MBA Alumni Profile: Ilaria Gregotti, Cranfield

There were many plus-points that drew Ilaria Gregotti's attention to the Cranfield's MBA program. One reason that chose School of Management was that its location allowed her to continue living with her husband, who works locally in the UK. Read on to find out what else at Cranfield worked in her favour.

I was working in management consulting before enrolling on my MBA, based in London with Capgemini, formerly Gemini Consulting. Consulting is exciting but is mainly process-driven. Thus, after nearly four years in consulting, I felt I needed to develop some strong content and go back to the theory.

The UK was an obvious choice for me, since my husband works in London and we didn't want to live apart. I chose Cranfield because it's one of the top one-year courses in the country. It offers a great variety of electives and stresses the need to work in teams and non-competitively.

Cranfield exceeded my expectations in many respects: I came mainly looking to catch up with the latest academic thinking in business and I left having been through an amazing life experience. I met wonderful people and made new friends from all over the world. Cranfield has also made me acutely aware of my strengths and weaknesses as a person and pushed me to do things I always thought I wasn't capable of - such as being creative and innovative. It was an intense but, funnily enough, stress-free year: no clients breathing down my neck and lots of support from everyone.

Since leaving Cranfield, I have come back to my job in consulting and found I have gained self-confidence and, amazingly, can organise my time better than most of my colleagues - I am sometimes impressed by how many things I can actually get done in one day! I am sure this is down to the MBA and how it pushes you to work smartly and effectively.

I would recommend an MBA to everyone. It is a life-enriching experience and you always get more out of it than you expect.