Name: Garima Narang
Class: 2022
Hometown: Thousand Oaks, CA
Career Interests: Management Consulting, Technology
After starting her career at General Electric and then co-founding an Indian food meal kit and restaurant company, Garima Narang (Anderson, ‘22) decided to pursue her MBA to further her skillset and become a stronger business leader. Garima chose to enroll at UCLA Anderson, where she appreciated the culture, the career resources, and the location on the west coast. During our interview, Garima spoke about her decision to pursue an MBA, why she has enjoyed UCLA Anderson, and her advice to prospective MBA students.
MBASchooled: What did you do before business school, and why did you choose to come to business school?
Before business school, I worked as an engineer for General Electric then co-founded the company Fresh Curry Chefs, an Indian food meal kit and restaurant company. Through my work experience — from designing, selling, and servicing gas turbine power plants to leading product and business development and growth — I found a passion for challenging, high-impact work. I decided to come to business school because I wanted to build a toolkit of frameworks and build my business acumen to succeed as a leader.
MBASchooled: Why did you choose to attend Anderson?
I chose to attend Anderson based on 3 factors: location, cultural fit, and class profile. I grew up about an hour away from LA and have lived all over the country for college and work, so I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to live. I wasn’t willing to compromise the location of my program because I wanted to start building my personal and professional network in the city I wanted to live in post-graduation and increase my access to academic internship opportunities in the city I studied in.
Second, I knew I wanted to be in a cohort with whom I shared similar values and priorities with, so cultural fit was a pretty big factor for me. When researching programs, I looked for schools that were primarily student-led and emphasized collaboration, mentorship, and a continuous growth mindset. Lastly, I looked at class profile. Aside from using the class average GMAT and GPA statistics to benchmark my scores, I wanted to make sure that the school I chose had a pipeline into the industry I wanted to go into, and that I could utilize the on-campus recruiting resources to attain my post-MBA career goals.
When I was evaluating schools during the application process, UCLA was at the top of my list. Since starting my MBA and going through the internship recruitment process, however, I would also add Administration to my evaluation criteria. I have been extremely impressed with Anderson’s Parker Career Center advisors, and have realized how an experienced and supportive team that is invested in helping students successfully attain their MBA career goals is also important to consider when choosing a program.
MBASchooled: What was your decision process like? (When did you find out, were you considering other schools, when did you make your final decision?)
I wouldn’t recommend this, but I ended up applying to certain schools with Round 1 and other schools with Round 2 deadlines, primarily because I didn’t decide to apply to business school until mid-August, by which time I wasn’t able to take my GMAT in time for some Round 1 applications. I started interviewing in November and finished in early February (for Anderson). I heard back from my first school in December, then had staggering decision releases until March, when I heard back from Anderson. I knew I really wanted to go to Anderson, but I also wanted to go to business school, so I actually had to make a deposit at another school
MBASchooled: What resources were most helpful to making your decision? Did you talk to any people that were especially helpful?
I found school visits and chats with students to be the most helpful when making my decision. Visiting the school gave me insights into student life that surpassed the information on the school’s website because I was able to immerse myself into the program’s offerings. I tried to sit in on classes, talked to students, explored the neighborhood, and even got coffee at the business school cafe — vetting out the caffeine offerings is very important! Even during a 1-2 day visit, you can start to determine whether or not you can see yourself enjoying being a student there and what kinds of clubs and extracurriculars you want to get involved in once starting the program.
MBASchooled: Did you attend any virtual admitted students events? If so, what were those like? Were they helpful?
Yes! I attended several virtually admitted student events. It was helpful to learn more about the curriculum and get an overview of the program, but I felt like I knew most of that information already due to my intensive research process. It was really nice, however, to meet other admitted students and start building out my network before the craziness of the start of fall term–at Anderson, a lot of people end up rooming with students they met at AROW (Admitted Round One Weekend)!
MBASchooled: Now that you’ve been at Anderson for a semester, is there a specific moment or highlight where you felt confident that you made the right decision?
Going through recruitment and receiving an overwhelming level of support from the administration, second years, and my friends and classmates in the program affirmed for me that I had made the right decision to attend Anderson. I truly felt the embodiment of “Shared Success,” one of Anderson’s three pillars of success, as I prepared for interviews–everyone was extremely accessible and eager to provide professional support throughout intensive case preparation and double-digit resume and cover letter iterations. Additionally, though, I felt an immense amount of emotional support and encouragement throughout the process to be crucial to my success (and sanity!).
MBASchooled: Oftentimes, the word “culture” gets thrown around when talking about MBA programs. Can you characterize the culture at Anderson? Can you share an example of an experience that you think personifies what this means?
The culture at Anderson is underpinned by its emphasis on collaboration, mentorship, and opportunities for growth. Every class has significant team-based assignments and a large portion of recruitment preparation is done in groups, so almost everything you do is very collaborative. This structure not only helps students refine their teamwork, leadership, and communication skills, but creates a camaraderie amongst the class that I’ve experienced even in the virtual environment. The second distinctive characteristic of the culture at Anderson is mentorship. All of the clubs and a lot of the career and interview preparation programs are led by second years, who, in addition to the advisors at Parker, offer a lot of mentorship to first years. I’ve received a measurable amount of career advice and support from formal and informal mentors in my Anderson network, and am excited to be able give back as a second year by coaching and advising future MBA students and first years.
MBASchooled: What’s something you wish you knew more about before starting your MBA at Anderson?
Something I wish I’d known before starting my MBA was how important it is to be organized and set priorities for myself. It seems like from the moment the program starts, there are hundreds of different club events, competitions, workshops, and company events that are all competing for your time and attention.
MBASchooled: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give to recently admitted MBA students about how to make the best possible admissions decision?
My biggest piece of advice to recently admitted students is to really take some time to introspect and figure out exactly what you want out of business school. I think a lot of people expect business school to be a time to “figure things out” or a productive way to party for a couple years before getting back to the “real world.” There are definitely a LOT of opportunities for personal development if you take the course work seriously and get involved in the school’s activities and extracurriculars, but starting business school is like drinking from a firehose. There is SO much to do and such little time, so you have to be calculated about where you want to invest your time based on what you want to get out of your experience.
I came into school thinking I wanted to be a product manager in tech, but I ended up finding a passion for consulting work and switching career tracks halfway through fall term. While I was able to make this switch and successfully get an internship for the summer, it was really hard to keep up with all of the commitments I had signed up for when I was keeping my options open, and even more difficult to catch up on all the work I’d missed before choosing my track. There’s a really good chance that you’ll get to school and realize you want to do something very different from what you intended to come for, and that is completely okay — part of the journey is figuring that out! — but by being retrospective about career non-negotiables and intentional about how you want to spend your time you’re really going to make the most of this amazing experience.