Yes, Netflix, we’re still watching–probably in part thanks to Bria Mosley! In this Real Humans: Alumni, Bria, who works in Content Strategy at Netflix, recounts how pursuing an MBA at Columbia Business School led her to unexpected places, from NYC to LA and small business to large enterprise clients. Bria also highlights her Netflix internship during her MBA and shares advice as a member of the Columbia MBA alumni community.
Bria Mosley, CBS MBA ’24, Content Strategy at Netflix
Age: 28
Hometown: Bloomington, IL
Undergraduate Institution and Major: The Ohio State University (Business/Marketing)
Graduate Business School, Graduation Year and Concentration: Columbia Business School 2024 (Media and Tech)
Pre-MBA Work Experience: Salesforce – Solutions Engineer, 3 years, Software Tech Industry
Post-MBA Work Experience: Netflix, Content Strategy, ~1.5 Years, Media and Entertainment
Why did you choose to attend business school?
At Salesforce, my role was to understand a customer’s technical needs and to build demos visualizing how Salesforce’s software could meet those needs. When I started applying to business school, my goal was to stay on that same career path, but I believed an MBA would help me to go from working with small businesses to working with large enterprise clients. I was specifically interested in partnering with media and technology customers, but working with enterprise clients was 3-4 promotions away from the small business world. I hoped business school would fast-track that career path.
It wasn’t until I got to school and told a friend this plan that he asked me why I didn’t just go work with the media companies directly. It feels like a very obvious insight, but it was something I’d never thought about. After that, I shifted my focus from software tech to media and entertainment.
Why CBS? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to attend?
Knowing I was interested in working with media and entertainment companies, I targeted schools that had significant coursework and tracks in tech and media. Columbia’s media and tech tracks stuck out to me as unique across the other schools I’d applied to. Funny enough, I’d told myself for years New York was only cute to visit, not to live. When the stars aligned with Columbia, I decided there was no better time to give the city a chance! It was only a 2-year commitment, but if nothing else, I could say I tried it out.
What about your MBA experience prepared you for your current career?
Salesforce was my first and only role out of undergrad. If you’re familiar with the software, you can do pretty much everything within Salesforce. Salesforce will analyze data for you, create reports/charts for you, etc. So when I left for business school, I realized I knew a lot about Salesforce, but not a lot about actually analyzing data myself. I hadn’t even touched Excel since undergrad. I used my time in school to sharpen my analytical skills and learn the ins and outs of Excel.
I also wanted to learn everything I could know about the media and entertainment industry. I took as many classes as I could under the media and tech umbrellas to get a good understanding of how the industry works since it was a brand-new space for me.
What was your internship during business school? How did that inform your post-MBA career choice?
I interned at Netflix in Content Strategy on the Nonfiction team between my first and second year as a Columbia MBA student. My role was to analyze show performance and the trends within specific genres of content. I enjoyed my experience and decided to come back full-time.
Why did you choose your current company? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to work?
I enjoyed my internship at Netflix and that I got to work on content I loved. I’ve always been really into documentaries and reality TV so it was really cool to be assigned to that team and get to talk about docs and reality TV for work. I also knew I wanted to spend at least a few years in LA at some point, so when Netflix required me to relocate for the role it felt like a good opportunity to do that.
Advice to current MBA students:
–One thing you would absolutely do again as part of the job search?
Connecting with alumni! I found that CBS alumni network was really helpful and willing to talk. Reaching out to strangers on LinkedIn can be a hard task but knowing you’re reaching out to someone who at least you have Columbia Business School in common with makes it easier.
–One thing you would change or do differently as part of the job search?
Candidly, I fell victim to panicking after seeing my consulting and banking friends get their job offers. I knew Media and Tech recruiting was just in time recruiting and had a later timeline, but I felt really behind when January rolled around and I didn’t have an offer. As a result, I started applying for things I wasn’t even really interested in because I was afraid that I wouldn’t get anything. It was a huge waste of my time so I wish I would have trusted the process more.
–Looking back as Columbia alumni, what piece of advice do you wish you had been given during your MBA?
Connect with as many people as you can. It can be really easy to focus on connecting with people who look like you or who have similar backgrounds to you, but you really never know who you’re sitting next to in that accounting class! Some of the most random conversations with my classmates turned into being connected with people I admired in the industry. I wish I had put more effort toward making more connections across my class.
