“Growing up as a huge sports fan, working at Nike had always been a dream,” Erin Golden says. In this Real Humans: Alumni, learn how the Chicago Booth MBA–in particular their diverse community and experiential curriculum–supported Erin’s run to Nike headquarters in Oregon. She also provides a rich perspective on what MBA recruiting and a career in business strategy take.
Chicago Booth Alumni: Erin Golden, MBA ’24, North American Marketplace Strategy Lead at Nike
Age: 28
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Undergraduate Institution and Major: Davidson College (English Major, Economics Minor)
Graduate Business School, Graduation Year and Concentration: University of Chicago Booth School of Business, 2024, Accounting/Strategy/Entrepreneurship
Pre-MBA Work Experience: Analyst, Huron Consulting Group, 1.5 years, consulting; Business Operations, Bird Rides, <1 year, tech; Business Operations + Chief of Staff to Chief Product Officer, ActiveCampaign, 2 years, tech
Post-MBA Work Experience: Strategy, Nike, <1 year, Sports/Retail
Why did you choose to attend business school?
My career prior to business school trained me to be a jane-of-all-trades, parachuting into projects, quickly identifying problems, and steering strategies to course-correct inefficiencies. From healthcare consulting to strategy at two unicorn tech companies, I relied on my business instincts and tenacity to quickly learn enough to ask questions and then struggle my way through any business problem thrown at me.
This trajectory came to a screeching halt when the company I was working for started to go into buying mode, searching for software companies to acquire. For the first time in my career, a glaring skill set gap had thwarted my ability to be a contributor. Even more so, my nascent finance knowledge was preventing me from even asking questions.
This experience reinforced that business school was a “when” decision, not an “if” one. I decided to attend business school to develop a strong business acumen, mainly in finance and strategy, in order to pivot into a general management track within the retail industry. I also decided that business school was the best next step to also explore entrepreneurship, a potential long-term goal, in a de-risked environment. Overall, the decision to attend business school really came down to gaining skills to accelerate my short-term career goals while building the network and resources to pursue entrepreneurship.
Why Chicago Booth? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to attend?
My decision to attend Booth was based on my own “3 C’s:” curriculum, community, and Chicago. The flexible Booth curriculum allowed me to take more electives than any other business school. I took advantage of this flexibility by taking all the accounting classes offered to fill my finance skill gap, while also pursuing an entrepreneurship concentration. A major reason I wanted to attend Booth was to participate in the New Venture Challenge to explore entrepreneurship in a de-risked environment.
The Booth community was also a huge draw because of the student body diversity. I appreciated that Booth accepted the most non-traditional MBA candidates because I felt like those students were the ones that were going to bring the most unique perspectives, which is a key factor in innovation. The large international population also made for an enriching experience as it broadened my exposure to cultures and allowed me to make friends from all over the world.
Lastly, Chicago had been where I called home for four years prior to Booth. At the time I applied, I had every intention of staying in Chicago and continuing to build my career in my favorite city with my fiancé. I love Chicago’s energy, start-up community, culture, and of course some of the best food in the world. Ironically, going to school where I had already called home led me to pursue a career on the other side of the country, but if I ever decide to move back, I know the Booth name and network will help me navigate a career back in the Second City.
What about your MBA experience prepared you for your current career?
Strategy at Nike requires taking disparate pieces of data and perspectives from every department, synthesizing the major takeaways, and storytelling their value for executives to make decisions. Booth’s multi-disciplinary pedagogical approach to an MBA curriculum undoubtedly helped build a foundation for me to become a strategist.
As I previously mentioned, a key driver in my decision to attend Booth was to supplement my strategy and operations background with finance and accounting skills. Taking courses like accounting for entrepreneurship, cost accounting, and financial statement analysis has helped me enter a new industry with a foundational knowledge about how inventory constraints and other economic drivers impact the P&L. In my role, on a daily basis I have to quickly learn to speak the language of finance, supply chain, merchandisers, and marketing and be the conduit between them as the common denominator in order to help my GM make decisions.
The case-based curriculum at Booth also has helped me learn to take disparate pieces of information both quantitative and qualitative to determine how to build business cases, create decision frameworks, and articulate recommendations in a persuasive and simple manner.
Lastly, participating in the New Venture Challenge with my own idea was not only the most rewarding experience during Booth, but challenged me to think about communicating complex ideas with simplicity and persuasion. Every week, our team had to refine our business pitch and meet with advisors to explain a constantly-iterating business idea. The practice of refining our pitch so that investors could quickly understand the concept has been forever drilled into my brain. Throughout the day, as I meet with various leaders, I consciously think about how to communicate projects, progress, and outcomes with simplicity. When I build presentations, I think of them as pitch decks, and continue to present with the same persuasion and entrepreneurial spirit I did when I was in front of investors for NVC.
What was your internship during business school? How did that inform your post-MBA career choice?
When I applied and decided to attend Booth, I had every intention of remaining in Chicago where I had started my career. When I accepted my internship with Nike, I had secretly decided it would just be a summer adventure with the intent to re-recruit in the fall in Chicago. By the second week in Portland and at Nike, I knew I had to return.
Both the work and the exposure to leadership solidified the decision that returning to Nike strategy was the ultimate post-MBA career choice. My internship project was to write the World Cup 2026 strategy and I quickly realized that the event would change the course for sports in this country. Throughout my internship, I also met with leaders whose passion for sports and the brand were infectious. They were also willing and committed to mentoring young talent. The combination of project opportunity, career trajectory, and mentorship availability made returning to Nike the obvious choice.
Why did you choose your current company? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to work?
My Dad passed away shortly before I applied to business school. His career advice to me had always been to find something I am deeply passionate about, work with great people, make a positive impact on the world, and have fun while doing it. This fully encapsulates my decision to work for Nike.
Growing up as a huge sports fan, working at Nike had always been a dream. It feels surreal to walk halls that have defined sports history. My job in strategy is to help write the future of sports and to make that future a more equitable one.
Strategists at Nike tackle complex business problems by working cross-functionally with leaders to figure out how to navigate a massive company through major headwinds. I loved how collaborative the team was and could see the value the strategy team brought to the enterprise. Many of Nike’s highest executives were trained through the strategy team, and seeing their career trajectories confirmed that the business and interpersonal skills I would develop there were unmatched to other offers.
I must admit, it was pretty cool to walk the same halls that Michael Jordan, Lebron James, and Caitlin Clark had too.
Advice to current MBA students:
—One thing you would absolutely do again as part of the job search?
Recruitment and interviewing can often feel like an unfair process with arbitrary rejections creating immense self doubt during an already stressful time. Without total control on an outcome, I invested in parts of the interview process that were controllable: networking, researching prior to an interview, and case preparation.
I set very clear goals for how many people I networked with every week which was not only helpful in referrals, but helped me better focus and articulate what type of role I wanted to pursue. I also spent a lot of time preparing for the case portion of the interview by setting up a lot of mocks with friends recruiting for similar roles. Sometimes case prep is underestimated for non-consulting recruitment and I wanted to make sure that I felt as confident with cases as I did for behaviorals. Since corporate strategy cases are typically based on a problem the company is currently or has historically dealt with, I leveraged research to incorporate into my case interviews. I read through previous earnings reports, investor day presentations, and caught up on current news related to the companies and industries. In the interviews, it was always left a strong impact to present a strong point-of-view based on a well-researched argument.
—One thing you would change or do differently as part of the job search?
MBA requires a constant time management trade-off. When I came into Booth, I had three different career paths I wanted to explore (strategy, brand management, and product management). Each required extensive networking, research, and job applications. In hindsight, I wish I had come into business school having done more deep self introspection to avoid some of the excess stress it caused during the recruitment process. Additionally, b school is an unrivaled opportunity for exposure and by distracting myself with an unfocused recruitment path, I didn’t discover other options
—Were there any surprises regarding your current employer’s recruiting process?
Nike strategy is all about storytelling. Showing that you can tell a compelling story starts with the cover letter. Considering Nike strategy typically has over 3,000 applicants, I was shocked that they actually read all the cover letters. Now on the other side of the table, I can confirm that they mean what they say that every single cover letter is read!
—What piece of advice do you wish you had been given during your MBA?
In my last class at Booth, I read Clayton Christensen’s essay titled, “How Will You Measure Your Life?” During that last class, my professor took us all through an exercise where we had to think about what success looks like for our lives both personally and professionally. For me, it was easy to articulate what I wanted professionally; to be fulfilled, to be challenged, and to provide for my family. Yet it was hard to do the same for what I wanted out of life personally beyond a great relationship with my family and friends. We were then asked who are the people in our lives that we tell good things and bad things to, and as a follow up asked if we have invested enough time in those relationships.
Business school is a whirlwind. It’s easy to get sucked into a bubble, disconnect from reality, and cut off the life line to the “before” world. My advice to incoming MBAs would be to remember your relationships. You will make new ones in school that will be easier to maintain, but know the people who keep you grounded and who can offer reprieve from the microcosmic world that is b-school. Remember, business school is all about building network and community, and investing in those relationships. Life is measured based on the impact you have on the community around you…and call your Mom!
