Jorg Riebel
Jorg Riebel

The future of work – modern careers require a continuous learning journey

In today’s environment of constant and accelerating change, the future of work is without a doubt a major factor that drives our career choices. Digitisation, AI and automation heavily impact employability as new jobs emerge and old jobs change or cease to exist. Consequently, we should not expect to be able to capture new opportunities with our initial education alone. A continuous learning journey throughout our entire working lives is required to stay ahead of human and/or machine competition.

My personal learning journey – passion and perseverance

After finishing law school, I started as a tax consultant at KPMG in Germany helping clients with their compliance obligations. This career track required additional professional qualifications in German and US tax law, which in turn allowed me to take up work assignments abroad. Working in the U.S. and later Hong Kong, I gained invaluable international exposure and cross-cultural experience. Lately, clients expect their advisors to have more of a holistic, cross-functional business understanding. Therefore, I supplemented my tax specialisation with a Master of Science in Human Resource Management and in 2019 started my MBA journey with the University of Hong Kong.

The current stage of my journey – MBA at HKU

Finding the right MBA programme depends mostly on our personal criteria and expectations. Considering online-only and traditional MBA programmes, I decided to go with the latter, as they offer better networking opportunities with classmates and alumni. I further wanted a curriculum that offered a concise but complete general business education as well as relevant, transferable and interdisciplinary skills, especially in technology related subjects such as AI, business intelligence and big data.

The HKU MBA was my first choice due to its brand and alumni network, its facilities and HKU Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE)’s extensive electives catalogue that allows personalisation of my MBA experience. The programme further stresses collaboration with classmates, communication and critical thinking, skills with increasing relevance in our teamwork-driven workdays.

While my HKU MBA journey continues, are you ready to start yours?