7 secrets to career success from Sophie Carey, MBA Programme Director at UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School

Sophie Carey is the MBA Programme Director at UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School with extensive experience in career development and executive coaching. With a Master’s in Business Studies focused on Human Resource Management, Sophie shares her seven secrets to career success – powered by the advantage an MBA offers.

IMAGE Media has been partnering with UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School for the last 14 years to offer one female candidate a 100 per cent scholarship to join the full-time MBA or part-time Executive MBA.

Sophie Carey, MBA Programme Director at UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School has shared with us her seven secrets to career success. You can learn more about the scholarship here.

1. Grow your confidence

Everyone has a weakness or an area where they could improve their knowledge… but that’s the nature of the MBA. The MBA curriculum covers a broad range of subjects from finance to marketing, organisational behaviour to data analytics and more. As you get to know your cohort, you soon realise they have the very same concerns. Over the course of the programme, classmates begin to learn from each other, as well as from faculty and the curriculum. Your confidence will soar.

2. Develop yourself and learn new skills

The Leadership Development Programme (LDP), integrated throughout the MBA, is a unique opportunity for you to learn how to lead at an individual, team and organisational level. Through a series of structured workshops, self-reflection assignments that include a psychometric test, Executive Coaching and Masterclasses from industry experts, you will develop the skills required for effective and impactful leadership.

3. Extend your network

UCD Smurfit School has an extensive alumni network of over 95,000 individuals spanning the globe and a community of over 4,000 MBA alumni embedded in industries across a variety of roles.

Networking with alumni provides excellent opportunities to enhance your own network. Our small class size means that, unlike many other MBA programmes, you will get to know your classmates really well. In addition, our faculty, actively involved industry partners and Advisory Board Members offer advice as well as inspiration.

4. Expand your career horizons

Undertaking an MBA is an opportunity to reflect on your career and gain exposure to an array of roles and industries which are potentially open to you. A dedicated Career Development Centre offers unlimited one-to-one meetings for personalised careers advice, CV review, interview coaching, workshops, sector-specific networking events and mentoring programmes.

These supports are crucial, as we understand that the career goals and prior experiences of MBA students are extremely varied.

5. Invest in your future

Within three months of graduating, the full-time MBA class of 2020 saw a 77% average increase in salary and 100% were employed within five months of graduation. UCD Smurfit School’s 2019 Executive MBA class saw 80% of students promoted within 12 months of graduation.

Not only is there evidence that an MBA is good for your career and promotion prospects, you will also be able to apply your learnings to your current role and will be better able to understand, collaborate and communicate across business areas.

6. Step out of your comfort zone

Throughout your MBA programme you will be exposed to new experiences and meet and work with classmates from different professional and geographic backgrounds.

At a time of accelerating globalisation, UCD College of Business has developed a leading-edge Intercultural Development Programme (ICD) — the country’s only systematic intercultural competence programme. Bespoke sessions are delivered for the MBA programme.

7. Challenge yourself

One thing an MBA will do is challenge you as you take on subjects you’ve never studied and organisational tasks you haven’t attempted before.

Perhaps you are an accountant and you’ve never studied marketing or HR, or you’re a pharmacist who wants to find out more about digital transformation and data analytics. These are the growth opportunities an MBA programme can offer to challenge you and to enhance your career prospects for life.

Learn more about UCD Smurfit School MBA programmes here. Our new option, the Modular Executive MBA programme is designed specifically for those with busy schedules, including candidates working overseas or outside of Dublin.