EPGP Seminar tackles questions of career versatility and choice

In the second of its virtual seminars, launched under the EPGP Seminar Series of 2020-21, students of the one-year Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management at IIMB hosted Ms Ayesha Abuthahir who spoke on ‘Career Choices and Versatility’, on June 24th.

An IIMB alumna from the PGP Class of 2010-12, Ayesha,  a marketing enthusiast, is Lead, Brand Experience & Growth, at Amazon.

She recalled her stint with MASH – IIMB’s Marketing club and credited it with teaching her fearlessness and resilience as she went about putting together Marketing events at the B-school.

Drawing from her own career from a programmer analyst to consulting to business development, while speaking on Career Choices & Versatility, Ayesha suggested that learning is the motivator for professionals. As speaker of the second webinar in the EPGP Seminar Series of 2020-21, she said: “The more ownership you have, the more you learn and the more engaged you are. When learning plateaus, you need to move on.” She explained, “As you mature in your career, technical learning may be replaced by behavioural learning in terms of managing people and conflicts in organizations. IIMB taught me to be fearless in approaching a challenge and in asking questions. It taught me resilience.”

“Integrity is key to professional growth”

She emphasized that a professional needs to keep the bigger picture – organization goals – in mind when charting individual career paths. Integrity, beliefs and principles are key pillars to professional growth and fulfilment, she added, explaining that an effective and credible manager pays attention to detail, gives realistic deadlines to the team and plays to the team’s strengths while being generous with credit.

The webinar concluded with a Q&A session where EPGP students sought to know about how to pivot to consultancy roles and post MBA skills that a professional requi