Teresa Gomes

Imperial College Business School

“Before coming to Imperial if anyone told me I would work in an internationally diverse team including a service design student from Royal College of Arts, and come up with a deep technology based start-up idea within one week, I would have laughed at that person. Surprisingly, this is a reality”

Hometown: Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Fun Fact About Yourself: I am trained in Kathak (Indian classical dance) and Hip-Hop. 

Undergraduate School and Major:  BSc. Economics, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, India, MSc. Economics, University of Calcutta, India

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Manager at State Bank of India (SBI)

What makes London such a great place to earn an MBA degree? London is a bustling hub for careers in  nearly all different sectors–Finance, Consulting, Technology and what-not. Also, London’s cosmopolitan vibes make me feel I’m surrounded by a melting pot of cultures, and that it’s a place that warmly embraces international people. This aspect makes a global MBA enriching, both academically and culturally. Plus the convenience of language is a cherry on the cake- it helps international students socialise and feel at home. This networking complements the learning from business courses. All of these factors collectively make London one of the most promising places for an MBA.

Imperial College Business School is one of the most culturally and professionally diverse MBA programs in the world. How do you see these global perspectives enhancing the value of your business education over the next year? Growing up and working exclusively in India, I wanted to expand my horizon with global perspectives. Imperial’s full-time MBA offered me a solid global exposure to 21 different countries. The way the program team thoughtfully grouped us into different study groups ensuring that no two folks are from the same nationality or industry is enhancing the peer-learning experience. Moreover, even in a one-year intense program, Imperial provided fantastic exchange opportunities with different schools and career treks to different continents. These aspects are working to reshape how I see the world and how I’ll lead in the future.

Your MBA is known for innovation, business and technology. Has the program lived up to its reputation? What advice would you give to future students to help them thrive in the early months of the program? Before coming to Imperial if anyone told me I would work in an internationally diverse team including a service design student from Royal College of Arts, and come up with a deep technology based start-up idea within one week, I would have laughed at that person. Surprisingly, this is a reality, thanks to Imperial’s flagship Innovation Challenge hosted in its hackspace at White City. This made us believe that Imperial, famed for its technological innovation, has walked the talk. 

Innovation and entrepreneurship classes offered a wealth of wisdom through the case studies on different companies and their innovative leadership practices. The discussions were so thought-provoking that we felt like we were making these life-altering business decisions ourselves.

My advice to students: Be curious and gear up to challenge yourself out of your comfort zone. Have faith in the process to transform you beyond your expectations. 

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Imperial College Business School’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? I was keen to embark on a one-year MBA program. As someone who loves exploring the length and breadth of a campus and enjoys meeting diverse-minded people, I aimed to be in a place where I could learn not only from the business school but also from the larger university. These learnings matter to me because I wanted to broaden my thought processes to evolve as a leader. Imperial, aside from its London advantage, was my top pick for being a top ten university for many years. Additionally, conversations with the previous cohort and alums convinced me even more about Imperial supporting my mission of taking my skills to the next level and gearing up for an international career ahead.

What has been your first impression of the Imperial College Business School MBA students and alumni you’ve met so far. Tell us your best Imperial story so far. As soon as we received admits, we connected with each other on Whatsapp and LinkedIn. Hence, I already had some idea about my cohort. As the program started, it added to my experience with my peers. The first few exercises were definitely ice-breakers as we got to know fun facts about each other and realized our common interests. 

I would consider our excursion to Reading as my best story at Imperial. Along with some fun-filled adventure activities, we realized the importance of team-work and leveraging our collective strength to solve complex problems efficiently.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Imperial College Business School? The Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Strategy modules truly captivate me. The productive discussions on real-life case studies in these courses are unlike anything I’ve experienced before. While preparing for these cases at home, I come up with a certain point of view. However, surprisingly, during in-class discussions with my classmates, I leave the classroom with a different and broader outlook altogether.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: What do you hope to do after graduation (at this point)? During my role as a Manager, I played the key role in redesigning a pilot project to shoot off early warning signals for fraud prevention. The best part was that despite the obstacles we encountered, we managed to not only nail the project before the deadline but helped the company save a lot of money through drastic reductions in frauds. 

My post-MBA goal is to make my way into the Venture Capitalist industry in London.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Imperial College Business School’s MBA program? The best part about Imperial MBA admission process is that it evaluates the overall personality of a candidate beyond scores obtained in standardised tests. Also it strives hard to make the MBA experience as diverse as possible so that we have people not just from traditional backgrounds such as Investment Banking and Consulting but also non-traditional backgrounds such as Public sector and Military veterans. Hence, potential applicants should focus on what unique aspects he/she can bring to the table to enhance this experience while learning from the diverse perspectives of the cohort. Also, while writing application essays they should focus on the impact they have created in professional / social context.

Describe your biggest accomplishment as an MBA student so far? From being a person who lacked international exposure to being trusted and elected by my international cohort as co-chair of student staff committee is a big achievement for me. Also, contributing to the impactful work of Forte community as a Forte scholar is another such achievement for me and I am grateful to Imperial and Forte Foundation for this opportunity.

What has been your best memory as an MBA so far? It was fun when people from different cultures and faith, all joined in together, dressed up in Indian attire to celebrate the famous Indian festival of Diwali. That everyone danced with all their energy to the tune of Bollywood songs showed how much people enjoyed in this event, making it a long-lasting MBA memory.