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Connections and Career Pivots: A Q&A with Alice Zhou on the Marshall MBA Experience

Connections and Career Pivots: A Q&A with Alice Zhou on the Marshall MBA Experience

Supported by the MBA program and Trojan Network, Alice Zhou is making a career pivot into consulting at McKinsey.

by: Alexander Bernard
05.15.25
Alice Zhou in graduation gown and mortarboard

Alice Zhou, Class of 2025 MBA graduate and incoming consultant at McKinsey & Company.

[Photo by Antares Wong]

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    Hovig Tchalian
    • Assistant Professor of Clinical Entrepreneurship

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When Alice Zhou enrolled in the Full-Time MBA (FTMBA) program at USC Marshall School of Business, she expected the well-rounded business education to enhance her career as a product manager. She never expected to pursue consulting, much less earn a full-time position at McKinsey & Company, one of the largest and oldest firms in the country.

Zhou, who will graduate on May 17, credits USC Marshall and the Trojan Network for supporting her new new career goals and believes her accelerated professional pathway wouldn’t be possible without the school’s dedicated faculty, the MBA program’s culture of support and practical experience, and USC Marshall’s robust alumni connections,

Zhou spoke with Marshall News about the reasons she chose USC Marshall, her growth across the two-year program, and the classes and faculty that catalyzed her professional development.

Interviewer: Where did you complete your undergraduate studies, and how did that experience influence your decision to pursue an MBA at Marshall?

Alice Zhou: I studied chemical biology at Case Western Reserve University. After graduation, I did a hard pivot. I worked as a product manager at Pearson Education where I helped build educational software for K–12 and university students at Pearson. I picked up a lot of skills on the job. I tried out a lot of different hats from marketing to UI design to web design, but frequently I was wondering if those experiences were enough.

What was I missing? What were my blind spots? I think business school offered me an opportunity to explore other careers and make a pivot if I wanted to, but it also allowed me to make sure I was intentionally filling in any gaps in my education and making sure that I had built a well-rounded and solid foundation. Marshall has given me the space, tools, and confidence to do exactly that.

Out of all the possible MBA programs, what led you to USC Marshall specifically?

AZ: I chose Marshall because of its robust alumni body. I know that the Trojan Network is a buzzword that’s thrown around a lot, but I can truly say that the Trojan Network is very real.

Before my MBA started, I was offered an early consulting interview … I hadn’t even stepped on campus yet. And on top of that, I had never heard of a case interview before. I was unprepared and incredibly nervous. I reached out to a few current students and alums asking for help, and within a week, three of them responded with encouragement and offers to personally coach me through the process.

I think that Trojans are incredibly invested in each other’s successes and it has really inspired me to give back just as generously since joining this program.

Now that you’ve been here for two years, have you gotten what you wanted to get out of the MBA program?

AZ: Absolutely, yes. I was able to join a lot of wonderful clubs that have both challenged me and educated me in a really diverse manner, that have prepared me for whatever career I want to take on after graduation. The classes that I’ve taken are incredibly interesting and I was very thoughtful about choosing ones that I thought would benefit me most in my next career. I can see myself using all of the skill sets that I’ve built here when I graduate.

Which specific clubs have stood out for you and been transformative?

AZ: I was very involved in Marshall’s Consulting and Strategy Club, MCSC. It was one of the first clubs I had heard about when I stepped onto campus, and they have such a robust mentorship program built in. Every single second-year [student] within that club is so deeply invested in making sure that the first-years are set up for success when it comes to recruiting and making sure that consulting is the right career for them. These mentors prepare them for interviews — making sure that they’re choosing the right clothes, making sure that they’re asking the right questions, and most importantly, making sure that this is a career that’s going to be right for them and fulfilling for them.

MCSC has also offered me the opportunity to participate in case competitions, which is a program where you are acting as a consulting partner, solving a real problem for a client. I was able to join these case competitions with some folks that have now become some of my best friends, being able to bond together over late night food and talking about what are the most creative and innovative ways that we can solve a business problem. It solidified my interest in consulting and made me think this is something that I can do long term.

As it became clear to you that consulting was the path you wanted to pursue, in what ways have you felt supported in your career choice during your two years at Marshall?

AZ: I don’t think I would be where I am now without [Marshall’s] support. That level of support was something I received from day zero — before I stepped onto campus.

After I had actually stepped onto campus, it was the second-year [students] and one of the faculty members who was the sponsor of the club. They put me in touch with all of the right resources, whether it be robust workshops to making sure that I was able to interview well to setting me up with opportunities to meeting the different firms that came to campus and finally to allowing me to meet alumni who helped coach me through the interview process.

I think that’s something that’s very unique to USC. Part of MCSC’s interview preparation is setting up time with actual current practitioners that are USC alums … They role play with you as if this is a real interview and put you in a setting where it’s very similar to actual interview day conditions.

Can you talk about some of the faculty or the classes that have really stood out for you during your time at USC?

AZ: Well, my favorite faculty member is Scott Abrams [professor of clinical finance and business economics]. He’s amazing. He taught the core corporate finance module for my year. I, and I think a lot of other students, decided to sign up for his more challenging electives because we just enjoyed his classes so much. He’s extremely approachable and is able to break down a lot of complicated concepts into something that is easy to understand and also very fun.

There’s also a really fun class called Founder’s Dilemma (BAEP 555), taught by Glenn Fox [assistant professor of clinical entrepreneurship] and Hovig Tchalian [assistant professor of clinical entrepreneurship]. It is a class that covers the lifecycle of a startup from when it’s founded to when the founders decide to exit, whether by IPO or by selling or shutting down the startup. Every single week we had a different case study that examined a different point in the startup’s lifecycle.

From beginning at USC Marshall two years ago to today, what is the biggest difference that you see in yourself as a professional?

AZ: I’m really surprised with how comfortable I am with uncomfortable things. One of the things that Marshall really challenges you with is putting you in situations where you have to present on a topic that you may not necessarily be super familiar with — having to talk to a huge group of total strangers, some of whom are in significant leadership roles or have a lot of power in your future career. I think that I’ve been challenged to push myself as much as I can. Prior to Marshall, I haven’t been put into opportunities where I was able to push myself and I think that business school really opened those doors for me.

What are you going to feel when you graduate and finish this two-year journey?

AZ: I think it’ll be very bittersweet … As I graduate in a couple weeks, I look at the other people in my class and I see friends in all of them. I was so afraid of not making enough friends. And I look back and it’s such a wonderfully positive experience and to have a positive memory with every single person in my class is not something that I think a lot of people can say. But with a small class size and with a tight-knit group of people at USC, I think that’s really possible.

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