MBA & Leadership: A Case Study of My Career in Trinidad & Tobago

A cardinal reason for seeking an MBA is to advance personal leadership skills. For a significant portion of my career, I have worked at the supervisory level, whereby the responsibilities included guiding others on how best to tackle the duties that have been allocated by the relevant leaders. A particular case in this respect occurred when I moved to Trinidad and Tobago to work for the Oil and Gas subsidiary of the Bristow Group as a leader of maintenance in the operations department. Although I had little prior experience in leadership, I managed to successfully organize teams who showed great dedication in executing their duties under my direction. Despite the high risks involved in this assignment, I forged a strong friendship with fellow workers which in turn enabled me to discover the joy of leadership as well as understand decision-making, overcoming failures and dealing with misfortunes. However, this experience was not free from challenges. I mainly encountered problems in dealing with the egos and attitudes of some workers, and this would be frustrating. I felt inadequate. For this reason, I think that acquiring an MBA would offer me some insights on how to manage people effectively.

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The other motivation for desiring an MBA is to prepare me for a future career as an executive of a big company or director of my own company. It is easy to claim that one can occupy the mentioned positions without necessarily acquiring an MBA. Still, my experience informs me that an effective executive needs an understanding of the overall operation of a company. I learned this from my experience in Trinidad and Tobago, where issues I often encountered with issues of payments and procurements. Personal interactions with some CEOs of well-performing companies in many places where I have worked suggest that having an MBA can offer that extra arsenal one needs to succeed in management. For many years, my work input is technical. Having started and worked as an engineer, I have since learned that one must interact with other departments of the organization, and it is essential to have a basic understanding how each contributes to the main objective. Before deciding to pursue an MBA, I conducted research and found that the program involves learning about different departments of an organization and the skills needed to manage them. Therefore, I believe acquiring an MBA would give me finance, marketing, and other skills necessary to successfully run a company as the overall leader.

The last drive for choosing to apply for an MBA is the need to diversify my academic portfolio. We live an uncertain world, and things keep changing every day. For one to cope effectively with the effects of change, such persons must make some revisions about their lives. Since entering employment with the Irish Air Corps, my career journey has been all about engineering and military operations. This means that I have little knowledge in other fields. Despite having acquired a business degree while working in Houston, I feel that I need more. The experience of recession in the oil and gas business at Bristow Group made me learn that one can lose job any time regardless of the field. So, having an MBA would equip me with a new capacity to work in other areas if my current specialization is not forthcoming under certain circumstances.