Hometown: Ahmedabad, India
IIT Education: Master of Business Administration, 2008
Darshit Chokshi feels he has been on a successful career path since graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Gujarat University in 2000. He has gained substantial experience in business development, strategy formation and execution, program development, trade convention management, product development and financial planning and analysis. His career includes work with the growing conglomerate TATA Group for more than four years and in the publishing business of the Forbes group in India. Along the way, Darshit decided to pursue a full-time Master of Business Administration (MBA) from IIT Stuart School of Business to be able to make the next leap for a management position in the financial world. He graduated from the MBA program in February 2008.
“I had looked at University of Illinois in Chicago, DePaul University and IIT Stuart for their MBA and finance programs. I was sure that Stuart was my choice given the strategic location in the financial district of downtown Chicago and the faculty. I had also heard positive testimonials from IIT alumnus who spoke of the strong quantitative and finance programs at IIT Stuart. I then attended the Stuart Open House at the downtown campus and knew that Stuart was my choice to pursue a full-time MBA,” says Darshit.
He praises IIT Stuart for its edge over the other B-Schools in the Chicago area because he says its strong business programs are supported by the best finance electives, making Stuart one of the top-ranked business schools for studying business administration and financial markets programs. He is putting his learning to good use working as a Manager with ICICI Bank for its Business and Consumer banking business. He expects to add value to the IIT and Stuart alumni relations development initiative and broaden the student diversity for their different programs.
“It is very important for you to know the synergies between your career aspirations and what a business school like IIT Stuart can offer you to be able to prepare you for the long-term career goals,” says Darshit to the prospective students who are looking to join the IIT Stuart MBA program.
He also advises current IIT students of the importance of starting to look for a summer internship as soon as they start with their first year education at IIT, rather than waiting until summer arrives. He feels that it is very important to be an excellent networker to identify opportunities and make the best use of connections.