Meet Georgetown McDonough’s MBA Class Of 2020

Akash Kang

Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business

A driven individual with a strong ardor to experience different cultures and food across the world.”

Hometown: Delhi, India

Fun Fact about Yourself: I am born Sikh and wore a traditional Sikh turban until I was 10 years old.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Manchester, BA Economics

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Goldman Sachs, Senior Analyst (Investment Banking Division)

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Receiving an offer to become a part of the GS family, after declining a 100% scholarship to the University of Warwick. Riskiest move I have made to date. I was left jobless for a few months. After ardently trying for over 6 months, I landed a job in GS. I finally left the company as the lead of my team where I recruited and mentored new candidates, to pursue my MBA at McDonough.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? At Georgetown University, we are trying to build a close community. All students that I’ve interacted with have been receptive and willing to help. I have had the opportunity to meet some great people so far, coming from varied cultures and backgrounds- with the common goal of making it big in their respective industries.

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? Georgetown’s MBA program has a very small class compared to other universities. Because of this, it has a personal touch in the professional development of each student. A relatively smaller cohort does give me a better opportunity to interact with the majority of students and learn from their diverse experiences.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I am looking forward to joining the Finance Club as it corresponds to my aim and interest in business, entrepreneurship and commerce. I look forward to interacting and building a strong network with influential business leaders, academics, journalists, and public officials through career treks and case competitions that could help in my personal growth as well as help dive into the corporate world from an achiever’s perspective.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? After having worked at Goldman Sachs for four years, I felt like it was finally time for me to pursue an MBA so that I could venture out and develop a strong network among different industries as well as get a hands-on learning experience through student organizations like the Asia Business Consortium, Emerging Markets Network, Finance Club- which hold discussions and competitions. Overall, I believed that I had to polish my mindset on business, entrepreneurship and the global market.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? My father has always placed high emphasis on education and always motivated me to pursue a course or a school that I am most passionate about. Once I brought up the topic of applying for an MBA, he was quick to motivate and push me towards the same. He stated that this sort of investment being put into the course would not only benefit me in achieving my goals, but also shape personal self, adding positively to the way I approach a situation.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Stern, UCLA

How did you determine your fit at various schools? I looked at schools with a good mix of international students, as well as those with a varied variety of student organizations and clubs. A school with a good mix of various cultures ensures inclusion and acts as a motivational impetus to all.  I also looked at the kind of alumni a school had to offer. Being a finance buff, I wanted to develop a helpful and strong network within the industry.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? The defining moment of my career, which pushed me beyond my self-constructed limitations, was the time I turned down a 100% scholarship for masters in economics from the University of Warwick. I did so to take up the not-so-enviable option of being unemployed, laden with student debt and no job offers in hand.

Eight months later, I would be holding an offer from Goldman Sachs. I am proud to say I won each one of those battles by shattering through my own expectations.  I am now much more confident, hardworking and humble. I believe I can face difficult situations with a lot more wisdom and insight today.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? In the short term, I want to get experience in an opportunistic market like in the US, and gain experience across different asset classes using specific investment strategies. At McDonough studying with multinational classmates would a great opportunity for me to build a strong network and effective communication skills. I want to gain industry experience which would help me identify investment opportunities in both public and private markets and develop a managerial perspective on the same.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I see myself as a part of an Investment Management team contributing to the asset management domain in India by introducing unique investment ideas in an exponentially growing market. I believe that McDonough will help me gain multi-disciplinary knowledge, a fundamental understanding of how business functions, a specialist know-how of various investment philosophies, and will give me a strong industry interface through live projects.

Having acquired analytical skills such as data crunching through creating dynamic models, I have understood the language of business through working with financial statements and improving on interpersonal skills. Therefore, I believe that I need to enhance my skills of assimilating businesses beyond numbers. A company is an orchestra of different functions and I need an MBA to fathom how each function works to make a successful business. Although assessing investments is my future, I need to have a wider perspective to understand the operations of a company. Good leadership and management are crucial for a successful business. I aim to build a strong foundation in leadership and be exposed to different leadership styles and be qualified to assess the potential of the management of a company.

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