I graduated, what's next? - Bruna Moura Bruno
Before our students turn into alumni, they do one last thing here at Maastricht School of Management. They write a letter to themselves. A “one year after letter” to be exact, where they write down what they expect of the upcoming year. Over a year has passed and our alumni received their “letter to themselves” in the mail. Did their expectations come true? We asked and our alumni answered.
This time MBA alumna Bruna Moura Bruno shares her post-MSM experience. Bruna graduated in 2018 from the MSM Master in Business Administration, hails from Brazil and currently works as Territory Manager at FareHarbor in the Netherlands its capital city, Amsterdam.
“A year and a half since I graduated! The year was 2018 and I was a 33 years old ‘student’ writing a letter to myself with all of my expectations for the future. Crazy, right?! But also incredibly fun! It is amazing how things can change after 1 year and how life sometimes takes us places we never even thought about! So I wrote, Dear self: hope things are going well, hope you have a great job, hope you are still in contact with your colleague, etc.
But let me give you some context about my story: in 2017 I was looking for an MBA program in Europe, and in the middle of my countless searches on the internet, I found a school in The Netherlands with a mission that translated into words everything I was looking for, not only as a professional but as a human being: to bridging cultures and countries and thereby contribute to the shared and sustainable well-being of a global, diverse and peaceful world.
Don't get me wrong... I am not here to advertise the school, but it is inevitable that I do not feel gratitude (and do not advocate for the school) after everything I have lived in my 1 year of studies and after my graduation.
Going back to my experience, a full-time MBA, which was the course I chose at MSM, allowed me not only to study with people from 19+ different nationalities, but to live with them as a family! To coexist, to have fun, to cook with, to disagree and get into passionate debates, to cry together missing our loved ones, to laugh out loud, to share stories and experiences, to grow together and allow our beautiful transformation as human beings! I’m proud to say I built a beautiful and supportive family during this year!
Let the job hunt begin
Getting a job after graduation would be just the icing on the cake (do you all have such expression in your language/culture?), because my transformation process was huge and magical already, much more than I could ever expect!
But, of course, I still wanted to stay and work in the Netherlands and started the job hunt mission together with my fellow MBA graduates. Ohhh and what a rollercoaster that was! We got together to write our motivational letters, one reviewed each other's, we trained for the interviews, we were nervous together and asked for help from the MSM staff! In fact... I can't help mentioning how important Hermina Kooyman and Karen Tromp were for me and my fellow graduates. Either by giving their rooms and desks for our interviews (wifi issues), to review our CVs, to chat about the opportunities that were emerging... or to give us a hug of support and a smile of encouragement. Gratitude!
And I can see now how important all of that was! To stay together, to support each other and to keep focused no matter what, even with the negative feedback we received from companies, even when the money was running low, even when the visa sponsorship seemed to be difficult to get, even when learning Dutch seemed im-po-ssi-ble! For me, still does!
My job offer came quite fast. Only 1 month after graduation I had already signed my contract to work in a big tech company in Amsterdam. And so I went... and here I am, living my dream, already promoted to Sales Market Manager and being invited as speaker at international events and fairs every now and then. Full of gratitude and fully aware that I am where I am thanks to the support and encouragement network I had and thanks to everything I learned inside and outside MSM classrooms. MSM is and I think it will always be my home away from home!
Was everything perfect? Of course not! There was frustration. There was anxiety. There was fear. But there is learning in everything we do and in everything we live. Sometimes we just need to be open to change our dreams! We can have so many of them! Embrace them all!
And I would LOVE to chat more about my experiences! Look for me on Linkedin.”
