One of the most unexpected ways I strengthened my perspective as an HR leader during my MBA was through working as a teaching assistant. While internships and coursework often receive the most attention as applied learning experiences, my TA role gave me a different kind of setting: the classroom. Through grading assignments, evaluating simulations, and providing developmental feedback, I found myself practicing many of the same skills that define effective human resources leadership.
When I first started as a teaching assistant, I expected the role to be much more administrative and straightforward. Instead, I quickly realized how much thought goes into evaluating student work in a way that is both fair and genuinely helpful. Whether I was grading simulation reports in MHR 420 or reviewing team reflections and SMART goals in MHR 300, I found myself constantly thinking about how students interpret feedback and what actually helps them improve the next time around. I had to balance consistency across submissions with empathy for where each student or team was in their learning process. Clear standards were important, but so was recognizing effort, progress, and the context behind the work.
One particularly meaningful challenge in my MHR 300 teaching assistant role was learning to calibrate grades to align with established course performance standards and averages. For one recent assignment, preserving alignment at the class level required me to think beyond individual submissions and consider how grading decisions affect the credibility of the evaluation system as a whole. I had to balance careful adherence to the rubric with the broader responsibility of ensuring grades accurately reflected learning outcomes and course rigor.
That experience closely mirrored one of HR’s most complex responsibilities: ensuring that performance standards are applied consistently while still preserving fairness and credibility. It reinforced for me that evaluation systems are never just about the individual score. They are about trust in the process, confidence in leadership judgment, and alignment between standards and long-term development goals.
This experience also changed the way I think about performance management. In HR, one of the most strategic responsibilities we hold is helping people understand what success looks like and giving them the support to reach it. As a TA, the rubric became more than a grading tool. It mirrored the role clarity and expectation-setting that strong managers provide in organizations. The most effective feedback was not simply evaluative; it was developmental. I found that students were far more likely to improve when comments were specific, actionable, and tied directly to behaviors they could change.
At the same time, the role highlighted the human side of evaluation. Different students responded to feedback in very different ways. Some immediately incorporated suggestions into their next submission, while others needed more reinforcement or clearer examples. This reminded me that talent development is never one-size-fits-all. The classroom became a microcosm of organizational life, where motivation, confidence, communication style, and prior experience all shape how people grow.
What made this experience especially meaningful was how directly it connects to the kind of HR leader I hope to become. As I prepare to begin my career in HR, I am carrying forward a stronger appreciation for the relationship between accountability and support. Effective performance management is not about scoring people. It is about creating the conditions for improvement. The most impactful leaders set clear expectations, provide timely feedback, and make growth feel achievable.
My teaching assistant experience showed me that leadership development does not only happen in formal HR roles. Sometimes it happens in the quieter moments: reviewing a reflection, writing a comment in the margin, or noticing how one well-phrased piece of feedback can change someone’s confidence. Those moments reminded me that the heart of HR is helping people succeed, and that begins with how we coach, evaluate, and invest in their development.
As I reflect on my MBA journey, this role stands out as one of the most valuable applied learning experiences I have had. It strengthened my ability to communicate expectations, make fair evaluations, and think strategically about how people learn and improve. Most importantly, it reminded me that whether in a classroom or an organization, growth happens when feedback is clear, timely, and rooted in genuine belief in someone’s potential. As I prepare to begin Cigna’s HR Leadership Development Program this summer, I keep coming back to how much trust and credibility depend on fair, well-calibrated systems. Whether in a classroom, a performance review process, or compensation decisions, people need to understand what success looks like and trust that standards are applied consistently. That is a mindset I am excited to carry into my future work in HR.