Alongside the promise of a higher salary and career acceleration, here’s how an MBA will also equip you with the mental strength you need to succeed in today’s workplace
An MBA is your ticket to a higher salary and potential job offers, but it’s also a chance to broaden your mind and develop the mental toughness you need to succeed in the workplace.
Muhammad Manko, Yuta Shirahata, and Sarah Atiq are all set to graduate from the University of Hong Kong Business School (HKU) MBA in 2021. BusinessBecause caught up with them to find out how an MBA develops your mental strength.
1. You learn to lead cross-culturally
Qatar native Sarah spent time working in finance and e-marketing in Singapore before enrolling in the HKU MBA. She was joined by people from a range of industries including technology, telecommunications, consulting, and logistics.
The 2021 HKU MBA cohort contains 18 nationalities among 51 students. As many as 98% are international students, and people’s ages range from 24 to 47.
That means you learn to work across cultures and adapt your leadership and teamwork style accordingly. Sarah says throughout the MBA she has worked closely with a diverse cohort during business simulators and group projects. “There were hardly any assignments that were individual projects, it was all team based,” she explains.
Being forced to interact within diverse groups means you’re introduced to a range of working styles. This helps you learn how to get the best out of a team, and means you often learn as much from your classmates as your professors, Sarah thinks.
“It was great to meet new people and learn from them, that was one of the benefits I hadn’t actually expected,” she says. “It meant a lot of helping others because it’s a whole team you’re supporting.
“You learn that everybody has such different backgrounds and skill sets but we all want to get to the same goal and finish the project on time,” she adds. “It really broadened my mind and the way I think.”
2. You become more resilient
Muhammad had to start the HKU MBA from Nigeria, as the coronavirus pandemic meant he couldn’t fly to Hong Kong when term began.
Nigeria is seven hours behind Hong Kong, which forced Muhammad to begin classes every day at 2am. Finishing his studies in the late morning meant he continued his job in asset management alongside the MBA, until he could move a month later. This period made him mentally stronger, he thinks.
“It was already a tricky decision to move to Hong Kong during a pandemic year, but it was especially difficult having to start classes from Nigeria,” he says.
Like all MBA students, Muhammad also had to overcome the difficulties of receiving rejections after applying for internships and jobs.
“When you get rejections you begin to feel different, you begin to question your own abilities” he says. “That’s one big challenge I had to come to terms with, to not let it get to me.”
The HKU career development and training team offers careers services including professional development coaching and mentorship. The team also works closely with recruiters to help secure students employment and offers support and advice when students receive rejections.
With help from the careers staff, Muhammad says he’s learned to be more resilient. “I feel very different about rejections now, I handle it better. As soon as I get a rejection now I apply for two more jobs, so it pushes me on.”
3. You grow your confidence
HKU MBAs are given real world working experience through business simulators and consulting projects designed to push you out of your comfort zone.
Yuta, a former management consultant and editor of a publishing company in Japan, found this even more challenging. He'd spoken English in a business setting during his time in Japan, but wasn't used to speaking English casually on a regular basis.
“At the beginning of the MBA I couldn't always express myself easily through English in group projects,” he explains.
With help from his classmates, he found he became more confident as the course progressed. “They were so kind, and they always tried to understand what I wanted to say; because of that environment I improved my English while I learned.”
One of the most important practical experiences for HKU MBAs is the capstone project, which requires them to apply all the lessons they learn throughout the program to solve a real-life complex business problem.
Students work on the task throughout the year and present their work to a panel of faculty members at the end of the course.
Bringing together all the course topics—which range from corporate finance to marketing—into one project, revealed to Yuta just how much he’d developed during the program.
“The capstone project was the highlight of my journey,” he says, “my confidence developed so much as I realized I could use my knowledge in any project in the real world.”
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) - MBA Programmes HKU Business School
Student
Verified
23/02/2023
On Campus
Academic
Very good academic, caes course amazing, ccs are all amazing, professors are excellent, the architecture and infrastructure is splendid, people here are awesome, made some really nice friends, and teachers support us
Hatim
Verified
6/02/2023
On Campus
Diversified culture
I highly recommend The University of Hong Kong to students all around the world because of their diversified culture, teaching standards, and the people which make the learning experience better every day.
Student
Verified
6/10/2017
A place where you best understand local and international cultures
With plenty of experiences available, HKU provides a plenty of experience for me to explore our own and other countries culture. She has excellent teaching and research staffs in the Department of Ecology and Biodiversity. Time allocate to students are considered sufficient and staffs are ready to reach anytime.
Besides academic, she has various subsidised programmes that allow students to explore. This credit should be given to GenEd (general education) Office to provide different interesting programmes. These ranged from guest speaker giving talks on China-Hong Kong relationship; Contemporary art in Asia; or holding mini forum on geopolitics. Most, if not all, of which are free of charge!
Student
Verified
1/10/2017
Life at HKU
Pursued the SHS degree at HKU, academic and clinical staff members were very devoted and passionate. The academic program is under constant reviews, staff members are open minded and willing to modify the program with regards to students' opinions. Career prospect is good. Uni life is fruitful, many different activities for students to choose. Great facilities supporting learning.
Student
Verified
29/09/2017
Student Life in HKU
As an Accounting and Finance year3 undergrad student in HKU, the university provides lots of opportunities for me to learn and explore my interests.
You could join a wide variety of activities, like being an committee member of societies and joining hall activities. As for me, I chose to join the winter exchange programme, be a committee member, and did volunteering servic and had latrine construction and volunteer teaching in Ghana, Africa. I also organized lots of activities for societies and had lots of meetings with company representatives. As for school work, it is okay normally but definitely u got a lot busier during November and April. You got a lot more free time compared to CUHK and HKUST. And of course, this is considered as the most ‘international’ uni in HK in a way that I could make friends coming from different countries.
Just wanna add, HKU has a good location for foodie as its near Central, Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui. For those who love night lifes dont miss this. I didnt speak of anything i dislike coz there isnt anything i dislike much, but if I do have to say, it is the hall life of many local students, such as having cheers at night and never sleeps that may disturb others.
Student
Verified
2/09/2020
Blended
Academics
I think it’s a great university that gives you a lot of opportunities in terms of academics as well as extracurricular activities. The education system is fairly westernized and the professors are good for the most part.
Student
Verified
3/11/2017
International, stratified and political
Adequate resources and very convenient campus with sufficient channels to expand your social and professional circle. Also politically active, and perhaps too biasedly so. Its law school is firmly established, with the longest history in Hong Kong. Practical and professional training, with a constant atmosphere of anxiety and competition that encourages a relatively focused and narrow vision of career outlook. Good range of extra curricular activities available.
Student
Verified
12/10/2017
Life in HKU
HKU provides students with lots of opportunities in multidisciplinary researches and experiences. This encourages students to widen their horizons and prepare for the future. The programme I attended organised both local and oversea field trips that allowed me to have the first hand experiences of relative aspects. It was very useful for my later career.
Student
Verified
6/10/2017
BSocSc
I am a graduate of the BSocSc programme several years ago. I appreciate that the programme provided a flexible choice of majors and minors. Even I was admitted into social sciences programme, I could explore various streams of studies in and out of the social sciences faculty, including global studies, human resources, politics, science and music. I did a double major in psychology and sociology. Among all learning experiences in lectures, tutorials, field trips…, I would say the internship experience was one of the most memorable part of my university life. The faculty offers a credit-bearing internship programme in which students can go to various NGOs to work on social issues, ranging from poverty, education to adjustment of ethnic minorities. Students can be placed locally or overseas, depending on placement quota, their personal preference and past experience. I went to a social service agency that serves adults who are intellectually challenged and have autism spectrum disorder. It was an eye-opening experience in observing how different professionals work together to provide training for those people and reflecting on how psychological knowledge could come into play. I was also able to gain some hands-on experience in leading an activity.
There are more and more internship opportunities for university students. It is just another way to gain practical experience apart from applying for interns in government agencies or business companies, especially in organisations that would not openly recruit interns but only work with tertiary institutions.
It should be noted that for some majors/courses, there are really a lot of people studying. When I was an undergraduate back then, we often expected a lecture with 100+ students and a tutorial with nearly 20 students. If you favour close student-teacher interaction in small classes, you may look into the enrolment of particular courses.
