Swetha Medapati Always Has a Backup Plan.
Swetha Medapati is going to Kellogg this year and wants to go on to work in the private sector after her MBA. However, if that doesn’t work out Swetha can always go back to her job as Deputy Director of Income Tax (Hyderabad).
She hasn’t quit her job; just taken a 2 year study leave with the option to extend, if necessary. She says this is because her resignation would need to be approved by the Prime Minister of India but speaking with her, you quickly realise two things.
Swetha Medapati is laser-focused on her long terms goals and she always, always has a backup plan.
The daughter of a Police Officer in the Central Industrial Security Force, Swetha always wanted a career that made a difference. She aspired to give the Civil Services exam after hearing her father’s regrets about not being able to clear it when he was younger. Her parents cautioned her about how difficult the exam was, so Swetha decided on a backup plan; engineering.
Swetha got her B. Tech. in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering from IIT-Kharagpur, though she would have preferred to study chemistry. The reason; better, more lucrative job prospects. Though she had grown-up in various parts of India as her father was posted across the country, Swetha says the exposure to talented, driven, interesting people from across India, at IIT, changed who she was.
After IIT, while everyone around her got lucrative jobs, Swetha took a year off and went to work on her Plan A; cracking the Civil Services exam. As another backup plan, she took the CAT exam and secured seats at IIM-Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta.
Swetha was offered a job with the Indian Revenue Service and has spent the last four years working for the Indian Government. During that time she first planned and then led tax raids as an investigating officer, unearthing $200M of tax evasions by large companies. She has also led dispute resolution schemes, redressed hundreds of public grievances and conducted outreach programmes.
During the COVID pandemic, Swetha worked with pharma companies developing vital generic drugs, to streamline availability for a desperate Indian populace. It was then that Swetha first felt she could perhaps have a greater impact working in the private sector than as an IRS officer.
While she could have aced the CAT again, Swetha wanted the exposure of an international MBA, so she gave the GMAT and scored 740. When she didn’t receive any admit offers in the first round of applications, Swetha decided to work with Admissions Gateway, after getting many recommendations.
She says Rajdeep Chimni was always available, on Sundays and odd hours during the admissions process; something that was vital because of the pressures of her job. She says Rajdeep both pushed her and worked alongside her over many iterations, to choose the best stories she had and hone them to perfection.
“I was telling stories like I was talking about someone else’s life. Rajdeep is a ruthless editor. He helped me put my career and goals in context.”
Swetha will be going to Kellogg later this year but for now continues her work as an IRS officer.
Swetha took the GMAT twice, increasing her score to 770 the second time but she confesses that beyond the confidence boost, the higher score did not add much value to her applications. She says she has now realised that GMAT scores are not as important as she made them out to be.
After an unsuccessful first round of applications, Swetha also realised she had not given herself enough time for R1. She says prospective applicants should take into account the demands of their jobs when calculating how much time they need to prepare for MBA applications.
“Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help, external perspectives are very valuable during the applications process, to account for your blind spots.”
Finally, Swetha confesses that she should probably have been much less stressed throughout the application process. After all, she did have a backup plan.