In this installment of our Real Humans: Alumni series, we meet Farnosh Mojtabaee, a dentist who loved her work, but needed a different long-term path. The MBA program at Texas McCombs prepared her for finance and business strategy, and helped her swap dental tech for desktop tech. Read her story about how she pivoted from healthcare to consumer goods at PepsiCo below.
Farnosh Mojtabaee, Texas McCombs MBA ’25, Associate Finance Manager at PepsiCo
Age: 32
Hometown: Austin, TX
Undergraduate Institution and Major: The University of Texas at Austin, Biology
Graduate Business School, Graduation Year and Concentration: McCombs MBA 2025, Financial Mathematics
Pre-MBA Work Experience: General Dentist, 2019-2023, Healthcare
Post-MBA Work Experience: Associate Finance Manager, PepsiCo, 2025-present, Food/Bev CPG
Why did you choose to attend business school?
I absolutely LOVED being a dentist and always will stay one on the inside, but the career was beginning to take a toll on me physically. I knew I could not practice full-time forever and needed to find something else I enjoyed professionally. While I knew that I was sharp and had transferable skills, I needed to go to business school to demonstrate that to an employer and make my career change possible.
Why Texas McCombs? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to attend?
I was initially torn between Chicago Booth and McCombs after getting accepted to both. McCombs offered me a full scholarship, and that made it a no brainer to me. Additionally, I grew up in the Austin area, was living in the city at the time, and had a lot of friends and family there to support me in the journey. It was a very easy choice!
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?
My MBA classes absolutely prepared me for my career. Prior to the MBA, I had never used Excel. If Excel was open on my computer, it was an accident! My accounting and finance classes really helped me become comfortable with it. I feel the MBA made me less intimidated by new technology like AI and more excited to learn about it and try it out for myself!
What was your internship during business school? How did that inform your post-MBA career choice?
I did a Strategic Finance internship at PepsiCo. I had a great time and knew I would like a finance role after my MBA. I was lucky that PepsiCo also liked me and extended a return offer at the end of the internship!
Why did you choose your current company? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to work?
Everybody who came to visit campus from PepsiCo was friendly, relaxed and happy. Company culture was extremely important to me, and I wanted to join a company where I could grow long-term and that cared about its employees. I also was impressed by the number of PepsiCo finance alumni who were now CFOs of other major companies.
Advice to current MBA students:
–One thing you would absolutely do again as part of the job search?
Go to info sessions and talk to people at companies even if you don’t think you have a chance there! You never know where you might click and who might take a chance on you!
–One thing you would change or do differently as part of the job search?
I would have done more career and industry exploration prior to the MBA. I didn’t even consider CPG initially because I knew nothing about it.
–Were there any surprises regarding your current employer’s recruiting process?
I found PepsiCo’s recruitment process extremely transparent and organized! I think my biggest surprise was the active interest the recruitment team took in getting to know us as individuals on a personal level.
–What piece of advice do you wish you had been given during your MBA?
Enjoy the process and have fun! You will land exactly where you are meant to be.
