Career impact

Experience

The experience I gained during the EMBA led me to change my career and industry. While this is a common path, it was not my original plan. In fact, I sought out the LBS EMBA and world-class academics to satisfy my curiosity in traditional business disciplines such as corporate finance and accounting. At the time, I was in a Chief of Staff-type role to one of Rio Tinto’s Group executives and my plan was to remain in the company where I had built a career - over more than a decade - in human resources across Australia, Southern Africa and the UK.

There were two catalysts for my career change that originated with the EMBA programme. Firstly, I was intrigued by the experiences of my classmates and the breadth of industries and backgrounds that they brought to our class discussions. This made me consider the myriad of business challenges that I would find interesting over the decades of work life ahead of me, and that I could bring my experiences to. Secondly, I chose electives in the second year of my programme that I found interesting (strategy, entrepreneurship and organisational behaviour), even though they were not directly relevant to my role at the time. I used it as an opportunity to experiment and hone where my professional interests were. These two catalysts helped cement my desire for a career transition - with organisational strategy consulting at McKinsey & Company at the top of my career ‘wish list’.

In many ways, determining that I wanted to transition my career was the simple part. As with many things, the challenge is in execution. To do this, I drew on 3 aspects of my MBA to effect this change. I utilised my LBS network to understand more about the consulting industry and learn from people who had already made a mid-career switch. I refined my personal pitch in much the same way as I refined a business pitch in an entrepreneurial elective and tested this with my classmates, who by this stage had become close friends. Finally, I applied many of the learnings from organisational behaviour and our capstone programme to help me map out how to make this transition successful.

Experience

I joined the programme coming from a cross sector consulting background, with deep functional specialisms in cost reduction and transformation, working mainly across the UK and Europe. I had progressed rapidly in my early career, and for my situation it made more sense to maintain the momentum I had by doing an EMBA instead of the full time programme, while continuing to work in London.

My motivation before I started the programme was to use the EMBA as an 'accelerator' to progress within my organisation; round out some knowledge gaps in functions I had minimal experience within; and build and expand my network as I started to shift my focus from a technical and transformational operator into a business leadership role.

During the programme the exposure I had to my classmates, the broader LBS network, and the companies and people that came to visit the campus helped me realise that there were more opportunities available which could use my skill set; across corporate and technology roles, other consulting firms and broader areas of professional services organisations. The tools and techniques I picked up, particularly around personal career development and how to really articulate what made me a unique individual, let me look at a much broader set of opportunities in a focussed way and quickly work out other potential and interesting career pathways.

Shortly after the programme, I made a career pivot away from my current role where I was a high performer with a clear progression pathway, to transition into a new professional services space that I hadn't previously considered - restructuring. I pivoted away from consulting into a newly created operational restructuring role at PwC Middle East. They had an established and entrepreneurial team which wanted me to build, develop and grow the operational restructuring part of the business (from strategy to execution) across the entire Middle East region, leveraging my transferable skills and experience obtained while working in London.

The EMBA community in the Middle East is extremely active, welcoming and open, and the LBS network in the region has been an incredible source of both candidates to join my team, and client opportunities. Without the EMBA experience, I would not have taken the initial steps to move out of my comfort zone and land a phenomenal role. This role will keep me busy growing a business in an extremely interesting region, which is dealing with the impacts of Covid-19, oil price pressures, and great levels of change.

Experience

When I joined the EMBA programme I was considering going through a fund-raising exercise for my own research business in the energy sector. While I was excited about the journey this would take me on, deep down I felt that what I was doing wasn't challenging me or helping me get closer to my goal of working in sustainability.

During a networking event at LBS I met someone from the energy team at Amazon Web Services and he explained that they were hiring - I joined AWS shortly afterwards. My role is to look after our relationship with one of the biggest energy companies in the world and my particular focus is on my main area of interest - new energies. A key responsibility of mine is to help my customer find innovative solutions to solve climate change.

My time at LBS on the EMBA programme was a crucial part of this journey; not just the networking, but in helping me understand what I was capable of and also helping me work out what I was good at. I feel very lucky to have ended up in my dream job!

Experience

I arrived at my decision to do an EMBA after several years of consideration and at a transitional point in my career. Previously, I had been head-hunted to work on Kings College Hospital London’s first international facility; an experience which led me to seek a permanent change in direction. To this end, I first gained a Masters in Health Policy & Management from one of the top universities in the UK. Whilst this further whetted my appetite, it didn’t have the impact on my career I had hoped.

An EMBA was the next natural step, and when it came to applying, LBS was an obvious choice. As one of the world’s top-ranked business schools, I knew that it could deliver the global perspective and quality I wanted. The course was billed to be a "transformative leadership journey"; a bold claim but one which proved to be entirely accurate. The combination of regular career coaching, world-class lecturers and creative teaching provided me with the skills and expertise I needed. A targeted, personal approach allowed me to understand my unique strengths and work on opportunities for development within a safe environment.

During the programme, the careers advice I received from LBS was invaluable as I actively pursued new roles. Securing my first C – level role felt like a mile-stone moment, one which I doubt would have been possible without the EMBA. I have since progressed to another management role at HCA Healthcare - the world’s largest private healthcare provider - and have used my new skills and knowledge to help them navigate tricky territory during these challenging times.

Completing the EMBA is merely the beginning. I have forged what I believe are lifelong friendships with very talented classmates and look forward to continuing my relationship with the school as an alumnus.

Experience

After 20 successful years in the hospitality industry, I had reached a crossroad: should I continue, move industry or open my own business? The digital revolution was changing consumer behaviour at an incredible pace and opened new possibilities. To navigate this next chapter of my life, I had to build new networks, upskill and therefore joined the EMBA programme at London Business School.

The variety of courses, support structures and experiences introduced me to new ideas, fields, practices and research into societal changes. Being part of a class from various nationalities, occupations and life experiences was very inspiring and gave me the chance to challenge myself and go out of my comfort zone.

The EMBA journey, alumni community and new friends I gained, gave me new skills, networks and confidence to join a real estate company in a C-Suite role; building operational capabilities not only in hospitality, but also the private residential sector. Working in this entrepreneurial environment continues to open opportunities for learning and growth for the foreseeable future.