What are the typical professions which come to your mind if you think about a part-time MBA student? Most would say bankers, consultants, or employees in operations who want to pursue a leadership role and need a better business understanding. But very few would think of a marketer or any other employee on the business side. They mostly already completed their first business degree.
But here I am – a Marketer with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, focused on service marketing, performing a part-time MBA at Frankfurt School. But would I call myself the lonely wolf? Definitely not! The class I am in is totally diverse regarding professions, backgrounds, and origins. There are lawyers, software engineers, product managers, bankers, consultants, and employees in operations. But we all bring in our own expertise and experience into class, which makes the MBA a unique and valuable experience.
Let me summarise my decision process to start an MBA: I wanted to take the next step on an educational and academic level. So I’ve started to talk to mentors and peers to evaluate which study area would be most beneficial. The main point I’ve heard even from senior leaders was that in the business and specifically in the marketing space, work experience is more important than education or a title. So, I’ve decided to start a part-time programme. Logically, the next step was to find out where I could get the most out of the charges, and made the decision quite fast that I wanted to do a part-time MBA. Why? Because I do not want to have any borders in my career path. And an MBA is definitely one of the most valued degrees in the international business area you can get.
But where is the fun? Where is the value? Where is the educational/ academic challenge I wanted to reach? I will answer those questions based on the first elective lecture I had recently on the Munich campus. During the elective phase in Munich we made the best of our time by studying and having fun together in the evenings. Enjoying dinner, meeting at bars or, going to the Hofbräuhaus together. And that’s one of the most significant values of participating in an MBA programme. Every weekend on campus, you meet new exciting, motivated and intelligent people who quickly get part of your network. Frankfurt School additionally supports network-building activities by hosting events or thrilling executive talks followed by a get-together. And this brings me to the second one of the many values you can get from an MBA – academic education on the highest level, knowledge and everything applicable to your business life. The professors and lecturers (who will also get part of your network) are all experienced, approachable and excited business people or experts from academia. And now we connect the story to the already mentioned Fintechs and the disruption of the financial market. The lecturer was a founder in that area himself. He conveyed a tremendous amount of information and best practices to us. Also, the assignment was utterly practice focused as we needed to write a business plan for a Fintech ourselves. This helped me, gain that knowledge in my day-to-day job at a prominent financial services company. Or, as he would say, “a big whale”.
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