What I've learnt from Year 1 of my MBA

When I started my MBA at Imperial, I kind of thought I knew what the next twelve months would look like. I expected new knowledge, new frameworks and some new connections. All of that arrived, but what I did not expect was how much the year would teach me about myself.

An MBA is not simply an academic challenge. It becomes a mirror. It shows you how you lead, how you learn and how you cope when everything is happening at once.

You learn very quickly that you cannot do everything

The first term at my business school (Imperial) felt like being dropped into a full sprint. Financial and managerial accounting, decision analytics, organisational behaviour, economics, group work, presentations, readings, models, quizzes, weekly assignments, exams and networking... all happening at the same time as your actual job and your actual life.

I had imagined that I would create the perfect system from day one. Instead I learnt that the secret is accepting that you cannot give 100% to everything, every week. The real discipline is choosing what matters most and letting the rest be good enough.

You discover the value of prioritising with honesty. Some weeks your focus is work. Some weeks it is your course. Some weeks it is sleep or family or simply protecting your energy. You learn that balance is not a perfect split. It is an ongoing negotiation between the things that matter and the person you want to be at the end of it.

The academic side is challenging but not impossible

I had never studied finance before stepping into an Imperial classroom (I actually hadn't done any maths since struggling with it at school when I was 15 years old). I thought I would be completely out of my depth. Instead I found that the lecturers expect some beginners. They guide you, step by step, through the logic behind the numbers. You learn how to read financial statements, how to question assumptions and how businesses reveal their stories through ratios and decisions. The same is true in analytics where you start with small simple models and slowly understand how to think like a problem solver.

The surprising part is realising how relevant everything becomes. You find yourself applying concepts in meetings without even noticing. You understand why people make certain decisions and what sits beneath the financial and operational choices that shape a business. The course gives you a language you did not even know you needed.

The people make the experience

One of the best parts of the first year is the group you study with. Everyone has a different background and a different reason for being there yet you all share the same pressure and the same ambition to grow.

When you are working until midnight on a group assignment or trying to solve a spreadsheet that simply refuses to behave, you realise you are learning more from the people around you than from the readings.

You learn how to collaborate with personalities that are not like your own. You learn how to listen when you think you are right. You learn how to explain when someone else is lost. You learn how to lead without controlling and how to follow without disappearing. It is one of the biggest lessons the MBA gives you and one that you take back into your career immediately.

The real challenge is managing yourself

Finding balance between work study and life sounds difficult in theory but you do not understand the scale until you are living it. There are days when you are exhausted before the day begins. Every weekend, you spend studying and not really doing any kind of relaxing. There are missed events and late nights and moments when you question why you chose to do this to yourself.

But there is also something quietly powerful about it. You develop a routine that protects you. You learn that your wellbeing cannot be an afterthought. You build habits that help you stay grounded. For me, (I'm not always getting this right but I am trying), it was eight hours of sleep at least five nights a week, time with loved ones every month and the willingness to decline plans that would drain me.

You discover that saying no is as important as saying yes.

What to expect from your first year

Expect to be challenged but not overwhelmed. Expect to feel proud of progress you once thought impossible. Expect to grow in ways that have nothing to do with the course content. Expect to surprise yourself. Expect to rethink how you lead how you think and how you want to show up in your work.

Most of all expect the year to change you. Not all at once, but slowly through the accumulation of small lessons. A lecture that suddenly makes sense. A group conversation that shifts your perspective. A personal moment of clarity at the end of a long day.

The first year of an MBA is more than academic development. It is personal transformation disguised as coursework.

If you are thinking about starting your own MBA journey know this: it will be demanding and uncertain and at times exhausting but it will also give you a new level of confidence and clarity about who you are and who you want to become. And that is worth every late night and every difficult week.