
International Adventure Leads to Amazon
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Sneha clearly isn’t scared of a challenge. She had grown up, attended all levels of school, and started her career in Chennai; when she arrived in Minneapolis in August 2016, it was her first time leaving home.
“I was so inspired by her courage,” says classmate Ashley Ver Burg Soukup, ’18 MBA.
“I think everything is an adventure, and I think that’s how I took this whole experience,” says Sneha, who became interested in studying in the U.S. while working in software development at Verizon and remotely collaborating with American co-workers. “I decided that I would not say no to anything and keep an open mind to new challenges and possibilities.”
Career preparation in the Carlson Brand Enterprise
She got involved with the MBA Association, serving as vice president of international affairs, and held leadership positions in several student organizations, including Carlson 4 Community, Graduate Women in Business, and the Women’s Mentorship Program. She used her time in the Carlson Brand Enterprise—which she calls “the single most valuable thing I’m taking out of this program as a career switcher”—to get comfortable with approaching ambiguous business problems, handling clients, and managing a team.
“It’s given me tremendous hands-on experience with companies that I probably would never have gotten the opportunity to work with otherwise,” she says. “Working with people with experience from different industries and roles in a variety of team dynamics, people who’ve probably done this in the past and people who are trying to figure it out together, led to a holistic learning process and I loved the experience.”
Finding a supportive community
When Sneha showed up for orientation, she encountered a bewildering flood of new information. So, last summer—in the midst of her Amazon internship—she decided to write emails to the incoming group of international students to prep them on concepts like networking strategies, STAR stories, and more.
“I think for someone who’s never been out of the country, a new place, having to figure everything out, and plus being an international student doesn’t make it easy,” she says.
But she’s keen to stress her gratitude for the support she’s found in her program, including classmates who have hosted her for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and helped her in a variety of endeavors.
“I think the community has been so welcoming,” she says. “It’s a great support system.”