March 10, 2020 • By Xanat Hernandez
Eddie Pak, FEMBA ’20, spent his post-undergrad years moving up and down the California coast, pursuing a career at tech giants Google and Facebook—but that didn’t stop him from getting his MBA.
Pak and his three sisters are first-generation immigrants from South Korea, raised in D.C. by a single father. Pak’s dad had a flair for entrepreneurship—starting a small liquor store business and later expanding into managing shopping centers and making residential property investments.
“I was always very inspired by my dad and I knew I wanted to follow in his footsteps, I just didn’t know exactly how,” explained Pak.
Pak graduated from USC with a degree in business administration and joined TEKsystems in Los Angeles, a consulting and technical recruiting company.
“Recruiting was a great fit for me,” said Pak. ““It appealed to me immediately as a mix of networking, career development, helping others and people/client management.”
Pak soon landed a job at Google, one of the “big four” of technical recruiting. This meant relocating to the Bay Area—but Pak had his heart set on returning to Los Angeles.
FEMBA Bound
It was during this transitionary period of his career that Pak was accepted into the FEMBA program at The UCI Paul Merage School of Business.
“Two of my sisters have doctorate degrees—in education and psychology—and I knew it was important to my father that I pursue my master’s degree said Pak. “I wanted to make them all as proud of me as I am of them.”
Pak chose the Merage School, even though he was still living in the Bay Area.
“I was confident of UCI’s rising reputation as well as the Fully Employed MBA’s network and flexible class schedule,” explained Pak.
Four Saturdays per quarter, Pak flew to Orange County for class, but he completed over half of the program online.
He said: “As FEMBA students, we get the opportunity to determine when, where and how we complete our schoolwork, and the format is incredibly immersive.”
He also used Zoom and Facebook groups to get to know his class and foster a collaborative environment.
“We will always be flexible for extraordinary students like Eddie,” said Jon Masciana, executive director of the FEMBA program. “Eddie was able to use Skype to attend several classes—and our faculty was ready and willing to make accommodations for him and his specific circumstances.”
Back to LA
Pak was thriving in his role as a technical recruiter at Google but was open to opportunities that would lead him back to Los Angeles. He interviewed at Facebook, where he learned that a new Los Angeles office would soon house 50-100 technical recruiters.
When he landed the job, he moved back to Los Angeles and was able to attend more of his FEMBA classes in person, where he continued to benefit from the digitally driven curriculum of the Merage School.
“I learned a great deal about people management in the FEMBA program, which is very applicable in a big tech company like Facebook,” he said. “It allowed me to be ahead of the curve, especially in terms of how digital transformation is affecting our careers.”
“Automation and machine learning are a huge deal in the world of technical recruiting, and my education at the Merage school has allowed me to be two steps ahead.”
Looking to the future, Pak is interested in using his new skills to pursue a leadership role within Facebook and expanding Entràpreneur, a nonprofit clothing line for teenagers and young adults he founded with friends.
“Entràpreneur is a fun way to engage teens through fashion,” he said. “The mission of the organization is to raise awareness around entrepreneurship and inspire youth to pursue entrepreneurship as a viable career path. Eventually we want to hold speaking events, seminars and even classes centered around entrepreneurship.”
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Associate Director of Communications
jrotheku@uci.edu