Shearon Kowlessar

After graduating with my HBA in 2014, I made London my home and stayed at Western University to work as a Residence Manager with the Division of Housing and Ancillary Services. At the end of my three-year contract I yearned to be back in the classroom and wanted to broaden my horizon in terms of future career opportunities. I knew that an Ivey MBA would facilitate a career change and allow me to network with alumni, recruiters, and classmates from various sectors. The relationship formed with career management through extensive coaching and interview preparation was at an even higher level than what I had experienced in HBA, and I felt as though they had a genuine interest in my future career.

The entire MBA class of 2018 feels more like a family as we are a lot fewer in numbers compared to my HBA class and we all know each other by name. Each of my classmates (both AMBAs and MBAs) has been very supportive in my career goals and academic success, which has made my experience feel less competitive than HBA.

I had no doubt or hesitation that coming back to Ivey was the right choice for me to assist with my career change and enhance my education. Nevertheless, I was nervous that I wasn’t coming from similar career paths to others and thought that I would be at a disadvantage. However, my MBA classmates all come from very diverse backgrounds such as engineering, finance, teaching, culinary arts, medical fields, consulting, and more, which has made a huge difference in our classroom setting particularly with regards to the learning from each other’s contributions.

The highlight of my MBA experience so far has definitely been the China Study Trip. It was a great combination of learning and forming friendships with others in the program whom I did not get to know as well previously. I was also able to get involved with the MBA Association (MBAA) and take on more leadership roles, which was something I regretted not doing in my undergrad. This also helped me to get to know many others in the program.

I have formed many new friendships, made multiple connections with alumni, faculty, and the MBA program office staff, all of which have been meaningful to my development over the past six months. The two years that I spent at Ivey for my HBA prepared me for my career in Residence Life over the past three years and I can already sense that these eight months as an MBA student will add even more value to my upcoming career in Human Resources. Upon graduating, I’ll be entering the financial services industry at CIBC as an HR Associate in their Human Resources Development Program.