By Pooja Bansal

Pursuing a stable and growing career with a big management consulting firm in Mumbai, India, it was a difficult yet necessary choice to do a Master’s program. I always was very keen on pursuing higher studies and enhancing my skill set. When the learning curve started plateauing at work, I started investing my evenings in GRE preparation and grad school research. Learning of my admission to the University of Rochester was a very memorable day for me; I had received admits from a few other schools as well, but after extensive deliberation, I was convinced that the MS in TEAM Program at UR was the most aligned with my career goals. 

Two months later – with all the visa processing and packing done – I took my first ever international flight to the States, with eyes shining bright with so many dreams. Before joining the school, I completed a summer program in Strategic Management at Stanford, where learned about utilization of Global Strategic Thinking (GST) tools and published an article on the utilization of GST tools in the supply chain industry.

I started school at the University of Rochester in the Fall of 2017. On my first day, I met the MS TEAM program advisor, Andrea Barrett, with whom I had been in constant touch during the admission phase. She is, and has been, an extremely supportive and helpful advisor one could ever ask for. I had my first very entertaining plus informative week with an amazingly diverse group of classmates and an illustrious faculty.

At UR, I pursued the 3-semester curriculum with the summer internship track. The overall program was very well structured. With a perfect blend of both entrepreneurial sessions and technical classes, I found the program to be very conducive to my growth objectives. MS in TEAM not only helped me gain knowledge in the entrepreneurship and the technical domain (my technical concentration was Data Science), but it also gave me necessary exposure to the right group of people within industry and academia. I also got a chance to take part and represent the school for multiple business competitions during my course duration of 18 months.

Right from the beginning, I got a great deal of support and guidance from the staff throughout my MS journey. Kathy Driscoll, who works with students in the TEAM program on career placement, played a crucial role assisting me in designing my approach to network in the industry.

MS TEAM certainly has been a great conversation starter for me in any out-of-school setting. Even during the interviews, recruiters had always been curious to know more about this program and were left impressed by its offering. In short, this program helped me gain a very unique skill set in a well-designed way.

Today, I’m working in a reputed management consulting company as an Analytics Consultant. I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to pursue the MS TEAM program, and I’ll forever be a happy TEAM alumna!

Pooja Bansal ’18 (MS) is an Analytics Consultant at Mu Sigma based in Atlanta, GA. She works with the Decision Analytics team for the world’s largest home improvement retailer. Just a few of her many responsibilities are to perform data analytics, obtain findings, and present insights to leadership. She graduated with an MS degree from the University of Rochester in Technical Entrepreneurship and Management in December 2018. While maintaining a great academic record, she also represented UR at various business and analytics competitions.

Originally from a town called Chandigarh in India, she completed her undergraduate studies in Electronics and Communications Engineering in 2013 and worked for 4.5 years as a management consultant before coming to the States. Pooja’s enthusiasm and structured approach to things has always helped her find her way. She is a lover of sushi, road trips and theater, and holds causes like climate change and UNICEF close to her heart. You can reach Pooja at pooja.bansal@outlook.com and/or connect with her on LinkedIn.