Student Stories
Find out what it's like to take an HBS Online course from current and past learners.
Find out what it's like to take an HBS Online course from current and past learners.
The subjects taught in CORe are brand new for me. This first week has been a real challenge. Yet, that is part of the fun.
The best part of CORe was its case-based approach to learning and retaining business fundamentals. No chapter in the entire curriculum had raw theory...It helped in challenging conventional wisdom with strong and practical, real life examples.
I enjoyed being able to interact with motivated, ambitious students from all over the world. Furthermore, the course content and platform were extremely engaging, combining the best of pedagogy and technology.
I have gotten an incredible wealth of knowledge and theories that are ready to apply. With every minute of learning, my company was better off and was setting a course for success.
I am early in my career and am looking for a path to becoming a chief sustainability officer or sustainability manager with a company I can align my values with. This class seemed like the perfect opportunity to give me the right tools to learn more about this field.
Leadership Principles has helped shape my unique leadership style. One of the most influential lessons for my leadership development was the HBS four-step process for delivering effective feedback and coaching—a process that I now apply on a daily basis.
The most impressive part of Economics for Managers was the case studies from a managerial perspective, including an analysis of a pharmaceutical company's pricing of a drug and the ethics of measuring consumers’ willingness to pay for medicine. Due to the cohort's diversity in experiences and backgrounds, this discussion included the voices of the patient, the manager, and the policymaker.
CORe has provided me a dynamic understanding of how to measure and understand those outcomes. I can now confidently translate statistical data into a graphical presentation or employ different statistical techniques to help me better understand the pulse of student progress.
However, the most exciting thing about CORe is that once you take it, you are never going to be the same. A simple grocery store visit becomes filled with economic references and analytical ponders. CORe allows the world to become more of a learning opportunity.
I will be starting my career this summer in the fin-tech industry and I felt that this course would give me a competitive edge, and help me to better understand some of the decisions and practices that I may need on the job to better gauge my clients’ needs
This was a great experience and learning opportunity. It was a huge eye-opener, and it was validating seeing what functional, healthy leadership is.
I use what I learned on a daily basis. Even though I'm not in a finance role and operating in a general management position, I need to make decisions utilizing the principles we learned on a daily basis. The course empowered me to do that with confidence.
I am using some of the negotiation preparation techniques from the course in different aspects of my job. Overall I feel more confident in situations that might have once felt intimidating.
The course content is well designed and helps investors get a basic understanding of what sustainable finance is, its challenges, the path forward, and its key players.
Hear what students are saying about the Credential of Readiness (CORe).
I can't say enough about the energy and motivation I gained from taking this course. I felt a renewed commitment to my life-long pursuits and left each class with introspective thoughts and ideas for my future.
The rich variety in content differentiated this course as a uniquely high-quality, fully engaging learning experience.
I've taken a lot of paid online courses, but the HBS Online experience was close to that of the classroom and highly immersive.
But in the few years I have been out of school, I have found that being able to understand key business principles is essential, especially in the startup world.
The course is useful for startupland citizens—founders, investors, and joiners—to get complete, honest insights about the industry through various lenses.
The collaborative environment encourages you to help your peers learn and will help you become engaged in the material. It's not an easy program, but every ounce of effort you put into CORe will yield results in your understanding of the complex world of business.
The CORe program will help me to better understand the world around me…and to hit the ground running in any job after graduation.
This program debunked many myths about management. I highly recommend anyone with or without managerial experience take this course. It is much more than just about managing the people.
Learning about disruption theories has proven not only applicable within a business context, but broadly as a predictive prescription toward challenges in life as a whole.
The real-world examples were the best part of the courses. While going through the examples, I thought a lot about how I would have handled it if I were them. That plays a big role in how I do things now.
I found the overall CORe experience to be…challenging, enjoyable, eye-opening.
I thought I knew the subject relatively well and it would be a refresher. I was in for a surprise. After the first module, I realized that I did many things wrong. The most chilling thought was about missed opportunities. The course is giving me a good structure to understand organizational behavior.
Our employees at Fortive have gained tremendous value through our work with HBS Online. They help us deliver on our L&D promise: Accessible Learning, Accelerated Growth. HBS Online offers courses with a range of topics and time commitments. We have had employees participate from over 35 countries!
I just wanted to understand the fundamentals of several business domains well enough to navigate and delegate, while still having the flexibility to run my business and do other things. CORe was the perfect fit in this regard.
Those skills are all very useful, but I think my biggest takeaway from CORe is a new perspective on complex business challenges. This lens has given me a more balanced perspective on sensitive topics like LIFO reserves, minimum wage, and drug pricing that will make me a more informed citizen and wiser leader.
The content and its delivery was spot on for understanding business stages and funding series. I learned a lot of that information in undergrad, but HBS Online’s platform thoroughly delivered and presented the content with amazing examples from real-life startups. Hearing their struggles to success was encouraging, and I was engaged during each video.
I think CORe may be the extra push I need to connect with jobs that really interest me.
I'm now more mindful of how my colleagues are experiencing me, and less averse to having difficult conversations.
I got promoted to a senior project coordinator role just weeks after finishing the course, so I have had the chance to apply many of the topics covered.
I was pleasantly surprised by how informative, applicable, and helpful the course was. Its interviews and content were great, and the teaching method’s social element was a refreshing way to learn.
This course had an amazing instructor, amazing examples, and an amazing user interface that made it easy for me to grasp the material and learn simultaneously with others around the world.
I believe all of the courses prepare people for the business world, but more than that, they put the student in the boss's chair, offering concepts and examples, but also demanding quick and deep answers and solutions along the way.
What really impressed me were my classmates - people from all over the world and from all backgrounds that were invested in helping each other.
The course has given me the confidence to know that my suggestions have a solid business basis.
The course surpassed my expectations…I actually regret not having more time to fully utilize all the optional features!
I’ve found HBS Online's courses to be immediately applicable to my work, and they’ve made me a more productive member of our strategic team.
Learning from an establishment like Harvard Business School and being in a cohort of people from all over the world from a variety of fields was truly monumental for me.
Meet Holden, a CORe participant who took the program to help with the transition from military to civilian life.
If you have no formal education in business, this program will dramatically change the way you think…The combination of subjects covered will give you the fundamental knowledge to think deeper about what it takes to run a successful business, how to win in the marketplace, and how to make decisions as a manager.
As a classically trained scientist with limited business experience, I believe CORe is a fantastic way to invest in myself and help bridge the gap between being the scientist I am right now and the consultant I need to be in September.
I am applying what I learned in CORe every day!
I am applying concepts from the Business Analytics course in my current venture. From designing surveys to hypothesis testing, every aspect of data collection and analysis informs our customer validation process.
My goals also include applying the knowledge learned in this program to my professional life, really soaking it in, and learning from the experiences and perspectives of my peers in the course.
A year after finishing CORe, all three classes have been invaluable in my first two quarters in school. I am able to get more out of class because I already have the fundamentals.
The course masterfully interwove design thinking theory as a process with helpful tools and outstanding examples from practitioners and companies.
If you're looking for more information on how Harvard Business School Online programs can teach you the essential skills you need for success, request more information today.