Setting clear intentions and valuing diversity guided Taylor Au’s journey to the Yale School of Management (SOM) for her MBA as well as to Microsoft for a new career. From consulting at Deloitte to product management at Microsoft, learn how Taylor developed and pursued her goals in this Real Humans: Alumni.
Taylor Au, Yale SOM MBA ’23, Product Management at Microsoft
Age: 29
Hometown: Bridgewater, NJ
Undergraduate Institution and Major: Rutgers University, Industrial Engineering
Pre-MBA Work Experience: Consultant, Deloitte Consulting, 4 years, Government and Public Services (GPS)
Post-MBA Work Experience: Product Management (PM), Microsoft, 2 years, Tech/Software Engineering
Why did you choose to attend business school?
Initially, my goal was to explore different career paths, expand my network, and pivot into a new role/industry. Upon reflection, I thought about how my MBA could change not just my career, but my life, too. I landed on 3 North Stars for my MBA: 1) Life-long friendships, 2) Dream big and take a step towards my ‘dream job,’ and 3) Build the tools and confidence to take risks and build the life that I desire.
Why Yale SOM? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to attend?
After talking to the students and visiting New Haven, I realized that Yale SOM was where my head and heart converged the most. I loved how many students came from non-traditional backgrounds and were inspired by Yale SOM’s mission “to educate leaders for business and society.”
I liked that I could take advantage of opportunities at other graduate schools and enjoyed taking classes at Yale Law School and Yale Divinity School.
Also, it was important that I went to a Consortium school and be part of a community that valued DEI. My peers were extremely sharp, mission-driven, humble, and silly.
Lastly, I asked myself, “Could I see myself living in New Haven for two years?” I visited in person and loved how New Haven had both a traditional campus, quiet neighborhoods with parks and small businesses, and a busier downtown with museums and restaurants — I could really envision myself living here for two years.
What about your MBA experience prepared you for your current career at Microsoft?
At SOM, fellow students and alumni were very helpful in preparing for interviews and a successful internship. I did utilize some of the school-sponsored case prep tools, too. I attended a lot of programming by Consortium and Forté Foundation, and I participated in early diversity recruiting, which helped me land my internship. Many of my classes provided good frameworks on how to think about problems and expanded my worldview. However, I don’t think my MBA was necessary to pivot into my current role. From what I observed, my relevant work experience was most crucial in getting a PM interview and doing well at my internship.
What was your internship during business school? How did that inform your post-MBA career choice?
I was a PM Intern on Outlook and worked on product extensibility, exploring how to contextually embed first party apps (like Teams, To-Do, Loop) and third-party apps into Outlook and Calendar. This was my first exposure to being a PM and I loved collaborating with Designers, Researchers, and Engineers to build user-centric products that impacted users worldwide.
Why did you choose your current company? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to work?
I wanted to work in a culture where managers supported the growth and development of its team, and my manager was amazing — She really embodied Microsoft’s manager values of ‘model, coach, care.’ Since joining full-time, I’ve found mentors, participated in skills training, and engaged in lots of 1:1 coaching.
I also love working with really smart, collaborative, and thoughtful people who are passionate about technology every day. Thanks to Microsoft’s investment in AI and Copilot, we are moving fast on lots of new ideas and each day is new, which is very exciting.
On a personal note, my manager was also supportive of me working remotely from NJ so I could be closer to family, which was very important to me.
Advice to current MBA students:
–One thing you would absolutely do again as part of the job search?
Identify my must-have requirements and use it to guide my job search. What are my values? What gives me energy? What kind of life do I want? Where do I want to live? Once I figured this out, it guided my job search and the roles that I wanted to pursue.
–One thing you would change or do differently as part of the job search?
Try more internships and side projects to test out different hypotheses of what I might like/dislike. For example, I enjoyed doing a weekend long VC case competition, and wish I participated in more explorative projects.
–Were there any surprises regarding your current employer’s recruiting process?
My interviews were largely behavioral! Each interviewer did ask me some product case questions, but they seemed to be more concerned about how I approached problems, worked with others, and getting to know me.
–What piece of advice do you wish you had been given during your MBA?
During my MBA, I quickly learned that people have diverse motivations for pursuing an MBA ranging from prestige to a new job to a career break to moving for love. If you aren’t careful, it can be easy to get swept up in other people’s goals. I’m really glad that I defined my MBA North Stars, and every time I made a decision, I asked myself if it aligned with my goals. This helped cut down on the FOMO, comparison traps, and other social/life pressures that exist at school.
