For me, MAFED was considerably more fun than an MBA – there was a nice balance between managerial tools and professional tools specifically for the fashion and design industries (although I remember being asked once by an Economics Masters student whether I had a ‘c-a-l-c-u-l-a-t-o-r' - carefully spelling it out in case I had never heard of it before!). Plus I was sure that I would enjoy saying “I work in Fashion”.
Since I graduated from MAFED almost a year ago, I have been working at Bottega Veneta (part of the Gucci Group) in Milan. After a few months in the Commercial Office improving my Italian and learning about the business, I started work for Patrizio Di Marco, the President and CEO as his business analyst – a title that encompasses many different and interesting roles on the operational and strategic level; almost every day I am faced with challenges from the different parts of the business. As I had no previous experience of the fashion industry, the foundation I received from MAFED was critical for me as it enabled me to understand the core concepts of business and to build upon that foundation. In fact courses that I thought would be of no use to me (media planning) are now really useful.
My view about MAFED 1 year on? I'm glad that I took the Masters. It was a big investment, but I believe it was a worthwhile investment. As with all formal education, some of what you are taught which seems so irrelevant but you often don't appreciate the value of a broad education until sometime later. I guess though that at the end of the day, you go to school to learn something and to develop new skills; but really no education should be just about skills and a big box of lecture notes. Thanks to some very inspirational professors and guest speakers, I left MAFED with a lot more than just that.
