Chebib, who is Lebanese and French, focused on general management and entrepreneurship, combining her part-time studies with work in sales at Alcatel-Lucent, a Paris-based software company that delivers tailored digital networking, communication, and cloud solutions.
The program also exposed her to new and unexpected subjects. Chebib never thought she would love statistics, but her professor, Federico M. Bandi (now at Johns Hopkins), made the entire class love the subject because of his fun and unique teaching style. The same went for other classes that helped her understand how global markets worked and impacted both the economy and daily life.
“The discussions during the sessions with the professors could be mind-blowing,” she says. “A few professors were astonishing, including John Huizinga. He taught us about global economics, which, for me, was one of the most fantastic subjects I learned.”
Chebib says she thrived on the intensity of the work and always had “two hands up”—asking her professors seemingly endless questions. Despite the rigorous learning process, she says, the MBA experience was also enjoyable. “What really was amazing was all the fun we had while learning,” she says.
After graduating from Booth, Chebib started an advisory company focused on scaling startups, before joining Microsoft.
From her vantage point, Chebib knows it’s important to keep up with fast pace of changes in the industry—a necessary task for all tech companies. Embracing diversity is one way she keeps her finger on the pulse.
It’s an exciting time for Microsoft as the company keeps reinventing itself, with continuous innovation, she says. “With that comes the opportunity to decide how we want to work differently and how we want to up our game to better serve and support our customers and compete in the market.” As a self-described competitive person, it’s a process she finds exciting.
“The biggest thing at Microsoft is the growth mindset—it’s a ‘learn it all’ culture,” she says. “As you learn, you move faster, you fail faster, and you continue to take the initiative. It’s all part of the growth mindset that pushes you to reinvent yourself to keep pace with the continuous innovation in the tech industry.”