The Full-time MBA class of 2018 is now well in the swing of the summer term and an impressive 82% of the class are undertaking internships in the UK and internationally. This is the third consecutive year where more than 80% of the class have secured internships for the summer term, with company placements including American Express, Credit Suisse, Johnson & Johnson, Travis Perkins, Admiral UK, Bupa, NHS UK and HSBC.
The internship presents a unique opportunity to gain experience working across functions, industries and countries. For many of the international students, it is an opportunity to gain experience of working in the UK. For those who want to stay in the UK post-graduation, an internship may even convert to a full-time job offer.
Duce Rienmahasarn comments on her internship experience, which was sourced through our Postgraduate Careers Service and an alumnus:
"A year ago, I was a project manager working in the energy sector, earning a decent salary with a promising career ahead of me. However, I decided to leave that behind and explore new opportunities, push myself out of my comfort zone and develop myself. Hence, I chose to come to the UK and invest my savings in the AMBS MBA programme to build up my skillsets and further my career.
I came to AMBS knowing it offered me a safe environment to explore and discover how I wanted to pursue my career. As I became engaged with different activities and interacted with alumni, I realised that I was clueless about many sectors. I found the startup community and entrepreneurship sectors particularly interesting, so having the internship as part of the curriculum was the opportunity I needed to test this interest.
With perseverance and a little bit of luck, I secured an internship working at a startup based in London. I was assigned a very broad range of tasks I had never done before: conducting market research on various sectors, producing a product segmentation analysis, performing a stakeholder mapping, and participating in developing the company business plan.
Having to do something totally new in an unfamiliar working environment, and at the same time move to a huge city, is exciting, but also frustrating and intimidating. However, it’s a fantastic learning process and one I have thoroughly enjoyed.
Working at this startup is very different to my previous company. Given the size and current stage of the company, a lot of things are still developing and resources are limited. It might not sound so attractive, but I look at it as a chance to experience starting and growing a business. Here, I add value by using templates from past experience or theories learned from class, for example to structure an operations framework for the startup. Things have moved really fast and as result I became busy very quickly. I am involved in many facets of the business, from jotting down notes in meetings to strategising company sales processes.
Getting the chance to live in London is spectacular but what I value most from this summer is definitely the opportunity to understand and get a glimpse of the startup community. Having experienced that, I continue to be impressed by this sector and I am now motivated to craft my own path towards joining the community post-MBA."
The remainder of the class is working on personal projects, summer electives and the business simulation project. Watch this space next week for a review of the business simulation and find out more about the Full-time MBA here >>
By Duce Rienmahasarn & Laura Yeaman, VP Communications, Class of 2018
