UEA

Jon Horsley, MBA Strategic Carbon Management 2008

A member of the 2008 cohort, Jon share his experiences of studying on the Full Time Strategic Carbon Management MBA.

‘Some of my 2008 Strategic Carbon Management cohort colleagues were very proactive, even from early on in our study year, with regards to looking for a job to go into after graduating.  I was always pushing that task away as a non-urgent task (compared to the multiple pieces of MBA work that were always due).  Of course, that strategy came back to bite me in a way as I found that the renewable energy type of jobs that I was hoping to move into had all disappeared in the late 2008 slump and, come December, I was wondering what to do.’

‘Having left a decent post in the automotive industry, and still wanting to use this MBA opportunity to try something different, I was fortunate to have been offered a bit of post-grad consultancy work with Anglian Bus and the Low Carbon Innovation Centre at UEA.  It was a useful stepping stone as I was using some of my previous low-carbon automotive technology knowledge as well as drawing on the MBA teachings.  This led to a second piece of related work in Essex and, when people started coming back to me about the full-time job enquiries I'd made some months before, I had the momentum and desire to hang on to my self-employed status and to take the opportunity to try building my own business.’

‘However, with a new baby on the way - an additional and unexpected output from my MBA year out! - there was always the background pressure to earn rather than live on my reserves.  This meant I became more of an opportunist-contractor, selling my time, rather than developing a broader business base, but that was ok.’

‘By late 2009, early 2010, the automotive world had made a remarkable turn around with a high demand for electric and hybrid vehicle engineering skills, so I have had no difficulty in keeping fully-employed ever since.  I have ended up working closer to the coal-face than I did when I left the industry but the MBA has enabled me to work more in the holistic carbon reduction area of the sector and I feel it gave me the nudge I needed to try self-employment, which has been an aspiration I've had for decades.’

‘So, for me, my carbon MBA hasn't taken me in quite the direction I had planned but I've never been busier nor had more opportunities, and I feel I can take on a wider variety of work.  And, being my own boss is probably the best and most significant outcome.’

‘In short, my experience of the carbon MBA was that it gave me new challenges, a new environment, new learning, new people, and a gateway to a new life.’