My name is Andrew Higgins and I’m a full time student on the Smurfit MBA programme. I’ll be blogging over the next several months about various aspects of the programme, focusing on some of the non- academic aspects of the MBA, and hopefully giving an accurate flavour of what the programme involves day to day.
Firstly, some background on me! I finished a Physics degree in Trinity College Dublin in 2002, and after graduation started working in directory advertising sales. I began in telesales, servicing existing SME customers, and was then promoted to fieldsales, where I looked after high revenue accounts in N. Ireland and the UK for several years. This role was highly consultative, and I solution sold a range of print, online and other advertising programmes and advised on Search engine optimisation and Search engine marketing.
After many successful years, I was looking for a new challenge, and the opportunity came up to take a voluntary redundancy which I did. I applied to the Smurfit business school and was fortunate enough to be awarded a merit based scholarship. Since beginning the programme in August 2010 I have been rather busy! There is a definite “shock and awe” feel about the initial workload (it eases – somewhat,) and there’s also the novelty of being back in an academic environment after so many years in industry.
Over the next few months I’ll be filling you in on how the programme feels from the inside, and hopefully how it prepares one for a career afterwards! One of the things I’ll be blogging about is a typical day (or two,) in the life of an MBA, from the academic, social and groupwork aspects to preparing for the international trip to China and exams. I hope you’ll find it helpful and interesting.
– Andrew Higgins