Olga Rocha

Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business

“Driven Latina creating a triple bottom line approach to her career.”

Hometown: Orlando, Florida

Fun Fact About Yourself: In my spare time, I love making homemade pasta and bread.

Undergraduate School and Major: Brown University – B.A. in Engineering and Environmental Studies

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Accenture Federal Services – Business Process Arch Manager

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of the school’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? McDonough’s Certificate in Sustainable Business was the most crucial element in my decision-making process. The certificate could offer me the opportunity to build upon my business background while reconnecting with my environmental educational roots. As I learned about McDonough, I found that my interests would be well supported both by this certificate program as well as the possibility of narrowing into water-related issues through specific coursework.

What excites you most about studying in Washington, DC? Having made DC my home for the last five years, I am looking forward to continuing to be part of the variety of opportunities available in the city. I am most excited that only in DC do I have access to non-profits, utilities, government agencies, and consulting firms at the nexus of environment, people, and business.

What quality best describes your MBA classmates and why? My MBA classmates are best described by their collaborative nature. In my conversations about the program, I repeatedly heard examples of students working together for the cohort’s collective success. Moreover, I experienced that same collaborative spirit first-hand: other students helped me through the admissions process by answering my questions attentively and candidly.

What club or activity excites you most at this school? I am most excited to take part in the treks, Consulting Club, and Gourmet Society while at Georgetown. Still, it will be harder to travel in COVID times. The career treks, in which we visit various cities to learn about industries and network, is a great opportunity to learn more about my post-MBA career opportunities efficiently. I am excited to join the Consulting Club, as well, where I can share from my experience of nearly seven years in consulting and in turn learn more about aspects of the industry that I may not have been exposed to as of yet. From a more social aspect, I am excited about the Gourmet Society – I wholeheartedly agree that the best way to get to know one another is to break bread together.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Thus far in my career, my biggest accomplishment has been increasing morale and engagement by developing a professional development program for more junior team members. A team I had been leading for the last several years was primarily made up of analysts and senior analysts who often led work at levels beyond what was expected. Unfortunately, there was also often a gap with professional development opportunities.

Identifying this challenge, I took the initiative to develop a program aimed at providing cross-team support of analysts and senior analysts in their development beyond work experience. I held monthly professional development sessions centered around different topics such as giving and receiving feedback, creating an internal contributions document, and crafting their personal elevator pitches. Not only was this program able to provide professional development opportunities, but it also enabled the team members to increase their engagement and morale. They were no longer simply completing work for a client; they were also putting in the work to improve their own personal skills set.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I felt that my career was at a natural reflection point, and ultimately that reflection led me to pursue an MBA at this time. With every promotion, I asked myself the following: Am I doing the work I want to be doing and, if not, am I in a position to transition to that work? After becoming a manager, for the first time, the answers to those questions were both no. Knowing that I wasn’t doing the work I wanted to do nor that I had a path to get there made me realize I needed to pursue my MBA to better equip myself to make such a transition to more mission-driven work.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? None, I only applied to McDonough during the rolling admissions window.

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? The most challenging question I was asked was “Why now?” It led to a lot of self-reflection as to why now, in the middle of a changing world, I was making such a shift in my career.

How did you determine your fit at various schools?  I prioritized culture, location, and ability to do interdisciplinary coursework (primarily environmentally-related) in my search for the best fit for my future business school. My first step was to determine which locations aligned with both my personal goals and career aspirations. Having narrowed down my list of target schools, I then leveraged my network to connect with current and incoming business school students to get candid thoughts on their school cultures. I also made sure to research how to connect with the school itself, and took note of how accessible they were, their online website content quality, and ability to easily set time to speak with someone from the school. Ultimately, all the one-on-one conversations were the most helpful in determining fit – it allowed me the opportunities to see how I could engage with the community, even at a small scale, and how I would be received into that community.

What have you been doing to prepare yourself for business school? I have started to brush up on my networking skills to ensure I stay on track with all the pre-business school tasks. Even in consulting, some of my networking skills had gone stale, and so I am now focused on connecting (and reconnecting) with my mentoring relationships to hone these skills. From the coursework perspective, I am making sure I do my quantitative prep diligently. Despite having a quantitative background, I am preparing myself for the mental shift from full-time work to full-time school to make sure the transition is a successful one.

What was your defining moment and how did it prepare you for business school? My defining moment came early in my undergraduate experience when I came to realize that I could craft a future that met my professional aspirations and my personal interests. I struggled at first to adjust to a rigorous engineering curriculum. Soon, however, I found that when I tailored that path to something that aligned with my personal passion for water and the environment, I was more motivated and better set myself up for success. The experience taught me to take charge of my own course and cultivated a new mindset toward my education, which has ultimately prepared me for business school. I want to be an active participant in my career and guide my path forward to a career that is wholly informed by all aspects of my identity, experience, and interests.

DON’T MISS: MEET GEORGETOWN McDONOUGH’S MBA CLASS OF 2022