Full-time MBA

What factors made you decide to choose the Cass MBA over other programmes?
I’ve always been interested in pursuing my own business venture, so I wanted an MBA programme with a strong entrepreneurial focus. Plus, I’m from South Africa originally, so when I moved over to London, building up my network again was a big priority for me.
The strong entrepreneurial and networking focus at Cass Business School was what made me decide to study my MBA there. The cohort was full of people from such diverse backgrounds. It was a decision that paid off.

What were your career goals?
Just before I joined the Full-time MBA programme, someone had mentioned a problem they were having with pet insurance. I researched the industry and saw a lack of innovation. I realised that there was potential for shaking up the market. From the first day of the course, I knew it was something I wanted to pursue.
I began developing the idea with a colleague I met on the MBA, Ed Grimston, who had been in insurance for seven years. Cass offers valuable assistance for entrepreneurs, including a business mentor, who looked at our business idea and gave us guidance on how to formulate it into a more coherent plan.
We also reached out to Cass alumni and Ed’s network from the insurance world. They helped us build our pricing model and provided general advice on the regulations.

How would you describe your overall experience of the MBA?
The international electives were a personal highlight for me. I gained some consulting experience in Iceland. I also went to San Francisco to explore Silicon Valley, which gave me a great sense of what true entrepreneurialism looks like. Finally, I got to visit China. I was fascinated by its rising economy, so it was great to experience it first hand and get a feel for the place.
The MBA at Cass has given me a solid foundation and helped me build the knowledge and confidence to pursue my goals. In fact, we set up and launched Waggel, our pet insurance business, immediately after finishing the programme. Everything I set out to do when I joined Cass, the MBA has helped me achieve.

Why did you choose to do an MBA?
Working as a lawyer in Amsterdam for three and a half years, I found myself getting increasingly energised by HR topics within my firm rather than practising law itself.
I had a pretty good idea that I wanted to do something within HR strategy, as well as management, leadership, organisational behaviour and culture. An MBA seemed the best route into a new life.
I wanted to study a one-year MBA programme abroad and London is my favourite city. I had two options, after careful consideration I chose Cass Business School. It offered the best combination of learning development programmes, HR-related electives and personal coaching.
The programme was an equal balance of theory and practice. Four years on, the theory is still useful to me today.

What did you find most beneficial on the programme?
The personal development workshops that I attended were extremely beneficial. For example, I followed a workshop about interview styles and techniques and how to promote myself and feel confident. Also, I had a personal coach assigned to me, which was great. It led to a more in-depth conversation about me as a person and what I wanted to achieve, and that gave me a lot of confidence about my abilities and the direction I wanted to take.
In the last few months of the programme, I interviewed around 20 Cass alumni as part of my research for the Business Mastery Project. It was an amazing opportunity to network with HR experts and allowed me to demonstrate my understanding of the industry. One of the alumni I interviewed, subsequently offered me a HR role in a tech company located nearby to the Cass campus. I worked there for a year and gained invaluable experience before going back to the Netherlands. When I look back at it now, I realise it was the stepping stone to my new career path in HR.

Where has your MBA taken you?
I am now the HR Director at CompaNanny Nederland B.V. in Amsterdam, a company with 700 employees, where my role is focused on driving the HR strategy.
The programme made it possible for me to move immediately into an HR role enabling me to switch country, role and industry. I am delighted with the direction my career is taking.