When Navneet Sunderraman came to the University of Colorado Denver Business School to earn his master’s in business analytics, everything felt new to him. It wasn’t just the field of study he was pursuing that felt daunting. He was starting a new chapter of his life abroad, having never lived outside of his home country. “I was actually very overwhelmed,” Sunderraman said. 

Sunderraman grew up in Chennai, a coastal city in southern India with nearly seven million people. He knew he wanted to try making his way in the United States and picked CU Denver because he felt it offered the perfect program for him—and the mountains were a bonus. A master’s degree was a natural next step to build on his undergraduate degree in management and the coding he’d taught himself during the pandemic. 

But he quickly discovered he’d have a lot more to learn than what was taught in the classroom. “Coming to a different country, meeting new people was a very big thing for me,” Sunderraman said. “I wanted to understand their culture, but it took me a while to understand. The accent was different, the way they spoke, the language skills were different.” 

Mastering Cross-Cultural Communication

Sunderraman quickly discovered a group of peers who were also finding their way in a community of new cultures through his on-campus job. He worked as a global ambassador for the Office of International Affairs. That’s where he met the person who became his mentor, Jennie Szumski. She led meetings for his team of eight global ambassadors, who were each from a different country. 

At every meeting, Szumski would pose a question for the group to answer—something like, “If you were an animal, which would you be?” Sunderraman quickly realized the value of the conversation these prompts sparked. It wasn’t so much about what his colleagues’ answers were, but that he got to learn about how they thought. “People think from different angles, from different perspectives, which I like,” Sunderraman said. “When I listen to people talking from a different perspective, actually, it widens my thinking process, as well.”

He gained confidence in relating across cultures and started making full use of the networking events put on by the Business School and across campus. “I just go to every event,” Sunderraman said. “Like, if I get a chance to connect with people, I just connect with them.” His job taught him that even the most unexpected topic can spark a fantastic conversation, which has helped him make personal and professional connections in any setting. “I talk about random things, like a Nuggets game,” Sunderraman said. “Once the ice is broken, I try to get into what they do, what they like about their job.” 

Getting Workforce Ready

When it was time to find an internship, Sunderraman realized there was a whole new world of communicating he’d need to conquer: The professional landscape. “When I first came into the university, I didn’t have a proper resume. I had a two-page resume,” Sunderraman said. He didn’t know how to narrow it down, how to best describe his experiences, or how to be prepared for a job interview. 

But he remembered something he heard in his orientation. The Career Center in LynxConnect offers services like resume help, job search support, and interview coaching. “They were professional people who were helping me with how to create my resume,” Sunderraman said. The support left him feeling confident in how his resume looked, which helped him send it to dozens of potential employers.

Landing an internship was important to Sunderraman. And, being new to both the U.S. and the working world, he knew he’d need to some help getting oriented to what the job interview process would be like. So Sunderraman signed up for practice sessions at both the Career Center and the Business School. He wanted to leverage every resource the university had to maximize his chances of landing a position. 

At first, it was rocky. “During my mock interviews, I was a bit nervous,” Sunderraman said. “I didn’t know what to answer. It was a very new thing for me.” He went back for a total of six practice sessions, and it paid off when it was time for a real interview with Siemens Heathineers in Illinois. “I was very confident when I answered the questions,” Sunderraman said. “And it’s thanks to the LynxConnect and the Career Center.”

He did get that internship last summer and worked as a data analyst. It was his first professional role, and in addition to gaining relevant work experience to set him up for his career, he also learned more about corporate culture and time management skills that help him meet deadlines. Now, Sunderraman is back on the job hunt. But thanks to all he’s learned both in the classroom and beyond, he feels ready to succeed again. “How I started and how it’s going right now,” he said. “I feel confidence is one of the biggest things I learned at CU Denver.”

Learn more:

Office of International Affairs

Business School University of Colorado Denver

LinkedIn International Alumni Group University of Colorado Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus