If you read my previous post, you could probably get a sense of how busy MBA schedules can be, but Hilary term was the next level.
A couple of days before the term kicked-off, 60+ of us embarked on a five-day adventure to ski in Andorra. I was part of the organising team for this trek and as someone wanting to go skiing since my last time 20 years ago, I was extremely happy that we were able to make it a reality. Having a big group for skiing meant that everyone was able to find people that were at their own level and wanted to go to the same slopes as them. I loved picking up skiing again and even challenged myself on a few red ones! Also, apres-ski with all the MBAs there, was so, so much fun! Overall, this trip was an amazing bonding experience, so I’m super grateful for it, especially right before diving into the chaos that was Hilary.
A key aspect that marked Hilary term for me was the internship recruiting process. As someone who is looking to make a career transition with the MBA, I am conscious that every relevant professional experience matters, especially given the current market environment. I participated in two different processes, which had three to four interviews each and ended up taking about a month and a half total. Given the already tight schedule of the MBA, this unfortunately meant that I didn’t spend as much time with my classmates as I would have wanted to during this term. However, the sacrifices paid off and I am excited to announce that I have accepted a summer internship role as Product Marketing Manager with Ripple at their London office! Given the sacrifices that may come with the recruiting process, I advise incoming MBAs to be very clear about if / why you may want to pursue an internship and to only apply to those internships that would truly add value to your career path.
Hilary term was also quite busy in terms of extracurricular activities. With the fintech club, we hosted three events with expert speakers covering topics from blockchain, and wealth management, to fintech in emerging markets. We also organized a trip to London to visit Revolut and Mastercard’s offices. It has been great to take leadership along my co-chairs to put together all these events, see the participation from our classmates and see the willingness from experts to come to Oxford to share their knowledge. The Oxford brand really comes a long way in this respect, not only has everyone that we have reached out to been super responsive, but we have even received incoming requests from experts to present at Fintech Club events.
As you may remember from my previous post, I am also part of this year’s Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) cohort, participating within the fintech-stream and this term marked the submission of the final project. I had the pleasure to work on this venture consulting project that focused on storytelling with Good With. Good With is a fintech start-up that combines gen-Z transactional data and psychometric analysis to provide a readiness score for banks to be able to adequately address this underserved customer segment. During the two months of the project, I worked closely with Good With co-founders to find new ways to enhance their pitch deck narrative. Through the process, I particularly enjoyed learning more about the new ways in which technology can be used to provide fairer access to finance.
And amongst the chaos of all this, March marked my birthday and along with ten other “March-babies”, we organized a big space-themed party where 100+ MBAs and partners joined. It was definitely an evening to remember! Now very excited for what Trinity Term has in store for us.
