CU Denver’s Business School Provides a Path to the Future

Through Hard Work and a Little Help from CU Denver, Thai Alumna Rises to Success

Nov 3, 2015

Maytinee Phoohom
University of Colorado Denver Alumna
MBA, Business School

HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER?

Originally, I first heard about CU Denver when I did an Auditing class during my undergrad with a professor at Assumption University who is also an alumni of CU Denver Business School. He shared his valuable experience with the school and his life in Denver which inspired me to come here. After I decided to go back to school, I looked at options for an AACSB-accredited graduate business school and for a degree program that I could finish within a year. CU Denver stood out as one of my top choices.

WHAT PROGRAM DID YOU SELECT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER?

I did the 11-Month MBA program, which is a full-time intensive MBA program at the CU Denver Business School. This cohort program is quite unique because it consists of three 8-week classes for each semester plus a 2-week course abroad. The main reason that I was so interested in this program was that I initially had a goal to finish my Master degree as soon as I could in order to return to employment right after graduation.

WE LEARNED THAT YOU HAD AN OPTIONAL PRACTICAL TRAINING. TELL US ABOUT THE JOB.

My job title is Senior Analyst at CenturyLink, and I am working under the Pricing and Offer Management team. My tasks are to provide special pricing to enterprise customers and to draft contracts and amendments. Usually, the sales representatives can offer the services with standard pricing, however, in order to win the business, some cases require aggressive discounts. My team checks to see if the requested pricing is profitable enough to support the deal or not. After the pricing negotiation is finalized, my team provides agreements. So, apart from performing financial analysis, I also learn some paralegal skills in this job.

HOW DID YOU FIND THE OPT OPPORTUNITY?

I know CenturyLink because it is located in downtown Denver, only a couple of blocks away from our Business School. Before joining the company, I had an opportunity to participate on Shadow Day hosted by the Risk Management and Insurance (RMI) program. My finance professor arranged for me to meet with the Risk Management team of CenturyLink; was my first experience with CenturyLink. My student team did a presentation on employee recruitment to CenturyLink’s recruiting team and I also attended a Business School Career Fair and I was advised to do job searching on CenturyLink Careers website. To me, I believe that one of the reasons that I got a job offer was due to the fact that I joined the Shadow Day and I also mentioned that during my job interview.

HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR DEGREE FROM CU DENVER HELPED YOU ON THE JOB?

I had my first interview over the phone and then I got assigned to do a financial exercise and write a report about my decision for my round two of the interview. Thanks to the capital budgeting model I had from financial management class, it made it easier for me to come up with a decision. And thanks to the memo writing formats I acquired from my management of operations class, this helped me to organize my report. I made it through the final round of the interview and they tested my accounting knowledge as a part of the interview. Accounting class refreshed my memory about financial statements.

AFTER YOUR OPT TIME FINISHED CENTURY LINK OFFERED YOU A PERMENANT POSITION. HOW DID THAT FEEL?

Fortunately, I learned that my manager initially knew that I needed visa sponsorship before he decided to hire me so he had to get an approval from the top management to sponsor my visa. It worked out very well for me. I was extremely happy to find out about my H1B visa sponsorship and realized that CenturyLink has no discrimination against minorities. I felt so thankful to the company for giving me a chance to prove myself and that I can handle the assigned tasks. I am so glad to stay in Denver because it is an up-and-coming city, which has a lot of opportunities out there for people who work hard and deserve the chances.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHER INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS WHO ARE CONSIDERING STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER AND THE U.S.?

My advice for prospective international students is to take advantage of all the learning materials and support systems that are not available in your countries — try to get the most out of them. For instance, here at CU Denver, there are tons of workshops and events for students to attend which in turn, help students develop a set of skills that are absolutely useful because they provide hands-on preparation to the professional world. Also, keep in mind that you will never know how long you will stay in the US, therefore, enjoy your time here and explore the States as much as you can while keeping your academic responsibilities as your top priority.