Colin Murphy: Pivoting into tech at Google

What stood out about the academic learning experience for you?

I was consistently surprised by the life brought to certain subjects. I walked away from Accounting with a smile on my face every class, impressed with Professor Jenny Chu’s ability to make balancing budgets interesting and satisfying. 

Professor Jane Davies turned business operations into a collaborative and exciting topic, making the classroom filled with interaction and knowledge sharing. And Professor Lionel Paolella filled our strategy classes with laughter, always having us thoroughly engaged through the whole lecture. 

The joy of learning and being in the classroom truly stood out to me during my year at Cambridge; putting my career on hold for business school – stopping any sort of income and deciding to invest in education – put a level of pressure on my time on campus, and the enjoyment I had every day after class alleviated that pressure. 

Please tell us about the standout elements of the Cambridge experience or extra-curricular activities you had during your MBA.

My Cambridge experience was a year filled with impactful and exciting experiences, from working on my Cambridge Venture Project with an international group of students, to our student organised trip to Israel where we met with a multitude of startup businesses, to Thursday evenings at the Cambridge Union listening to debates on contemporary socio-economic situations. Of particular note was my Global Consulting Project – a truly special part of the Cambridge experience. I worked on a project in Christchurch, New Zealand, helping the city identify ways to bring business back to the city centre after their tragic 2011 earthquake. It was an opportunity I could only dream of before the Cambridge MBA, and is an experience that I look back on with continued awe – that I was able to work with a great group of people to make a positive difference in a community. 

How would you describe the cohort of people in your class?

Collaborative, entrepreneurial, and outgoing. The benefit of a smaller MBA class is that everyone is significantly more approachable and open. The people in my class were always willing to support and work with anyone else in the programme, and willing to go the extra distance to make the year a special and meaningful experience for others. Some of my greatest memories of my year at Cambridge are on a random night when someone decided to organize something for the rest of the class; whether it was a review session organised by a CPA to help us learn accounting before the final exam or a Japanese student setting up a sake tasting with samples from his former employer, my Cambridge MBA class was filled with a diverse group of people seeking to build meaningful connections and willing to help others find success. 

What part of your MBA experience do you find most valuable in your career now?

While I might not remember everything from every class, I learned how to ask the right questions to get to the information I need to make a positive impact. When I’m confronted with questions outside my core knowledge base, my Cambridge MBA gave me the confidence to tackle such challenges with strategic thinking and structured frameworks. 

What’s happened in your career since your MBA?

I switched my job function, industry, and country. Cambridge truly opened the door to working at Google, and got me noticed for an internship in Berlin, Germany. Once at Google, the knowledge base from my MBA, particularly the frameworks I learned in our Strategy course, helped secure me a full-time role as a Strategy and Operations Lead at the Dublin, Ireland office, Google’s EMEA headquarters. Now, I work in Risk Management; thanks in large part to the risk methodologies I learned in an elective class at Cambridge. 

How has the MBA influenced your career journey in general?

I switched my job function, industry, and country. Cambridge truly opened the door to working at Google, and got me noticed for an internship in Berlin, Germany. Once at Google, the knowledge base from my MBA, particularly the frameworks I learned in our Strategy course, helped secure me a full-time role as a Strategy and Operations Lead at the Dublin, Ireland office, Google’s EMEA headquarters. Now, I work in Risk Management; thanks in large part to the risk methodologies I learned in an elective class at Cambridge.