Christy Kuesel ’27

I was an English major in college and moved into marketing after a brief stint in editorial work. Most recently, I was a marketing manager at Inrupt, a data infrastructure company co-founded by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. It was rewarding to work closely with someone who cared deeply about how our products could help people.

Law is a common path for English majors—and I come from a family of lawyers—so I decided to take the LSAT during the pandemic. But as I researched graduate programs, I found that I was more excited about the paths that would open up for me with an MBA. I wanted to explore different industries and functions and develop my strategic skills, all while making a positive impact. That’s why Yale SOM’s mission of educating leaders for business and society stood out to me. I’m glad I took a few years to reflect on my interests, so I could be more intentional about how I moved forward.

Academically, my first quarter at SOM was like drinking from a firehose—but I really appreciated how the integrated core curriculum builds on itself: There’s an intuitive progression from Accounting to Investor to Sourcing and Managing Funds to Global Macroeconomy. That’s especially helpful for someone like me, who came into the program without a strong quantitative background. Through the Yale Center for Customer Insights, I worked on a semester-long consulting project with the messaging platform Discord and gained practical, hands-on experience with A/B testing and data analysis.

Over the summer, I interned at BCG in Boston and worked on strategy for a quantum computing company. It was a steep learning curve—I had no prior experience in the space—but also so exciting. I’m looking forward to returning to BCG’s New York office after graduation.

When it came to recruiting, Consulting Club was so helpful. We were all assigned case teams and met weekly with second-years to practice for interviews. Having that mentorship and a community of peers going through the same challenging recruiting process made a big difference. This year, I’m serving as a case team lead.

At SOM, I’ve met great people from a range of backgrounds. My learning team included classmates who grew up in Korea and Nigeria, and getting to know their perspectives helped me think differently about my own experiences. I’ve also appreciated how easy it is to stay connected with everyone throughout the program—thanks in part to New Haven’s smaller size. Forming a strong community just comes naturally.