This is even more true when your ambition is to work in a different country that is vastly different to your own. It’s frequently not enough to get a generalist management education—you need more.
This is what the Master’s in International Management programs at SOAS University of London, aim to provide, as they give students a knowledge of business that is tailored to their target region.
The school offers three main International Management masters programs, focusing on Japan, China, and the Middle East and North Africa, which draw on the school’s specialist international faculty to deliver a culturally-specific learning experience.
For Martina Augurio, a recent graduate of the Master’s in International Management for China program, the course was an opportunity to deepen her knowledge of the Chinese market—and, hopefully, launch her into an international career in marketing.
We caught up with Martina to hear more about her experience and how it’s helped shape her as a marketer—read what she said about it below.
When did you first become interested in working in China?
I became interested in studying Chinese and developing a career in China when I came to Asia for the first time. I was fascinated by the Asian way of living, thinking, and dealing with any type of circumstances.
What made you choose to study International Management at SOAS? What were you hoping to learn?
I chose SOAS University of London because of its fame in the field of Asian studies. I knew that SOAS was among the world’s leading institutions in this field and I was expecting high level of teaching and new stimuli.
The reason I chose to study ‘International Management for China’ was that I have always had a business-oriented mindset. As a matter of fact, during my BA I started running my own e-business and I got a fair amount of success in a couple of months!
From the course description, I knew that I there was a wide range of subjects offered by the MSc in International Management, from marketing to business strategy, and also advanced Chinese for business! It seemed a perfect match to what I wanted to study most.
What are the key advantages of the course focusing specifically on China? What was your favorite part?
The advantages are that you really get to know China in depth—especially the newest developments of their political economy, investment plans, attitude, and policies towards foreign countries. I don’t think that there is a similar course covering all these topics in Europe today.
Thanks to the numerous presentations we had to give, I also deepened my understanding of crucial challenges China has to face and I developed critical thinking skills around these topics.
Moreover, we also dedicated a good part of our lessons to understand the Chinese way of doing business and negotiations. We even had the opportunity to do a negotiation simulation through role-play!
How has this helped you in your career in marketing?
During my Master’s, I had the opportunity to choose among different optional courses and I selected International Marketing.
Thanks to this course, I deepened my knowledge of marketing, and I discovered that this was the environment in which I saw myself working the most.
That's why I also chose to do a marketing dissertation, and learned how to use statistics software as SPSS.
This was particularly useful when building my CV and doing interviews, because many companies were interested in this skill too. Especially when doing marketing research with primary data, statistics software analysis is particularly important.
SOAS formed me in a complete way and I cannot be more satisfied than this about my Master’s degree.
Who would you recommend the course at SOAS to and why?
I would recommend this course to anyone with a genuine passion for business and Asia—someone willing to put maximum effort into their academic path, and who loves being confronted with challenges. Last year was not ‘easy’, but it was completely worth it, and SOAS University of London gives you many unforgettable moments in return for your hard work.
