Waqas Rehman

University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business

“I’m very curious as a person, and love getting to know different people.”

Hometown: Islamabad, Pakistan

Fun Fact About Yourself: I speak 3 languages fluently

Undergraduate School and Major: NUST, Islamabad – Economics

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: AliBaba Group, Regional Manager – Insights

What makes Austin such a great place to earn an MBA? Austin is an extremely lively city. The school is situated in the heart of central Austin, which gives you a lot of opportunities to socialize and experience ‘big city’ activities. At the same time, it’s not a city that has sprawled out too much, and commute times are quite bearable.

Austin is young. As an MBA student, I love being in a city where most people are my age. It’s fun to always have good live music shows playing and outdoor activities happening, so there’s never a time you’d feel bored.

I had heard a lot about ‘southern hospitality’, but Austin has gone beyond my expectations in that aspect. It is part of the culture here to be forthcoming and talk to everyone around you – whether that’s a few sentences of shared frustration with a stranger at a sports bar when Manning’s throws don’t connect, or a friendly shopper at the local HEB helping you choose between different brands of pastas. The community is extremely friendly and definitely the highlight of the city.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Texas McCombs’ MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? McCombs places a lot of emphasis on the experiential component of learning. An MBA, to me, is not about the theories discussed in the confines of a classroom. The true value of the learnings is when you work with companies in real life to apply them in business situations.

Aside from industry-specific opportunities, McCombs+ and the fellowships give you that avenue. I’m particularly excited about the Operations Fellowship, in which you work together with different teams every week on a new business case, and deliver your insights to the actual company facing the situation.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Texas McCombs? It would be the Operations Fellowship for its experiential component and the facetime you get with firms. I would add the McCombs Ambassador Committee for an opportunity to be better connected with the upcoming class and play a role in helping applicants get to their ideal business school. Lastly, I plan to participate in Board Fellows, as I’ll get to work with a local nonprofit and better integrate myself into Austin and earn my stripes in being a member of the community.

When you think of the University of Texas, what word comes to mind? Why? Camaraderie.

The essence of the UT culture is to be there for one another. The people here are very supportive and collaborative, and that to me is the best part of the university.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I was the youngest senior manager at Nielsen, across a 100+ country network. Landing the role, and then performing well at it, was definitely the highlight of my career so far.

Looking ahead two years, what would make your MBA experience at McCombs successful? My experience at McCombs is already successful, just based off the people I have connected with. These are friendships I expect to stay with me for life.

From a professional perspective, I’d love to take my career forward into management consulting, and breaking into the industry post-MBA would be my ideal path.

DON’T MISS: MEET THE TEXAS MCCOMBS MBA CLASS OF 2027

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