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One of the alumni of Digital Business Master Class Spring 2021 is Kevin Campbell from Stratford, Canada, who recently graduated with an MBA from Queen's University in Ontario.

With a background in hospitality management, he is now looking forward to starting a new job as a Management Consultant at Deloitte after years of studies. Moving to a new city during corona lockdown wasn’t easy, to say the least, for an extrovert like Kevin. Still, luckily he has been able to enjoy his favourite thing – soccer ('I’m a fantastic player – from the couch') and looks forward to exploring his new city more once the coronavirus situation eases. 

Kevin, why did you decide to join the Digital Business Master Class?

It was the perfect timing to challenge myself with a course that works as a bridge between my studies and my future career within management consulting. My friend took the course last year and spoke highly of it  – so here I am. 

The DBMC allows students to work on Finnish companies and organisations’ real-life business projects during the course. Working together with a company partner offers meaningful connections with the industry for the future as well as valuable hands-on experience.

How was the overall course experience?

My favourite part was balancing lectures and solving real digital challenges for companies through challenge-based learning. While we were working on our company projects, we noticed that there was constantly new knowledge and insights from every lecture that we could apply to our projects and assignments.

I also appreciated the diverse atmosphere with students from all over the world. The combination of cultural diversity and students with different academic backgrounds made us look at the problems and challenges from different angles. 

What was your key learning outcome of the course? Are you better prepared for working with digital strategies after this?

I am pivoting from working within the service industry towards a career that is focused on tech and digital business. The two weeks of lectures gave me a basic understanding of crucial topics such as platform development, design, AI and machine learning, and digital business strategies. It was then easy to deep-dive into topics that interested me the most. 

Another practical learning outcome of the course that I take with me when starting my consulting career is approaching customers through video meetings. While working with our business projects, we frequently had online sessions with our customer company.

We will be moving towards a work culture where remote working is a part of everyday life. Managing a project or even selling a product through a video call is not always easy, but it is definitely a skill that our and future generations must master.

Do you have any tips for future DBMC students or someone thinking about applying?

Make sure to stay active – I learned a lot from conversations and cooperation with other students. One of the strengths of the DBMC is that all participants genuinely are experts in their fields, which took the learning experience to a whole new level once we started to share knowledge.

I also highly recommend showing up to class even if it is possible to watch the lectures later. Time zones made it challenging sometimes, but the live interaction always made it worth it!

Where are you heading next?

I am already making some travel plans for the post-covid era we will hopefully see soon. The only minus with the online adaption of the DBMC course was that I did not get to visit Finland. I look forward to implementing everything I learned during the DBMC and kick-starting my career at my new job next week.

Read more about this summer’s Digital Business Master Class by Aalto University Summer School and apply before April 30th 2021.

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