My name is Antonio Jimenez and I am from Mexico. The course I chose was MSc. Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management at the Business School.
My favourite memory of Newcastle
I have several great memories about my time at Newcastle, however, if I had to choose one, I would choose the Christmas vibes and the Christmas market. In this season, there is a street market that takes place in one of the most iconic places of Newcastle; Monument.
There are several stands where you can find treats, coffee and even booze, among several things. I used to go to this place with my friends to chat and relax, we used to walk down the market and then grab a beer at the bar which was awesome because it was a different kind of experience.
I also enjoyed the soccer matches because the Newcastle United FC stadium is located right in front of the Business School and I used to live a couple of blocks away. Whenever there was a match, the vibes around the whole city were amazing, specifically near the stadium!
What is the best thing about Newcastle?
Talking about the city of Newcastle itself, the thing I liked the most about it was the closeness to everything. As it’s a “small” city you can walk everywhere.
For example, when I had lectures I had to walk less than 10 minutes to reach the Business School, or if I wanted to go to the city centre or to The Grainger Market it was less than 15 minutes.
Another great thing is that Newcastle is a student’s city, everything is related to students, there are student discounts everywhere! You just need to ask for it and then you need to show your university ID.
Last but not least, the social life at Newcastle is one of the best in the UK, people from different cities come to Newcastle to party, take part in fun activities and every single weekend, so it is really good to make friends and have fun.
What was the best thing about your programme?
Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management MSc is a great programme designed to provide the fundaments of the supply chain management to provide a different perspective and a value-added when improving processes in operations and logistics, the best thing about the course is that you can gain many different perspectives from each of the modules.
However, the most important improvement that I had was the ability to design a network through the use of linear programming, to find the constraints and decision variables and then translate them into coding.
Advice to my previous self
If I could tell a hint to my previous self, it would be about the time management required to face a Master’s degree. Sometimes I take things too simple which leads to having a lack of a plan to face the objectives.
At the beginning of my course, I didn’t consider the required self-study time for each module, and at the end of the first semester I was struggling with the time I had left to prepare for the final exams, so I would recommend having a clear picture of the different modules per semester and the required effort and time to cover the topics and be ready for the exams without being at the library the whole week prior to exams.
Where will I be in 5 years?
Due to COVID-19, it’s hard to have a clear picture of where I see myself in 5 years. However, I would love to see myself in a senior manager of supply chain position, and being consolidated in a transnational company, having the possibility to keep climbing into the hierarchy and keep learning new things.