If your goal is to accelerate your career trajectory, there are few more impactful options than enrolling in an MBA degree.
Designed to provide business acumen and develop the mindset vital for management and leadership, each year global MBA programs help students achieve goals such as increasing their earning potential or changing industry, function, or location.
Today, employers continue to value the mixture of generalist capabilities and smart skills that MBA graduates possess. According to our research, problem solving, communication, strategic thinking, and adaptability are the attributes most valued by corporate recruiters today.
To explore how an MBA program can drive career growth, we spoke with Bryan Guan and Syarifah Hasanah Hassan, graduates of the MBA at Asia School of Business (ASB) in Malaysia, a program that aims to help students accelerate their growth over one year of study.
Unlocking transferable business skills
For Hasanah, who was born in Malaysia and grew up in the Middle East, enrolling in an MBA was a route to switching careers. After completing her bachelor’s and pursuing a career in healthcare management and strategy planning, she wanted to apply her strategic skills outside the industry.
When looking for programs, Hasanah was attracted to the ASB curriculum, which is developed in collaboration with MIT Sloan School of Management and places a strong focus on practical learning. Studying at ASB would allow her to gain a rigorous and action-oriented MBA while also being close to family in Malaysia.
Hasanah quickly found herself developing new skills within the highly interactive classroom environment, where students had to come prepared to answer questions and speak on case studies.
“That pushed your critical thinking skills further, because you’d have to immediately apply what you’d learned,” she explains.
Despite not coming from a business background, Hasanah quickly took to subjects in technical areas such as supply chain, operations, and systems thinking. As she navigated the 12-month curriculum, she found broadening her skillset and business knowledge brought with it a new level of confidence.
“The knowledge that I learned is something that I could apply in any aspect of any industry—or even any aspect of life. The way you think and communicate is what the MBA shapes.”
Seeing the ‘big picture’
Bryan had around nine years of work experience when he enrolled in the ASB MBA. Also from Malaysia, he studied a Bachelor’s degree in Economics in California and spent time working in New York City within the pulp, paper, and packaging industry before returning to join the program.
Like Hasanah, Bryan was attracted to the MIT Sloan-influenced MBA curriculum and its delivery in a Southeast Asian context. He also felt a one-year MBA made sense for his career.
“It’s a huge opportunity cost for someone at that age to take two years off from your career—because of the cost of living, watching your peers moving ahead, lots of things,” he says. “I think the one-year MBA is actually a huge selling point.”
Bryan enjoyed growing his knowledge through the ASB MBA’s rigorous curriculum while working alongside classmates from a range of professional backgrounds. He found this experience helped expand his perspective and develop stronger leadership insight. This was further developed as he attended various guest lectures and other external engagement opportunities that featured cross-industry professionals and leaders.
“Prior to joining the MBA I was very absorbed in what my role was designated to do. I think the MBA teaches students to think on a larger picture—to really understand that a role is only a very small part of the whole ecosystem,” he explains.
Gaining access to diverse job opportunities
Armed with a fundamental understanding of business and the experiences and skills she’d developed during various Action Learning projects, Hasanah found several routes available to her when she began considering life after graduation.
Working closely with the ASB Career Development Office, she welcomed opportunities to explore diverse career paths: “I think studying an MBA pushed me to make decisions that are more for my growth, rather than being in my comfort zone.”
Hasanah eventually faced a choice between pursuing a career as a consultant or taking on a role in tech working as a product delivery manager. She opted for the latter, recognizing it would offer the chance to both strategize and deliver projects from end to end, building both on her pre-MBA strategic experience and her newfound expertise in operations and systems thinking.
“If it wasn’t for the MBA, especially in my experience, I don’t think I could ever imagine holding this role in this kind of industry,” she explains.
For Bryan, the MBA helped him move into a group operations role within the pulp and paper industry. Based in Kuala Lumpur, the role requires him to pursue industry and regional-level initiatives and work to attract foreign investment. He says the broad perspective he gained during the MBA has been crucial.
“Confidence is essential. So, in that sense, having an MBA—having the accreditation—does provide me with that confidence to work within the organization and beyond.”
This article was originally published on BusinessBecause, a network helping MBA students make connections before, during and after their MBA.
