Idon’t often take the time to reflect on the xperiences and deci- sions I’ve made that have led me to where I
am today. The recent eco-
nomic meltdown has given me
some pause to reassess
whether I’m on the right path.
I am convinced that I am, but
only time will tell.
This isn’t the first time I’ve
been through a tough econo-
my. After completing my
undergraduate engineering
degree from the University of
Toronto, I spent several years
consulting, the last four of
which were at a software com-
pany that I joined at the
height of the dotcom boom in
2000. A month into my new
job, the boom went bust, and
my company started laying
people off in droves.
Every quarter, a new
batch of employees
were let go, and I
was constantly won-
dering if I would be
the next.
It wasn’t just the looming
threat of losing my job that
kept me up at night. My qual-
ity of life was less than opti-
mal — I spent five or six days a week on
the road, working more hours than I
liked to admit, and I was increasingly
unhappy about how my company’s man-
agement seemingly dropped the ball on
several strategic initiatives. In fact, there
were several missteps that could have
been prevented if management simply
took a broader view of the market when
formulating its strategy to cope with the
‘New Economy’.
While I was doing quite well in my role
— I was leading several go-to-market
initiatives — I felt like I was on a sinking
ship and needed to quickly decide
whether it was worth it anymore.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I
found myself immersed in an MBA education at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Sloan School of
Management, learning about the very
thing that I had wished my former company had employed — sound management. Life was great — I was broadening
my horizons and learning a lot about
TEJAS MEHTA
I AM CERTAIN
THAT THE MBA
HAS GIVEN
ME THE
FUNDAMENTALS
TO ACHIEVE
MY CAREER
ASPIRATIONS,
GOOD ECONOMY
OR NOT
tions. For me, the MBA
experience was about gain-
ing the tools necessary to
achieve my long-term
career aspirations of gener-
al management.
things I always wanted to pick up:
Finance, strategy, marketing and opera-
Tejas Mehta, an Indo-Canadian, is a sen-
ior product manager with Microsoft.
