I registered for the MBA experience day long before the event as i felt it would be great opportunity for me to meet some of the professors, current students, alumni, admissions team and fellow MBA aspirants at the campus facilities. For me, the day began with a shock as the alarm didn’t go off due to weekday-only-settings and the school is an hour drive from home. I managed to rush though the morning activities and reached there almost on time – thanks to the low traffic on a Saturday morning.
The registration formalities barely took a minute and then the networking opportunity presented itself. It was a lot easier than I thought, as everyone there had the same purpose and at least one shared interest, that is doing an MBA at Smurfit.
We were guided to the huge Lecture Theatre 1 to begin the session on time. It felt good to be seated in a room that you have only seen on YouTube videos previously. Smurfit MBA Programme director, Orla Nugent started the session with a mini introduction and invited Catherine O’Brien, EMBA 2017 to give the Opening Address. Catherine did a great job of explaining why she chose to do an MBA after having nearly a decade of experience in her field. She discussed why Smurfit, what she learnt at Smurfit, the international experience gained as part of doing the course and how the MBA helped her in leaping to a higher level role at her new work. She concluded the address by suggesting that we ask ourselves ‘why’ we wanted to do the MBA rather than ‘how’ we would do it.
Orla Nugent took the session from there and provided a high level view on the specialities of Smurfit MBA, its rankings, real-world problems solved though Capstone Project and the importance of learning from peers.
Then we had the most interactive, involved, hands on Presenting4Success session with Paul Slattery. We had to stand up, sit down a few times along with shaking hands, tapping shoulders, practising tong twisters with the persons seated beside us. It had the immediate effect of allowing us to bond with people whom we had never met before. The important take away for me is that some key elements of successful presentation are not only limited to stage presentations but also applicable in
many other forms of communication, like sending an email.
Orla, Catherine and Paul handled the Q&A session before we went on Coffee Break, more Networking and Campus Tour. I had the unique chance to learn the history of the main building from one of the helpful members of the administrative team. It used to be a college for training school teachers and her grandmother graduated from the very place as a school teacher. It was a
nostalgic moment.
We were back in Lecture Theatre 1 for the second set of sessions that started with Head of Smurfit Careers, Cathy Savage explaining the career opportunities available, the services provided by careers team to prepare students for interviews and to link them with the industry. She hosted a panel discussion with Niall Twomey, CTO Fenergo, EMBA 2015 and Edel Kennedy, Head of Marketing Urban Volt, FT MBA 2015. Niall and Edel provided more insights on how in MBA world the ranking matters, learning the full spectrum of business and organizational behaviour helps and the people who do the course with you are as important as the course material.
MBA Admissions Manager, Fiona Butler walked us through the admission process, requirements, scholarships, admission interviews and important dates for 2018/2019 admissions. I found her classification of FT MBA as Career Changer and EMBA as Career Accelerator most suitable. Throughout the day she was available for any questions related to admissions and it was an extremely busy day.
Dr.Gerry Grenham provided an overview of GMAT exam accompanied with helpful tips and tactics to recognize patterns in answer choices. He also hosted a panel discussion with current MBA students Deirdre Blake(EMBA), Bob Brennan(FT MBA) and Dhananjay Bairagi(FT MBA). They all shared insights from their own experience of taking the GMAT exam and the importance of taking mock GMAT tests. After hearing about Deirdre’s observation on the size of the test cubicle and the noise levels, I decided to practise it with kids running around rather than locking myself in a quiet room.
Professor Niamh Brennan gave the closing address touching upon the importance of critical thinking, how students can learn from the different teaching styles of Smurfit Professors and the huge effort made by the school continuously to keep up its brand and ranking.
Afterwards we all went to the school restaurant, Urban Picnic to have the Networking Lunch. I met a few friendly FT MBA resident students there. They explained how intense the course was at the beginning, how they got into the rhythm after a while and how much they are looking forward to get their first semester done. All the best with your exams.
The Smurfit MBA Experience Day was 5 exciting hours(08:30 – 13:30) for the attendees but I could tell you might have spent several days, if not weeks of planning, organizing and executing it very efficiently so that we could get the most out of it, and we certainly did. Thank you!
Ramson Tutte, 2017 MBA Experience Day Participant