Shaping my career

Current Executive MBA (London) participant Tasneem Shafiq discusses the careers support available to participants and how it has benefitted her.

The extensive careers support on offer was one of my main reasons for choosing to study an Executive MBA at Warwick Business School. In addition to getting a broader business education, I wanted to use the MBA to pivot my career into a different direction, however I was unclear as to exactly what this may be. Dedicated support through the CareersPlus team has enabled me to better understand my strengths and to start shaping my next career move. The team are an invaluable resource that always make themselves available, making it a truly personal experience. The next step for me is to now leverage the opportunities available via WBS, including the extensive alumni network, so that I am in the best position to maximise the investment in my MBA.

The practical application of workshops

As well as the dedicated support from the CareersPlus team, I’ve attended a series of workshops set-up specifically for our cohort. These include topics like Courageous Conversations, Managing High Performance Teams and Stakeholder Management. These workshops complement the theoretical modules you study as part of the MBA so that you can gain the soft skills alongside the technical and become a more rounded professional - ultimately becoming more marketable. Last autumn I attended a session run by an external consultant on ‘The first 100 days’, which is based on the principle that any career moves need to be carefully thought about and managed to help you set yourself up for success. The approach taught in the session was invaluable when I recently moved roles internally, which I felt was a lot smoother and helped me deliver value back to the business much sooner.

There are also a number of skills based workshops on offer at a very reasonable cost, which is significantly lower than you would pay if you were to enrol on them direct. I’m particularly looking forward to attending the Media Interview Skills workshop planned later this year, which will be invaluable as I move into a more senior role. 

Change Maker series

The Change Maker series is particularly inspirational with speakers from all different industries and at different stages in their careers. Hearing their experiences has challenged my way of thinking and given me ideas of how I could also approach certain obstacles faced in my daily work life. I’ve found that these workshops are also a great opportunity to network with others across the MBA programme and connect with the various professional networks on offer at WBS.

And finally, my.wbs has been an invaluable resource throughout my MBA journey. It has a dedicated Careers tab where you can not only find all the information you need on workshops, webinars, etc. but is also regularly updated with resources that can help you in your day-to-day roles and generally feel more knowledgeable about what is happening in the business world. For example, there is a regular financial markets update that I enjoy reading as it gives me interesting talking points when networking.

Hopefully, the above gives you flavour of what’s available and what I’ve found particularly useful. There is a lot you can engage with, and ultimately it will come down to what is interesting and relevant for you personally. My personal advice would be to try at least one of everything and then decide what works for you. 

Find out more about our Executive MBA options, available to study in either Warwick or London here.