Hello everyone, I’m Tanmay. I’m from Mumbai and did my schooling and undergraduate studies from there. While growing up, I always had an eye for numbers and was always able to spot anomalies in the school math problems and was always eager to understand the root cause of things.
This made me particularly interested in accounting, and I ended up applying to University of Mumbai for my Bachelor’s in Accounting and Finance. I quite enjoyed my time studying this course and developed a strong interest in the field. I found myself reading and studying about cases relating to accounting scandals or obsessing over emerging corporate finance headlines. This resulted with me considering to pursue a Master’s in the field.

Throughout my teen years, I also spent substantial time watching and playing football and associating my loyalty to a football club. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) for me, I ended up choosing Manchester City. While this fact never truly influenced my decision to later pursue my MSc Accounting and Finance from Manchester, it certainly helped me begin my research about universities in the UK. I researched few good months about faculties, programs and key research outputs from various universities. What really stood to me about University of Manchester was the program, I saw the ability to master topics such as Econometrics, while also digging deep into accounting with modules such as corporate financial reporting and advanced management accounting. In addition, after seeing the beautiful Oxford Road campus and the lively articles about studying in Manchester the application to UoM was a no brainer.

I still remember landing into Manchester for the first time; it was indeed an overwhelming experience. I could see the signs of Fall in the city and horde of Freshers walking in the campus, it all felt ecstatic. If my memory serves right, I had met over 100 new students like me in just the first fresher’s week, students from different countries and from various courses. As time passed and I settled into lecture and studying routines, I had opportunities to engage personally with our professors and my other peers on projects and extracurriculars. I still remember our course introductory “Treasure Hunt” where we worked in teams to explore Manchester and find clues to solve puzzle set by the AMBS team. It was a great way to break the ice between students taking our course. My class had people from over 10+ countries and studying and working with them was a wonderful and insightful experience. While the class used to split according to the subjects chosen, we remained as a group of individuals who always supported each other and interacted with each other frequently about student life.

I made a bunch of new friends and connections for life throughout the semesters. The interactive projects and groups designed in the course helped build my inter-personal skills, my teamwork and leadership abilities and most important, communication skills. I learnt crucial academic skills such as collating a structured research proposal and benefitted from the faculty’s advice and their personal experiences conducting research. Additionally, I also refined my knowledge about subjects such as corporate finance and M&A thorough the well-structured modules provided by the business school. During term-time, I joined a retail part-time role to gain real-world experience of being in a team and building meaningful relationships in the workplace. This exposed me to the intricate industry that is Retail. I started researching more about clothing, food retail from the skills I learnt in the university modules and creating insights about changes and developments in the industry. During the final semester i.e. Dissertation, I applied to the “The Co-op Group” a conglomerate in insurance, funeralcare and food retail. Their food retail presence was noteworthy in the northern regions, especially in smaller towns and counties which has scarcity of big grocery stores. I applied to their Food Commercial Department, and have been at the company for over a year now as a Commercial Buying Assistant.

The Master’s course strongly helped me develop my inter-personal and technical skills. The rigorous modules and the opportunity to work with peers from various countries and backgrounds brought a steep yet climbable challenge that looking back feels much more serendipitous. After starting to work full-time, I’m thankful to have completed my Master’s from University of Manchester as it has given me learnings and stories that I will look back to for years to come. For anyone who’s thinking of MSc Accounting and Finance from UoM, I’d strongly recommend researching about the program and modules and also about the hundreds of networking opportunities that you can get involved with at the University. The course will significantly help in identifying where your skills lie and help in shaping your career goals through interactive conversations and experiences!

If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me via Linkedin – LinkedIn [linkedin.com] 

Related