career development – Smurfit MBA Blog

UCD Smurfit MBAs go to Tokyo & Seoul

On March 11th, 70 MBA students will depart for the annual Smurfit MBA International Study Tour. This year, for the first time, we will be visiting Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, South Korea. The Study Tour encourages participants to immerse themselves in the business environment of these unique countries by taking them on an intensive exploration of local business practices, challenges and cultures, using company visits as the ideal setting for practical learning. It combines a variety of high-level company visits, presentations and panel discussions from leading executives, government officials and entrepreneurs, all relevant to the core management disciplines being studied on the ‘Doing Business in International Markets’ MBA module.

Along with the academic aspect of this module, there are three main outcomes that we aim to achieve throughout the week-long Study Tour:

Career Development: To develop a deeper understanding of doing business in an international context and an opportunity to network with senior executives from various backgrounds.

Skills Development: Practical exposure to innovative business case studies relevant to the core courses studied and enhance team working skills through group challenges.

Personal Development: An intensive social networking opportunity. Build strong relationships. Challenging experience – “get you out of your comfort zone”.

There is a strong networking and social element to the Study Tour and we have lots of exciting adventures lined up; dinner in the ‘Kill Bill Restaurant’ in Tokyo, visits to Harajuku, Takeshita Street, Asakusa temples, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Bukchon Hanok village and National Museum of Korean Contemporary History.

The students will be joined by Professor Karan Sonpar, Professor Pat Gibbons, Roisin O’Loughlin (UCD Smurfit), Lyndon Worrall (Legacy Ventures) and myself. Keep an eye on the MBA Blog next month to hear how we get on in Tokyo and Seoul!

Click here find out more about the Smurfit MBA.

Avril Donohue ~ MBA Alumni Relations, Communications & Events

MBA International Study Tour 2016

atlantis-the-palm-dubai-1 — Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai

Last night (for the ninth year in a row), we had Lyndon Worrall from Legacy Ventures join us for the Pre-International Study Tour Briefing Session. We are just four weeks out from the Study Tour so we were all eagerly awaiting Lyndon’s presentation and left the session feeling very excited after hearing all that is in store for us!

During his presentation, Lyndon explained how the Study Tour allows participants to immerse themselves in the business environment of a specific country by taking them on an intensive exploration of local business practices, challenges and cultures, using company visits as the ideal setting for practical learning. The Study Tour combines a variety of high-level company visits, presentations and panel discussions from leading executives, government officials and entrepreneurs, all relevant to the core management disciplines being studied on the ‘Doing Business in International Markets’ MBA module.

On March 12th, 61 MBA students will depart for the annual Smurfit MBA International Study Tour. 39 students will be traveling to South Africa, accompanied by Dr. Virginia Stewart, Lyndon Worrall and myself. 22 students will be going to UAE & India, joined by Professor Karan Sonpar, Professor Pat Gibbons, Sze Von Lam and Roisin O’Loughlin.

The South Africa trip will include visits to both Johannesburg and Cape Town while the UAE & India group will be going from Dubai to Mumbai.

Along with the academic aspect of this module, there are three main outcomes that we aim to achieve throughout the week:

Career Development: To develop a deeper understanding of doing business in an international context and an opportunity to network with senior executives from various backgrounds.

Skills Development: Practical exposure to innovative business case studies relevant to the core courses studied and enhance team working skills through group challenges.

Personal Development: An intensive social networking opportunity. Build strong relationships. Challenging experience – “get you out of your comfort zone”.

View from below the world's tallest building, standing at almost 830 metres and 160 stories high. Illuminated at night. — The Burj Khalifa – View from below the world’s tallest building, standing at almost 830 metres and 160 stories high. Illuminated at night.

There is a strong networking and social element to the Study Tour and Lyndon has lots of exciting adventures lined up; dinner at Atlantis, The Palm Dubai, a visit to the world’s tallest building The Burj Khalifa, a sunset cruise around Table Bay in Cape Town and lots more.

Keep an eye on the MBA Blog next month to hear how we get on in South Africa, UAE & India!

Avril Donohue ~ MBA Alumni Relations, Marketing & Events

Click here find out more about the Smurfit MBA

Launch of Women’s Executive Networks mentor programme

The Smurfit MBA Office in collaboration with the Women’s Executive Network (WXN) have this week launched WXNs first Mentoring Programme in Ireland which is based on the successful mentoring programme launched in Canada in 2007.

Orla Nugent, MBA Director and Brian Marrian, MBA Careers Manager and Eadine Hickey delivered the first of 3 seminars to a group of WXN Mentees the focus of which was professional and personal growth. Paired with these education classroom sessions, mentees are matched with a mentor from WXN’s community of Ireland’s Most Powerful Women: Top 25 Award Winners. This opportunity provides mentees with the support to progress professionally; learn the insights into their journey; and, ask the questions that are important to you. You will learn directly from women who are at the top of their fields about the steps they took, the challenges they faced and exactly how they got to where they are now. Feedback from the mentees on the first session was very positive and it was judge a success, the second seminar is scheduled in September.

Second Term: New Challenges, New Vibe

It’s scary to think we are nearly half way through the second term. The first term seemed to progress far slower with the workload being quite evenly distributed throughout the week. This term classes are mostly at the beginning of the week, which is presumably designed to allow you time to network with businesspeople and focus on job hunting. While this makes a lot of sense it’s less fun than the first semester when the entire class had similar schedules and we could eat lunch together most days and go to the pub on Thursday evenings.

However all good things must come to an end and the reality is that an MBA is very much an applied degree during which you’re supposed to get outside the classroom and out into the real world to meet businesspeople and work on real business challenges as much as possible. Whatever we are missing in terms of socialising together in recent weeks I’m sure we’ll more than make up for during the China trip which is only a few weeks away.

In my experience travelling together is an excellent way to bond and while going through airports with very little sleep and suffering being away from home comforts can be difficult, such experiences are great bonding and learning opportunities. I think the whole class is really looking forward to the trip (for those with families the sudden burst of freedom might be truly shocking!) and even though I’m sure we’ll all be tremendously jet-lagged by the time we get back we’ll be an even more unified cooperative class for the rest of the year.

Conal Campbell

Full-time MBA 2014

Ireland