Christian Stuewe

University of Rochester, Simon Business School

“A top-down thinker and the definition of a “people person.”

Hometown: Penfield, NY

Fun Fact About Yourself: I was once gym partners with Anderson Cooper.

Undergraduate School and Major: School of Industrial & Labor Relations at Cornell University

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Account Executive at Yelp

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Being part of the founding cohort of my company’s diversity and inclusion committee afforded me the opportunity to share the room with entry-level to VP-level employees and learn about their unique experiences. The impact of the committee is my biggest and longest-lasting accomplishment of my career thus far.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Open-minded is the first quality that comes to mind, which all Simon students (and faculty/staff) share. Every student and staff member I’ve met with has expressed and demonstrated not only a tolerance of diverse ideas and backgrounds, but an active willingness to seek them out. Open-mindedness, both intellectual and social, serves as a guiding principle here at Simon.

Rochester Simon is known for being “unabashedly analytical.” Why does the program’s focus on quantitative analysis and decision-making appeal to you? How do you intend to leverage this approach as a student and professional? As the trend in business towards data-driven decision-making becomes even clearer, the role of analytics is becoming more central to every job. The ability to tether my soft skills to the quantitative rigor for which Simon is known is very appealing to me. Similarly, I plan on leveraging this analytical tool belt by applying it to every recommendation I make in my career.

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? The key factor that led to choosing Simon was how inclusive and personal the recruitment and selection process was. Within weeks of applying, I was in touch with influential second-years, illustrious alumni, and helpful staff at the school. This was made clearer during my in-person visit and subsequent interview at Simon Weekend. The personal touch made the decision that much easier to make because I already felt like part of the Simon community.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? PIECES is a student-led program focused on teaching a local 5th grade class about a given topic over the course of a semester. Being able to teach School 54 about growth mindset this Fall was certainly a highlight of my time at Simon thus far!

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? Discussing a time when I failed professionally, though a common behavioral question, is particularly challenging to address. Although any professional with meaningful time spent in the workforce is bound to have readily-available examples of failure, the challenge is choosing the “right” failure and examining how you learned and grew as a result of it.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? After years of experience in the workforce, I realized the big-picture, high-level decisions that were being made at my company were made by professionals with an MBA. My overarching professional goal has always been to make the largest impact; the best way to do that is with an MBA.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Mendoza (Notre Dame) and Johnson (Cornell)

How did you determine your fit at various schools? The biggest decision-making factors in establishing fit with a school were the following: 1. The role of collaboration vs. competition and 2. How diverse and inclusive the student body is. The best way to research that (outside of Poets&Quants, of course) is to have direct conversations with current students and recent alumni. Whether in-person or over the phone, a lot can be learned from the people who came before you in the process.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? My defining professional moment began with failure and ended with success. At the onset of my tech sales career, I was consistently ranked towards the bottom of the salesforce in metrics. Through constant feedback implementation and tenacity, I was a member of the top-five sales team within the organization for three months in a row. That experience defined me as a hard-working professional, but also as a person who would never let initial failure (or success) define my trajectory.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? In ten years, I see myself as a thought leader in the Human Capital space. I would like to be able to take the analytical skills I am learning at Simon and apply that quantitative lens to any company’s most important asset: its people.

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