Kopal Gupta

HEC Paris

“My three biggest assets – a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone.”

Hometown: Delhi, India

Fun Fact About Yourself: I held a plank for 10 minutes at a contest.

Undergraduate School and Major: Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Associate at Goldman Sachs

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of HEC Paris’ MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? HEC Paris is the best school for pursuing a career in financial services. My post MBA goal is to work at a leading Investment Bank in a front office or business-facing role, hence HEC Paris’ MBA program is the right choice for me. It would help me build a strong foundation of finance and business. Moreover, HEC Paris has a 16-month program with an option to pursue a summer internship, which are very important to gain an insight of the financial services industry for people wishing to pursue a career in financial services, especially Investment Banking.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at HEC Paris? Coming from the Financial services industry, I am looking forward to the HEC Investment Club. It would provide practical hands-on knowledge of portfolio and fund management. Apart from that, I am interested in the TEC at HEC because it offers a great mentorship platform with a diverse network. And of course, I am looking forward to the MBAT – hoping to participate and win some laurels for HEC!

HEC Paris is just 17 kilometers from Paris. What do you see as the best part of earning your MBA so close to Paris? Paris is one of the most significant financial centers in the world. I hope to gain a good exposure to the European financial services industry and markets by being so close to Paris. Moreover, Paris is a central location that is very well connected to other financial centers in Europe. Apart from this, I have a very keen inclination towards Art and culture, and Paris is the hub of Art and culture. Hence, I hope to explore that while being so close to the city.

Historically, over 90% of HEC Paris’ MBA students hail from outside France. Why is exposure to global diversity so critical to business success? At Goldman Sachs, I worked with teams and people from 5 different regions: Japan, Singapore, India, UK and USA. I believe, it is extremely important to understand the different cultural backgrounds of one’s peers. This greatly helps to coordinate work with people in different global regions and aids in seamless communication. Additionally, one can learn a lot from different work cultures of peers across the globe. Moreover, personally, I have been able to pick up a few words from native languages of some of my peers.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My most significant achievement would be when I successfully delivered the product for the first and the biggest partnership of the firm’s corporate cash management business in early 2020. Additionally, I was able to deliver a product with a lot more features than expected within the deadlines. This became one of the most important deliverables of our business.

What is one thing you have recently read, watched, or listened to that you would highly recommend to prospective MBAs? Why? For people looking to pursue a career in financial services post MBA, I would recommend the book , The Intelligent Investor. Though the book mostly focuses on Trading and Securities market, it helps build a perception of assessing and handling finances and investments in a prudent manner. In general, I would recommend the book – Tools of Titans. It’s a great compilation of advice and habits of some of the most successful people from different industries, ranging from the corporate to entertainment to sports.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into HEC Paris’s\ MBA program? In my opinion, being very real and original in the essays helps a lot. I would advise potential applicants to be authentic in their essays and include lots of examples from their lives in the essays. Additionally, potential applicants should try to gain a very diverse and impactful pre-MBA work experience because that would help them keep up with the intensive HEC MBA program and network efficiently with a very bright class.

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