by Maria Cosnete
The first MBA semester is over. Looking back helps to measure the gained knowledge and experience, which broadens us in this journey. The one-year program is very interactive and contains various learning tools, which are examples of the real business world. One aspect of the program which I really enjoyed was the consulting project teamwork experience. In my previous educational experience in my home country Moldova, this method was used less frequently as part of the educational system. Fortunately here at Duquesne, I have the opportunity to experience it fully. From my previous work experience, I can confirm how important teamwork skills are; because they are involved in almost every activity of an organization and as simple it might look, not everyone is able to do it.
During each semester, as MBA students, we have consulting projects which are organized in teams. We form teams based on different backgrounds and skills and work together the entire semester in order to identify the best business solutions for our assigned project. I’ve had the opportunity to work with three other colleagues with different majors and backgrounds, which really helped to shape our way and to work on various aspects that were important for our client. We exchanged our views and experiences so that everyone learned something new and helped to enlarge our skills in different areas. Working together was both challenging and exciting as the integration time was short and our main goals were to achieve results and enjoy working together. The hard part was identifying the common action plan and getting everyone on the same track, concentrating on respecting each other’s opinions and analyzing objectively each idea in a matter that advanced our progress. We were able to collaborate productively, to engage faculty, staff and subject matter experts in fields like distribution, finance, small business and marketing, which guided us in the right direction. One of the best parts of the teamwork experience is that each student has the chance to bring his or her unique contributions, views, and expertise. When combined it truly created a valuable solution for our firm. Also, at the end of the project, we offered and received individual feedback from our peers, faculty, and staff in order to identify areas for improvement for personal development.
It is a good simulation of a real work environment as the majority of the business world is organized in this way. This experience was unique and gave us access to the best practice examples…
From my prior work experience, I had the opportunity to lead my own team, which really helped on the consulting project in terms of using different methods to brainstorm our ideas, organize them and to be prepared to interact with different types of personalities, backgrounds, and skills. It is a good simulation of a real work environment as the majority of the business world is organized in this way. This experience was unique and gave us access to the best practice examples, which we could integrate into our future workplaces. I am thankful for the team and the consulting project experience that I had, and I am looking forward to the next one.
One-Year MBA 