When I decided to pursue an MBA degree at the world’s top business school at the University of Cambridge, I was looking for an experience where I can both learn but also contribute, within a bigger environment. A further step in my career relied on a new adventure which would be filled with opportunities.
By the end of the Easter Term at Cambridge Judge, I was offered an opportunity to study at the Yale School of Management (SOM). It was exciting for me to also study at a top business school in the US. I had now studied in the UK, as well as working previously in international finance in Canada for several years, so to have the opportunity to study at Yale SOM and to have access to American business culture was also going to be amazing.
The course of study at Yale SOM is self-designed. It allowed me to build a customised selection of courses that met my personal interests and professional goals. Of the 40 units of course work, 36 units are chosen from across both Yale SOM and other Yale schools and departments. Since I am interested in ESG strategy and impact finance, I have taken a clean energy module at Yale School of Environment, which helps me to learn from a different perspective and be mentored by technology experts and engineers. I also chose to pursue an optional Concentration in Management Science, focusing on the application of statistical modeling, data warehousing/mining, programming, forecasting, and operations research techniques to the analysis of problems of business organisation and performance.
Given that I have only had experience in finance so far, I intended to fully broaden my vision and experience, so I also applied for several practical learning opportunities. In the Fall Term, I worked with four Yale MBA students on a real consulting project at Yale Center for Customer Insights, to gain firsthand experience of tackling a real-world challenge facing a business leader. Through Yale’s proprietary Insights Discovery Process, which builds on the latest theories in behavioural science, we conducted customer surveys with over 6000 respondents, collected social media data, had 26 in-depth customer interviews and delivered both innovative and convincing findings to help our client, McDonald’s, to develop a deeper understanding of the psychological beliefs that may serve as barriers to current customers becoming digital customers and how to drive engagement with digital customers. In the Spring Term, I will work with Microsave Consulting (MSC), a boutique consulting firm, on a consulting project exploring areas where MSC can add real value to global efforts to address climate change and benefit low-income and vulnerable populations in India.
In the USA, the University of Cambridge community is still very strong. After I moved to the US, I already had two Cambridge alumni networking events. I met with Mauro Guillén, the Dean of Cambridge Judge Business School in America and the alumni drinks reception at the Harvard Club, in New York, reminded me of my old days at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
At Cambridge Judge Business School, we not only focused on business practices but also on global social and environmental issues. We discussed a lot about poverty, climate change and gender inequality issues in the MBA classroom. The Cambridge Judge Business School makes a lot of effort raising students’ social responsibility and social global awareness. On the Yale SOM website, it states that Yale SOM’s mission is to educate leaders for business and society. This is exactly what I am looking for across my career and this has motivated me to discover how much more I can achieve in the future.