Simon Isaac’s mantra is “Be comfortable with the uncomfortable.” When he decided to earn an MBA at the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management (AGSM), he intentionally lived that refrain. “It was something I didn’t think I could do at first, but I gave it a shot,” he says.

Having earned a bachelor of science degree in applied mathematics with a concentration in economics in 2019 within the UC Riverside Mathematics Department, Isaac was looking at career paths. “I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do,” he says. “But, I did know I wanted to work within an industry utilizing business analytics, supply chain, and/or finance. And with the pandemic, I could see that supply chain was a current issue that I was interested in.”

After multiple conversations with his father, Isaac decided to pursue an MBA at UCR. However, Isaac also wanted to approach earning his master’s differently than he had approached earning a bachelor’s degree.

“During my undergrad years, I didn’t see much use in joining many clubs, trying things, and being too involved,” says Isaac, who has lived in Riverside since he was 10 years old. “I just looked at it as ‘let me go to school, get my grades, and go home.’ I wasn’t really taking advantage of the full experience.”

His graduate education could not have been more different, and he earned an MBA with a dual emphasis in supply chain/operations and information systems in 2022. He fully embraced being “comfortable with the uncomfortable,” and was deeply immersed not only in coursework but also a wide range of student groups and activities.
 

Seizing Opportunities In and Outside the Classroom

“The AGSM faculty was amazing,” he says, and then asks to “name check” a couple of professors who were integral to his success: “Professor Rich Yueh’s course in programming is still useful to me—I use that knowledge in my day-to-day now—and Lecturer Kan Wang in information systems helped really make my experience whole.”

While earning his MBA, Isaac interned as a business systems analyst with the Riverside County Assessor Clerk Recorder and booked a great deal of hands-on time working directly with the department’s full-time business systems analyst and project manager. “The aim was to create predictive regression models to help adjust proper tax rates for real estate properties in the Inland Empire,” says Isaac, who also conducted research during a 10-week program founded by Lecturer Wang that explored the use of blockchain technology within the county assessor’s office. “We looked at how best to shift away from paper documents and go completely digital while still keeping privacy and security the top priorities.”

As an AGSM student ambassador, Isaac was among the handpicked students who represent the graduate school on and off campus, reach out to prospective students, and smooth entry to grad school for new students. In 2022, he was also selected to represent the UCR School of Business and serve as a panelist at the Summer Institute for Emerging Managers and Leaders, a prestigious program hosted each year by one of the six University of California business schools that draws undergraduates enrolled in historically black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions and introduces them to the UC system as an option for graduate school.

He served as a member of the marketing committee in the AGSM Student Association, was a mentor to an undergraduate student, and he played on the AGSM’s intramural co-ed basketball team. “Being involved in so many ways while studying for my MBA helped me hone certain skills, such as public speaking, networking, and the soft skills that I hadn’t grasped in my undergrad technical STEM studies,” he says.

“At AGSM, I liked that you have a community that’s doing the same things you are, and they are doing it with you. You have other people to rely on. If you need help, they help you. If you can help them, you help them.

“This taught me that everything is a team effort, and you don’t have to do it all on your own. That’s something I now carry with me at work.”
 

Experiences Translate to Success in a Career

Since October 2022, Isaac has worked with Pacific Life in Newport Beach as a procurement business analyst II. One of the things he likes most about his job is that he is combining all his knowledge in data science, supply chain, finance, and analytics.

“Right now, most of my work is maintaining, updating, and creating my department’s Tableau data visualization dashboards. I look for more efficient ways to display data, data visualizations, and manage any data spreadsheets that contain confidential data or information used in various ways, such as leveraging negotiations and presentations to management,” he says.

“I’m currently figuring out a way to consolidate multiple databases under a central hub, which is a big project,” he says. “Outside of that, I do my own research to make these processes more efficient with automation utilizing various software tools.”

As he looks forward, Isaac is expanding his knowledge of analysis and data science, and down the line, he hopes to be a director or vice president of analytics. “Hopefully, that will be at Pacific Life,” he says.

But, right now, he’s really enjoying his work: “I learn so much stuff every day,” he says. “I think that’s something you must be comfortable with, and it’s something I started to get comfortable with in graduate school: Understanding that the more you can embrace the learning process, the quicker you can get to your goal and continue to grow. That’s probably the best thing I’ve learned.”