- My name is Chiara Kunnie,
and I'm from South Africa.
I currently work at an
organisation called Praekelt.org.
They're headquartered in South Africa,
but I'm working remotely
for them from Cambridge,
and my current role is a
business development manager.
Essentially what the Cambridge
MBA allowed me to do was
to explore different career opportunities,
and make a choice about what would make
the most sense for me after the programme,
and so I undertook an internship,
I engaged in consulting projects,
and I undertook informational interviews,
which allowed me to explore
and trial different opportunities,
and determine which
direction suited me best.
And essentially I was looking for a role
that involved strategy and planning,
as well as funding and partnerships,
especially within the Tech for Good space.
The Cambridge MBA Careers
Team really was a great source
of support for me during the programme.
I think particularly
because they helped us
navigate the career application process,
so they provided guidance
arounds CVs and cover letters,
they also provided relevant resources
if you were preparing for an interview.
So personally, when I was
securing my internship
they were quite valuable in providing
those resources for interview prep.
And I also attended a
lot of the company events
that were arranged by the Careers Team,
which helped me to again, assess
my career choices post MBA.
In terms of careers activities
that I undertook during the MBA,
I attended company events
that were organised by the
Careers Team at the school,
but also reached out into the
larger Cambridge community
and just being within the
Cambridge University atmosphere
meant that I could attend
a lot of conferences
and events centred around social impact,
centred around digital health,
and engaging with and
creating new relationships
with individuals at these events
gave me a broader view
as to what career choice
made the most sense for
me after the programme.
I would say the primary
skills that I gained
through the programme included
strategic thinking and leadership skills,
and that's something that I draw
upon every day in my career.
But I would also like to mention
that the social innovation concentration
that I undertook in the
programme was instrumental
in providing me with the tools and skills
around social impact,
but also it gave us a platform to sort
of explore our own ideas
about how to start a social enterprise,
which could potentially be
implemented in the future.
I would say the Cambridge
MBA has really helped me,
because I've developed
quite key relationships
in the European social impact space,
and my location here in
Cambridge has allowed me
to sort of strengthen these partnerships
for the purposes of
Praekelt, my organisation.
I would say to somebody
who's just starting out
in their Cambridge MBA journey,
that a year is short.
Throw yourself into the areas
that you are passionate about,
because the Cambridge
MBA really is a chance
to explore your ideas,
experiment with leadership techniques,
and also just to learn and
understand yourself better.
So make the most of it,
because a year does fly
by before you know it.
