Ready to Tackle the Global Corporate Environment
Senior Technical Program Manager, Intuit
Ambika Sahay Verma chose a Stuart dual-degree program to gain the right combination of skills and hands-on experiences to launch her on a career path into tech company management.
Ambika Sahay Verma (M.B.A./M.P.A. ’22)Before moving from the United Kingdom to Chicago to begin the Master of Business Administration/Master of Public Administration dual-degree program at Stuart School of Business, Ambika Sahay Verma worked at Jaguar Land Rover on a team implementing the General Data Protection Regulation across the company.
“That [project] got me interested in understanding the public sector,” Sahay Verma says. “I also wanted to take on more managerial roles with a long-term career plan of getting to the C-suite of a tech company, so Stuart’s dual-degree program seemed the best way to build the right skill sets to reach my goals. It also helped that this is a business program at a tech-focused school, so I will have a strong analytical base once I graduate.”
“Most of the projects for courses in both the M.B.A. and the M.P.A. programs allowed us to pick a current company and work on something that would aid our future careers,” she adds. For example one group project involved analyzing the strategic plan of a nonprofit youth development organization in Chicago, interviewing the nonprofit’s CEO, and then creating a new strategic plan that was used by the organization.
Sahay Verma says that career readiness courses at Stuart played a key role in preparing her for the application and interview process that landed her a summer internship in 2021 at financial software and services company Intuit, which led to an offer for a full-time position at the company.
She built on her internship experience in her M.B.A. capstone project course. “I got to create a digital transformation strategy for Intuit, which is where I will be working after graduation as a technical program manager in the cybersecurity, risk, compliance, and fraud prevention unit,” she says. “It gave me a chance to learn more about the organization and connect with a people across the company, not just the team I’ll be working in.”
“The Stuart School gives you a strong base of skills to tackle the global corporate environment,” Sahay Verma says. “This school has helped shape me into who I am today—a competent professional who has a lot to offer to the world.”
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