Sagar Gupta

HEC Montréal           

“Over-thinker, enthusiastic, empathetic with a dash of sassy.”

Hometown: New Delhi, India

Fun Fact About Yourself: I can over-think myself into a bad mood.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Delhi, Economics

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Bennett Coleman and Company Limited, Senior Project Associate

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I was the youngest sales person to surpass the sales numbers by 120 percent in the history of the 20-year-old organization.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Diverse. It is a rare delight to study with classmates from more than 15 different countries.

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? HEC Montreal has some really experienced faculty members, especially the ones in the field of consulting. This prompted me to choose this program over others.

Experienced faculty members could guide me to not only better understand their subject but also offered career-related advice gained through their vast experiences.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? Entrepreneurship Club

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? While working in the field of media and publishing for three years, I realized that my current level of knowledge and experience is not sufficient to reach higher levels and build a successful career. I feel that I am not equipped with the business and managerial tools that are fundamental to evolve in this competitive corporate world. In addition, India is a booming economy that serves international clientele and multinationals and demands individuals who understand business from an international perspective. This prompted me to consider pursuing the MBA program.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? The decision whether an MBA is a good investment was based on solving a simple linear equation (laughs) consisting of three variables: cost of the program, future gains, and opportunity cost.

HEC Montreal is among the top schools in Canada in terms of return on investment. Also, I was quite eager to explore changing my industry and challenge my mind with newer challenges. When I thought of both these factors, an MBA seemed worth pursing to get worth of the dime spend on pursuing the degree.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Apart from HEC Montreal, I had applied to Ryerson University.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? Read a lot of reviews about the schools and spoke to a lot of alumni from different universities.

I had an extended list of schools where I considered applying. The most important criterion to filter the list was the ranking of the school in various publications, return on investment, location, and the alumni network. These four parameters helped me get an exhaustive list of the schools where I should consider applying.

The next step was to connect with alumni from different colleges to get their feedback on the opportunities the school offered. While the exercise is time-consuming and requires a lot of effort, the results made it worth investing into this exercise.

By speaking to a vast network of people, I got to learn about the advantages of the city the school was located in, the strength of the professors teaching the subject of interest, and extracurricular opportunities available at the school that could aid in increasing the teachings from the MBA program.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? I guess the defining moment for me would be the one at my latest job, where I was asked to head an entire project all by myself, under the guidance of the business head herself.

The job required me to get completely out of my comfort zone, and make decisions about the activities that I have no experience handling. At the age of 24, I had to co-ordinate with respective directors from different departments to formulate the strategy for my project.

This experience helped me realize vast unused potential in me, and the need to find a right mentor and correct education to channel my energies. All through the project, I often found myself feeling that I could have done a better job if I had either the right education or the adequate experience for the job.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? During the course of my MBA, I have realized that I would like to pursue exploring entrepreneurship opportunities. After I graduate, I would like to try my hand at some of the ideas I am working on currently.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I do not want to be one of those who have regrets of not exploring all the possible career choices after completing the MBA program.

Five years from now, I would either have a running start-up, engines of which would require constant re-engineering and oiling or working in the consulting industry, preferably in the aviation sector.