Adaobi Okeke did not stumble into or discover the MBA along her journey–it was a deliberate step along her professional path. But, amidst her set intentions, she maintained her curiosity, which she credits as a necessity for good decision-making. In this Real Humans: Alumni, Okeke shares how Vanderbilt Owen‘s attentiveness and individual engagement in recruiting cemented her choice of business school, and how the MBA program equipped her with the skills necessary to succeed at Amazon.
Adaobi Okeke, Vanderbilt Owen MBA ’24, Senior Vendor Manager at Amazon
Age: 31 years
Hometown: Lagos, Nigeria
Undergraduate Institution and Major: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; Major: Pharmacy
Graduate Business School, Graduation Year and Concentration: Vanderbilt Owen Business School, 2024, Strategy and Operations & Analytics
Pre-MBA Work Experience: Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs Manager, Servier Pharma, 4 years, Pharmaceutical industry
Post-MBA Work Experience: Senior Vendor Manager, Amazon, 2 years, Retail
Why did you choose to attend business school?
My decision to pursue an MBA was deliberate and long-considered – a calculated step toward the professional trajectory I had always intended to pursue. My career in pharmaceutical regulatory affairs provided a strong foundation in analytical rigor, scientific precision, and navigating complex institutional frameworks. However, I recognized early on that to accelerate my career growth, business was the arena in which I wanted to operate, and that an MBA was the most effective means of making that possible. It was the medium through which I could acquire the strategic, financial, and organizational competencies necessary to reach the level of impact I had long set my sights on. It offered the structured environment, the peer network, and the cross-functional exposure that a career in regulatory affairs could not.
Why Vanderbilt Owen? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to attend?
My decision to attend Owen was shaped primarily by the quality of the recruiting experience – which, before I had even enrolled, already validated the program’s reputation for personalization. From my earliest interactions with the admissions team, I observed a level of attentiveness and individual engagement that stood in contrast to the more transactional processes I encountered elsewhere. The program’s commitment to a smaller, more cohesive class was not merely a marketing claim, it was something I could confirm firsthand. I did not want to be one face among hundreds, navigating a program where individual attention is the exception rather than the norm.
At Owen, the scale of the program ensures that faculty, staff, and peers are genuinely invested in each student’s development. That environment was the deciding factor.
What about your MBA experience prepared you for your current career? How do you feel that your MBA has been an asset when it comes to navigating new challenges, such as AI?
The MBA equipped me with something more durable than any single skill set: a framework for structured thinking in the face of ambiguity. Coming from pharmaceutical regulatory affairs, I was already comfortable with complexity and precision but business school taught me how to translate that analytical discipline into commercial judgment, stakeholder influence, and strategic decision-making.
The cross-functional exposure was particularly formative. Working alongside peers from finance, consulting, tech, and operations forced me to develop a common language of business, one that has proven essential in my roles where alignment across functions is as important as the quality of the analysis itself.
As for AI, the MBA’s greatest contribution has been intellectual agility. The ability to evaluate a new capability critically – to ask not just what it can do, but where it creates value, where it introduces risk, and how it changes the competitive landscape – is precisely the kind of thinking that the MBA cultivated in me. AI is, at its core, a strategic and organizational challenge as much as a technical one. The frameworks I developed during my MBA have allowed me to engage with it as such, rather than being overwhelmed by its novelty.
What was your internship during business school? How did that inform your post-MBA career choice?
My internship was with Amazon, in the same team where I currently work. In the role of Senior Program Manager Intern, I was entrusted with a critical project for the business – one that required both strategic thinking and the ability to execute with limited oversight in a fast-paced environment. The experience was formative in a specific way: it removed ambiguity about where I wanted to build my career. The scope of the work, the caliber of the team, and the opportunity to drive meaningful impact within a large, complex organization confirmed that it was the right environment for me. My successful internship was a signal that the skills I had developed, both before and during the MBA, were well-suited to the demands of the role. I returned full-time with clarity of purpose and a head start that has shaped how I approach my work to this day.
Why did you choose your current company? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to work?
My decision to join Amazon full-time was, in many respects, made during my internship. Having worked within the organization as a Senior Program Manager Intern, I had the opportunity to evaluate the environment not as a prospective candidate, but as someone already operating within it.
Several factors reinforced my decision. First, the scale and complexity of the work at Amazon is genuinely unmatched – the problems are consequential, the pace is demanding, and the expectation of ownership is real. For someone who had pursued an MBA specifically to operate at a higher level of impact, that environment was exactly what I was looking for.
Second, the quality of the team. The caliber of the people I worked alongside during my internship set a standard I was not willing to compromise on. Returning to that team full-time meant continuing to grow in an environment where the bar is consistently high.
Finally, the return offer itself was a meaningful signal. It confirmed that the fit was mutual, and that the contribution I had made during the internship was valued. That reciprocity mattered in my decision.
Advice to current MBA students:
–One thing you would absolutely do again as part of the job search?
Resist the urge to commit too early to a single path. The MBA is one of the few moments in a career where the range of options genuinely expands and the students who benefit most from it are those who allow themselves to explore before narrowing. Arriving with a fixed destination in mind can inadvertently close doors that were worth walking through. My approach was to remain open during the recruiting process and use the internship for what it is best suited for: testing the waters. The MBA gives you leverage. The internship gives you clarity. The students who use both well tend to make better decisions, not because they planned more carefully, but because they stayed curious long enough to learn something.
–One thing you would change or do differently as part of the job search?
I would prioritize recruiting over academics when the two come into direct conflict. During my MBA, I was invited to interview with a big tech company only to find it scheduled on the same day as an exam. I attempted to reschedule the interview but without success and I lost the opportunity.
The lesson: the recruiting window is narrow and unforgiving. Exams can be recovered from; certain opportunities cannot. I would encourage current students to plan ahead, communicate early with professors when conflicts arise, and treat recruiting timelines with the same seriousness as academic deadlines, if not more so.
–Were there any surprises regarding your current employer’s recruiting process?
The most notable aspect of Amazon’s recruiting process was the weight placed on the Leadership Principles. All 16 principles are not merely a cultural backdrop; they are the explicit framework against which every candidate is evaluated. Each interview is structured around them, and the depth of that assessment was something I had not fully anticipated.
–What piece of advice do you wish you had been given during your MBA?
I wish someone had told me to prioritize joining clubs and engaging in extracurriculars even when the pressure of recruiting made it tempting to step back. The MBA is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to network, and the clubs and activities are where much of that networking happens organically. The relationships built in those spaces often prove more enduring than those formed in formal recruiting settings.
