Breaking rank

Former military man Andrew Mason tells how an MBA is helping him to make the transition to civvy street

"I was in the British Army from 1975 to 1984, and then until last year in the army of the Sultanate of Oman. I had wanted to do an MBA for a long time as an instrument for changing my career. I had no particular career ambitions, but thought the MBA would open quite a lot of doors. As an ex-army officer I quite like the `large environment' so I might work in a big company or get into consulting in which I would go into big companies. I realised an MBA would be a good way of changing from a military to commercial environment.

I started at Lancaster Business School at the age of 42 and am just about to take my finals. We've studied all the main areas - accounting, human resources, strategy, business planning. Although each one covered is effectively only an introduction, you do get the confidence that you know enough to be able to discuss the subject in any company you go to. You also know how to go about deepening your knowledge.

An MBA does provide you with a good basis of knowledge. Given that you handle a lot of case studies, do a lot of assignment work and quite a lot of work in groups, you are actually using the knowledge to build your skills and abilities.

As far as any course could prepare anyone to go out into the world of industry and perform better, I can't see that you could do better than an MBA."