Shalini’s journey to the UK — anything is possible
By: Ok Student
Tags: Student Writing, India, UK, International Student

I am Shalini and I am here to share my journey from India to the UK to pursue my Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), Nottingham, during the COVID-19 😊.

A glimpse of my expedition in the UK

source: personal photographs

I completed my Bachelor of Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University, India, and worked for 7 years in IT MNCs as a Scrum Master and Software Engineer. It was during this stint, I realised I was inclined towards pursuing Masters to broaden my horizons in Project Management. Due to family commitments and childcare, I took the toughest decision of quitting my job. My dream of pursuing masters still hung somewhere in my heart. After taking a year break, I balanced my personal & professional life by working as Marketing Manager at Tupperware.

Then came the major turning point of my life, I shifted to the UK with my family. After a few months of discovering the UK cities, I opted to work as a Store Manager at Domino’s Pizza and gained UK work experience. While exploring the country & its culture I came across an interesting fact that UK Management courses were in high demand and my dream of pursuing an MBA bloomed. I felt its high time to update my skills and knowledge from a global perspective, personal & professional development, and strengthen my profile. During my search for MBA programs, I came across NTU which was luckily in the same place where I was staying, offering a 2-year MBA with sandwiched 1-year placement.

I attended the Open day at NTU, just a few days before the UK lockdown to zero down on my decision. During the visit, what inspired me the most was the library, its facilities, and the world-class infrastructure. All these factors proved that not only the Nottingham Business School (NBS) had a wonderful reputation and a solid curriculum but also complimented my engineering background. On top of it, a scholarship availability motivated me, and it genuinely made me think of the reduced financial pressure of studying abroad to a great extent. By the end of the eventful day, I had chosen my University — NTU 😊. I immediately applied and was fortunate to get an admission offer along with a scholarship.

I returned to Nottingham, UK, with a Student Visa. During the 14-day self-isolation, the University provided free accommodation and food and supported it in all ways. After settling down, I started my exciting University life at NTU and I believe the learnings will help me throughout my career.

Within a month, I started working part-time as a Student Ambassador at the University. Parallelly, I was keen on finding good opportunities outside the Uni. I came across the job opening of OK Student on LinkedIn. When I retrospect my own experience, I realized it was a bit of a struggle and wished I had someone to guide me in choosing the University, Visa documentation, admission procedure, settling down, and continued support throughout my University journey. I believe OK Student would have certainly made my work easier. This job is a great opportunity for me to make a smooth journey for aspiring students across the globe to get their desired University. Finding it very captivating, I applied and secured my job at OK Student as a Student Officer.

Now I am here to help and support students in achieving their dreams and make their journey smoother.