Finding your niche – Jarett Kwong
Finding your niche
by Jarett Kwong
I am glad that I did this qualification because it gave me the confidence, credentials and versatility, which I needed in order to change my career path from technical to management. It also diversified my career opportunities and expanded my social network.
I started my career as a component design engineer in Intel validating Intel’s product design for 4 years. After 2 years, I had the opportunity to lead a team to organise department events. Through this opportunity, I discovered my talents in management and leadership so I decided to further pursue this talent but lacked the formal education.
I seek advice from family and friends and was told to enroll for an MBA course. As I have work commitments, I needed an MBA course that can be done part-time in Malaysia and classes had to be held on the weekends.
Furthermore, it needs to be reputable and has to be instructor led, as I wanted to network with like-minded people. That was when, I came across Strathclyde MBA program that has triple accreditation, ranked within the top 100 universities by Financial Times, provides the flexibility for student to complete within 6 years and instructor led classes are held only on bi-weekly weekends.
Thus, I quit my job in Intel on 2014, enrolled into Strathclyde MBA program and obtained a job as a project manager in Manulife Technology & Services Sdn Bhd, KL where my role is to manage Information Technology Transformation projects for the organisation.
Adjusting to my new role and the MBA program was not an easy task. I had to learn how to manage my time well, learn to prioritise my task between my job, family commitments and my MBA studies within the same period of time. In addition, coming from a technical background, understanding business studies and working as a group was foreign to me and thus required me to step out of my comfort zone.
The knowledge that I gained from Strathclyde MBA program proved to be useful in my role as a project manager. Subjects such as “Managing people in an Organisation”, “Analytical Support for Decision Making” and “Making Strategy” helped me to provide methods and steps to motivate my project team and to make tactful decisions when I’m running a project. Furthermore, it also helped to develop my soft skills such as teamwork, conflict management, creative problem solving and leadership that are all vital for a project manager.
As a Strathclyde MBA graduate with distinction, I would advice aspiring MBA students to take the leap of faith to start your own MBA journey as it will help in creating a unique differentiation to your career profile and make you become an asset to any organisation with the experience, knowledge, skills and network gain from Strathclyde MBA program.
Written by:
Name: Jarett Kwong Hou Yang
Age: 31
Qualification: Master of Business Administration with Distinction, University of Strathclyde (2017)
Job Title: Project Manager
Employer: Manulife Technology & Services Sdn Bhd
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