"The International Business and Entrepreneurship (IBE) was not just another master’s degree."
“It is never too late”. That has been one of my guiding principles so far. Having almost established my name in the real estate industry, I decided to give myself another challenge. This time, it was another continent, another new language, but just-not-another degree. Yes, the International Business and Entrepreneurship (IBE) was not just another master’s degree. There are three main tracks that you could follow: international business, entrepreneurship, and strategic management. I found myself in love with strategic management because the literature helps me to demystify the decision-making process by top management and the strategic choices that firms make to compete with their rivals. I could not comprehend these phenomena when I was in the industry.
The curriculum was up to date, and class discussions were based on rigorous research, some of which were from the IBE faculty. (What is better than studying with the authors themselves?). Two years of Masters’ degree in IBE has nurtured my critical thinking and communication skills. Regardless of where you want to build your career, critical thinking and the art of persuasion are imperative.
Fast forward to the current, I had finished the Master’s degree and have been in the Doctoral program of Strategy and Entrepreneurship for two years. My decision to continue to doctoral studies was partly due to the supportive environment for learning and researching provided by the Jyväskylä School of Business and Economics. I would like to use my research in teaching, and perhaps when I come back to the industry, it will be my lens to understand the competitive dynamics.
