What positions did you have in SBC, and what was most rewarding about each of them?
The two most rewarding positions I had in SBC were INE Coordinator and Consulting MD. Being INE coordinator was really rewarding because it was one of my first experiences organizing such a large-scale event in college. There were many different pieces that had to come together in order to ensure the success of the event and balancing all of the pieces was definitely a very valuable learning experience for me. It was also quite motivating to know that the event was able to help out so many of my fellow MIT peers. As Consulting MD, one of the most rewarding things I did was to start the consulting initiative with Square Peg Capital. It was great to see so much involvement from the rest of the board, especially the younger members.
How did SBC enhance your MIT experience?
SBC enhanced my MIT experience by providing me one of my first circle of friends away from highschool as well as giving me exposure to various areas that my academic studies did not really provide. I'm still very close to my class even today and I felt that I've grown a lot just by being around all these wonderful people and learning from them. One of the key factors that led to my getting my job offer was case prepping with a fellow member of the class. Additionally, I feel that as a younger student I found a lot of influential role models and mentors from the club that offered me much useful advice.
What was your favorite SBC memory?
My favorite SBC memory has got to be my senior year spring retreat when we rented out a house on a private island and had a camp fire. I remember arriving pretty late and having to row over to the island in a very precarious tin boat that nearly sank halfway there. But then once we finally got on the island, it was good to just relax, take a couple of cold ones, and just listen to everyone's stories/ play some games.
What was your favorite class you took at MIT and why?
My favorite class at MIT has got to be a toss-up between 6.867 (Machine Learning) and 14.26. 6.867 was great because I felt that I was able to get a very fundamental understanding of the inner workings of most of the machine learning algorithms that I've had exposure to before. It was also one of the most rigorous classes I've ever taken and consequently one of the classes where I put in the most effort. 14.26 was also one of my favorite classes because it picked apart a lot of my pre-conceived beliefs about economics. The professor (Nobel Laureate Bengt Holmstrom) was also extremely entertaining day-in and day-out and truly cared about the students.
What was your favorite MIT memory?
My favorite MIT memory apart from CPW was taking part in the 2015 stand-up comedy class over IAP and getting a chance to perform stand-up comedy in front of my peers at Stata. Much of what I did over my 4 years at MIT has been highly technical and mentally draining at times, so it was really refreshing to take part in something that required me to use my brain in a different capacity and be creative. I enjoyed stand-up comedy so much that I still do it to this today and occasionally perform at local open-mics.
Where will you be working after graduation and what brought you there?
I will be working as a management consultant at BCG after graduation. I was actually initially exposed to the consulting industry during my freshman BEP in SBC. I was initially drawn to the industry because I felt that while MIT prepared me well technically, I was still lacking a great deal of other skills that were necessary to run and lead my own company. Consulting was the perfect opportunity to bridge this gap as there is no better way to learn how to run a company than to work closely with C-Suite leaders at existing successful companies to solve their most challenging problems. Currently, I am also planning on using my time at BCG to identify opportunities for big data/machine learning disruption in antiquated industries.
Tyson Chen
Former Managing Director of Consulting
Currently works at Boston Consulting Group