At a very early stage of my career I was allowed to be part of the administrative team at CITIC Resources Holdings Ltd, working directly with our CEO. As my role required mostly soft skills such as being proactive, anticipatory, and supplying strategic support, among others, I felt a need to add some business skills to my toolbox. The MBA was the opportunity to have a refresher and an upgrade on traditional business school courses whilst putting my soft-skills at play and extending my network beyond the oil and gas field, where I had been operating thanks to my management.

Upon completing my MBA, I was allowed to move to the Business Development Department to assist M&A activities, analyse projects, and search for opportunities. With an understanding of factors driving our company’s valuation and the expectation from our senior management, I ultimately moved to lead the Investor Relations Department of the Group, overseeing communication with investors and translating the strategic roadmap to the market.

Choosing HKU was pretty straightforward. Having completed my undergraduate degree in Economics and Finance within the same university, I was well aware of its resources, regional leadership, and the alumni network’s reach in Asia.

Although the experience was quite intense at some points, with late evening classes, new field discoveries, or passionate group discussions, I very much enjoyed the MBA experience. We benefited from endless resources in case studies well beyond the energy field I am already accustomed to. Most of the hard-skills acquired during the programme served me nearly immediately. As for soft-skills, we had the opportunity to test our report management, learn how to balance relationships to reach our work objective in the best conditions possible, and more importantly, with the best efficiency. From the relationship standpoint, I enjoyed organising networking events and teaming up with my classmates to ensure our relationship only built up after the programme was completed. The study groups that we rotated nearly monthly were an excellent opportunity to learn working with people of different fields, cultures, and with other goals or objectives.

My biggest concern when applying for the programme was balancing a full-time job with studying. However, I got used to it very quickly. Having evening class enabled me to look at my work with a certain distance, and I found great joy in day-to-day tasks, leading to an even greater sense of fulfillment. We are all capable of multitasking, and once we push ourselves outside our comfort zones there is no limit to what you can achieve. Revealing my potential, inner strength, and capabilities were one of the programme’s climactic achievements.

For those looking to join the part-time programme, I would suggest making sure of the underlying motives to benefit from the nearly fully customisable MBA programme, and take home as much knowledge as possible while opening up to one of Hong Kong’s largest MBA alumni networks.

The 24-month MBA programme requires cutting sleep and social activities to remain on schedule with homework and the actual work, which forces the candidate to work on a very tight schedule. Candidates looking to maintain a work/life balance might need to be aware of the programme’s intensity. However, if one wishes to explore new fields, enrich, elevate, and gain greater control of her or his career, then an MBA comes across as one of the greatest paths.

Industry: Energy – Oil & Gas
Company: CITIC Resources Holdings Ltd.
Job Title: IR Manager