Biography
After working at Oracle for five years in the tech space, San Francisco-native Diana Goodwin was ready for something new. While piloting a team on a unique initiative at Oracle, Diana was able to problem solve with top executives at the company, something she realized she enjoyed doing but was ready to move into a new space. “I really liked the nature of that work, but I really wanted to try my hand at something new and a new sector that was still that problem-solving element,” Diana says. “That's what really propelled me to go to business school.”
Before coming to Goizueta, Diana had a limited scope of the consulting industry, but after learning more about the work, she realized it aligned with exactly what she was looking for in a career. “I think that the MBA has changed my career path really in two ways in terms of one, exposure to opportunities that I hadn't really had before, and two, it is almost pushing me to enter a space that I had previously thought I might not be able to,” Diana says.
While Diana was researching various MBA programs, she immediately felt the close-knit community at Goizueta as a prospective applicant. That closeness only continued throughout her time in the program from classmates, faculty and alumni. By working with her core team throughout the semester, Diana has been able to learn from her classmates in a multitude of ways. “Working together with them really taught me so much about how different people might think and how a diversity of backgrounds really adds value to the entirety of pretty much any experience whether that's in or outside of the classroom,” Diana says. “I think the community has been incredibly supportive with my transformation in terms of where I started in business school and the growth that I've experienced within the first year.”
Diana’s community grew enough that within her first year of business school, she decided to make Atlanta her new home as she’ll be working for McKinsey & Company post-graduation. “I think Atlanta is one of the best kept secrets in the U.S.,” Diana says. “I feel like I've had so much fun living here, and I really am excited to continue to live here postgrad.”