Skip to main content

Interview with Kavita Singh(Columbia MBA Alumnus)

Columbia Business School
Women MBA

F1GMAT: Tell us a little bit about yourself

Kavita Singh: I have grown up and lived all over the world: Calcutta, Dubai, Delhi, Oxford, London and New York. It was a great experience and has shaped who I am quite fundamentally.

I am extremely passionate about innovation, and have spent my entire career in new product and new business development. I was lucky to have discovered my passion early on in my career and realized that as long as you follow what you are passionate about, you are much more likely to be successful in whatever you do. It also made me realize that as your interests develop, you should ensure you let both you and your career evolve with it. We now have the opportunity to make multiple career shifts in our lives, but the common link between those shifts should be what you are most passionate about. I have worked across several different industries – confectionary, personal care, healthcare and education -  but the common thread across all of those was innovation.

I have found that an MBA lets you make those career shifts and changes because it helps you develop the skills and thinking you will need to in order to do so.

F1GMAT: What motivated you to do an MBA?

Kavita Singh: I had been thinking about whether or not I wanted to do an MBA for some time. At the time I was working for one of the leading marketing strategy consulting firms in India and we were discussing a role wherein I would open and run a new office for them in one of two potential locations. The option was extremely attractive and would have given me the entrepreneurial and general management experience I was looking for.

However in the end I decided to do an MBA because I really wanted to get global experience and round out my skill set. Also, I wanted to move over to the client side and I saw an MBA as a great bridge to do so.

F1GMAT: What are some of the biggest takeaways from your MBA Experience?

Kavita Singh: For me, the biggest take away is the network I made. It’s a network of close friends, colleagues, and acquaintances and potential peers, advisors, and investors. I walked away with a great set of friends who all act as informal advisors to me and even now I continue to build more contacts through the Columbia network, which is extremely supportive.

When they say your time at Business School is ‘2 years as a student and a lifetime as an alumni’, it is something that really rings true for me.

F1GMAT: Only top candidates are selected to Columbia Business School. What were some of the strategies that you followed for getting admission to Columbia Business School?

Kavita Singh: When I visited the Columbia Business School campus, I fell completely in love with it and knew that it was the school I wanted to go. I came back and thought rationally about what I really wanted out of an MBA program and Columbia was the only school that fit all my requirements perfectly. So I decided that I was going to apply to Columbia – and that was the only school I applied to. As you can imagine, that made it really easy to answer the ‘Why MBA and Why Columbia Business School’ question.

In thinking about my application, I thought about my strength, talents, and weaknesses. Most importantly I thought about what made me unique as an applicant and what would set me apart from other applicants. I then focused on demonstrating this to the admissions committee through my resume and essays. The important point here is ‘demonstrate’ – I made sure I followed the ‘show rather than tell’ principle so that the admissions committee could really understand my strengths and differentiating factors.

F1GMAT: How important was your Pre-MBA experience in the MBA Admissions process?

Kavita Singh: My Pre-MBA experience helped me in two ways. Firstly, and most importantly it helped me clarify my goals. Had I not had a sense of where I wanted to go in the future, it would have been hard for me to figure out why I needed an MBA and what type of program would be best suited to me. When I refer to my goals, I don’t just mean my immediate post MBA goals but also what I was looking to do about 8-10 years after I graduated. Since I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur eventually, I ensured that I focused on developing my skills and experience in this area.

Secondly, my Pre-MBA helped me to differentiate myself from other applicants and to show the school how I could bring a unique perspective to the classroom.

F1GMAT: Is there a myth about MBA programs that you want to break?

Kavita Singh: Yes, the biggest myth is that as long as you go to a top brand name school that’s all that matters. I don’t intend to suggest that brand is unimportant; in fact I think it is very important. What applicants should think is what make one top brand different to the other and which one is best suited to you. I have close friends and colleagues who studied across the top 10 MBA schools globally and while most of them were happy with their choice, several people did realize they had chosen the wrong school.

F1GMAT: On looking back, were there any classes or activities in your MBA that haves helped you with the day to day operations of your Business?

Kavita Singh: There were specific classes that have been extremely helpful such as corporate finance, negotiations, turnaround management and new product development. However as I look back now, it has been less about the specific classes and rather more about the way an MBA program make you think about and view both a problem or an opportunity and potential solutions.

Being in a class with people from multiple difficult professional backgrounds and countries makes you think about how to view things from multiple perspectives and helps you to hone and adapt your own approach. At university, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, I believe you learn as much or even more from your classmates than from your professors.

F1GMAT: How important are MBA Application Essays and Interview in the MBA Admissions process?

Kavita Singh: They are critical.  I think a lot of people still think it’s really a lot about their grades and GMAT. While your grades are GMAT score are not unimportant, you will generally be competing with applicants of a similar capability. So your application essays and interview are your opportunity to demonstrate your skills, what makes you unique and why you would be a strong candidate for that particular school.

F1GMAT: What advice would you give to recent MBA graduates?

Kavita Singh: My advice would be to look beyond the regular companies that come to campus and look for opportunities that may not be typical ‘MBA jobs’. There are a number of companies that don’t recruit from Business Schools but do have great positions for MBA graduates. After Business School, I joined M&M/Mars who did recruit MBA graduates, but did not have a regular Business School recruiting strategy. I managed to get in touch with them by using my network of alumni contacts and in fact found two Columbia Alumni at the company. Had I just focused on campus recruiting I would have missed out on this opportunity, which turned out to be one of the best jobs I have ever had,

F1GMAT: Is an MBA worth the investment?

Kavita Singh: For me, it was. I knew what I wanted to get out of the program, spent time assessing whether that was realistic and hence was not disappointed. However, I have see that often people do not spend enough time thinking about their return on investment (ROI) to see if it is really worth it for them.  So what should you do?

First, estimate investment. This will include the cost of tuition, living expenses, travel expenses, any salary forgone, any interest on loans minus any scholarships or financial incentives offered. Be sure to create at least 2 possible scenarios – one where you get a job immediately after graduating and another where you have to wait for several months. In the second scenario, your costs could increase by as much as 5%.

Calculating your return is much harder to do and requires you to do your research thoroughly.  You need to try to estimate your starting salary as well as your future earning potential. For the universities you are considering, ask questions such as:

• What are the average starting salaries and placement statistics for the types of jobs I am looking for?. Don’t just look at overall averages.

• What are the average starting salaries and placement statistics in ‘boom’ years vs. ‘recession’ years?  Calculate your ROI under an optimistic scenario and a pessimistic scenario to ensure that you can justify the costs even if the economy goes south.

• Dig deep and understand what the starting salaries and placement statistics are for international students vs. domestic students. Are there differences? Why? Is it harder for international students to get jobs in a specific industry? To what extent do salaries and placement statistics for international students change in ‘boom’ vs. recession years? What are alumni doing 5 years, 10 years, 15 years after graduation?

• What are the average salaries increases alumni experience over 5 years, 10 years, 15 years? Look at the jobs/industries you are considering, not just broad averages.

• If you are considering coming back to India at some point, understand what your earning potential will be in India? What have retuning alumni experienced?

If you are considering going to a lower-tier university mainly because it costs less, then determine to what extent your ‘return’ will be affected. Make sure the type of companies you want to work with come to campus. Find out how big the alumni base is, how active is it and whether there are alumni in the type of jobs and industries you are interested in. Alumni connections can be critical to help you land jobs that are not advertised or don’t come to campus.

It’s not only about the numbers though. Going to Columbia Business School was one of the best experiences of my life – I got to live in New York and made lifelong friends from all over the world. Think about how valuable these intangible things are to you and factor them in when you are making your decision.


About Kavita Singh

Kavita Singh has over 13 years of experience working in the U.S. and India. Kavita is the CEO of FutureWorks Consulting. She is an MBA graduate of Columbia Business School and holds a BA (Hons) from Oxford University. She has worked for leading companies such as Mars, Colgate-Palmolive and Web MD at higher management and consulting roles.Kavita writes for elite publications like the Hindustan Times

Winning MBA Essay Guide - A Complete Guide for M7 and Top 15 MBA Application Essays 


F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay guide will teach you how to transform your essay into a life journey with trials and tribulations that will move the admission team.

+ Over 245 Sample Essays (Read Previews of F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide Sample Essays here)

+ Top 15 MBA Programs (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Yale, Haas, Darden, INSEAD, LBS, NYU Stern, Tuck, Duke Fuqua, Ross)
+ The Art of Storytelling 
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
 
 

Want to try the individual school Essay Guides before upgrading to the Winning MBA Essay Guide? Try below.

F1GMAT's Essay Guides

  • Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)

    Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words) 

    Example #1: Persistence Narrative 
    Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.  
    Curiosity: Philosophy  
    Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.  
    MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.  
    Theme: Persistence  
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example) 

    Example #2: International Community Building 
    Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community. 
    MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #3: Culture
    Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
    Theme: Culture
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #4: Addiction
    Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
    Theme: Addiction
    MBA Essay Strategy:  My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #5: Scarcity
    Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
    Theme: Innovation
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)

    Example #6: FinTech
    Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening. 
    Theme: Education, Child Welfare
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #7: Learning from the best
    Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
    Theme: Learning
    MBA Essay Strategy:  The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
    Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
    Theme: Career Choice
    MBA Essay Strategy:  I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
     
    Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)

    Example #9: Small Business Values
    Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
    Theme: Customer-Centric
    MBA Essay Strategy:  The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers. 
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
    Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
    Theme: Authenticity  
    MBA Essay Strategy:  For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded. 
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #11: Creativity and Communication 
    Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance. 
    Theme: Creativity, Communication
    MBA Essay Strategy:  The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #12: Mental Health
    Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
    Theme: Communication, Innovation
    MBA Essay Strategy:  A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life. 
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
    Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
    Theme: Resilience
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
    Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.  
    Theme: Failure
    MBA Essay Strategy:  For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
    Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her. 
    Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
    MBA Essay Strategy:  I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)

    Example #16: Creative or Finance
    Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views. 
    Theme: Passion, Talent
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.  
    Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)

  • Stanford MBA Essay Guide (24 Sample Essays)
  • Columbia MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
  • Wharton MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
  • INSEAD MBA Essay Guide (19 Sample Essays)
  • Darden MBA Essay Guide  (21 Sample Essays) 
  • Yale SOM MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
  • Tuck MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
  • Haas MBA Essay Guide (18 Sample Essays)
  • NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays + 6 Examples - Visual Essay)
  • LBS MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Essays)
  • MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Cover Letters + 3 Sample Video Statement Scripts + 3 Sample Optional Essays)
  • Kellogg MBA Essay Guide (11 Sample Essays)
  • Chicago Booth MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
  • Ross MBA Essay Guide (31 Sample Essays)
  • Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Guide (10 Sample Essays + Two 25 Random Things Samples)
  • Cambridge MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)

Want to read the Essay Examples before purchasing the Essay Guides? 

Not sure if an MBA Program is right for you? See our Premium Research.

F1GMAT Premium

Salary Trends (3 Years): 

Do you want to work with the expert consultant who has guided applicants to M7 and T20 MBA admissions?  Sign up now!

F1GMAT's Services 

Get Exclusive Events, Advice and Trends in your Inbox 

Get Exclusive Essay Tips (scholarship and application), Salary, and industry trends straight to your inbox!