Anna Paterlini from Italy sat down with us to share her experience while taking her Global MBA, specialising in marketing management, online with London School of Business & Finance.
My name is Anna Paterlini, I’m from Italy, I live in Rome, and I took the MBA in Global Marketing Management.
I took it because I wanted to change field. I was trained as an archaeologist before. I did a little cultural heritage management, and cultural marketing, and then I decided to focus more on marketing. And, that’s why I decided to take the MBA.
I decided to study online because I already had an MA, and I had a job, I was working full-time, but when I decided I wanted to change field I didn’t want to take time off to just study. It was the perfect opportunity to keep working and gain work experience, and at the same time gain new skills and competencies without having to sacrifice work.
I had a normal nine to six schedule. At seven, when I got home, I would set some time off three times a week to follow the lectures, study, do some reading - let’s say an hour, an hour and a half. I would set aside more time during weekends to really dig into the lectures, the reading, and preparing for papers. It was mostly weekends, but it was important for me to keep working during the week.
The programme is constructed in a way that you get a little of bit of many different fields, and then you can really focus on a specific subject. In my case it was marketing, so that was fantastic. I really enjoyed the dissertation part, so, the research part, of the entire programme. It was great to do research in a new field, with good support.
I had a good relationship with my supervisor. He was really great at giving feedback and getting back to me. He made feel very confident and relaxed while doing my work. He was a great support.
After the programme I got a job in an advertising agency. Everything I learned helped me to change career and change field, and really apply everything that I’ve learned to what I do today.