“Some leaders learn from books, some from their experiences, and some from both. The important thing is to learn continuously. Abraham Lincoln had little formal education, but proved to be one of the best American presidents through continuous learning”. (Rao, 2013)
Seeking change
Before starting my MBA journey, I was living a comfortable life as I held a decade of experience in IT.
I had a great job as a project manager in an MNC and ran a side venture. However, I always felt that I was missing inner harmony. Initially, I ignored it, then I saw myself getting frustrated about minute things in my professional life.
Finally, last year, I decided to resolve my inner conflict, and started nourishing my mind by reading meaningful books and listening to motivational speakers. However, I still felt dissatisfied. While listening to Ted talks, I knew I wanted to reach a level where I could be valued as a part of the community and achieve inner peace.
Finding an MBA course
So, I started my continuous learning journey. My first step was to search for the best universities providing MBA programs. My search brought me to the Newcastle University (NU) MBA program. I applied to NU and several more universities like Exeter and Sheffield. All of the universities welcomed me and respected my experience through scholarship offers.
When comparing the universities, I looked at the programs, alumni groups, and wellbeing support. All of the universities had their own MBA ‘flavours’. However, the awestruck moment for me was when I observed that NU provides an opportunity to budding entrepreneurs by enabling them with knowledgeable tools and providing platforms similar to ‘Shark Tank’ (USA series) for passionate entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to reality.
As an international student, a year back, it was a tough decision for me to consider leaving everything and jumping on this train. However, due to the above research, I found an MBA program structure that consisted of enabling personal skills like critical thinking and logical reasoning, and provided an opportunity for getting insights into industries by reading case studies related to marketing and management strategies. This really helped me choose to pursue my MBA at NU.
MBA experience
Since I joined the MBA, each day has been a new learning curve, as the faculty has great mentors that focus on professional and personal development. The cohort has members from various industries and from different parts of the world. This really helps me understand worldwide business ethics and enables me to upscale my cultural Intelligence. This will surely be helpful to me in the future when I am back in the professional world, working alongside culturally distinguished team members. Moreover, the professors are more like mentors than teachers, so whenever I need guidance, they are just a query away.
Study location
Furthermore, Newcastle itself is a great place to live apart from the studies. It has all flavours of weather, and like any place in the UK, predicting rain is next to impossible, which is where the google weather forecast comes in handy.
Newcastle is culturally diverse. For soccer fans, the city has St. James Park and the local community believe in soccer as their religion. Moreover, for people who want to enjoy clubbing and pubbing, Newcastle is full of such great places consisting of live music, karaoke and some of the best DJs.
Lastly, on a personal note, I shifted here with my wife and six-month-old son. If I were to summarise the experience I have had so far, I would conclude that it is a homely experience. So, for any professionals reading this, if you want to opt for a great future, then I would recommend looking for the Newcastle University MBA program.