How the AMBS alumni network helped shape Momina's career
One of the most valuable long-term benefits of the MBA at Alliance Manchester Business School is the strength of its global network.
From alumni returning to share their expertise with current students, to offering career guidance, internship opportunities and consultancy projects, the AMBS community regularly opens doors long after graduation.
For MBA alumna Momina Anjum, a conversation with a fellow graduate proved to be a pivotal moment in her career journey.
In this article, she reflects on how networking during and after her MBA helped her build connections, navigate a new job market and ultimately secure her post-MBA role at aviation technology company SITA.
Could you tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current role at SITA?
I am originally from India and have eight years' experience at the intersection of technology and business across the public sector and aviation. Before my MBA, I spent six years at Deloitte working on large-scale digital transformation programmes in the US unemployment insurance sector. Looking to strengthen my business acumen, I moved to the UK to study for an MBA at AMBS.
Right after my MBA, I joined SITA as a Product Adoption Expert. I sit at the crossover of product and commercial operational strategy; my role is making sure the technology SITA builds for airports gets adopted at full scale, and passenger experience in the airports and airlines is digitally optimised and efficient, so the value it's designed to create is fully realised.
How did the connections you built through Alliance Manchester Business School influence your professional journey, both during and after your MBA?
I grabbed my summer internship through networking over a coffee, and it turned into one of the more rewarding problems I solved for the customer, which helped me build traction in the UK client experience. A few of the clients I worked with are still in touch, and it's great hearing how the strategy we built is still being implemented.
The connections I have made not only guided me on how to position myself in the UK market but also provided me with industry knowledge, which has made me study more about the topic discussed during a coffee chat, and I used them as examples in my interview conversations or building connections with the company I am aiming to work with in the future.
Can you share an example of how a connection from the AMBS community has supported your career or opened up an opportunity?
While building my network alongside my job search, I connected with a 2004 AMBS MBA alumnus who was working as a director in consulting. I was able to do this, as Lisa Samberg, Head of Alumni Relations for the MBA helped to put me in touch.
Although he was in the aviation sector, an industry I had no previous experience in, I reached out over LinkedIn to ask if he would be open to a coffee chat.
We met in Manchester and had an informal conversation about my MBA journey and career aspirations. During the discussion, he mentioned a role that had become available and felt my experience could be a strong fit. He encouraged me to apply, requested my CV and helped me secure a first-round interview.
After progressing through several further rounds, I was offered the position.
What makes the AMBS alumni network particularly valuable compared with other professional networks you've experienced?
One key differentiator I would say is the global scale of the network. If you search, you can find at least one person on any side of the world working across diverse domains and industries.
That helps any person to connect on a wider net and any industry you want to either continue working in or pivot into, which you won't find otherwise.
Throughout my networking journey, all the AMBS alumni have been quite approachable; that basically puts you at ease about not getting ghosted over connections, which happens quite a lot.
How has being part of the AMBS community continued to benefit you since graduation and how do you stay connected with the AMBS community today?
The AMBS community has continued to help me, especially when I am aiming to navigate entrepreneurship in my career journey.
The AMBS community and connections helped me get in touch with the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre, and I was given guidance on it. I have also reached out to the Global MBA network from Dubai for a few questions on the industry in the GCC, so I would say it's been helping me a lot ever since I graduated.
Also, I believe at this point I am on the other side of the table where I am being reached out to by many students, and I am doing my best, to my knowledge, to provide any guidance they are seeking.
Looking back, how has what you learnt on your MBA helped you succeed in your career and what were the most valuable aspects of your MBA experience?
One of the skills I have learned and honed is to think proactively and build a use case from incomplete information and derive a strategy for it.
One key one I should mention is the simulation case we did for mergers and acquisitions, which was quite intriguing as I had no background knowledge and learned on the go.
Another one was definitely the case studies done for the Big Data elective. And the negotiation workshop was quite interesting as I was paired with Global MBA students who had over 15-20 years of experience. Learning from them on how they navigate a problem and their perspective towards it was a unique experience.
As Momina's experience shows, a single conversation can have a significant impact on someone's career journey.
If you're looking to accelerate your career through a global network of ambitious professionals, discover how the Manchester MBA can connect you with opportunities that extend far beyond the classroom.
