These Twins Do Everything Together — Even Their MBA

Nishul (left) and Nakul Juneja are 2022 graduates of the MBA program at Toronto Rotman. They’ve always done everything together — but now that they’re no longer students, is it time to part ways?

It’s no exaggeration to say that twin brothers Nishul and Nakul Juneja — recent MBA grads of the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management — do everything together.

Not only did both get their bachelor’s degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology, both worked for the same company — Hershey — following graduation. Both moved home to India, then moved to Canada to get their MBA — in fact both Juneja brothers even had the same internship at Amazon in their final year at Rotman.

“There have been instances where companies have said to us, ‘Your resumes are identical, you went to the same high school and college, and you’ve had the same internships. How do we differentiate the two of you?’” Nishul tells Poets&Quants.

The Juneja twins see their similar paths as a unique advantage rather than competition. “How often do you have someone living in your apartment who you can do practice interviews, homework, or work on case studies with? We saw that as a big opportunity to become stronger — together,” Nishul says.

EARLY LIFE IN NEW DELHI

Despite the twins having the same academic and career journey, the brothers stress how different they are from each other.

Nishul describes himself as more logical and extroverted, whereas Nakul says he’s more reserved and tends to base his decisions off emotions and spontaneity. This difference may have been a result of key milestones that shaped them differently, which they wrote about in a book that they published at age 16 called Double Trouble.

Or maybe it was because from an early age growing up in New Delhi, India, Nishul and Nakul’s parents treated them like two different people; they were put in separate classes at school and were encouraged to make their own friends.

But as much as these twins emphasize their differences, it seems that fate would have them follow a similar path.

“We still live together in the same apartment and we complete each other’s sentences,” Nakul laughs.

ACCEPTED INTO 8 TOP SCHOOLS; A LATE PIVOT TO BIZ

When the twins graduated high school, Nakul’s goal was to study at an American university. Nishul, who was hesitant at first, decided to join him in hopes of having a new adventure.

Both set on studying computer science, they applied to a number of American colleges. Somehow, the twins were accepted into the same eight schools: Duke University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Michigan, UCLA, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of California0-San Diego, Purdue University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Because of the reasonable price and emphasis on practical skills, the pair chose to attend Georgia Tech. Two years into their computer science degree, they decided to switch majors, pivoting into business. In their senior year, both interned with Hershey Company, and ended up continuing on with the company following graduation.

AT HOME IN CANADA

A year into their jobs at Hershey, both moved back to India. Nakul stayed on with the company and Nishul joined Procter & Gamble. Soon after, the twins decided that an MBA was the natural next step. “We both wanted to give the MBA a shot and excel in our professional lives,” says Nishul.

Because getting a U.S. work visa continues to be based on a lottery system, the pair were interested in relocating to Canada so that they could remain in the country after their MBA.

They began looking at Canadian programs, and Rotman quickly became their first choice. Not only was the school based in Toronto, which would give them a big-city experience, it was one of the few two-year programs that included an internship and exposure to the top three industries where they wanted to recruit: consulting, consumer goods, and tech.

“Big firms were hiring on campus, each with Rotman alumni working for them,” says Nishul.

“Toronto is such a multicultural city,” adds Nakul. “Almost 70% of the city’s residents aren’t born in Canada. Knowing that seven out of ten people you see aren’t born in this country — and hearing 20 different languages spoken in one day — makes you feel at home.”

Next page: It’s not always easy having a twin. Sometimes Nishul & Nakul compete for the same job