Nikita Dhesikan

Nikita Dhesikan was looking to hone her management skills and supplement her engineering background with a business foundation. Our Masters in Management programme gave her the business knowledge she was looking for, and so much more. Here, she shares her experiences to date and explains why the right classmates made all the difference.

 

After completing my undergrad degree, I was looking for a programme that would give me business knowledge on top of my engineering skills. The Masters in Management (MiM) fit the bill perfectly. The key differentiator for me was that the MiM is tailored towards early career students, so the programme specifically focuses on how to launch your career.

I chose LBS because I was excited by the breadth of experiences on offer – so much is packed into a year-long degree. There’s the core education, but there are also so many opportunities on and off campus: LondonLAB, GIFTs (Global Immersion Field Trips), and the Skills Programme, to name just a few. Coupled with such an international student body, it makes for an all-in transformative experience.

It’s been such a uniquely valuable experience to collaborate – and build lifelong friendships – with people from all around the world. Whether it was comparing American and Nordic governments during Sundowners or hearing about how different cultures come together in Mauritius, learning from the varied life experiences of my classmates was incredible.

My best memory was the GIFT to South Africa. GIFTs are international consulting trips that every LBS MiM student takes part in. I was part of the Cape Town cohort, where we consulted for various local social impact organisations. It was eye-opening to translate some of our learnings into actual on-the-ground impact. And of course, the few weeks we spent exploring Cape Town’s beaches with friends weren’t bad either!

My favourite elective was definitely the Negotiation & Bargaining elective. It opened my eyes to how much negotiation we do in our daily lives, whether it’s formal contract negotiation or just deciding on which restaurant to go to with friends. I find myself referring back to the strategies we learned from the role-play negotiations on an almost weekly basis.

Professor Sungyong Chang, who teaches the MiM Strategy core classes, was especially influential during my LBS experience. I learned a lot from his approach to the various case studies we covered during class discussions, which is what ultimately led to me pursuing a career in strategy.

Coming from an engineering background, I came into LBS with a rough idea of what my career goals looked like but was otherwise entirely new to the world of business. The Career Centre was instrumental in every step of the process: from providing guidance during the career exploration phase, and creating opportunities to meet mentors and firms to actually preparing us for interviews.

My advice to prospective MiM students would be to take time to really understand your passions, interests and journey. Having a clear view of what your ‘story’ is and what the future looks like makes it much more powerful – and much easier to communicate to the admissions team. At a business school like LBS, where you have only a year to take advantage of the seemingly endless opportunities, it really helps to know what matters to you most and why.

Discover our Masters in Management programme.