Daisy Taking Over

 As the President of the Africa Business Network 2022/2023 at the Judge Business School, I had the privilege moderating the Women in Business and Entrepreneurship Panel during the three-day 10^th Africa Together Conference organised by the African Society of the University of Cambridge at Jesus College, Cambridge in May 2023.

I also served in the capacity of the Head  of Corporate Sponsorships and Parterhsips for the Africa Toegther Conference Committee.

A recap of my experience was published by the Cambridge MBA Blog. Have a read of the same here.

WHY CAMBRIDGE?

For my MBA, after attending several webinars from different business schools, including Stanford, I only applied to Cambridge because its values of collaboration, and diversity and the curriculum appealed to me. The curriculum covered all the key areas of management that I was keen on. See the Curriculum here.

I especially liked that the program is one year, experiential and that there is an overall focus on building sustainable businesses.  

Each term has an experiential team based project; the Michealmas (first) term has the Cambridge Venture Project, the Lent (second) Term has the Global Consulting project, and the Easter (third) term has the Concentration Project. (I wrote about my Cambridge Venture Project experience here.) 

Overall, these projects have given me multi-cultural professional experiences in a variety of fields/ industries. And if you are keen on more experiential experience, over the summer, there is also the option to have a work placement with a company of your choice.

I also liked the small cohort – a class size of 200, versus the huge class sizes of other business schools. I wanted to know that I would have the academic access to the faculty and resources I needed during the program. 

A big plus that Cambridge has, is the collegiate system. Essentially, every student belongs to a college and also to their school, in my case Girton College and the Judge Business School. The colleges are a great way to interact with other students, especially for college-organized events and the weekly formals. 

At the time of writing this post, the management questions that I had prior to the MBA have been answered, and I am happy with the intellectual rigour, the practicality and the mindset shifts that the program has given me thus far. 

The key takeaway here should be: make applications to schools whose values and major outcomes will align with who you are, and the career outcomes that you desire because you are going to take a work break to spend one or two years and your hard-earned money in the business school, and therefore it is imperative that you make a choice that makes you happy. 

Different schools have different values, and they have the profile for the kind of student they are looking for. To know which ones will align with you, check their website, speak to the admissions officers, and also speak to alumni. If it feels like the right school/ schools for you, then apply. It would also do you well to make a school visit if possible. 

It will also be useful to check the MBA rankings on the Financial Times and other related publications.

Before we proceed, I would like to address imposter syndrome as it has come up in many conversations I have had with prospective students. 

ON IMPOSTER SYNDROME

THE APPLICATION PROCESS

Unlike many other Master programs, the MBA application process is long and taxing,  as it has various steps that you need to cover. It will do you well to start early and set aside time for the preparation so that you make a good application. 

Be sure to check the Business School application page to see what the application requirements are, as each application is unique. Here are all the requirements if you are keen on applying to Cambridge Judge Business School.

The steps I cover below, should be applicable for most Business Schools, and they include:

1. THE ENGLISH TEST
   
2. ACING THE GRE/GMAT
3. WRITING ESSAYS 
4. NETWORKING
   
5. YOUR CV & REFERENCES
   
6. INTERVIEW PROCESS 
7. FINANCES
   

Now, let's get into it!

1. THE IELTS (ENGLISH TEST)

Depending on your country of origin, and the Business School you choose to apply to, you may or may not need to take the English test. For other reasons, I had taken the English IELTS test, and when I made my application, they fit right in.

That said, registering for the test was £175 (~$210),  and it took me a month or so to prepare for the exam. A useful resource for my preparation was The University of Queensland Australia IELTS Academic Test Preparation on EDX. Link to course.

The test had 4 sections – speaking, writing, reading and listening. My score was an overall band score of 8 out of 9. To register for the test, you need to go to the British Council in your country. It could be that the service is now available virtually. 

2. GRE/GMAT (STANDARDIZED TEST)

Most business schools will accept either test. In my case, at the very beginning, I decided to take a mock exam of each to see which one suited me best. I preferred the GRE and therefore, spent my time studying GRE-related material. I used the Manhattan 5lb Book to prepare for both the quantitative and verbal aspects of the test. I also used the Official GRE Test Guide. 

I registered for my GRE exam test on the ETS platform (link) and at that time, it cost $205. Within the ETS platfrom, they have exam mockups that you can use to periodically gauge your expected score as you continue studying. 

Since this was back in 2020, there were no physical exams taking place due to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, and I opted to take mine from home as opposed to waiting until the test centres were open. The test was 3 hours and 45 minutes long, and all the instructions required to take the test were provided via email from the ETS centre. It took 21 days to get my test scores back, and they also offered the option to send my test scores directly to the business school, which helped with the verification of their validity. 

Note on Retakes: I did not retake the GRE, and I believe that with ample preparation, the scores you get the first time should be sufficient to make your application. That said, I know of people who need consultants to prepare for the exam. I cannot recommend any agency as I did not use them. 

Note on GMAT: With regard to GMAT, I recommend that you get in touch with someone who did the GMAT and ask what resources helped them. The closest I came to anything GMAT related after the mock test I mentioned earlier, is this fun 2-hour live stream with the GMAT Club, where 3 other succesful Cambridge MBA Candidates and myself talk about our application experiences. Watch to get more familiar with the application process.

3. WRITING THE ESSAYS/ PERSONAL STATEMENT

Most prospective students wait until the last minute to write their essays, instead, I would advise that you start early on, say 3 to 4 months in advance if not earlier. The temptation is to focus on the English or GRE/GMAT test and to tackle the essays last.

However, in my experience, taking the time to think through your reason for choosing an MBA program at this time of your life, how you want to use it for your career, and the why behind your business school/s selection while simultaneously preparing for the standardised tests is the prudent thing to do. It will save you so much time, and your essays will be of high quality and more refined.

In my case, I began thinking them through and writing the rough draft 4 months before. I used the Cambridge MBA essay question prompts to list out all my ideas for the first draft, and then in the weeks that followed, I listened to the Changing Careers with Conrad Chua podcast for post-Judge Business School experiences to understand what would be possible for me and to further refine my ideas.

Key resources and mindsets that helped me write good essays that got me into the program include;

• Working and reworking the drafts to make my story and thoughts coherent. Realize that the person reading the essay does not know you, and those essays are the one chance you have to let them know who you are, and what value you will bring to the MBA.
• Realizing that the MBA program wants the diversity that a different background brings. Professionally, mine was in engineering and entrepreneurship, and in terms of cultural and national background, I brought the emerging economy experience of being a female, and also African into the program. While for me this was a normal fact of my life, for the MBA program, I brought in a unique perspective and experience that the rest of the cohort would benefit from.
• Speaking through the main ideas in my essays with someone who had already gone through the process, taking in his viewpoints and filling in the gaps that needed further clarity or explanation.
• Reading Your MBA GamePlan; Proven Strategies for Getting into the Top Business Schools by OmariBouknight and Scott Shrum. I found this book especially useful in helping me see which skills and competencies I needed to bring out in my essays. 
• Deciding to tell my story as is; there was the temptation to write an essay that I thought they would have wanted to read, instead, I wrote what was true and that made the acceptance offer much more meaningful to me in the end. The key takeaway here is that you need to tell your own true story. So comb through your life story, and your career story and understand what you want the MBA to do for you, and then write progressively, and use the essay to explain any gaps or bad grades you may have had.   
  

4. NETWORKING

It goes without saying that networking is an intergral part of your MBA experience. And surprise, the networking starts even before you set foot in the Business School!

Use LinkedIn to get in touch with the Business School alumni and current students of your preferred school to get a proper understanding of the Business School, the MBA program and what to expect from the experience. Those who have gone through the process have a hindsight view and they will provide valuable information.

5. YOUR CV & REFERENCES

The purpose of your CV and reference is to communicate your professional experience. These two elements of your application are integral, because while the essays cover your motivations, your aspirations and personality, the CV and references are the evidence of where you have been and what you have accomplished thus far. 

You need to highlight your capabilities, and your referee should be in a position to show how you brought value in previous academic or professional experiences. Just like I recommend with the essays, do not leave these for the very last minute!

Note on Your CV: I will not cover resume editing. Even so, the quality of your CV greatly matters. To prepare a business school worthy one page CV that highlights your professional strenghts, I recommend watching these 2 value packed webinars by City of Lane - which is an African Platform that strives to get more African professionals into international and world class MBA programs.  

Note on References: Cambridge requires only one reference, but it must be high quality. Select someone who knows your professional or academic capabilities well, who will have the time to write a good recommendation/reference that supports your entire application. The quality of the reference can make or break your application, so ask for the reference well in advance. After you make your application, the referee will receive a link through which they will submit their reference. 

To make sure that the reference that was submitted was solid, I let the referee know that he needed to also highlight my teamwork, leadership and soft communication skills to compliment my very technical and analytical CV based on my engineering experience. 

Ask yourself, what would you like for the referee to highlight? Once you gain clarity, inform them so that they can make a strong submission.

A word of caution on referees; some referees may not have your best interest at heart, they may not know how important, costly and demanding this application is, and they may, therefore, write an average recommendation at best, and at worst, may also be late to submit or forget to follow through and miss the deadline! 

Therefore, make a wise selection, highlight why this application matters to you and what you would like for them to spotlight and keep reminding them, especially if they have a busy schedule!

6. HACKING THE INTERVIEW PROCESS

If you get shortlisted after making the application, you will be invited for an interview. It means all the preparation and hard work that went into your application, helped your submission to stand out. For that, congratulations!

Now, the interview will be conducted by a faculty member, usually a professor. The purpose of the interview is for the Business School to understand if in essence, you are who your essays said you are, and if you will positively add to the interactive class experience.

They will be assessing your communication skills and for coherence between what you wrote in the essays and what you share during the interview. If you cannot come in for an in-person interview, make sure to have a professional presence even when it is virtual. For this, look online for guidance on how to come across as confident during a virtual interview.

The Business School will send you an email with the name of the faculty member who will be conducting your interview. What I will recommend is that you look up their profile on LinkedIn, and online, and also check if they have published any articles, journals, or papers. Get a sense of what they care about, because, towards the end, he or she will ask you if you have any questions for them, and that is a good chance to ask a question on a subject or matter they care about.

The key thing is to stay confident, articulate your responses well, and have a natural conversation. My interview was not very formal even though the professor who interviewed me has numerous accolades and is well respected in his field. So come prepared for either a formal or informal interview.

For practice, there are different types of questions that you can find online on Reddit or just on the internet if you search "Cambridge MBA interview questions".  They should give you a gist of what to expect.

7. FINANCES - HOW TO PAY FOR THE MBA

The non-refundable application fee is £165 (and may be subject to change year to year).

If you get a conditional offer, which will be communicated in a given timeframe, after the interview, there are various ways in which you might choose to pay for your MBA. That could be a mix of scholarships, student loans and your own finances to cover the fee (see website for further details). Factor in visa application fees, and also flight and relocation expenses. 

Note on Scholarships: Some Business Schools are able to offer full MBA scholarships, to my knowledge, Cambridge Judge does not. Therefore, consider supplementing with internal and external scholarships. The internal scholarships are available for application once you get a conditional offer. Consider external scholarships such as Chevening, Rotary International and Commonwealth etc. To increase your chances of applying well and early, scour the internet for their annual timelines and conditions and have ready the required documents.

Note on Student Loans: The international student loan bodies to consider are Lendwise (UK based and hence no currency exchange losses), and Prodigy Finance (US based and subject to currency exchange rates). These require you to have a high credit score rating, and proof that you have considerable funds besides the scholarships you may have received.

CONCLUSION

This post has covered how to get into the University of Cambridge Judge Business School one year MBA Program, based on my experience. We have covered what attracted me to the program, how to  prepare and ace the standardized tests ( IELTS and the GRE), how to make sure your essays stand out, why your CV and references matter and how to make them count,  how to approach networking and the interview process and how to cover the MBA program expenses. With these, you are better informed on how to proceed with your application. If you have any questions, contact me on my LinkedIn and I will get back to you when I can.

 All the best in your application!

 Writing has always been a passion of mine, so when the opportunity to write for Sharon Mundia's blog This is Essential (www.thisisess.com) came up in 2019/2020, I wrote these articles on career and finance, a topic I am passionate about;

1. 5 Ways to Grow Professionally While In Between Jobs 
2. 5 Networking Tips For Your Next Event
3. 5 Ways You Can Improve Your Linkedin Profile
4. 5 Financial Moves You Should Make As A Mum
5. Top 5 Tips On Tackling Debt You Can Apply ASAP

Click on the links to have a read! 

 I will be honest and admit that I do anticipate, and have come to like the shock that I see registering on people's faces when they realize that a petite and young woman like me is a civil engineer by profession. It almost always comes as a surprise as the engineering world is predominantly a male dominated field. Like last Friday, on the way home after a long day of work, crammed in a Probox with other counterparts ( the damn thing was overloaded because we work in a hardship area - there are practically no Nissan matatus or buses, the roads are terrible and the Toyota Probox means of transport is a sorry state that needs to be addressed) when the driver asked me - who among these ones is an engineer, and I told him - they are, and I also am. And he had to look at me twice to confirm I was not joking, and then he proceeded to ask some questions about a road under construction and I answered him patiently, and the two villagers seated next to me were just gawking at me; impressed and in shock. So yes, being a female engineer is still a thing to be gawked at and I relish every minute of it even though there are more of us now that there were in previous decades. 

So how did it come to be that a lady interested in literature and the arts is waist deep in a technical field? I could lie and say that I knew I wanted be an engineer since I was 5 but that would be far from the truth. When teachers asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I mostly said a doctor, and that is what I would have applied to study had it not been that my father, who pushed me to excel, who believed in me, who danced and danced with the music system at full volume in late March when he and my mother threw me  a small party for getting an A of 81 points, perished in a road accident one Sunday afternoon, a month before the selection period. The trauma of seeing him stitched back after an autopsy at the morgue, a cold room with shelves and shelves of steel holding the chill of death, made me rethink how much I wanted to accompany and stay with people when their bodies are ailing and failing them, when they are one step close to the grave, when even I cannot stand the sight of blood and needles and dis-ease. The trauma stayed with me so much so that when I walked into University of Nairobi in October 2010, my mind was already set under the consultation and guidance of my newly widowed mother that I would try this thing called civil engineering, and that she would support me through it all. We figured an additional year from to the normal 4 university years is such a small time sacrifice for a sure career.

The other loose idea that I had, that I swept under the rug during the selection period and that would later become a nag, was that since I had started being interested in literature in high school, and by the time my mother came to help me carry my things home - mattress, suitcase and all other high school paraphernalia - was that maybe I could study literature for my undergraduate. That did not come to pass. Instead, we made a wild gamble that has paid off in ways we could never have imagined. 

What we also did not imagine when we were filled with excitement when I received my letter of admission to Jkuat was what the next years in campus held in store for me. I had always been a present student - I did my school work and adhered to school rules with ease. However, the unexpected exposure (on my end) to different mindsets, cultures, religions and ways of life did a number on me. Up until then my education was primarily Catholic - born in a Catholic home, always went to a Catholic Church (still do), had Catholic friends, went to Catholic schools. That kind of exposure was useful for me, and also harmful. Harmful in that combined with the grief I was carrying around like a shadow, combined with questions of existential meaning ( at that point I was riddled with the Question- why live, if after all you will die?), and trying to find a footing in my young adult life - still girl, not yet woman - it became a potent combination that spiraled me into an identity crisis. It is from this period of my life that my 10 piece poem series "Hours" sprung up. The interesting thing is that on the outside, I appeared to be doing well, while on the inside, I was barely holding up.

I dwelt so much on the meaning of my life, on the fact that I felt I was betraying my innate literature oriented abilities by studying engineering while there were others to whom engineering came naturally. (An engineering class is full of competing number-one kids and top-five-in-class kids by the way, and no matter how much you led the pack in primary and high-school, there are some who flawlessly outperform you academically with minimal effort).  By the time I hit 21, my identity crisis was full blown and I was having such intense and continuous bouts of depression that I could not bring myself to attend all classes, and I missed them sporadically. I remember once I could not leave the bed no matter how I tried. Another time we had a Soil Mechanics CAT the next day, and no matter how much I read, nothing was registering. I read and reread a page severally, and by the time I got to the bottom, I had forgotten all I had read before. It was as frustrating as it was bewildering. I had a colossal (very private) meltdown, and that evening, I called my mother and said - I am quitting this thing. And she listened to me, and encouraged me to stay put, to keep on, to rest if I must, but to go on.

Go on and keep on I did. And I am glad I did. It was also about that time that I met friends who stayed with me, as I was, and accepted me for who I am and who really were very instrumental in helping me regain my sense of self, my happiness, my reason for being. For someone who had not known colossal failure before, whose sense of self was quite largely pegged on performance, I was happy to see that I could be loved by others without being the excellent one. (This is a perspective that has stayed with me, so much so, that I am first and foremost myself before I am anything else. So that if I was to lose my career, or my other interests, I would still be me and content, with the mere fact that my "I", my person still has an intrinsic and infinite value no matter what.)

I was also happy for the poetry community that other comrades like Sanya (Mechatronix Engineering), Annette (Financial Engineering), The Okelo (Electrical Engineering) and Irauka (Financial Engineering) and I and others had created to quell our creative side while in a technical school. We were successful in our own small project that we had the chance to meet people like Dorphan Mutuma, Dante, Ngartia etc. And as it turns out, I did not lose my creative side after all. I still write, and the compounded experience of getting into life and living hands on has added flavor to my life and to my writing.
  

As I look back, I am very grateful for the 6 months period between my 4th year and 5th year that I worked for an NGO that deals with vocational training. Prior to that, it had not occurred to me with full gravity that there are some for whom KCPE or KCSE was the end of their education. I was aware of the fact, but not acutely concerned. Working for that NGO, seeing how youth my age or younger were struggling to get placements in vocational institutes (that deal with mechanics training, electricians, plumbers, welders, cooks, hairdressers) and struggling to get work for meager pay made me appreciate the chances I have gotten in life. Even the mere fact that I can comprehend calculus calculations while there are some to whom LCM and GCD is a problem at that stage of their life ignited my appreciation for life, for my course at uni so much so that when I resumed school for my fifth year, I was so eager to learn and to collaborate with other students. I will forever be grateful for the that period of my life.

In late 2016, I graduated with the class that I joined in fifth year, the one that came after us because that's how life is. You plan, but life shows you another path. But by then I was happier, more gratuitous for the chances life has given me, for the friendships that sustained me, more empathetic and understanding to others because of the existential pain I had endured and the failure I had experienced and bounced back from that prior to uni had been a foreign concept. Graduation felt less about the papers and more about coming to.
  

It is now more than an year since I cleared uni and graduated, and I must admit, that these months have been full of challenges. I even shared some of the lessons I learnt 7 months after I cleared. My first job, which I got the week prior to Graduation in the construction of a Gated Community in Lower Runda ended abruptly after 8 months for almost everyone in the company when the company went under. And those Business lessons from High School about the lack of work security in the private sector finally sank in. I am currently on my second one in Nakuru County for the controversial Itare Dam Project. I have had to move thrice since graduation, I have had to become penny wise as now I sort out all my bills, and have come to terms that the engineering life is nomadic and one has to be psychologically adept to relocation. I am now living in a small town that I had never even dreamt of visiting. 

Now that I am on the corporate side of the career, a young graduate working her way up, I would like to tell you that engineering as a career has been fulfilling to me. I cannot imagine what other career I would fit my character so well. I love the technical field visits, it is interesting to see a project start as an idea and improve people’s lives – and since my current job has less fieldwork and more paper work, I am constantly learning on what makes or breaks companies in the construction sector.

I am still very young in my career, and I have a lot to learn and unlearn. However, I am sharing my story to inspire anyone who could be stuck in a rut in uni, going through the motions, doubtful of the career choice they took, bewildered at the magnitude and intensity of their existential/identity crisis. Maybe like me someone is in engineering school, wondering whether they will get to the finish line. Trust me, it gets better, and you will get through it because you are stronger than you think. I am living proof of that. Hang in there, and fight for sunnier days. Brighter days are coming. 

 I would like to finish by saying that the engineering career is not as glamourous as people imagine it to be – it takes hard work to go through uni and to graduate, and even more work to climb up the corporate ladder. The start is not so smooth, and the pay could be better, but as someone who has gotten an easy start compared to many others who are in the unemployment circle, and who has fallen in love with a career that she took a wild swing at, I would say keep on. You are doing great.