Students flock to Aston’s campus in Birmingham, England, to enhance their MBA Jobs’ prospects on the full-time MBA, Executive (part-time) MBA or Online MBA.
BusinessBecause spoke to five students from Japan, Kenya, India, Russia and Colombia about why they chose to study an MBA in the UK.
Just five days into the MBA program, and Artem Khachikyan already has a clear idea of where he wants to be in his career. The Russian MBA student wants to start-up his own bakery business and thinks that Aston is his route to making his dream a reality. “It is close to my home country, Russia, and the program is only a year long,” he said of picking the Aston MBA.
“But the most important thing for me was that British education is very strong. I can gain very strong knowledge at this university. I have friends that credit Aston and they have good job positions in Russia. I am planning to start my own factory business in baking, and am looking for business partners now.”
Janet Bolo is a management consultant at Deloitte, one of the Big Four audit firms with offices in the UK. She is originally from Kenya and has a passion for social entrepreneurship. “I wanted to learn some theory behind some of the things I’ve been practising at Deloitte,” she said. “I’m hoping to rise as a management consultant by increasing my knowledge here at Aston.
“I want to be a consultant at Deloitte, but I also want to be a social entrepreneur. There is a lot of knowledge I can export back to Africa, and a lot of the experience I will get from here from a lot of people from different backgrounds that I’m hoping to take back to Kenya.
“I strongly believe that the Africa is going to provide the future skilled workers.”
Masato Ipponsugi is an MBA from Japan who has a background in sales. He worked in the sales sector in Japan but chose to study in the UK to broaden his international prospects. “I actually majored in business management here in the UK, but went back to Japan to get a job,” he said. “I quit my job and chose to come here and study an MBA because I’d like to expand my network and maybe one day get a job in the UK, US, or Korea.
“Aston has connections with industries and companies. I need a connection and a network, because it might help to get a job. I think an MBA will help me get a career in sales.”
Claudia Milena Diaz Ortegon is vastly experienced in the finance sector in her home country, Colombia. She has nine years of experience with PricewaterhouseCoopers and SAB Miller, but chose to study an MBA to launch a career in Europe. “I decide to quit because the MBA was one thing for me that I have wanted to do for many years,” she said.
“When I started to work and started to grow in my professional career, it was difficult to quit. But I chose Aston because I like the idea of a career of Europe and specifically in the UK. I want to live here and my plan is to find a job here after my MBA.
“I know that this is not easy because the work visa is difficult, but I know that it is not impossible. The university gets us many tools in order to achieve that goal. I worked for PwC and SAB Miller but I preferred a change.”
Adiba Ali is originally from India and had a distinguished career with Goldman Sachs for seven years. She worked as an analyst in Bangalore and Hong Kong, before taking up an associate position in London. She is hoping to use an Aston MBA to further her business career.
While the competition for places on MBA programs has begun to increase, so too has the pay that an MBA can expect to receive after graduation. A recent survey by QS TopMBA.com shows that MBA salaries are rising globally, overall. Employers also hired 14 per cent more MBAs in 2013 than in 2012.
The UK is ranked 4th on a $106,000 average yearly MBA salary. Despite an economy that is lagging behind both the US and the booming Asian economies of China and Singapore, and despite just creeping out of a recession, UK MBAs' salaries are higher than all but Australia, Switzerland and Denmark.
Top b-schools in Europe such as Aston, which in 2010 was ranked number-one for career progress in the UK by the Financial Times, will hope to provide their fresh cohorts with the tools to get MBA Jobs. For these new 2013 students, their paths to better business careers in the UK have only just begun.
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