5,491 miles away from Manchester in Sri Lanka, where the locals typically sit in the shade of a palm tree on the beautiful beaches, is where I am from. But when I received an offer to study a Full-time MBA at Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) with a scholarship, I traded my sun cream for an umbrella and made the move across the globe to Manchester.
Before the MBA
Before coming to Manchester for the MBA I had been following in my father’s footsteps and excelling in the finance sector. I was a Chartered Accountant with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. My career has taken me to KPMG as well as leading global clothing manufacturing giants, playing vital supporting roles to company leaders.
After working for 7 years, I knew this was now the right time for me to take a break in my career and pursue an MBA. I always wanted to study an MBA to advance my skills in people management, so I can lead organisations and understand detailed organisational dynamics. I was keen to understand how to run a company in turbulent environments and to achieve overall company strategy and vision.
Why Alliance Manchester Business School?
My reasons for choosing to study at AMBS were its great ranking position alongside the “Manchester Method”. This method promises 3 consultancy projects within real business organisations. I felt these projects would be an opportunity to practically apply what I was simultaneously learning in the classroom. I also thought the opportunity to complete an internship within world-renowned global companies would be an incredible asset to my CV. I knew studying the MBA at AMBS was going to give me a chance to work in a variety of sectors alongside different cultures to help me build a wider network.
The programme so far
So far on the programme we have completed 2 live consultancy assignments: the Not for Profit and Commercial Business projects. For both of these, we were put into teams of 5. The team were from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, and we have to work together to achieve tangible business outcomes. Working in a team with people with different professional backgrounds – from engineering to medicine – has really equipped me with a whole new perspective and set of skills.
Study modules and careers session keep us occupied during the term time. I find this tests our time management and ability to work under pressure. For my internship I worked at Hilti Group within their central marketing team. During this internship I gained invaluable experience of benchmarking, harmonising and conceptualising the pricing of the Hilti Group Fleet Management for UK, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. As a whole the internship tested my skills of finance, marketing and processing, which I know will equip me with enriching knowledge to add to my professional portfolio.
After the internship, I will be gearing up and prepping for the electives and the International Business project that is due to begin towards the end of the year.
