Esha Chalamalla: Navigating Global Impact Through Technology And Leadership

Esha’s MBA Journey: A Detailed Q&A

Esha’s story spans continents, disciplines, and deep personal evolution. She went from being a national-level swimmer in India to leading operations for P&G in Manila, navigating high-stakes environments with rare clarity and calm. Her global experience and people-first leadership have shaped a career built on impact and intention. As an admit to Harvard Business School and Wharton, she now steps into the next chapter of a journey defined by courage and conviction. So, let’s dive in. 

Question 1: Hi Esha, can you give us a long introduction about yourself, right from childhood to your current career role in Manila? 

Okay, perfect. Thank you, Samriddhi. I’ll start with where I’m from.

I was born in Chennai, and my father works in a transferable job with the Government of India. I had to move frequently across the country. I’ve lived in around 7 cities throughout my childhood and up to college. Because of that, I had to adapt quickly to new environments and new schools. That has always kept me quite on my toes in terms of adaptability and resilience, because I had to go through many changes regularly.

Another big part of my childhood was swimming. I really loved it and pursued it seriously. I swam at district, state, and national levels and represented both Kerala and Tamil Nadu at  the national level.

I happened to be in two different cities, and I continued to be on the swimming team even in my undergrad. I was the swimming team captain and also graduated as the best outgoing sportsperson at my university. It’s a passion that has remained with me, and I’ve been able to pursue it further, currently in Manila. I just really like the ocean and water in general, and I am presently a qualified scuba diver. I go on many dives in and around the Philippines/Manila. So, that’s my extracurriculars. 

In terms of undergrad, I went to NIT Trichy, where I studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering. It felt like a natural choice because I genuinely enjoyed the subject and wanted to learn how to be creative with electrical and electronic solutions and how to scale them.

During undergrad, I got the chance to work with many different people and be part of a lot of teams. Sports helped me meet a diverse mix of students, and NIT Trichy has a diverse student body. Many students come under the DASA scheme, and that was one of my first exposures to an international environment. Through all that, I realized I really like working with people and in teams. So during undergrad, I did several internships to explore different areas of management.

I interned with IIM Bangalore, the Government of India, NITI Aayog, and EY, and finally, I found a role that really resonated with me at P&G. It was a techno-managerial role where I could work in a large organization and build both my technical and managerial skills. That combination was a great fit for me.

Basically, straight out of college, I was a Process Engineer, working in a really large organization, strengthening my technical skills. So, it was a great intersection. 

Within a few months, I moved into a line manager role with a large team reporting to me, and I was leading a manufacturing line. I was one of the leaders on the floor during COVID when most of the country was in lockdown. It really helped me because I had a lot of my shared values from growing up: to be resilient, to be tough, to put your people first, and to build your organization. And I focused a lot on these, which helped my team and our organization stay strong through that period.

It helped me grow a lot, and I was recognized with the CEO award. After that, I was given a larger responsibility to handle new product deliveries in India. In that role, I worked with many different geographies and teams across P&G.

One of the teams I worked with was in the Philippines. They saw the work I was doing, interviewed me for an expat role, and offered me a position that involved similar people leadership and bringing technical expertise into the manufacturing setup in Manila.

Now, I am the Head of Operations for the operating department in Manila, where we make P&G products for the Philippines. We make Tide and Ariel. And that is my story. Let me know if I missed anything or if you want me to go deeper into any part.

Question 2: Can you tell me more about your interest in scuba diving?

I think it happened quite naturally because I live in the Philippines, which is literally a bunch of islands. I really love the water and the ocean because I’ve been swimming for a long time. And I’m also someone who enjoys more adventurous activities, and that even shows in some of the career decisions I’ve made.

So it just fell into place because there’s access to scuba diving, and I find it super exciting. What I love most is the sense of wonder and the feeling that I’m exploring a completely different world that we never get to see in our normal lives. That whole experience is fascinating to me. So, I started it simply out of curiosity, just wanting to explore, but I kept going back to it again and again because of how amazing it felt.

Question 3: When did you decide that you wanted to apply for an MBA?

I actually first applied for a deferred MBA. At that time, I wasn’t really sure about my goals and lacked clarity about them. I just knew I wanted to invest in myself.

I knew I liked working in management and leading teams and organizations, but it was more of a general idea or concept, rather than clarity about goals. But I did not get through during my deferred applications.

That experience gave me the space to reflect and realize that I genuinely didn’t have clarity about my goals. I had a general sense of what I wanted, but I needed more work experience to really understand myself and what I aimed to pursue. So it became a long-standing interest that got renewed when I realized that I finally had clarity on my goals and what I wanted to pursue. And I felt it was the right time to go back to school.

That is also where Aparna now came in for me. I knew what I wanted to do based on my four and a half  years work experience. She helped me frame how to envision my goals. I had a better perspective from my work experience, but I needed help translating that into a clear vision.

She also helped me understand how my goals align with each school’s core values and which schools made sense for me, given my post-MBA plans. That is why I applied to only a small number of schools. I’ve been very deliberate about choosing programs that align with my post-MBA goals and with the values that match the way I work.

Question 4: When did you start working with Admissions Gateway?

Yeah, I was a little late to the whole journey. My work is quite hectic, so I wasn’t able to do Round 1 at all, and began in November. At that time, I was in touch with Mudit, and I told him I might need to drop out because I just couldn’t manage it. But around the end of November, I decided that I wanted to apply this year itself.

Question 5: How did Aparna support you?

I had a qualitative understanding of my goals before I began working with Admissions Gateway, namely to create impact in emerging countries by leveraging technology, specifically bringing Industry 4.0 solutions to manufacturing and supply chain spaces. But as you can see, even though they seem like they’re quantified, they’re very qualitative, because they don’t talk about a career, or precisely what it will look like as a role or as a job.

So I think this is precisely where Aparna was super helpful in terms of articulation and tying it together. She helped me tie my current abilities with where I needed to grow, identify roles to pursue, and turn that into a vision for particular schools I was applying to. And I think this is the most challenging aspect of the applications, because everything else is kind of a testimonial of what you’ve done over the past few years.

Second, she was super friendly and made me feel completely at home. I’m very jovial, and needed a consultant who was also similarly lighthearted, yet kept me in check since I was working on my applications in just 1 month. And I definitely go into my own introspective phase and write in a poetic fashion, quite emotionally. So, her fantastic balance of professionalism while making me feel completely at ease really helped me pull through. 

Thirdly, during my interview prep, she was very clear about my strengths. She didn’t ask me to be a certain way. She was very clear: “Okay, these are your strengths.” Even to the point where she was like, “I think in this interview, you should joke.” That was a fantastic input, because I’ve joked in every single interview of mine, and I feel like this made me feel that I was my most authentic self during those conversations. When it comes to tangible outcomes in real life, people compromise, but she didn’t let me compromise on my personality to play it safe. So I really appreciate that.

Lastly, I really liked that she gave me space to be me and disagree. I am someone with very strong opinions, and she was very understanding, respecting where I came from. 

Question 6: Since you had applied for deferred MBA earlier, did that make you feel pressured? 

Transparently speaking, I didn’t feel too much pressure because I really do love my current job. It’s fantastic. It makes me travel the world, gives me exposure to really cool opportunities, and pays me well. So, pursuing an MBA was not a must-have. I really wanted it for my own upskilling. But if I didn’t get in, I would have just moved on.

Of course, it’s disappointing because there’s a lot of hard work that goes into it, and we don’t know what clicks and what doesn’t click. But I didn’t want to put that pressure on myself since, to be very transparent, business schools are challenging to decipher. And I don’t know if it helps, but not too many people apply from the Philippines. So I don’t have peer pressure either. 

It was really just a Wow, what a fantastic opportunity, I should give it a shot. So it was more dear to me, but no pressure, personally.

Question 7: What advice would you give others considering applying to business schools?

Having clarity on goals is super helpful. Soul searching is a crucial part of the application, so, having a baseline understanding helps a lot in moving forward in a particular direction instead of weighing your options in multiple industries and roles. In my case, there was no spectrum to be discussed, because I was clear that this is what I had exposure to, and this is what I want an MBA to help me with, allowing me to focus only on the articulation. Ofcourse, since I was a late applicant, it also really helped me with my timelines. 

I’d also recommend people to start early. It’s a creative process, and you should have time to reflect and iterate without the pressure of deadlines. 

Question 8: Is there anything else you’d like to highlight about your MBA application journey? 

The journey itself. A lot of people who apply to business schools are just as busy as I am. And our timelines are all over the place. Some people are super lucky if their firm is really supportive, but I also know that in many cases, people can’t share their MBA plans with their firm. So they really have to juggle a hectic workload while applying for an MBA. 

So, I’d advise people to hire a consultant who is flexible and can help you work around hectic work schedules. For instance, I could watch AG webinars at my own pace, which was super practical and helpful. And I appreciate that. 

Plus, all the advice I received was quite practical, allowing me to focus solely on the application and how I want to project my goals and personality, rather than searching and skimming for advice.

So I really love the no-nonsense, to-the-point approach. The cherry on top was having a super accommodating consultant, who let me be me and yet put me on track, because I don’t think I would have completed the deadlines on time if I weren’t working with Admissions Gateway. 

Question 9: Lastly, what are you looking forward to next?

I’m looking forward to going back to school. It’s very underrated, but it’s one of the best feelings in the world: being with peers who have similar goals and aspirations. Getting to study all over again is something I’m super excited about. And in general, I love traveling. So it’s going to be a new country, a new culture. So, really excited for that.

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