Having a look at what Rich Lesser, CEO of BGC Consulting has to say about making the most of your MBA experience is very interesting. He tells candidates to challenge yourself; I have to admit, I haven’t challenged myself nearly enough during my online MBA experience. Could I have pushed myself more?

I maintained my full-time working status taking both Accounting for Leaders and Economics for Leaders as my first two units concurrently. That was just too much so I decided to take only one unit per trimester and by concentrating on just one unit at a time, I hoped to gain a far greater in-depth knowledge of the material, I would like to say this is indeed the case.

That didn’t work out too well during the Operations Management unit, I was sent away to site on assignment before falling ill in dire need of hospitalisation. The next month saw me do very poorly in an assignment as I was in and out of hospital before the medical professionals worked out what was wrong with me.

Had I been doing two units, I would never had gotten through. I would have been indebted big time as I would have to take the unit again and I would have trashed my GPA. As it turns out, we did very well during the group assignment and I ended up with a credit but still I think about what could have been instead of what actually was.

The opportunity to gain experience working with high calibre candidates from diverse professional fields cannot be underestimated whether it is vis-a-vis with teams on case studies or in virtual teams. I really enjoyed working with diverse people, I hoped to tap into their differing viewpoints and perspectives.

Design thinking is currently the new concept underpinning management training programs offered at progressive business schools. The purpose of self-reflection is important, a critical analysis of personal performance with a particular emphasis on team-work and developing leadership abilities is a key outcome.

Honing research abilities supplemented with presentation skills ensures candidates are skilled at small group and large group meetings. In that respect, as a college lecturer I have had plenty of experience presenting material to mid size groups of people so I’m thankful of this exposure as it makes a huge difference to your confidence.