Duke Fuqua MBA Starts Samsung Career

Duke Fuqua MBA Shruti Gangwal, who just graduated in May, is beginning a role at an electronics giant this fall: Samsung. After spending the summer in India with her family, Gangwal will be moving to Seoul in September as an internal consultant (although she has never even been to Seoul before!).

 

Before attending Fuqua, Gangwal worked at Bain & Company for about four years in a variety of roles including analyst, associate and project leader. After Bain, she said she decided to get her MBA because she wanted to try new things and gain a more holistic view of business. Here, Gangwal fills us in on her exciting new role at Samsung and the fun, collaborative atmosphere of the Duke Fuqua campus!

 

Firstly, it’s a very student-run college. Students take initiative and try to do a variety of things, so that was a very big seller to me. Duke is quite global: about 30 to 35 per cent of people are international students and there are many opportunities to global projects at Duke. The final reason is that I’ve known people who have studied at Duke before and just by talking with them and hearing their experiences made me believe that, yes, this is the right place for me.

 

I am moving to Seoul, South Korea to start working fulltime with Samsung. I start work in September. I will be a part of the global strategy group there: my role will be providing internal consulting support to different parts of Samsung. I definitely gained this opportunity through Duke. I came to know about the role from different alumni who are in that role now and in Seoul and also on-campus presentations and different recruiting activities on-campus.

 

In terms of a long-term goal, I would like to head the strategy division of a tech or consumer goods company. I am open to working in America, Europe, Asia, wherever. Despite moving to Seoul this fall, I have never been to Seoul before. The only information I have about Seoul is from the Duke alumni that are working there now. The good thing is that since Duke is quite global, there were quite a few of my classmates from Korea who helped me to understand what Korean culture is like.

 

There is a formal career services department, which is quite fantastic. They take care of all recruiting activities happening on campus, reaching out to alumni, inviting them to campus, collaborating with different colleges other than Duke; they also provide a lot of support by listening to students and guiding them in terms of mock interviews and cover letter reviews right from day one.

 

There also many professional clubs on campus, like the general management club, the finance club, etc. They are mostly run by second-years who provide a lot of guidance to the first-years informally. In my second year, I was co-president of the general management club, which was one of the highlights of my Fuqua experience. It gave me great leadership experience in terms of managing corporate relations and managing finances and technical aspects.

 

The atmosphere is amazing. The best thing about Fuqua is the people: they are very lively, friendly, collaborative. People are just amazing friends with each other and people are helping each other in terms of recruitment. There are also a lot of informal clubs on campus like wine club, beer club, tennis club, sports clubs, etc. Then there is Fuqua Friday every Friday where everyone on campus gets together for a lot of food, beer, people interacting with each other.