Amisha Mittal

Kelley School of Business at Indiana University

“I am a fun-loving person who loves to try out new things.”

Hometown: Delhi, India

Fun fact about yourself: I am learning Ballroom and Swing dancing. I am also a published author.

Undergraduate School and Degree: Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, India – Bachelor of Technology

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? State Bank of India – Branch Manager

Where did you intern during the summer of 2021? Bank of America, Investment Banking Division – New York

Where will you be working after graduation? Bank of America, Investment Banking Division – New York

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

• Vice President, External Affairs and Board Fellows – worked with Bloomington Non-Profits to give back to community
• Graduate Assistant, Capital Markets Academy – worked extensively with students to get them placed in Investment Banking internships
• Recipient of Kelley coin for multiple success stories

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? Working as a Graduate Assistant in Capital Markets Academy. This is something more personal than professional for me. I was the only person who interned at an investment bank last summer from Kelley School of Business. As no one in the previous year had also interned at an investment bank, there was no one to guide me and I faced several challenges during my internship search. This motivated me to ensure that proper guidance and resources were available for the incoming batch, and I decided to help them. I have been working with students since summer and I am proud to say that we have more than nine people going into investment banking this year.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I was posted in a rural area, working for the State Bank of India, where my role was to enhance the business portfolio of my branch and conduct financial operations in a rural economy. I would help farmers get micro-credit to purchase farming equipment or livestock or to finance irrigation projects. I observed that farmers used to come regularly to ask for loans. However, I was never approached by women asking for loans.

During my month-long classroom training program, I had learned of a special facility that the bank provided to women in rural areas as a means of rural development and women empowerment. Here, women could assimilate themselves into groups called self-help groups and could avail low interest collateral free credit from the bank. The idea behind this was that, as an individual, one woman might not be credible enough to avail loan from the bank. However, as a group, it imposes group responsibility to pay back the loan and hence such a group was more credit worthy. I asked some of the women customers on why none of them was interested in availing such a loan, and I realized that women were simply not aware of such a facility.

Rural women lacked opportunities to participate in the public sphere and were confined to household chores. They had no independent identity and received no respect from their husbands. Also, due to shortage of income, many female children were not even allowed to go to schools. I knew the ladies were very talented and could do well given the right opportunities. I took initiative to set up information camps in different villages where I educated women on how to form self-help groups and become eligible to avail credit from a bank to start their own small-scale business.

I helped in establishing over 14 small-scale businesses, which provided employment to more than 200 women. It helped them in getting livelihood security, leading to their empowerment, and increased say in household affairs. They were able to send their daughters to school and were finally recognized as an equal in their households. I think, for me, giving the women an identity and enabling them to send their girls to school was a greater motive and reward than my exceeding 120% of the budget allotted for the micro-finance.

Why did you choose this business school? For me it was always about culture fit and peer classmates. The major reason for choosing Kelley was its small class size. I wanted to develop strong inter-personal relationships with my classmates. After talking to seniors while applying, I realized that the culture was very collaborative, and everyone was invested in you. I also connected well with Executive Director Gale Gold Nichols as we both had some prior experience in micro-finance. Another personal reason was that I would get the opportunity to live close to my brother, who was studying at Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame during that time.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? My favorite MBA professor is Richard Shockley. I have taken a couple of courses with him and currently studying Derivative Securities with him. He expresses complex ideas in a very coherent manner, making them easy to understand.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite tradition is the “Kelley Clap.” At the end of every class, all students, and instructors clap for one another’s participation. It is a recognition of the hard work on both sides that has gone into making the class possible. It reflects the sense of pride that Kelley places on the “learning process.”

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? One thing I would do differently is to make better use of resources and not hesitate to ask people for help.

What is the biggest myth about your school?  The Kelley network is limited to the Midwest region because it is hard for recruiters from both coasts to come to campus to recruit. This is not true as we have alumni spread across the country who are willing to connect and help in any way they can.

What surprised you the most about business school? I had heard MBA students to be typecasted as overly pragmatic or cold numbers-crunchers, but my fellow students are some of the most creative, innovative and open-minded people I know.

What is one thing you did during the application process that gave you an edge at the school you chose? I always reached out to current students at business schools before applying. One gets a good sense of the culture by talking to different students and can find out if it is the right cultural fit or not and the same was reflected in my essays making it a very personable application.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Mackenzie Evans is the person I most admire. He was my core teammate and took the same finance classes as me. As I was the only female MBA student taking those subjects, I sometimes felt out of place. He always ensured that I felt comfortable and believed in me and would often motivate me to deliver my best.

Who most influenced your decision to pursue business in college? My brother influenced me to make a decision to pursue business in college. Since childhood, I have always followed in his footsteps. When he came to USA to pursue his MBA, I visited him and fell in love with the environment. He explained to me the importance of developing an all-around business acumen and international experience to gain more exposure.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

* I want to be seen as an expert in my field by bringing value to my role that is recognized both by my peers and seniors. To achieve this, I need to stay informed – through networking, reading, and being endlessly inquisitive. I want to continually educate myself and ensure that the journey never stops!

* I would like to explore various cultures at my workplace, which will not only enrich my on-the-job skills, but also help me grow as a person. At the same time, promoting diversity and inclusivity within the organization is very important to me to ensure that every person feels equally involved and supported in all areas of the workplace and grow with full confidence, and blossom in his/her career.

How has the pandemic changed your view of a career? I feel, the pandemic has changed the entire landscape of how people used to work and showcase their skills, and this will play a huge role in how people will approach their internal and external stakeholders. I believe, people are required to reorient their already possessed skills, especially the soft skills such as negotiation strategies and communication skills, because everything is partially or shifting to virtual environments. People and companies must be more resilient and adaptable to the challenges and changes in the working environment.

What made Amisha such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2022?

“Amisha came to Kelley from India with the goal of breaking into investment banking in the United States. With a combination of intelligence, resourcefulness, persistence, and good cheer, she made contacts in the banking world at the Summer 2020 Forté conference. She nurtured those, worked incredibly hard to land an internship at Bank of America, and successfully converted her internship into a full-time offer. This was a tremendous accomplishment—one in which she could deservedly take great pride.

Amisha didn’t just sit back and bask in her own glory as a 2nd-year MBA student, though. She saw that there was interest among a number of our 1st-year students in pursuing opportunities in investment banking, and she wanted to help them, particularly since Kelley isn’t considered a “core” school by most of the firms. She set a personal target of helping at least seven 1st-year Kelley students secure internships in IB, and she spent countless hours working with and supporting them in their efforts. One of them said about her:

“Amisha has been an amazing resource and supporter of the first-year MBA candidates pursuing investment banking. She actively sought us out when we first started at Kelley, demonstrating leadership. She did this by creating a Group Me feed for all of us, introducing herself, and opening herself up for mentoring, mock interviews, and networking resources. Through this effort, she has drastically helped me improve in my pursuit of an investment banking internship and I had three interviews lined up after working with her. She has had a monumental impact on the Kelley MBA program and is driving a culture and support base for those that come through after us who are pursuing investment banking.”

Her mentorship has helped our students exceed Amisha’s own goal of seven summer internships in investment banking, and she has driven a great deal of enthusiasm and momentum among our students and applicants who want to pursue careers in this field. The students were so grateful that seven of them nominated Amisha for the Kelley Coin, one of the top honors in the MBA program. Amisha truly exemplifies our values of collaboration, excellence, and leadership. We’re proud to call to her a Kelley and to nominate her as one of P&Q’s Best and Brightest MBAs for 2022.”

Gale G. Nichols
Executive Director 

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