Video - Melania Fedeli

MBA student testimonial

Video of Melania Fedeli at the MBA Residential School in Brussels, 2011.

Transcript

Q1. Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Melania. I live in Milan, in Italy, and I work in the software development sector. We do develop business intelligent solutions; we create dashboards and scorecards to enable better decisions.

Q2. Why did you choose an MBA with The Open University Business School?

I was looking for an MBA, and I didn’t have a chance to do a full time MBA, so I was looking for a part time option, and in Italy, the only business schools which were actually offering part time MBAs were actually offering these MBAs in Italian, and I wanted to do, of course, an MBA in Italian doesn’t make any sense, so the only English speaking option part time was The Open University and that was the reason why I chose it.

Q3. How is it going?

It’s interesting actually.   It broadens your mind, and it gives you a different perspective also. I think many of us have had managing experiences, but I didn’t have any formal training on that, because I studied engineering, so I think some basics and some more background, like formal background, academic backgrounds is definitely helpful, so so far, I enjoy it.

Q4. They call it distance learning. Is it really at a distance?

Well, sometimes I do feel a bit lonely, because you have to be very, very motivated to keep going, even though there are very many opportunities to touch base with people, also locally. There are other people in Italy, and we do have face-to-face opportunities at the residential schools, which are really good, so it’s not really that distant actually. It’s also challenging, because you have to find the time to explore all the possible materials, but if you do do, it’s really helpful.

Q5. Early days but would you recommend it to others?

You can pace your study and you can still work and the big thing is that you can contribute to your working environment from the very beginning; you can apply what you’ve learned and you can give back to your company something, even at an early stage, and it’s a good way to get to meet people as well.