In this Real Humans: Alumni, we meet Vyshak Kannan Iyengar, a sports and social impact founder who wanted to not only pivot into management, but to reshape his ideas about risk, leadership, and impact. The London Business School offered everything he was looking for in a program: structured exposure to global industry, a peer group that would challenge how he thought, and the credibility and confidence to pursue new exciting opportunities. Keep reading to learn how LBS prepared him for management at Meta.
Vyshak Kannan Iyengar, LBS MBA ’25, Product Marketing Manager at Meta
Age: 30
Hometown: Bengaluru, India
Undergraduate Institution and Major: Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Bachelor’s in Computer Science
Pre-MBA Work Experience: Strategy Consultant, Accenture Strategy; Founder, BluFin Foundation, Sports and Social Impact
Post-MBA Work Experience: Product Marketing Manager, Meta
Why did you choose to attend business school?
For me, business school was not about switching careers quickly. It was about expanding my ceiling.
I grew up in a very middle-class household in India. I had a strong technical education and a solid consulting career, but I felt that my exposure to global thinking, leadership, and decision-making at scale was limited. I had ambition, but not enough context.
I chose to attend business school to gain three things. First, structured exposure to global business across industries and geographies. Second, a peer group that would challenge how I think every single day. Third, credibility and confidence to pursue opportunities that previously felt out of reach.
In hindsight, the MBA gave me much more than a career pivot. It reshaped how I think about risk, leadership, and impact.
Why LBS? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to attend?
London Business School stood out because of its global DNA.
I spoke to more than ten LBS alumni before applying. What consistently came through was how internationally fluid the experience is. LBS does not prepare you for one market or one role. It prepares you to operate anywhere.
The London location mattered a lot. Being in the center of global finance, consulting, tech, and policy created opportunities that simply would not exist elsewhere. I could attend a class in the morning, a startup meeting in the afternoon, and a global leadership talk in the evening.
Finally, LBS valued my non-linear background. I did not come from a traditional feeder school or a conventional path. LBS appreciated my mix of consulting, technology, and social impact, and that gave me confidence that I would belong.
What about your MBA experience prepared you for your current career? How has it helped you navigate new challenges like AI?
The MBA trained me to think in systems rather than silos. At Meta, especially when working on AI-driven products, the challenge is rarely just technical. It is about positioning, trust, ethics, scale, and real-world adoption. LBS prepared me to zoom out and ask better questions. Case discussions, product strategy debates, and constant exposure to founders and operators helped me develop judgment. AI is moving fast, but fundamentals still matter. Who is the customer? What problem are we solving? What trade-offs are we making?
The MBA also taught me comfort with ambiguity. At work, the answers are rarely clear. That comfort has been one of the biggest assets I carried into my role.
What was your internship during business school? How did that inform your post-MBA career choice?
I interned with BCG in Dubai, focusing on public sector and transformation work. That experience reinforced aspiration in large-scale impact work in the long term. Working with governments and institutions showed me how technology, policy, and strategy intersect in very real ways. It also helped me understand how emerging regions are adopting AI and digital infrastructure much faster than expected. The internship validated my belief that I enjoy operating at the intersection of technology, strategy, and execution, which ultimately led me to pursue a product-focused role post-MBA.
Why did you choose your current company?
Meta offered the rare opportunity to work on products that operate at massive scale while shaping the future. What stood out was the emphasis on thoughtful product marketing. It was not just about growth, but about responsibility, clarity, and long-term value. Given where AI is today, that mindset mattered a lot to me.
Meta also values people who can bridge strategy, technology, and storytelling. That combination aligns very closely with how I think and work.
Advice to Current MBA Students:
–One thing you would absolutely do again as part of the job search?
I would invest deeply in fundamentals early. That means getting the resume right, understanding my story clearly, and practicing structured thinking before chasing opportunities. When I finally did that, everything else moved faster.
–One thing you would change or do differently?
I would start believing in myself earlier. I spent too much time assuming certain opportunities were out of reach. In reality, the biggest constraint was internal, not external.
–Were there any surprises regarding your employer’s recruiting process?
What surprised me most was how much emphasis there was on clarity of thought rather than having the “perfect” background. The process rewarded people who could explain complex ideas simply and show how they think, not just what they have done.
–What piece of advice do you wish you had been given during your MBA?
Do not try to optimize everything. Pick a few things that genuinely matter to you and go deep. Careers are built through focus, not through constant comparison.
