(Almost) Everything You Wish You Knew Before Starting Your MBA at the Asia School of Business - Part 1

With Graduation just around the corner (T-3 days, to be exact!), I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I wish someone would have told me BEFORE B-school and definitely while I’m going through my job search.

I took some time to speak to some of our classmates and inaugural class of MBA 2018 to find out more about what they wished they knew before commencing this full time 20 month MBA program at the Asia School of Business (in collaboration with MIT Sloan).

The idea was that I would crowd source the advice from my colleagues and seniors and write this article based on their collective wisdom.

So, first of all, a heartfelt thank you to all who contributed in helping me to create these articles!

There were so many incredible nuggets of advice shared by my colleagues (which I wished someone told me before I started this program!). Some of which, I’ve taken the time to bucket these advice according to some overarching broad themes, so that it can help you navigate the article better. Others, well, you'll manage.

I decided to break it into a few articles to make your reading experience more enjoyable and pleasurable!

The first article of this '(Almost) Everything You Wish You Knew Before Starting Your MBA at the Asia School of Business' series is about:

The one thing I wish I knew before I joined the ASB MBA program...

Well-being

• "To keep an open mind and heart."                                                                                      
• “Energy Management. Although I learnt how to manage my energy along the MBA journey, it would have helped me better to go through the MBA journey with proper management of my energy and prioritization."

• “Staying fit and healthy helps to finish assignments faster and gives positive energy to better connect with others.”

Classroom Experience

• “The boot camp structure of courses. This was particularly challenging in retaining information.”
• “That doing well in the MBA means learning and applying frameworks correctly, not creating a brilliant idea. There IS value to this approach, too: my mind has been "programmed" by the ASB curriculum, and I think it's been for the better.”
• “I wished I knew more about Excel modelling, basic financial/accounting concepts, and consulting case study practices.

Job Seeking

• “Start networking and reaching out to people immediately. Laying the foundation and connecting with people will make your job search much easier and organic down the road since you will have already built relationships that doesn't feel transactional.”
• “Keep current with what is going on in the industry you came from or the industry you want to go to. If you don′t know what industry interests you, create a list and try to narrow it down by the end of the first semester.”
• “Finding a job is not a last semester sprint, rather an MBA-wide marathon.”
• “How hard it was going to be to find a job afterward.”

Living in Kuala Lumpur

• “As a foreigner, I wish I knew more about Kuala Lumpur, Bank Negara and the working style here.”

• “I wish I knew more about Malaysia. I came in pretty blind to the culture and politics of the country. While I enjoyed learning about it, it would have been great to have more background coming in.”

Overall

• “Time will fly and the extent of flexibility that is needed in this programme in terms of your schedule. The travelling will be cray cray!”
• “I wish I relaxed earlier and focused on enjoying the process. There was no need to be too stressed out in the beginning!”

• “The experience is really unique: nowhere else will you have such proximity to your deans, administrators, and central bankers. I regret not carving out more time to get to know these people while still a student.”

#watchthisspace for Part 2 of the '(Almost) Everything You Wish You Knew Before Starting Your MBA at the Asia School of Business' series!

**************************************************************************Sarah-Ann Yong is a MBA Candidate from the Class of 2019. A former lawyer turned technology enthusiast, she is also the Founder and Host of the ASB Podcast, available on Spotify and iTunes. She is passionate about business story-telling, creative problem solving through design thinking and is committed to a career change in the technology field. 

#MBcomingAstudentagain