When Kyler Halat-Shafer (Kogod ’17) began at Kogod, he dreamed of leading a company. Hailing from northern New Jersey, Halat-Shafer's path was far from conventional. He pursued information technology systems with a minor in mathematics. Since graduating, his journey has been thrilling, filled with travel and valuable experiences working for companies like IBM and McKinsey. While at Kogod, he interned at the Department of Energy, Deloitte, and JP Morgan, laying a solid foundation for his future.
When asked what advice he would impart to Kogod students, he recommends doing what he did: zeroing in on your broad goal and then building a roadmap backward from there. Each time he discovers a new interest area, he defines his broad goal. Then, he figures out the necessary steps to success, holding himself accountable for reaching specific benchmarks in 6 to 12-month periods. Halat-Shafer says what worked best for him after defining his broad goal was asking himself, “In six months to a year out, what do I want to accomplish?” Using this as a guiding question helped him fill in the steps along his roadmap to achieve his goals.
Since graduating, Halat-Shafer’s reverse roadmapping approach has led him to success in various pursuits in finance, tech, and even filmmaking. In 2019, he founded a production company called Anamorphosis Productions, where he produced an award-winning film series on mental health. Last summer, he worked for McKinsey at the intersection of Leap (their business-building practice) and QuantumBlack (their AI arm).
One of the key factors in Halat-Shafer's success was the mentorship he received from his professors. He strongly advises current students to use office hours and other opportunities to meet with their professors. These interactions, both within and outside of Kogod, were a cornerstone of his education, providing him with examples to emulate. The advice he received from the “wonderful minds inside of Kogod” ranged from recommended readings and podcasts to personal anecdotes from his professor’s own lives.