Sarah Black

MIT, Sloan School of Management

“Aussie BCG consultant with a love of adventure, sunshine, new experiences and guacamole.”

Hometown: Sydney, Australia

Fun Fact About Yourself: As a university student, I had the bright idea of trying to change the oil and gas industry from within. As a result, I accidentally ended up working on an offshore oil rig for over 2 years, (where I was often one of, if not the only, female).

Undergraduate School and Major: University of New South Wales (Australia), Bachelor of Engineering (Petroleum)

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Boston Consulting Group, Consultant

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the school’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? MIT’s MBA program has the breadth, freedom and flexibility for me to chase the topics that best align to my future career goals. I love how Sloan continuously evolves and improves its program to ensure it is focusing on the skillsets its students require in business today and in the future. A great example of this is its focus on analytics and sustainability in business, which are topics I’m keen to pursue.

When you think of MIT, what are the first things that come to mind? How have your experiences with the Sloan program thus far reinforced or upended these early impressions? Inclusive, innovative, and rigorously data-driven. This has been particularly evident in the way MIT, and Sloan in particular, responded to the COVID-19 crisis. The school took its time to consider the options, examine the data, and include everyone in the conversation, before landing on a program format that ensures students will have the best experience possible in the circumstances.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Amazingly friendly and helpful. For current Sloan students and alum, I would say effusive on how much they enjoyed the Sloan experience.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far? I teamed up with WWF-Australia to develop a report that provided a roadmap with tangible, specific actions the Australian government can take to significantly reduce the amount of single-use plastic consumed and leaked into the natural environment.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? After 5 years working at high-speed, deep-in-the-detail of specific problems at hand, an MBA provides an opportunity to step-back, consolidate my learnings and upskill in areas I plan to pursue. As I take on more and more leadership responsibilities in my career, the experiential learning style and immersive community provided by an MBA is an opportunity for me to take risks, to learn from my peers and to better understand my unique leadership style.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Stanford GSB and Berkeley Haas

What was the most impact factor in choosing a business school? How did you evaluate fit according to that factor? I was looking for a positive, life changing experience that went beyond classroom learning. I spoke to alums from many schools and used the degree of enthusiasm and nostalgia with which they spoke about their experience to gauge whether the program was what I was looking for.

DON’T MISS: Meet MIT Sloan’s MBA Class Of 2022