Jumpstarting careers

Unlike many of the MBA programmes out there, students applaud CityU’s offering for equipping them with the right experience, skills and network to progress their career quickly. 

“If you come into an MBA programme looking for a certificate, any MBA would do it,” said Cyrus Wong, a student in the part-time programme who works as a senior manager in Global Business Development for a leading airport hospitality and facilities provider. 

“But if you are looking for personal development, you have to go through the pains,” he said. 

Wong is referring not just to the long hours spent studying the core classroom subjects, but also the time spent on doing on-the-job projects in real-life. He highlights two areas in particular: the CityU SHARP forum and the residential trip that students go on. 

“For the forum, we are required to connect with industry leaders, government officials or celebrities and invite them to speak at the forum and actually hold the entire event all by ourselves as a student committee,” he said. 

Calling it an incredibly positive experience, Wong said that they had to reach out to the speakers, figure out how to pitch, connect and invite them to the forum, then ensure the event runs smoothly. 

“You want to make sure that the speakers are treated nicely and organize the event so as to give them a good experience, and of course for the audience as well,” he said.  

The goal is that students will get a chance to meet professional peers and have in-depth discussions and provide networking opportunities to help them with their career development, while fostering business knowledge through insightful dialogue between the business leaders. 

Since its launch in 2016, the forum has had more than 100 notable speakers and 5000 business professionals who have participated in the forum. 

Another aspect of the experiential learning that sets the programme apart is the residential trip that students go on. 

For Wong, he had to go to South Korea for 10 days to advise and work on the Chungnam Techno Park Project.  He talks about getting stuck in a room from early morning to late at night working with his classmates to provide a consultancy type of solution to a completely new industry that none of the students knew anything about before joining the course.  

But while it was a steep learning curve attending prepping workshops, doing research and discussions with his teammates, the experience was invaluable to his personal development and helped shape his approach towards his own career. 

“I developed a routine in my mind when I give recommendations to my senior management,” he said. “I ask the question: where are we now, where do we want to be and how are we going to get there.”

Another graduate who speaks highly of the residential trip is Jane Liu, who is an alumna of the part-time programme and works in retail operations managing a portfolio of over 10 international brands. 

Her cohort did a residential trip to Malaysia to provide consultancy on a mega port and cruise terminal project under the Belt & Road initiative. 

She called this experience incredibly eye opening. Given her academic background in humanities, religion, and philosophy, largely working in retail operations managing beauty brands, this was a cosmic shift. But for this reason, the management knowledge that she acquired was priceless. 

“I had to grow in a very short time,” she said. “It left me with a strong impression that being persistent is really key to surviving.” 

She said the fact that her classmates all came from a myriad of backgrounds helped to put forth some of the best ideas and bring out all the different perspectives. 

As a result of these experiences, both Wong and Liu have been promoted and made career moves upwards, a testament to the university’s commitment to “boost global talent recruitment and power our students to achieve a career advancing placement”. 

Currently, the University has been providing students with alternate ‘learn-by-doing’ experiences despite the travel restrictions. For example, students taking the Services Marketing Course are conducting a consultancy project for Hong Kong Ferry to help reposition its marketing strategy for its Harbour Cruise – the Bauhinia. 

Students in the Entrepreneurship course have also recently completed their final pitches to a judging panel online. The panel included veterans from HKSTP and investment firms despite their different time zones. 

“We remain resilient to cope with the coronavirus outbreak and to continue our mission to prepare students for success,” Prof Chiang said.