What is your profession and who do you work for?

I am a Senior Business Change Analyst at Lloyds Banking Group plc

Describe your role.

My role is to work on operational improvement strategy by embedding LEAN Philosophy into the work culture of the firm and helping the firm in substantially improving its business process and remove waste from the business.

How did you get to be in your current role after leaving the University of Leeds?

Knowledge of the demand in the job market and bit of networking. I learnt and mastered all the management tools, philosophies and techniques during my MBA, but to secure a job it wasn't enough. One major thing lacking was experience of implementing them. I was always fascinated about organisational improvement theories and how firms can run their business efficiently using a simplistic but effective operating model. I tried and, with the help of Business School, succeeded in securing a project with a print management company and helped them in identifying cost saving avenues and improving their business processes. This helped in getting an exposure of implementing tools like LEAN/Six Sigma and learn from it. I updated my CV with this bit and forwarded my CV to HR and got a call from my current company.

What did you do whilst studying that helped pave the way into your chosen career?

As mentioned previously, keeping yourself updated about what’s happening in different sectors and potential opportunities is handy. I used to look at what kind of skill sets were in demand in the job market and tried gaining and upgrading it. I think the dissertation is a key element in the MBA as it gives you a chance to take your ideas to different firms and try to gain a project. Look out for careers notices and attend all the seminars and workshop arranged by potential employers. I did that and secured a project which helped me in choosing my career path.

What skills and attributes did you gain from your course?

You do learn all the hard skills, theories and tools out of your MBA but I think it is the development of soft skills, which help you in accelerating your career. Skills like dealing with cross cultural and cross functional groups, communication skills, presentation, negotiation, influencing etc.

What skills and attributes did you gain from your co-curricular activities?

Skills like team work, better communication, learning about new cultures.

What advice would you have for students studying today?

Always be prepared and have your objectives clear. The MBA is the kind of course which opens all kind of gates and avenues for a student. I think this helps few but confuses many as you think you can do anything, join any sector and take on any kind of challenging role. Hence having clarity of what you want to achieve helps. Network extensively. Don't be shy about talking to people. Keep yourself updated so that you will have some reasons and topics to talk to key people. Explore yourself and know all your strengths and weaknesses.