Mara Jakob, alumna from Strategy and Management in International Organisations

Name: Mara Jakob
Job: UX/UI Design and Innovation Management Consultant at Sopra Steria
Programme: Strategy and Management in International Organisations (SMIO), graduated in 2022

What I do and how I got here

I work as a consultant for UX/UI Design and Innovation Management, which means that I try to facilitate the development of solutions that are grounded in customer's needs. To achieve this, I prioritise the process of mapping out pain points, deriving valuable insights from interviews and crafting a compelling storyline before I start developing solutions.

One reason why I wanted this was that I already had some experience with in-house consulting, and was fascinated by working in consulting. To stay tuned and up to standard, it’s always beneficial to change perspectives, so I decided to take an external view of consulting.
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Why LiU?

I’m delighted about the Swedish education system and the Swedish mindset, so I always knew that I wanted to do my master’s in Sweden.

Doing my master’s here at LiU was the best decision I ever made, because it was very hands on in terms of the programme structure and the opportunities to do extraordinary projects. It was a delight to meet our professor at eye-level, with the emphasis on getting to know each other and figuring out whom you can work well with, as a professional match. Additionally, the course exams were well structured to increase and maintain our knowledge and test our capabilities.

In addition to the good time studying, I also had amazing ‘sittings’ with my colleagues and I volunteered in SMIO’s mentoring programme, to guide the next generation of students. I wanted them to have memories of LiU similar to mine; the feeling of belonging and cohesion among my peers, the mindset of portraying the glass as half full and of course, fika.
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Be brave and trust in yourself

I would recommend prospective students to be brave and trust in their capabilities to tackle future challenges. In my opinion, as long as you are open to and want to learn from each other, there’s no obstacle you can’t overcome in the future.