Author: Angela Leone

We are used to facing many “first days” throughout our path. Especially when we talk about school. We spent time at kindergarten and then we attended primary school: we usually have a blurry memory of our first day at these institutions. Middle school is quite different, some can remember the moment they entered the classroom, others can recall the first period, when conversations with new friends began and you felt part of a community. I think that the first day of high school is quite clear in our minds: maybe you met the same friends from your middle school again or maybe you had moved and started on a new life with new mates with a different accent, dialect or even language. The first day at university is the peak of a transformation period. A large percentage of students change their city, home, friends from home, classmates, habits and, probably, ideas, sports, hobbies… and the list can be much longer.

The milestones listed here are common to a relatively high number of students. This is a well-designed and pre-created path: you are only asked to follow it according to your inclination and give the right commitment to the tasks assigned. An important difference between these first days and a first day at an MBA class is that you know you are going to do something which takes you off the standard route, making a decision which comes quite exclusively from you.

My first day was the end of a long period of evaluation and personal assessments, and the beginning of a brand-new journey of improvement. I had decided to take an in-person MBA before the pandemic and I have never changed my mind; even though I was quite sure that some classes would be held online, I would not have renounced one of the fundamental values of the live lessons: the contact with classmates.

During the Master’s kick-off session, despite the age and the maturity acquired during my past experiences, I perceived a sense of excitement and the perception of doing something significant arose. For me, being an MBA candidate means growing in a different way. Since the beginning, my objective has not been to find teachers but mentors; not to learn but to be inspired by innovative and antifragile points of view; not simply to meet more people, but to create a valuable network that, leveraging the different backgrounds, shares common goals; not to fill my curiosity with notions but to aspire to a long-lasting willingness to improve; not to be the perfect employee but to farm an entrepreneurial mindset and apply it in every aspect of my working life.

Seeds of these aspects were already visible on the first day, but a contrasting feeling appeared: the enthusiasm to get the most out of this experience and, contemporarily, the certainty that time is limited. I am quite sure that one of the most important achievements we will gain from this intense and overwhelming parcourse will be the ability to balance it with our current jobs and private lives. The decision to dedicate hours and (sometimes) whole weekends to lessons and to studies is crucial and must be taken with awareness.

The first days are the expression of a restart: you are discouraged by the mountain appearing very hard to climb and you think your equipment is insufficient for scaling it. Actually, you approach every “first day” with something more than the past: you bring with you a different background and a deeper experience. If you dig up this expertise, you will find the necessary tools to make the scaling easier and insightful and that will enable you to achieve what you had planned before.

Certainly, at the beginning you cannot count on specific future benefits: an MBA is an investment and, like every investment, there are risks as well as returns. The big difference here is that you are (and have to be) confident about the asset you are investing in: yourself.

About the author

During the years at university it is quite easy to focus on one main goal: to pass all the exams and get the qualification you were aiming for. In some way, life after university can seem distant and blurry. Then you graduate and suddenly realize that your run, the longest one, has just started. You will search for a job, not a random one but something that suits you, that lets you apply what you had learnt at university, that lets you understand how your impact on the company can be positive and your efforts recognized as solid and valuable. You realize after a while that you must embrace your work experience to make it a profitable learning path, and that’s for a simple reason: you are going to spend a considerable part of your life working, so why not reap all the benefits of it?

At least, this is what happened to be my personal experience. I started to work as a freelancer for some small design firms till I joined a big international company that made me see my approach to work in a different way. I found that being part of a complex environment pushes people to adapt to several new situations, and that makes them grow faster. Suddenly I wanted to know more about my job because I couldn’t apply the same methods and habits as I had before. The scale and the impact of my actions massively increased. The mix of cultures made me care more about the way I communicate with people. With so much information to manage and so many opportunities to learn, I was constantly being forced out of my comfort zone.

The fact is that after a while, even if the environment is tough and the level of responsibility higher than before, you’ll easily get used to it and start to organize your time and your work better and better. After a couple of years you’re a different person, you’re more comfortable with your tasks, the pressure you felt at the beginning is much lower. Actually, you’ve managed to improve your productivity, the quality of your work, and it has happened so fast and so satisfactorily that you could choose to continue challenging yourself more and more. You can think: Am I satisfied now? Can I or do I want to improve more? Am I too technical? Should I learn how to manage teams, projects or even a business? Do I really want to challenge myself more?

The answers will depend a lot on your personal situation and environment, but if you’re already asking yourself these questions, the time has probably come to find an alternative way to learn. When I started to look around, I found several opportunities but nothing challenging enough nor suitably in line with my goals, which, in fact, at that moment were not really clear to me. So I found myself, almost randomly, participating in the MBA presentation at MIP Politecnico di Milano, sitting in a class with many young professionals and hearing for the first time what an MBA is  ̶  a complex and difficult path that gives you both deep and practical knowledge about economics, finance, marketing and entrepreneur-ship, and about the tools you need to succeed with them, i.e. statistics, strategy, planning. Last but not least, the MBA focuses a lot on soft skills such as leadership and career development. During the lessons you will always be pushed to interact with your classmates, to share your opinions and to discuss them with both professors and students, because you will be an “active learning” part of the course itself. In my opinion, this is the perfect way to connect with your classmates and create what will become a team that can work together and help each other.

I started my MBA at MIP just few days ago and I am feeling more determined day by day. The students selected by MIP are strongly motivated to work and improve together and, even if they come from different environments, everyone’s ready to share their own experiences and to learn from those of others.

Therefore, if reading these words makes you feel like being part of this group or just willing to challenge yourself in all the dynamics an MBA can offer, I think that the real question at the end is “Why not an MBA?”

About the author

Here we are for my last article about this amazing adventure!

My MBA path had come to an end with the graduation in July. I have to admit that it has been an amazing experience for which I will be grateful forever!

I have gained a lot from this journey, including many takeaways that have changed my prospects for the future.

For sure, one key area is related to people: friendships, teamwork and leadership.

Working with a diverse group of individuals for each project taught me to work in a team in an effective and cordial way, despite disagreements or personal dislikes. This experience has definitely been useful for managing situations at my work, in which I have to manage people in order to apply some teachings to my concrete professional circumstances.

At a more intimate level, my MBA classmates showed me the importance of being humble because of the stories behind our lives, the value of cultural diversity, since this is an international course, and the creation of a network which I am using right now and which has ended up being a key asset.

This MBA was also a chance for immersion in real world business problems and stories through the various speakers, in-company visits or international experiences. It made me understand the overall set-up of a company and the most important issues in every function. Our course took an extremely case-based approach and I see now that this has developed my critical thinking, my ability to make quick and analytical choices, my strategic reasoning and my ability to take decisions individually or in a group. This MBA has inculcated in me a structured way of thinking about things which I will never lose.

My final project also gave me the chance of investing the core of my function, working with top management and closely following one of my company’s key strategic choices.

The last area is my personal development. This MBA has encouraged my entrepreneurial spirit and fostered my ambition in growing professionally, despite the risks and downsides embedded in every choice. I am now stronger and more aware of my capabilities and qualities and have a clearer path for my future growth.

About the author