After three years in the consulting industry, Wenjia You decided she wanted to grow from being a strong operator into a broader leader. Drawn to the intersection of technology, media, and fandom, she saw business school as the natural next step, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was where she was going to develop the global perspective she needed. In this Real Humans: Alumni, You shares how her MBA experience prepared her for a new career in AI.
Wenjia You, Wharton MBA ’24, Technical Program Manager at OpenAI
Hometown: Nanjing, China
Undergraduate Institution and Major: Cornell University, Operations Research and Information Engineering
Graduate Business School, Graduation Year and Concentration: The Wharton School, 2024, Operations, Information and Decisions, Entrepreneurship & Innovation; The Lauder Institute, 2024, International Studies – Global Track
Pre-MBA Work Experience: Consultant, Deloitte Consulting, 3, Consulting; Product GTM, TikTok, 1, Tech
Post-MBA Work Experience: Senior Strategic Projects Lead, Scale AI, 1.5, AI; Technical Program Manager, OpenAI, 0.5, AI
Why did you choose to attend business school?
I chose to attend business school because I wanted to grow from being a strong operator into a broader leader. After about three years in consulting, business school felt like the natural next step. I was fortunate to get in, but I chose to defer for a year so I could work in tech first and get clearer on what I wanted long term.
That year at TikTok gave me a lot of clarity. It made me realize how drawn I was to the intersection of technology, media, and fandom, and how much I cared about understanding the economic and cultural value of fan communities. I had spent years in those communities myself, including running fan sites, and I wanted to turn that personal passion into something more strategic and scalable. Even though my career took a different turn after business school, I still care deeply about that mission and hope to return to it later on.
TikTok also showed me how important a global perspective is. Working on TikTok Live meant collaborating with operators and creators across many markets and reacting to global events in real time. It made me realize that to lead well, you need to understand not just business, but also the cultural and geopolitical context behind people’s decisions. I knew I did not want a traditional MBA experience but one that would help me think more globally. That is what drew me to the dual degree at Wharton and Lauder.
Why Wharton? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to attend?
For me, the biggest draw was Lauder. I knew I wanted a global MBA experience, and Lauder offered something I did not really find elsewhere: an international community, the chance to travel and learn with people from very different backgrounds, and room to explore topics that were a little niche but really mattered to me.
I had always been interested in the fan economy, especially K-pop and C-pop, and in how creator-fan relationships look different across countries. I wanted to be somewhere that would let me take that seriously as both an academic and business question. During the program, I got to work on a group thesis interviewing K-pop executives about how the industry had evolved and why it had taken off. I also wrote my own thesis comparing fan communities and looking at how collectivism v.s. individualism shapes fandom behavior in the East and West.
I also had a friend from college who went to Lauder and had a great experience, which made it feel much more real to me.
What about your MBA experience prepared you for your current career? How do you feel that your MBA has been an asset when it comes to navigating new challenges, such as AI?
This is a particularly interesting question for my class (Class of 2024) because we were probably one of the earliest adopters to use AI tools while in school. When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, I remember people first using it mostly out of curiosity. Very quickly, though, it became part of our daily lives. People used it to speed up readings, brainstorm essays, and work through assignments. I was personally a paid user of multiple AI tools because I found they were good at different things.
That experience gave me a very practical relationship with AI early on. I really believe you understand a technology best when you use it every day, and our class adopted it quickly because we were constantly looking for smarter ways to work more efficiently. I was also a teaching assistant for multiple classes, so I was involved in conversations with professors around how students should or should not use AI tools in academic settings. That gave me an early view not just into the products themselves, but also into the policy, behavioral, and ethical questions around them.
Academically, one of the most formative experiences was a Lauder course with Professor Regina Abrami called Foresight Strategy & Future Worlds in fall 2023. Our capstone focused on the future of GenAI, and we built scenario analyses around questions like whether AGI would be achievable and what kinds of regulatory or social constraints AI might face over the following seven years. At the time, it was a class project, but looking back now, it is honestly striking how many of the signals we identified actually pointed toward developments that later became real. We were discussing ideas like personal AI assistants and more device-based or embodied AI experiences, and rereading that final presentation now feels surreal.
What that class really taught me was how to scan for weak signals, think structurally about where technology is going, and form a view. Between the day-to-day social adoption of AI within my MBA program and the more analytical, research-driven side of it through Lauder, my MBA prepared me extremely well for my current role in the AI industry. It gave me both a place to actively engage with the technology and a framework for thinking about it seriously.
What was your internship during business school? How did that inform your post-MBA career choice?
During business school, I interned at Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a Senior Product Manager – Technical. It was a great experience because it exposed me to both Amazon’s working-backwards approach to product design and the realities of building large-scale data infrastructure. I learned a lot about managing complex databases and systems, and I also took advantage of as many internal learning opportunities as I could, including bootcamps on LLMs and broader GenAI topics.
That internship really helped crystallize my post-MBA direction. I had already been interested in tech, but being in that environment made me realize I wanted to be closer to the frontier of AI rather than follow a more traditional product path.
Why did you choose your current company? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to work?
My current role is actually my second job post-MBA, and my priorities had shifted by the time I made that decision.
For my first post-MBA role, location was very important to me. I wanted to be in New York, and that was a major factor in my decision at the time. When I later considered my current company, I was thinking more about long-term career trajectory, work-life balance, and the opportunity to work on something that felt both meaningful and exciting. The constant across both decisions, though, was that I wanted to work with smart people I could learn from.
The people ultimately played a major role in my decision. A former coworker invited me to join the team I am on now, and that trusted relationship carried a lot of weight. I also wanted to move closer to the research side of AI and be part of a moment of real technological change, surrounded by people doing thoughtful and ambitious work.
Advice to current MBA students:
–One thing you would absolutely do again as part of the job search?
Be good at your current job and be genuine with people. A lot of the best opportunities come from people who know your work and want to vouch for you.
–One thing you would change or do differently as part of the job search?
I would spend less time worrying about things I could not control. It is very easy to overthink every detail during recruiting, but most of that stress is not especially productive. I would also remind myself to stay open to unexpected pivots. Looking back, many of the choices that felt uncertain at the time ended up connecting in ways I could not have planned.
–Were there any surprises regarding your current employer’s recruiting process?
Recruiters can be incredibly helpful throughout the interview process. They were a great resource, and I learned it is absolutely worth asking questions. In my case, they were quite transparent about what I should prepare for and even offered useful guidance on my case presentation. Of course, it is important to approach those conversations with gratitude and respect.
–What piece of advice do you wish you had been given during your MBA?
Enjoy the process. Spend time with your friends, build genuine relationships, travel when you can, and do not stress too much about the future. A lot of things tend to work out in ways you cannot predict at the time.
