“I DON’T THINK there’s ever a right time to do an MBA, but it was playing on my mind for a while so I decided to take the plunge and it’s been really rewarding so far.” 

Having spent a number of years working in science following an undergraduate degree in the same subject, Eimear O’Flynn decided to pursue her ambitions of furthering her career and applied to the MBA programme in the UCD Smurfit School.

I did my undergrad in UCD and I did a bachelor of science, specialising in Physiology, so different to business. After my undergrad, I went to work for a healthcare and medical device company and I’ve been there for almost 8 years. My roles have been primarily in operations and manufacturing.” 

Eimear chose to do the MBA at UCD Smurfit School as she hoped to advance her career by gaining more business acumen with the part-time Modular Executive MBA. During her application, Eimear came across The Journal MBA Scholarship, which offers a full scholarship worth €36,760, and applied for it.

Emerging as the 2022 recipient of the scholarship from a competitive field of applicants, Eimear is currently enrolled in the school. We asked her about her experience in the MBA so far, as she balances her assignments with full-time work:

I looked at a number of courses and then looked at the MBA programme at UCD. The core content of the MBA aligns really well with our leadership learning pathways within that so it was kind of covering everything I would need to get to that next level.” 

Eimear’s confidence in the MBA programme is backed up by the numbers. Some 92% of the UCD Smurfit School class of 2020 found employment within three months of graduating from the full-time course; while graduates saw an average 77% increase in their earnings in the same period. 

Deciding that UCD Smurfit School was the best place for her to progress to the next level of her career, Eimear said the application process, which was carried out online, was simple and gave her time to complete it at her leisure:

You do what’s called the executive assessment for the MBA, which was very interesting. The UCD team makes the whole process really easy, any questions you have along the way they’re there to support it.”

Eimear is now close to the end of semester one of her first year in the part-time MBA. Having been nervous about returning to an academic setting after several years in a professional environment, she declares that the course is “better than I had hoped.”

It’s obviously very daunting, not having studied for almost ten years to go back to school, and doing it with a full-time job and the rest going on. It’s been great, we’re almost at the end of semester one year one. We’ve been kept busy with assignments, but our lecturers are outstanding. The learning is really interesting and totally new to me. We’re doing a lot of studies of companies, and applying the teaching to all of that is fantastic.”

Alongside her excellent lecturers, Eimear found that the class group offered great learning too. With many of her peers in a similar situation as herself, having studied a non-business related undergraduate course, there is a large mix of expertise in each class.

You learn so much just from within your class group. They all have experience in the workforce, everyone comes from completely different backgrounds, it’s a fantastic arrangement and leads to great debate in the classroom.”

Despite only beginning the course a few months ago, Eimear said the lessons and knowledge have already impacted her professional life.

The thing about working part-time whilst doing the MBA is there are already so many things I’ve been able to apply to my current role in work already, so you’re studying and you’re doing assignments every weekend, you can take something away and into the next week and work with it.”

 For those interested in applying for The Journal MBA Scholarship, Eimear said, “Just go for it. You have nothing to lose.” 

Applications for the 2023 The Journal MBA Scholarship at UCD Smurfit School are now open, and more information can be found here. The deadline for applications is April 30. Classes will commence in August 2023.