Meet MIT Sloan’s MBA Class of 2018

Estefanía de Sosa Cadete

MIT, Sloan School of Management

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Passionate for everything I do, team player, pragmatic, determined, and always up for a challenge.

Hometown: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Fun Fact About Yourself: I haven’t considered myself to be a big soccer fan, until the last Football World Cup. Working in a WC sponsor, with most of our marketing initiatives being related to that event, in a way lit a spark in me as I felt the necessity to go watch my team play. So without hesitation I traveled not once, but three times to Brazil.

On my third trip, for the semifinals, I knew many people who were also going and, as I wanted to maybe avoid looking like such a fanatic, I thought I could go sort of ’undercover’ and I bought a nice mask and a white & light blue wig, so they wouldn’t recognize me in case I bump into them.

Once already in the stadium, I didn’t see anybody that I knew, but I didn’t realize that accredited photographers were taking my picture, as I was an original/creative Argentinian fan. After the match was over, my photo appeared in many print and online newspapers. It was part of a TV tag and even got featured on the official FIFA App! So when I returned to my country, I was surprised to see that everybody was asking me if I was the one behind the mask, and my friends started sharing on social media the links each time they found me in a new website. Clearly now there was no doubt about my fondness for football, and it was very fun to have had that level of media repercussion.

Regarding the final match, I couldn’t go because of work, but destiny had its way of making up for it. I managed to get what any Argentinian football fan could only aspire to: I got to meet Lionel Messi in Buenos Aires and have him sign my Argentina jersey! Of course I had it framed and now keep as a souvenir of this story.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Buenos Aires, Accountant.

Graduate School: Specialization in Marketing Management & Competitive Strategy from the University of Buenos Aires, and MBA from Universidad Argentina de la Empresa.

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: I worked at Deloitte as an Audit Assistant, and then as an Excise Tax Analyst at Chevron, both for over a year. Since 2010, I have been working at Coca-Cola. I started as a Marketing Expense Management Analyst in the finance department, and for almost 4 years I have been the Media Manager in the Marketing team.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far:  So far, the biggest accomplishment has been to achieve a career switch from a pure finance background into marketing, holding what I consider to be a vital role in the team, and particularly, in a company that is known to be one of the best in marketing in the world.

Apart from enrolling in a two-year Marketing Postgraduate degree and going through all available resources at the company’s intranet, I started getting involved in every marketing project that I could, even though at first I mostly contributed only from the financial perspective. As I had no experience in the field, it took a lot of time and effort, and consistent actions in order to have a chance, given that the kind of career switch that I was aiming to, was very uncommon.

A couple of years later, I was fortunate to finally get promoted to a Media Manager position. I was responsible for the execution of media campaigns for all the brands in the portfolio, in one of the most important markets for the Coca-Cola system, Argentina. And above all, I got to develop invaluable marketing skills, which I believe, together with my financial background, will be useful in any job that I may take on in the future.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? Apart from researching about the MBA program components, I would totally recommend visiting the school. Once you have been there and talked to the people, you will know instantly whether you will be a right fit. MIT Sloan conducts an Ambassador program, in which you can attend a class, have lunch with students, join an admissions information session and take a self-guided tour. I believe that this program is a great opportunity to make the most out of your visit and get a sense of the Sloan community.

Finally, this may sound very cliché, but my last piece of advice, if you are fortunate to be invited to an interview, is to be yourself. Sloan uses the interview to also assess fit and you want them to know the real you.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? First I would like to disclose, that I wouldn’t have pursued my full-time MBA from anywhere else. Sloan was my top and only choice, and it is indescribable how proud I feel to be part of MIT.

Summarizing the many reasons, to begin with, I would say that MIT has worldwide prestige, extraordinary resources and excellent faculty. Also, the program was the right fit for me. I found the action learning possibilities (classes called ‘labs’) extremely appealing, and the flexibility to have a personalized curriculum, given that Sloan only has one core semester.

And finally, I want to expand about what I believe that makes Sloan truly unique: the people. I consider a meaningful part of the MBA is learning from one another, and people really make the difference in Sloan. Sloanies are collaborative, friendly and humble. Once I started contacting students and alumni during the application process, I could definitely confirm that. They were always willing to give me advice or answer my questions. And this was one of the things that attracted me the most. When I visited Sloan last October, I remember that I found myself thinking ‘these are my people, this is where I want to be.’ Even though I haven’t met most of my classmates yet, we have been in contact through group chats and social media, and I am already sure that we will be great friends. I just can’t wait to be surrounded by these incredibly talented and smart people.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? Once I graduate from the MBA, I think I will have a clearer picture of what my dream job or employer is, but at this point, I have some global challenges in mind and a couple of ideas on how to address them through tech. Working as a Media Manager at Coca-Cola, I have had contact with tech companies but my experience is mostly related to communication strategy and advertising. I am hoping through the summer internship and other extracurricular ventures, to explore other sides of the tech industry and how that appeals to my goals. This would necessarily mean another career switch for me, but I am honestly very excited to see what the future has in store for me.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program? After we graduate, mainly I would like fellow students to say that they believe that I have contributed to enrich their MBA experience, as I will aim to provide different perspectives and actively participate in class, group assignments or any other initiative that I get involved in. And also, I would like them to say that we have formed a true team throughout the years. Despite that our lives may go separate ways after the program has ended, that we will have created strong relationships that will endure through time, and we will always count on each other.