AnderTech), the outdoor adventure club, and the wine club!

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? If my plan A failed, what would be my plan B and how would I go about achieving it?

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? A desire to learn and grow more both academically and personally. I wanted to transition out of doing such a technical role and be able to contribute more to the strategic direction of a company. I also wanted to get out of the oil & gas industry as I was becoming more interested in tech.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Three Consortium schools (UCLA, Stern, Haas) Columbia, Wharton, HBS

How did you determine your fit at various schools? A ton of campus visits, meetings with admissions officers, and talking to past and current students at the actual schools. After every interaction, I internally asked whether I could truly see myself making the investment and thriving here for the next two years.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? After graduating undergrad, the company that I was to start working at told me two weeks before my start date that I would actually be doing my first assignment in York, Pennsylvania as opposed to Houston as planned. I knew absolutely nobody in the state of PA and the assignment (a construction project building a large power plant) was completely different than anything I had ever done or learned in school as a chemical engineer. It was also in the middle of nowhere! I was pushed entirely out of my comfort zone, and those 8 months that I spent out there were tough. We worked 7-day shifts (12 + hours a day) in extreme heat and I even had to sit in on a 19-hour concrete pour. But I learned a lot about myself through this experience and realized how resilient I really was.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? Director or SVP of global operations at a large technology company.