NANYANG MBA

Consulting as a Profession – Are you up for it?

Derrick Tee, Malaysian, The NANYANG MBA Participant, Intake 2011

It has been a while yet the date, 16th December 2011, still lingers in my head. It was on that day that I officially became a ‘full time’ MBA candidate in Nanyang Business School. I was a part time MBA participant when I started my MBA studies, but decided to switch to full time due to various reasons, specifically to complete the programme faster. I have taken the plunge to leave my current employer and focus on my business studies.

As I was considering to make a career in management consulting,  I attended the talk ‘Consulting as a Profession’ by Right Management, global leader in talent and career management workforce solutions within ManpowerGroup – and the talk came at a better time. Frank Ribuot the Asia Pacific Senior Vice President for Right Management was the guest speaker for the day. Many of us in the 2011 cohort aspire to make a career in the consulting industry. However, according to Frank, “the glamour, the hype and most importantly, the hard work that comes with it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.”

The event started off with a short introduction from Frank, and without any need of introduction, from the participants. Frank  has already vetted through our resumes that were sent to him beforehand.

It was the cordial, no holds barred talk that caught my interest. Unlike the typical career talks that we had in the past, Frank gave us some ‘insider’s tips’ on how to survive the ‘brutal’ interview and selection process in the consulting industry.

Social media was a big topic of the discussion. I can pretty much summarise Frank’s job hunting advice to us by taking a cue from John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address speech as President of the United States and adopted more to employment – “Ask not what the employer can offer you – ask what you can offer to the employer.”

I left the talk thinking to myself, “Whatever Frank has just said sounded so simple. Why haven’t I thought of that before?”

Talks and activities organised by our student clubs, such as the one that I have attended, will help us have a better understanding of the chosen career path that we want to pursue after The NANYANG MBA. Every club organises a series of talks and events to offer value-add to student life, breaking the monotony of learning just within the classrooms. We are fortunate to have student leaders in the Student Ex-Co  organising such events, and for peers to make sure that we utilise these talks to provide more value to our Nanyang MBA experience. After all, our MBA experience is just only 16 months, and it is just right we take advantage of these opportunities.

This event was organised by The Management Consulting Club. To know more about the club, click here.