Three years ago, Harshil Cherukuri made the decision to leave his country India, and move to Canada to pursue his MBA. We recently sat down with Harshil to learn more about his MBA journey.

In 2012, after completing his Bachelor of Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications degree from University of Mumbai, Harshil knew that “working at a company like Nokia made text-book sense”. Therefore, he stepped into the role of Quality Specialist at HERE, a Nokia Company based in Mumbai, India. “Within a week, I was asked to join this internal management consulting team of four people who would go around the company, assess problems in various departments and provide solutions with an operations management or process improvement perspective,” Harshil recalls. “So, [essentially] I was using my engineering degree background to solve management problems.”

After three years with HERE, Harshil realized it was important for someone in his position to understand the inner workings of management in order to provide the departments with sound advice. The way he saw it, he had two choices: he could switch positions within the company or he could pursue his MBA.

In 2015, he came to Canada to start his MBA journey at SFU. “Pursuing an MBA definitely strengthened my goals and my professional profile when it came to approaching what I wanted to do, which was consulting. It challenged me to think from the different perspectives of different people in an organization, whether it was HR, Finance, Operations, or Marketing. I learned that an action taken from one department could affect other departments, which is something I could not have understood without this program.”

Always on the lookout for opportunities where he can bring operations and innovation management together to solve every-day problems, Harshil knew that consulting was where he could utilize his strengths. “As a consultant, you are not necessarily hand holding or telling people what to do, you are advising them with a fresh perspective. You can then step out of that role and let the folks you have consulted with take the reins and go ahead with the new insight you have provided. That is the facet of consulting that really appeals to me.”

Deeply valuing the importance of engagement during his time at Beedie, Harshil made sure to get involved in extracurriculars. “I was the Director of Academic Outreach at Net Impact and my job was to try and influence professors to adopt sustainability courses in their programs by incorporating the topic of sustainability into their day-to-day lectures. Through this, my learning for sustainability improved a lot. At the beginning, when I saw all these colored baskets outside classrooms, I did not understand why Vancouver was so into the whole sustainability initiative. Eventually, I connected more with the city’s goals and with the sustainability initiative.”

As an international student, Harshil was quick to note that in Canada, networking drove a lot of the job search, whereas, in India, networking was not the main source for job hunting. Harshil realized he did not have a big network to rely on to help connect him with leaders in the industry he wanted to work in. He knew he needed to get started, so he turned to the CMC for help.

“The first person I turned to was Doug. I told him what I wanted to do and he put me in touch with many people in the industry. Networking was difficult to start but easy to sustain, and the CMC was helpful in this aspect. Mentors in Business (MiB) was another important tool in my arsenal. I was matched with the Director of Operations at Kodak. Through his mentorship, I learned a lot about the industry and I met many people who, in the long run, helped me determine where my focus should be directed post-graduation."

After completing his MBA, Harshil was not ready to let go of books just yet. He decided to pursue a PMP and was awarded the designation earlier this year. He wants to continue learning and is grateful that his current organization, PHSA, also sees the value in continuous learning.

”They are currently encouraging me to pursue the Certified Risk Management designation. I am the Manager of Risk Management, and they feel it would be beneficial for me to do that.”

Harshil is grateful for the various opportunities presented by Beedie for engagement outside of the classroom. “When you look at long-term success in the actual world, academics will only help to a certain extent because they are just one part of the entire ecosystem of professional success,” he says. “By the time I finished my MBA, I had an engineering mindset, a manager’s mindset, and a sustainability mindset. Out of these three skillsets, I only had one when I joined SFU- engineering. By the time I left, I had amassed so many more skills, tools, and techniques that equipped me to sell myself to a large number of organizations, including PHSA, where I work now.”