Here at MaastrichtMBA, we love our alumni and enjoy staying in touch. We recently spoke with alumna Jacqueline Winter; we recalled her time at MaastrichtMBA and discussed her current life.
The reason I chose MaastrichtMBA back then was because of the good rankings of Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics and the programme itself. Next to that, the programme was taught in Dutch at the time and was therefore was highly efficient in the region.
Although MaastrichtMBA met the most of my expectations on the economical topics, during that time the programme had a focus on the development of your soft skills.
MaastrichtMBA had many positive challenges for me, but the most challenging moment was of course writing my thesis and building a new network with my peer students. I have benefited a lot of this network after my MBA.
The programme component that really stood out was the international week of doing business in emerging markets in India. This week was an inspiring experience and gave me a lot of new cultural insight.
I enrolled in the programme at the age of 50. Therefore, I had already gained many experiences and created my own vision of responsible leadership. These experiences and visions were placed in an academic framework during my studies at MaastrichtMBA.
One example that directly came to mind was the experience of working with people who have other priorities. The MBA gave me the tools to connect and interact with these people with a great result.
My professional focus is on business development with a broad target. Next to that, I develop new products and new initiatives. An example of this is giving advice on sustainable employability and vitality to management teams of companies in relation to productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of their employees.
My advice would be to follow a lifelong education path, of which MaastrichtMBA could be a part. Also, collaborate and use the network you have built up during your professional career for your own professional learning path.