Chiebuka Onwuzurike

As an undergraduate in BU’s Honors Program and an elite sprinter on the university’s track and field team, Chiebuka’s post-grad dream was to earn a spot on Team USA or Nigeria. Afterall, the 2020 Olympics were slated to happen only a month after his graduation. But then, COVID hit.

“My senior year there was no track, no in-person classes, no senior week, no graduation, and no real chance to say goodbye to friends,” he recalls. During quarantine, once he got over the initial disappointment, Chiebuka took the opportunity to step back and re-evaluate his plans for the future.

“I realized I actually needed a break, mentally and physically, from running. And then realized my favorite undergrad classes (corporate strategy, private equity, and information design) all involved drawing insight from numbers and data.” The increasing value of data and the growing demand for analytics professionals convinced Chiebuka to pursue the MS in Business Analytics at Questrom.

Landing a job in consulting was Chiebuka’s new goal. As an undergrad, he’d launched his own lifestyle fashion brand, but he had no explicit consulting experience. He says two faculty members were tremendously helpful in preparing him for a career in the field— Strategy and Innovation Lecturer John Kirks, who formerly worked at Bain & Company; and MSBA Executive Director Francois Charvet, who worked at Boston Consulting Group.

In addition, Chiebuka says his capstone course, Review Text Analysis for Warehouse Club Company, was great practice for the consulting world. “Learning about the material in the classroom was great, but getting the chance to apply our knowledge in a real situation was very valuable.” Throughout his education, Chiebuka continued to tap into the lessons he learned as an athlete. “Some of the top skills I developed were a growth mindset, the ability to give and receive feedback, a healthy competitiveness, time management skills, and what it actually means to be a team player.”

Today, Chiebuka is living his new dream as an analyst with Mckinsey, where he relies heavily on the knowledge and skills he gained in the MSBA program. When he looks back at his MSBA experience, he’s still amazed by the breadth and depth of the topics covered.

“I was surprised by how much I liked the module structure of the curriculum,” he says. “It was an efficient and effective way lock in and learn the material, but it wasn’t until I was actually working that my expectations for the program were completely blown away. Each project at McKinsey brings new problems that require different tools, and I can confidently say there are no holes in my tool kit. I needed to hit the ground running and thanks to the program I was able to.”

“I WAS SURPRISED BY HOW MUCH I LIKED THE MODULE STRUCTURE OF THE CURRICULUM.”

– Chiebuka Onwuzurike