My Journey to an MBA at the Olin Business School

Astha Bhatnagar is an MBA student at the Olin Business School. Read more about what motivated Astha to pursue an MBA, and some of her own career aspirations.

MBASchooled: What did you do before business school, and why did you choose to get an  MBA? 

My mother once made me promise I wasn’t going to run off to Syria with the UN just to end up dying, trying to save others. She was serious. 

But after constantly feeling like the only thing that really motivates me is helping people, I learned the hard way that sometimes it’s not enough, and it’s not through  always running after a single cause or helping that one person you saw on the street – It’s about scaling. “How many people would it help if I did this?” 

That’s why I wanted to come to business school. I needed to learn how to grow things  in a way that helps me magnify any kind of impact I’m trying to have. Solving  problems that could make things easier for people I may never even get to meet. An MBA gives me the knowledge, tools, and training to place myself in a stronger  position to now really run after the same “I need to help people” instinct that drives  me – without making my mother cry. 

MBASchooled: What’s one goal you have for yourself that you want to achieve before you graduate  from business school? 

The one thing I want to achieve before I graduate from B-school is to understand what  type of leader I would want to be in the future.  

There are many styles of leadership and business school is a great way to experiment,  learn more and reinvent yourself. So far, I’ve had the chance to work with incredible  sets of people, both in school and outside of it, and each experience was a new  learning curve – about myself. What I can do, what I want to do, what I want to  change, how I want to lead, who am I on a team, etc. These are some of the types of  questions I ask myself every day while trying to figure out where I stand.  I know what kind of person I am, but by the time I walk out those school doors this  spring, I want to know what I can do and where I’d fit best to complete a new puzzle. 

MBASchooled: What is the most important lesson that you’ve learned in your career so far? 

Many times in my life, I was told to figure out what I want or lectured, time and  again, about the importance of being “focused”. This made me feel like maybe I really 

didn’t know what I wanted and caused a lot of internal anxiety – “Am I not dedicated  enough? Am I half-hearted? Am I not serious?” 

I joke that I’m a really greedy person, but lately I’ve realized that that’s actually true. The most important lesson I’ve learned so far is the importance of being greedy about  constantly learning new things. It’s great to know what you want to do or to go after  just one thing but, sometimes, you really just can be flexible and go after a lot of  different things at the same time – and that’s okay! Go after it – all of it! And don’t  stop! Cause the day you stop evolving, you’re history. 

This may not be for everyone but the importance of constantly challenging yourself  and accepting new things – whether they’re different projects or even just listening to  a friend talk about something you thought you would never be interested in – pays  off. “Focus on 1 thing” is overrated and is not always equal to dedication – Own your  greed. 

MBASchooled: Who is someone who you admire or look up to for career guidance or advice, and  why? 

Jess Weiner.  I would say I admire a lot of people, but she is a brilliant person I met this summer who just  makes a lot of sense to me. She’s someone who doesn’t come from your traditional business  or science related background and has degrees that often get thought of as not being very  useful. 

Yet what her understated LinkedIn profile won’t tell you is that she’s a trusted advisor  for many top brands like AT&T, Mattel and Unilever, etc., and has been instrumental in  defining cultural change with a focus on helping not just the brands understand and  represent inclusivity better but also help people get creative about their own wellbeing. 

I really admire her ability to have understood the value of her own strengths, turning it  around to help others with it in a hard space like business, while still staying humble, approachable, and positive.