Katherine “Katie” Franchois came from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Manchester to study her Full-time MBA. She was working as a deck officer on US oil tankers as a Merchant Miner before deciding to study the MBA.
“Working as a mariner was always a job and never a career for me, it has been such a specific field to work in that I needed an MBA in order to pivot my career away from the offshore industry so I could then settle into a long-term career.”
Becoming Class President
Each new Full-time MBA class elect a study council which is made up of 5 Vice Presidents alongside the President. Katie is President of the Full-time MBA Class of 2024.
“I had never considered running for president, I’ve never been part of a student council or government in my academic career before. Classmates said they thought I would be good at this role, so I decided to go for it.”
One thing I said to myself before starting my MBA journey was to do things outside of my comfort zone and being class president is something that pushes me and not something I would usually do. I didn’t know what to expect at first, but I am enjoying the challenge of managing things at a higher level.
My goal is to support each of the VPs as best I can. A challenge for this role is that I am a people pleaser, I hate letting people down. I am learning how to manage expectations and understand it is impossible to make everyone happy. These have been important lessons for me.
Get a global experience with hands-on projects
To any prospective US students considering an MBA in the UK I would highly recommend it because there is so much more diversity on these courses compared to the US.
You will gain a more global experience and better diversity of thought. Manchester’s MBA programme was also extremely appealing to me over other UK MBA programmes due to the hands-on project work and the value of the course vs cost; I believe doing this programme I was getting more “bang for my buck”.
I have enjoyed the project work I have done so far on the MBA. I have finished the not-for-profit consultancy project with a housing association in London. This was a fantastic experience. I loved the simulated mergers and acquisitions project – the thrill you get from negotiating for a nearly £2 billion company is really something!
I am currently working on the commercial business project with a consulting company in London, this project deals with EU electric vehicle fleet solutions and the circular economy. It has been really eye-opening.
Brathay was also a highlight for me, it was at the start of the programme and such a good ice breaker. It was when we really got to know everyone on the course and learnt how to build relationships and teams with them.
A sea of opportunities
The Manchester MBA will definitely allow me to keep my options open in my career. For now, my goal is to stay in the UK once I have graduated, but I know if I was to return back to the US, I have more opportunities than if I had not come to Manchester.
Currently on the programme I am working on securing an internship. I have several irons in the fire. I have dreams of what I would like to be doing and more realistic options, but I have always said to myself to reach for the stars while doing this programme.
Find out more about our MBA programmes.
