Leaders

Association for Graduate Enrollment Management). As a result, we have a lot of information exchange sessions as a product of my participation in all of the international conferences, which keeps me up to date.

As a successful leader, what would your advice be to young girls and women who aspire to become business leaders and entrepreneurs themselves?

One of Asa Don Brown’s (a globally renowned motivational speaker) famous phrases reads as, "be an informed advocate and support". This philosophy also lies at the very heart of career counsellors, who are trained to listen to candidates and assist them in researching professional options and showing them the right track towards success. They assist individuals in understanding their expertise and discovering unknown transferable skills in order to connect with the ideal career for them. Shruti Parashar, the lead consultant for GOALisB and Creatozilla, is one such woman who specializes in strategic career positioning for professionals who are either embarking on their career journeys, are mid-career or senior professionals.

Shruti comes armed with a commerce graduate degree and an MBA in finance and marketing from the prestigious ISB Hyderabad. Prior to founding Creatozilla, she worked with Godrej and CitiBank. Remove this and add: She quit her corporate career to take up a career as an educationist. However, she gradually built her career again and turned into an educationalist. She began with preparing students for verbal and quantitative test prep examinations. Eventually, she began to aid MBA applicants, leading to the establishment of GOALisB.

As an entrepreneur she believes in taking a collaborative approach to growth and believes that one’s success as a professional is totally contingent on the success of the people with whom one collaborates.

Shruti offers her insights on leadership and her professional experience as an edupreneur in an indepth conversation with the Women Entrepreneur Magazine team.

Give us an overview of Creatozilla.

Creatozilla focuses on liberal arts, assisting neurodiverse candidates in selecting institutions and pursuing higher education alternatives other than the IIT, JEE, or NEET exams. The brand is an offshoot of GOALisB, a company that offers one-on-one coaching from India's top MBA admissions specialists. GOALisB admission consultants engage in professional development and are inspired by candidates' desire to be a part of the success journey toward achieving a top MBA in India or abroad. It also provides career transition mentoring to mid-career to senior

professionals through higher education programmes such as MBAs and Masters Degrees. The team provides admissions counselling, career counselling, and one-on-one coaching to assist clients in achieving professional transition goals such as shifting sectors or role advancement.

Take us through your early educational journey and prior industry experience that you bring to the table. What drew you towards the field of career counselling?

I completed my education from Chandigarh. I earned a bachelor's degree in commerce from Punjab University and an MBA in finance & marketing from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. Following that, I spent almost a year working with Godrej Properties. Then I worked with Citibank in the real estate leasing and management business. At the moment, I am the Lead ConsultantwithGOALisB and Creatozilla.

I left the corporate world to take up a career in delivering professional services and made a resurgence as an educator and a counsellor. I was taking on students on my own and training them for verbal and quantitative skills for test prep exams. And gradually, by 2011, I began assisting MBA applications. That's when GOALisB came into existence.

As the founder, what are the various roles and responsibilities that you shoulder at Creatozilla? What are some of the most challenging aspects of your current role and how do you overcome these challenges?

I've been certified as a career transition counsellor by the Career Thought Leaders Consortium. So my tasks and responsibilities include career planning, interacting with clients, and determining whether or not we have common ground. A majority of the time, individuals are unaware of their own transferable skills. So my actual work consists of selecting a sector and function, presenting those possibilities and then depicting and expressing these things extremely well through written communication as well as interview preparation.

“Goalisb admission consultants engage in professional development and are inspired by candidates' desire to be a part of the success journey toward achieving a top MBA in India or abroad”

One of the major challenges I encountered was in terms of shifting from traditional career coaching to AI-based counselling. However, there is still a gap when it comes to AI for senior executives. I've been exploring ways to automate the entire process, but there is so much variation in where people come from, where they want to go, and where they can go that AI will probably limit their options. However, we don't go overboard with the experimentation. We are realistic about the person's location or background.

Throw some light on your entrepreneurial journey. What steps do you take to keep yourself well aligned with the various evolutions and changes that keep taking place within the industry and the technology world?

My entrepreneurial journey has been about delivering leverage to people with whom I work. We measure our success as professionals by the success of the people with whom we collaborate and whom we assist for MBA admissions or their onward career journeys. The human relationships that we're establishing are more important to us than the numbers of people that we're adding.

I believe in committing a significant amount of time to self-study. I am a member of the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches. I am an associate member of IECA (Independent Educational Consultants Association) and NAGAP (The I'd like to advise young women to have faith in themselves. Don't do things because it's the market norm or an upcoming business plan. Make an attempt to accomplish something unique. If you are able to deliver value to your customers, you don’t need to look back. It’s inspiring to have so many young girls and women who are leading entrepreneurs and business personalities all over the world. Women must believe that every opportunity the world belongs to them - they just need to take charge of their growth.

Shruti Parashar, Lead Consultant, Creatozilla & Goalisb

Shruti is zealous about assisting aspirants with goal setting, concise communication through application essays, resumes, and interviews, and ensuring competitive industry positioning, which led her to become an MBA admission consultant and career transitions coach. She is a certified career transition counselor and an associate member of IECA and NAGAP.