Graduate perspectives: Straight talk on my non-linear journey

Now, before I start, I want you to sit down and buckle up because I am about to take you on a little roller coaster ride. I want to show you how Concordia helped shape who I am today.

I am originally Egyptian but born and raised in Saudi Arabia. My family immigrated to Canada in 2006 to seek better opportunities. After finishing high school, I had my mind set that I wanted to study Law.

Had you asked me at that time where I would see myself in 5 years, I would have insisted that Law was the way forward for me. In 2008, I joined the Social Science program at Marianopolis College with a concentration in Law, Society & Justice. Once I completed this two-year, pre-university program, everything that happens next has to do with Concordia!

My journey with Concordia University began in 2010. Most people who study Law usually begin by earning a social science degree (Political Science, Public Policy, etc.) before getting into law school. Therefore, with a strong interest in politics, I majored in Political Science and minored in Economics with a view to eventually enroll in Business Law.

However, a year into my bachelors, I was having a hard time with my Economics classes, especially with the maths. So, I switched my minor from Economics to Law & Society. By my third year, I discovered the Masters in Public Policy & Public Administration (MPPPA) situated in the Political Science department. The program caught my attention since I was very interested in working in public policy reform and strategic advising for the government sector, and so decided to drop the whole Law thing and take the MPPPA route.

I found myself doing three things simultaneously: 1) working on my application for the MPPPA program; 2) applying for jobs in that field to kick start my career, and; 3) studying hard to wrap up my bachelor’s degree with a good academic standing. At least I managed to get one of these three things done – I finished my bachelor’s degree with a GPA of 3.33. I unfortunately got rejected from the highly competitive MPPPA program and struggled to land a job.

Not really knowing what to do at this point, I met with a friend who introduced me to a business proposition, one that would give me the opportunity to co-found my own company. I must tell you: successfully running my own business at a young age for three years was the trigger that I needed to go back to school to earn a business degree.

The Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (GDBA) at the John Molson School of Business seemed a perfect fit for me at that time since it offers a range of classes concentrating on the primary functional areas of organizations and their interrelations. Without hesitation, I applied and was accepted!

I finished my first semester in a very good academic standing and started to see how much I could excel in business. Wanting to take my studies a step further, I started to look into the John Molson MBA program.

At that point, I was plotting the best way to make it into the MBA program since some of the program’s requirements seemed high. So I revamped my entire plan and began moving things around. First, I switched from the 30-credit GDBA to the 15-credit Graduate Certificate in Business Administration (GCBA) program in order to complete the program more quickly. Second, I bought all the needed GMAT books and slowly started to familiarize myself with the material. And third, once I graduated from the GCBA in Fall 2015, I went on an intensive job hunt that landed me a job at Ernst & Young! I feel that the GCBA was especially helpful in developing my accounting skills, which helped me greatly in getting the job.

For more information on the full range of John Molson graduate programs, connect with a recruiter to arrange a one-to-one meeting or participate in one of our many online information sessions.