6 months after graduating from Sunstone, What has changed?

At Sunstone, our objective is simple- to provide rigorous experiential business education to high quality working professionals and transform them into business leaders. To quantify our success, it’s important for us to keep measuring what our alumni is doing at regular intervals. Our first batch graduated in July 2012, and we thought of asking them directly and understanding what has changed so far.

In  July of 2012, 21 students graduated from our first batch and most  took up roles in Product Management, Business Heads, Group CTO, Vice Presidents etc. Some have also taken on Entrepreneurship as their career. The average increase in compensation has been between 40% and 100% but more importantly, they have focused and achieved the right kind of roles, setting them up for a top business role in future.

“I am loving every bit of it. My understanding of the overall business ecosystem has changed dramatically in the last few months. I have been able to build my perspective over the foundation I got at Sunstone.”

– Tushar Gupta

says Tushar Gupta, who was working in a Quality Assurance role at Adobe before moving to Time Internet as Product Manager.

Pragati Dhingra, who is now an entrepreneur after leaving his job of Program Manager at Sapient is thoroughly enjoying the bumpy ride of entrepreneurship. He adds:

 Challenging but exciting:

Not surprisingly, students have faced new set of challenges in these new roles, but the excitement level has been great. Amit Garg who  transitioned from his technology role at evalueserve to now being a Program Manager at Expedia says:

Most of our students were in their comfort zones in their previous jobs and transitioning into  a business role has allowed them to break that.

“Moving from delivery role to a business centric role brings out its own challenges and I require to continuously push myself to be more and more focused on the business goals. It’s easy to get overwhelmed sometimes so I need to remind myself of the fundamentals that I learnt at Sunstone.“
Sahil Aggarwal –

says Sahil Aggarwal, who moved internally in TCS to become an Alliance Manager at Global Alliance Group.

 What’s next?

For most of our founding batch students, this is their first time in a business role. While it’s too early, we wanted to get a sense of how are they planning their career now. Most of them are currently focused on developing their skills and a strong footing in their current roles.

says Pankaj Garg, who transitioned from a delivery role in a technology company to become a Product Manager at Times Internet.

Another graduate Vikas Yadav, who moved internally in Adobe to become Product Manager from Computer Scientist role adds:

Some of our students have also been very experimental. Pankaj Yadav left Computer Scientist role in Adobe to join gaana.com as a Product Manager but recently left his role to work on an entrepreneurial career. He says:

Advice to people aspiring for business roles

There were some interesting lessons learnt as well. Most of our students felt the need of coming out of their comfort zones and push the boundaries to be successful in business roles.

Aditya Chaturvedi who is now the Group CTO at a Venture Capital company after leaving his delivery role in an IT company says:

“The most important thing is your passion and aspiration. Nothing is easy so you need to be committed to it, and make sure that you aspire high. Transition from a technology role to a business role is a huge mindset shift and you need to constantly work hard.“
– Aditya Chaturvedi

Ankur Goel left his delivery role at Educomp to join an education startup as VP, Products. He recently shifted to a healthcare technology company as a Product Manager.

Some students also mentioned the need to identify right career path based on individuals experience and preference. Anshuman Misra, who left his technology role at Spice to become Technical Account Manager at Bharti Softbank says

Overall, it feels great to be a part of a network of professionals who are continuously trying to invest in themselves even after completing the education at Sunstone. We wish them all the very best for their future!

Dinesh Singh

Dinesh has diverse experience in marketing, general management and entrepreneurship. Currently, he heads Program Management for Sunstone Business School. Dinesh is responsible for marketing and student engagement at Sunstone. Previously, Dinesh was a technology entrepreneur and successfully led sales and marketing activities for a technology startup. He also spent significant time as a consultant with McKinsey & Co, based out of their Pittsburgh offices in the US. While at McKinsey, he worked with Fortune 500 companies as a strategy consultant and helped companies design their go-to-market strategies in various sector including Telecom, Healthcare and Food. Dinesh is a graduate from IIT Kanpur and MBA from Cornell University

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