MBA Blogs @ Manchester Business School

So January 2010 has finally arrived and that means for me, and my 130-odd colleagues that the International Business Project is upon us. This is our last three months of the MBA. Up until now IB had always seemed so far away but now it begins.

The past fifteen months has passed quickly. Looking at the new 2011 class, I can’t believe that it really was fifteen months when we were starting our course at MBS. A lot has happened since then, courses, assignments, meetings and exams (as well as parties and holidays). It’s been incredibly challenging but fantastic fun and I’ve met some great people who I know will be lifelong friends.

The IB is what makes MBS special. It provides the opportunity to practice everything that we have covered on the MBA during a live project for a real company. There’s typically a significant budget involved too so that combined with the fact that you get access to senior people within your client company, gives a feeling that you are actually delivering something important. This is not just an academic exercise.

I feel ready for IB, although it signals the beginning of the end of the MBA and the advancement of the slightly daunting prospect of re-entering society (aka getting a job). Our team have managed to secure our own IB project. The project promises to be really interesting and very challenging. We will likely be heading to places like Australia, Canada, South Africa and the USA. Because we got our own project we haven’t had to spend the last couple of weeks preparing and presenting bids for various projects that have been secured by the school. We’ve been using the time well and have completed most of the planning and initial research hoping to get a slight head start. So far so good and we’re on the way to delivering something really valuable for our client and we are all excited about the project (and of course the travelling).

Like most of my colleagues I am currently looking for the ‘MBA Job.’ It’s easier for us I think than it was for the year before us who graduated into a deep recession. So far things look promising but there is much more work to do and balancing work and the job search is always a challenge. The team are supporting each other well so far in both the project and the job hunt. This is a good thing as finding time to do both well is difficult. We hope that having people you respect applying the pressure and helping in the right way helps make sure the final part of our MBA goes smoothly.

Here’s for a great IB and a fantastic job at the end of it!