Kaavya Ramesh (IR, CCP, Chinese ’14) has spent her career at roles at the American Enterprise Institute, The ONE Campaign, DreamWorks (under NBCUniversal), and now as an Associate Manager, Global Brand and Marketing – Dolls at Mattel.
You’ve built an impressive array of experience throughout your career! Did you always imagine taking a path like the one you have, or have you found yourself in spaces you didn’t expect to?
It’s funny because, on the one hand, when I was at JMC, I would never have expected to be where I am now. When I was in college, I fully imagined and expected that I’d be in public policy for the rest of my life! Yet, on the other hand, if you could go back to a younger me, perhaps before high school, and tell that younger me what I do now, I don’t think I’d have been all that surprised.
So it took me some time to find my way through my career back to a place that’s more consistent with who I am and what I enjoy doing. Deep down, I really value imagination, creativity, storytelling, and play, which made my segue into children’s animation and children’s entertainment very logical for me. Even when I was looking into the entertainment industry, I knew children’s and family entertainment was the space I felt most drawn to, which led me to DreamWorks (under NBCUniversal) and then Mattel!
We’d love to hear about the interesting ways your Madison degree is useful in your current role (or how it helped you get where you are today).
I landed my first internship during college through the JMC Demmer Scholars program. I interned during that program at a think tank in Washington, D.C. the summer before my senior year, and that organization made me a return offer to work for them full-time after graduation. So that was how I got my start after college. From there, one job led to another, and every subsequent job led me closer and closer to learning more about what I enjoy doing.
I will also say, on a more personal level, that Ron Dorr’s first-year writing class and Dean Garnett’s Soviet Literature class have fundamentally shaped my character today in ways I’d never have imagined, but which I’m deeply grateful for.
What drove your decision to pursue your MBA in Entertainment?
I mentioned earlier the value I place on storytelling and imagination. That has been lifelong for me, but I just never imagined it would actually be feasible, so I put the whole idea on the backburner and moved on with what I considered more realistic career aspirations.
But then, when I moved to The ONE Campaign, I suddenly found myself working very closely with the entertainment world. I was still in public policy, but I’d gone from think tanks to beginning to work with talent agencies, Hollywood studios, and content creators, which re-ignited my desire to work in the storytelling space.
So I had already planned to get an MBA to advance my marketing career, but I pivoted my business school plans to only apply to schools with strong entertainment programs and connections. That made UCLA Anderson, as the #1 entertainment MBA program in the country, a no-brainer for me!
You’ve successfully made some interesting professional pivots—especially for someone with a public affairs degree! What advice might you offer to a fellow JMC graduate thinking about shifting gears in their own career? Any “best practices” or tips you’ve picked up along the way?
The best thing I can say here is a piece of advice from my own mentor from NBCUniversal, actually: “Careers are long.” Some people know exactly what they want they want to do from the get-go, and that’s great! But for many other people, it’s all a long process of figuring things out and having different experiences that they learn from. I’m seven years out of school, and even I’m still figuring out where the arc of my career will ultimately go! I think it’s good to stay flexible, stay open-minded, and stay curious. You never know where the next move might take you.