Marjani Nairne

MIT, Sloan School of Management

“Adventurous, globe-trotting New Yorker intent on using technology to help revitalize emerging markets.”

Hometown: New York, NY

Fun Fact About Yourself: Since graduating from college five years ago, I’ve completed two half marathons and participated in a 135-mile relay race around the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

Undergraduate School and Major: Swarthmore College – Major: Political Science (Honors)

Most Recent Employer and Job Title:

Google – Compensation Operations Specialist; Google Station Ads Program Manager (20% Project)

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: As Google employees, we have the opportunity to pursue what we call a “20% Project” within the company. This gives you the opportunity to work on another team where you have a particular interest or passion for their area of work for 20% of your time. I was able to get a 20% Project working on the Google Station team. Google Station is a team that deploys free wi-fi in emerging markets in a bid to help make information and the internet more accessible around the globe.  I was on the team that launched Google Station in Mexico City and helped lead a project to monetize the product to ensure it could sustain free wifi in Mexico for many years to come.

It was incredible seeing the direct impact my work had on people. Seeing press releases and news articles exclaiming how meaningful and impactful this product is for millions across Mexico gave me an unparalleled sense of pride and accomplishment.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? I would say the Sloanies that I have met so far are passionate and unafraid to go against the grain. I know it sounds a bit cliché but the feeling of independence of mind that Sloanies possess is truly striking and exciting to be around. Their passion and search for new approaches and enterprises is inspiring.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? Coming from a liberal arts background, I felt that MIT would give me the best opportunity to strengthen and further explore my own quantitative and technical abilities. This is extremely important for me because as I look towards a potential career in consulting or working in emerging markets, the ability to provide substantial, data-driven insights is absolutely critical. I want to make sure that my skills in this realm are rock solid so that my ideas and recommendations are respected and eventually implemented. There’s no better place to develop these skills than at Sloan.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? As someone who has always looked at entrepreneurs with a sense of awe, I’m definitely looking forward to participating in Sloan’s entrepreneurship community. Between the entrepreneurship club and MIT’s 100k, I look forward to honing my own entrepreneurship chops.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I’ve always had a very clear idea of my passions and interests:  I am drawn to international development and policy and also to problem-solving and technology. I just didn’t know how to synthesize my interests and passions into a clear career path. To be honest, my idea of what I wanted to do bounced around a lot after graduating from college. My indecision gives me the not-so-illustrious record of having taken the GMAT, GRE and the LSAT. And no, I do not particularly like standardized tests.

However, after spending a year in China on a research fellowship, working in banking for two years and at Google for another two years (while also running a non-profit in Ghana), I eventually saw how business school could expose me to the ideas and approaches that will enable me to effectively blend the skills I’ve acquired to become an impactful consultant in emerging markets.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? Working on the Google Station 20% project was an extremely affirming experience for me in my decision to pursue an MBA. I loved working on the Station team and as I looked around, the vast majority of the team were former MBB consultants who had also earned an MBA. I realized that if I wanted a full-time job pursuing that kind of work, I too needed my MBA.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Haas, Harvard, Stanford, Kellogg, Yale

How did you determine your fit at various schools? My biggest priorities in assessing schools were reputation and culture. I reached out to alumni and current students at each school, asking them pointed questions about the school culture, classes, recruiting experience, alumni network, etc. I also visited each school that I applied to, even if that meant multiple cross-country trips. I tracked all my notes in a worksheet for easy access and reviewed my various impressions between the conversations and first-hand experiences I had at each school. At the end of the day, I wanted to go to a school where I felt like I could pick up the phone in five years, cold-call a classmate and that person would happily answer the phone. Of all the schools I visited (nearly 15!) Sloan gave me the strongest sense of that type of network and camaraderie.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? I believe my defining moment was my decision to move to Shanghai immediately after graduating from college. I spoke no Mandarin, knew no one there, and had to navigate in a brand-new city thousands of miles away from my friends and family. To this day moving to China was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I learned true self-reliance and adaptability and the experience opened the door for me to become more adventurous in my professional life.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I plan to go into strategy consulting after I graduate from Sloan. I love the challenge and variety of problem- solving that strategy consulting presents and believe it will provide me with an array of valuable business skills that span industry and function and will be directly applicable to someday founding my own company.

Where do you see yourself in five years? In five years I see myself either leading consulting projects in emerging markets or founding my own enterprise that helps tackle a particular issue within emerging economies.