From Mumbai to West Haven to Scottsdale: International Student Finds MBA Program Is Her Ticket to Success

By 2016, Swetha Rajasekaran ’20 MBA already had some impressive finance experience under her belt. In her home country of India, she was a wealth management and business analyst for Credit Suisse, following a stint at KPMG.

"I had great learning and exposure to the financial industry while working for a Big 4 company and an international bank," she explained. "But I wanted to build on that learning and earn a management degree. I believed this would boost my career goals and aid in self-development."

That’s when she learned about the University of New Haven.

"I was intrigued by the MBA program that the University offered," she said. "It was a perfect but rare combination of what I wanted to pursue — finance and analytics together."

The University’s proximity to New York, the financial hub of the U.S., particularly appealed to Rajasekaran. Discovering that the program’s Financial Analytics concentration was STEM-designated were the clincher, she said. She quickly decided that the University of New Haven was where she wanted to be.

"Communication is the key when it comes to interviews, and I feel the networking events hosted by the University of New Haven, helped me tremendously."Swetha Rajasekaran ’20 MBA

Once she got to West Haven and became immersed in the program, she found even more to like.

"The courses offered great variety and focused on topics such as corporate finance, managerial accounting, statistical modeling, strategic management, and economics for managers," she enthused. "It also gave me an opportunity to learn, and work with, analytics tools such as R, SQL, and Tableau, which was helpful in transitioning to the business analytics world.

"I had an opportunity to work with an actual client, as well, which gave me a sense of industry standards and requirements," Rajasekaran added. Her professors brought even more value to the program. According to Rajasekaran, they were some of the finest she had ever come across, supporting and guiding her all the way through the program.

‘The networking events helped me tremendously’

Rajasekarana received her degree in January 2020 and immediately began applying for positions.

"I never lifted my foot off the pedal," she said. "I just kept applying to jobs all around the country."

Over the winter, she received a call from CVS Health in Scottsdale, Arizona, for a position as a senior analytics consultant.

"I had four rounds of interviews with my manager and senior director, all by phone," she said, explaining that the coronavirus pandemic precluded flying out to Arizona for an in-person interview. In March, CVS offered her the position, and she has since relocated to the Southwest.

"The courses offered great variety and focused on topics."Swetha Rajasekaran ’20 MBA

"Communication is the key when it comes to interviews, and I feel the networking events hosted by the University of New Haven, helped me tremendously."

In the end, COVID-19 also had something to say about her start date at CVS. Not when she started, but where. She’s been working from home since her first day on the job. In the final analysis, she’s exactly where she wants to be — working for an innovative, nationally renowned company, doing what she loves to do best.

Her advice to future graduates? "Don’t lose hope if you don’t get a job before you graduate. It took me two months to land a job after I graduated. Keep trying, and make use of the networking events at the University."

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