Puja Shah
NYU MBA Grad | Transform Your MBA Application Into an Acceptance
Studied at New York University
Works at Self Employed
Available tomorrow
Starting at 6:00 PM UTC
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
Puja's Offerings
Custom hourly · $150/hr
Get help with Application Strategy, Essays, and .
Puja also coaches for Executive Coaching, Career Coaching, Mental Health & Wellness, and Parenting. View all.
Puja’s MBA Qualifications
Coaches professionally
With over 15 years of leadership experience across top financial institutions, I bring deep, real-world expertise in executive leadership, career progression, and organizational strategy. Having managed global, cross-functional teams, led major DE&I and culture initiatives, and served on the Board of Governors for the Institute of Internal Auditors, I understand what it takes to navigate complex corporate environments, advocate for yourself, and step confidently into high-impact roles. As an NYU Stern MBA graduate and Certified Life Coach, my coaching approach blends strategic career development with personalized mentorship. I specialize in helping professionals build executive presence, master high-stakes communication, navigate career transitions, and set actionable goals for long-term growth. Whether you are looking to step into management, refine your strategic leadership, or break through your next career plateau, I provide the frameworks, candid feedback, and tailored support to help you achieve your career goals. I started in the part-time MBA program, ended with living in Chicago and traveling on weekends to New York to finish.
Puja can help with:
Application Strategy
Essays
Financial Aid & Scholarships
Networking Strategy
Resume
School Selection
Puja also coaches for Executive Coaching, Career Coaching, Mental Health & Wellness, and Parenting. View all.
About Puja
"I didn’t learn resilience from a self-help book—I learned it by raising myself through life’s hardest losses." Puja Shah is a professional coach specializing in career transitions, personal resilience, and goal alignment for high-performing individuals. As a first-generation graduate who built her path through self-reliance and navigating life's complex pivots, Puja brings a uniquely grounded perspective to personal development. She works closely with professionals facing burnout, high-stakes environments, or major life changes such as motherhood, helping them strengthen confidence, manage stress, and design lives aligned with their core values. In addition to 1-on-1 coaching, Puja hosts workshops for professional associations and corporate chapters.
Why do I coach?
I coach because I know what it feels like to navigate life’s heaviest seasons without a safety net or a blueprint. Losing my mother at 19, paying my own way through university as a first-generation student, losing my father, and stepping up to help raise my younger sister forced me to grow up fast. I had to learn how to process profound grief while simultaneously building a career, managing high expectations, and figuring out who I was under extreme pressure. I didn't just learn resilience from a textbook—I lived it out of necessity. That journey taught me a fundamental truth: having ambition doesn't make you immune to life's weight, and facing adversity shouldn't mean sacrificing your future. Many high-performing professionals carry invisible burdens—burnout, grief, sudden career pivots, or the quiet anxiety of figuring things out entirely on their own. They are expected to deliver results, lead teams, and stay poised, even when their personal foundation feels uncertain. I coach to be the partner I needed during those pivotal moments. My goal isn't to give you cliché advice or surface-level motivation. I offer a grounded, deeply empathetic, and strategic space where you can drop the mask, gain absolute clarity, and build the practical tools to navigate complex transitions—so you don't just survive life's turning points, but thrive through them.
Work Experience
Life Coach
Self Employed
May 2020 - Present
I help ambitious people redesign their lives and careers to feel fulfilled, not just busy. As a certified Life, Career, and Mom Coach, I partner with you to dismantle the 'guilt-and-grind' mentality, creating actionable strategies that blend high-level career ambition with present parenting. Together, we’ll turn overwhelmed into organized, and exhaustion into intentional, joyful living.
Executive Director
UBS
2018 - Present
Interviewer
Director
Sikich
May 2017 - December 2017
• Developed the financial services sector business line and led and managed all financial services-related projects, including deploying risk management programs and governance frameworks, conducting COSO reviews and risk assessments, developing policies and procedures, implementing a GRC tool, and conducting independent assessments of processes, risks, and controls. • Spearheaded process improvement assessments, including thorough root-cause analysis and design and implementation of remediation activities • Led multiple projects to conduct governance and internal control testing in adherence with Sarbanes-Oxley, ensuring compliance effectiveness through the analysis of processes, risks, and key controls to optimize business and strategic activities • Completed multiple internal audit projects at Golub Capital related to operational risk, vendor risk, entity level controls and communicated final deliverables and recommendations to key stakeholders • Led the development and implementation of comprehensive DE&I strategies and focus for clients and audit teams
Operational Risk Manager
Golub Capital
June 2016 - May 2017
• Developed and implemented the operational risk programs including Risk and Control Self-Assessment (RCSA), Change Management, Issue Management (IM), Third-Party Risk Management, Business Continuity Planning (BCP), Shared Services Operations, and Risk Reporting • Led the implementation of control testing within the business lines and the adoption, implementation, and training of the Operational Risk Management Framework within the first and second line of defense across the firm • Responsible for key risk and management reporting to the Operational Risk Committee and senior management • Interacted with key stakeholders, including third party vendors and technology to confirm transparency and collaboration to promote risk management practices and value adding continuous monitoring efforts • Presented challenges to business lines on current and emerging risks, conducted root cause analysis, identified control gaps and coordinated timely remediation of issues to executive management
Vice President
GE Capital
April 2014 - June 2016
Audit Lead
Northern Trust
2013 - 2014
Associate
BlackRock
May 2012 - December 2012
Education
New York University
MBA, Management
2012 - 2015
New York University
Bachelors Degree, Finance, Management
2005 - 2009
10 Reviews
Overall Rating
5.0
Puja has helped Leland clients get into Self Employed