Full-time MBA | Jeetendra Khilnani

• Hometown
  Mumbai, India
• Undergraduate
  School: University of Mumbai
  Major: Financial Accounting & Auditing
• Previous Company
  Nomura, Corporate Finance
• Summer Internship
  Boston Consulting Group
• Specializations at Stern
  Finance, Strategy
• Student Clubs
  OutClass, Co-President
  Management Consulting Association, VP of Corporate Relations
  Graduate Finance Association, VP of International Recruiting
  Stern Student Government, VP of International Students
  South Asian Business Association at Stern, VP of Community

It's a tie between "Difficult Conversations" and "Collaboration, Conflict & Negotiation". I am terrible at both confrontation and negotiation and both these classes really enriched my personal skill set, especially as I embark on a new career path where these skills will be vital to my success.

It is almost unbelievable that Stern has such a strong and tight-knit community. Coming in, I had all sorts of misconceptions about how Stern would be a cut-throat environment given that it's in the heart of New York. But I've been proven wrong a million times over, mostly due to the incredibly collaborative and supportive nature of people which makes for a diverse, open, loving community who would support you through all your ups and downs.

An example of this would be - the night before a big final round interview, I was panicking and made a call to a classmate who took 20 minutes of their time just to calm my nerves and bring me back to a stable state where I could continue to prepare and rest well before the big day.

Planning, organizing and attending Passport Day. It has and will always be one of my defining moments at Stern when we were able to bring 30+ countries that our classmates and friends come from and try their food, learn about their cultures and also enjoy some local music and dance performances. And, I danced to a Bollywood number!

One of my Stern buddies in the program gave me some very valuable advice to prepare before school. He said, "You'll have enough time to prepare and sharpen your technical skills when you get here, but for now, just work on your communication skills and see if you can hold a conversation with someone from a different nationality, background, etc. for twenty minutes. This will be a big help to you in the USA's networking-heavy recruiting culture."

I chose NYU Stern for its people. Through my research, every single Sternie I spoke to was warm, kind and incredibly helpful, which spoke to the school's IQ + EQ focus!

During the advanced stages of recruiting, I got a call at 11AM from a firm I was recruiting with, saying their Managing Director was looking to meet me in person, but he only had availability at 1pm. He was willing to do Zoom, but was really hoping to meet me in person. Now imagine getting this call when you're anywhere else but NYC.

So many people have taught me so many things - I could honestly write a book on this! But most importantly, MBA2s have been an incredible resource as well as an inspiration to do more, achieve more and give back more.

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