Interview with a 2022 University of Manchester graduate

📍 Interviewee background

Kelly Tsao

National Tsing Hua University

Educational Psychology and Counseling / minor in Quantitative Finance

GPA 3.85 / 4.3 / IELTS 7.5

Admitted to:

University of Manchester

MSc International Business Management

MSc Human Resource Management (International Development)

📍 Career resources at Alliance Manchester Business School

Besides holding a Career Fair, Manchester's business school also has a careers service that, after learning about each student's background, offers free CV editing and mock interviews to help students handle job interviews with more confidence. Students can also use the university's system to find online tutorials, such as on interviews and CVs, matched to the type of job they want to apply for.

📍 Would you recommend Manchester's International Business Management (IBM)?

Yes. My classmates came from all over the world, and the university assigned the group project members. You could clearly see that students from Europe and North America were especially capable at getting things done, which made me want to sharpen my own thinking and logic. Also, unlike a typical management program, IBM let me look from an international perspective at how a multinational company operates, analyzes and expands into overseas markets, and then learn hands-on through interactive case studies. In the courses I got exposure to different fields, such as financial management, information management, international trade, analytics and marketing. Although it is mostly theory, the professors, many of whom still work in industry, bring in the latest ideas and knowledge, and the courses also let you brainstorm and solve problems companies face today. My favorite course was International Financial Management. Each week's seminar had a different topic, which gave me the chance to do futures calculations, get hands-on with websites that provide firm-level databases, and learn how to use those websites for analysis.

📍 My marketing internship

Outside class I arranged an internship off campus, mainly doing competitor analysis: analyzing new products competitors launched to assess how the market markets this kind of product and who buys it, so we could play up our own products' strengths and highlights and catch consumers' eyes. For example, at Boots, the UK's equivalent of Watsons, most products are for tanning and you can't find any whitening products. I learned it's because a tan looks healthier and also shows you can afford to vacation abroad.

📍 Living on campus vs. off campus

University halls at Manchester are cheaper than private student apartments, but most are fairly remote and in an Indian and Pakistani neighborhood, so I wouldn't recommend them on environment and safety grounds. I lived in a Studio at Bridgewater Heights, off campus. The room has large floor-to-ceiling windows, and because they don't open, it's also one of the few student apartments with air conditioning.

📍 Life in Manchester

At the start of the year at Manchester, every department organizes team activities. Everyone goes to the Lake District to go boating, rock climbing and so on, which helps classmates bond and work well together. Over that year, I found people from every country easy to get along with, and everyone was happy to make friends! I often went out with friends from other countries to eat, hang out and chat over drinks! I also took them to Chinese restaurants so they could experience Asian food culture.

Manchester Airport is just a 30-minute ride away, so transportation is convenient, and daily amenities are good too. During breaks I traveled to Finland, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and other countries. Also, studying abroad always makes you want to learn to cook, and Chinatown is an essential place to buy ingredients.

📍 The benefits of studying abroad

Back in Taiwan, compared with when I sent out résumés after my bachelor's degree, I got noticeably more interviews with an overseas master's degree, and my starting salary went up as well. It also made my thinking more thorough and made me more proactive and better at solving problems, which helps me look at issues from different angles at work and quickly offer different views and ideas.

📍 A few words for everyone

I once wasn't sure whether to study abroad. I worried about entering the workforce a year later than my classmates, missing that year of work experience, and the high cost of studying abroad. In the end I decided to challenge myself without fear. In my year doing a master's in the UK, besides experiencing life overseas and a different way of studying, I also landed a marketing internship in the UK while studying, which let me combine theory with work and get to know the culture and workplace culture abroad. Back in Taiwan, I'm used to thinking about problems on multiple levels, and I got a job in HR in the tech industry. I'm glad the decision I made back then was the right one.

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