Alumni Speak: Nikhil Pande

For our Alumni Speak Series this week, we interacted with our GMBA Alumnus from the 2010 batch, Nikhil Pande. Principal Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), he shares with us his personal experience during his time at S P Jain. Excerpts from the interactions are as described below.

Nikhil began to share with us on what made him choose an MBA, no less a Global MBA as the most appropriate way to progress in his career. He proceeded to mention how further studies had always been on something that was at the back of his mind, the change in the global economy post 2008, was really the push that made him consider it seriously. “I had the qualifications and experience which were too ‘common’ – an Engineering Degree in Computer Science and work experience in the IT Industry. And then came the financial crisis of 2008 which had an impact on all sectors, including IT. The thought process was to leave the job sector temporarily, invest time and money in a course that would assist me to upgrade my knowledge base and join back the work force when there are better opportunities”, Nikhil remarked.

This decision, Nikhil pointed out, was followed by rigorous research for the right business school and a program that provided him the edge in the market. Nikhil pointed, “I found the GMBA program at S P Jain to be the perfect fit to fast track my career. The structure of the program takes a person out of their comfort zone, whether its public speaking or in-depth study of subjects in which you have no prior knowledge or background”.

During our interaction, Nikhil reminisced about how the course impacted his career. He mentioned how some courses which seemed at the time to be really abstract like Interpersonal and Organisational Dynamics, and Emerging Perspectives, but were actually practical and applicable in real life. “The composition of the batch too was diverse with experience ranging from 3 to over 10 years in different domains. This diversity had a huge impact on the quality of discussions that were held in classrooms on varied topics. I remember instances where people’s opinion on a topic were poles apart and that’s what made the entire experience all the more interesting and exciting,” he added enthusiastically.

Nikhil Pande is now part of the Big 4 network, adding the Consulting domain as his primary area of expertise. With enhanced skillset and the qualifications that opened up varied opportunities, he gleefully adds, “The overall experience has been extremely satisfying. I had ample opportunities to work on challenging projects which has now enabled me to grow both professionally and personally”.

We are immensely pleased to hear Nikhil’s success story and look forward to many other occasions to share his future accomplishments.