The Cambridge MBA provides a lot of things to do for its students. They include not only opportunities to make your business successful or elevate your business skills but also the opportunity to broaden your horizons or make your life better by taking advantage of the wider University of Cambridge community and resources.
In my case, I took the opportunity to interact with people in the field that I am good at, since I wasn’t particularly confident in my communication skills at the beginning of my MBA year.
It was good news for me that Cambridge had a Kendo club. Kendo is a Japanese martial art and looks like the Lightsaber Duel in Star Wars. I have been practicing it for over twenty years, so it is the thing I have the most confidence in.
At the very beginning of the year, I felt it was initially difficult to communicate with the club members. But as we crossed swords in the enthusiastic practice sessions, I started to have fun and I felt more comfortable discussing the sport in the club setting.
It is now a good memory for me that I, with my great teammates, joined the UK University Championship and Varsity Match against Oxford, and we won the top position. These events were also a good opportunity to expand my wider professional network across the UK and also over the wider world.
As I achieved more confidence through Kendo during my MBA year, I took more opportunities to join my Cambridge MBA friends and classmates. The biggest challenge I took on was being part of the May Ball Committee at Cambridge Judge Business School. It was a precious experience for me to work together with MBA friends from different parts of the world. I found a lot of similarities and differences in our workstyles, but the vital thing I learnt was to position ourselves to maximise each of our strengths for the best output, which I specifically learned in the Cambridge MBA Marketing classes.
This experience has now changed how I embrace cultures, thoughts, and individuals, as I go forward in my career.
All these experiences let me spread my wings and have now given me lifelong and treasured CJBS friends, within my global network.
