Meet The Top First-Year MBAs From India

Shruti Gupta

HEC Paris MBA

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: I am an affable explorer and adventurer; seeking new experiences to become a better version of myself.

Hometown: Rawatbhata, Rajasthan

Fun Fact About Yourself: I love to dance and have recently learned contemporary dance. I have participated in many school and dance competitions and have won a few of them.

Undergraduate School and Major:

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – BHU (Varanasi)

Bachelors in Technology and Electrical Engineering

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

Morgan Stanley

• Manager
• Senior Associate
• Associate
• Analyst

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My biggest accomplishment so far is to prove my caliber for learning new things, and going that extra mile in everything I do. As a result, I have been promoted three times in three consecutive years after joining my first company straight out of college.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? As per my experience, I would advise future applicants to focus on their goals and priorities before jumping into the MBA world. Candidates must be clear about their goals on how an MBA is going to help them and about the factors important to them (such as location, class size, specialization courses, etc.). It will be very easy to choose the right college and save a lot of effort in pursuing ones that won’t be the best for them.

It is also important to work on the overall profile rather than just preparing for the GMAT exam. All of the schools look at the application holistically; therefore, having a low score is not a barrier but having a poor profile is.

The MBA application journey can be excruciating and tiring, but in the process you definitely evolve as a better person both professionally and personally. You know better your past, present and future. So, keep in mind the destination but enjoy and learn from the ride as well.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? Being a tech enthusiast, I want to learn the business side of technology and the digitalization of business. I am strongly drawn toward the e-commerce segment and the newly emerging intersection between Luxury and Technology. HEC – being one of the prime B-schools – caught my eye by providing the chance to experience the field of e-commerce and LuxTech near Paris, one of the major, culturally rich cities of the world. It also provides some non-degree programs such as the Digital Transformation Certificate, which I believe can be instrumental in building deep insights and hands-on learning in digitalization. Moreover, events such as the MBAT (annual inter-MBA sporting event) and the off-campus Saint-Cyr Military Academy, as well as the fact that it is the alma mater of so many CEOs from Fortune Global 500 companies, are exclusive to HEC and made it my dream B-school to attend.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? As I want to learn more about the e-commerce and digitalization of business, any firm that can provide me with the opportunity to use technology to make the businesses or lives of ordinary people better is my target company. Google and Amazon have changed the lives of people and the way they do business in a revolutionary way, and I want to learn and contribute in doing the same. My dream job is that of a product manager where I can tie together all of the pieces that takes to build up a product and make an overall impact.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program?  I would like to be known as an inquisitive person as I believe it is very important to keep learning new things and make them even better.