Jia Chen

Jia Chen, MMA ‘23 Candidate, began her MMA journey on a quest to diversify her perspective and learn skills that would help her scale up in her career.

Having graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in Mathematics before getting hired at Deloitte as a junior analyst, she had a strong analytical and numbers background, but felt she would benefit from developing a more diverse set of skills and an appreciation of how people in other roles and industries thought and functioned.

“When you’ve been in one industry for a long time, you know that industry well, but at Ivey, there are people from different areas with diverse working experience, so they're teaching me a lot, and I can share my experience from my consulting background,” says Chen, now a Senior Consultant at Deloitte

“Everyone brings something to the table, which makes the classroom conversation really lively.”

Chen opted for the Ivey MMA because she could continue working while taking the program, but also to explore other areas of business she may be interested in.

And while the balancing act can be tricky, it has also helped to bring her classmates together, since everyone was going through something similar.

“We're having a lot of fun together and learning a lot,” Chen says.

“After the isolation we experienced during Covid, it’s wonderful to connect with so many people from different backgrounds, who also have a similar mindset in terms of learning, studying and exploring what they want do.”

In the shorter term, she’s Chen has found the course material can be directly applied to her job at Deliotte.

“I feel like I'm applying the things I'm learning in class subconsciously, and it takes me a minute to realize I’m using what I’ve been learning, because it already feels second nature,” she says.

The MMA’s focus on data analysis has been important, she adds, because while her job doesn’t involve much coding itself, she feels it’s important for her to understand how to use the information and tools data provides.

That element, combined with business school core courses like leadership and strategy, meant the Master of Management in Analytics covered all the areas Chen was looking to grow in.

In fact, she was promoted three months into the program, which she says shows it’s possible to do the program while maintaining job performance.

“If anything, it actually boosted it,” Chen says.

“It showed Deliotte that I chose to use my limited free time to pursue a masters program at Ivey Business School because I’m committed to my career.”