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.
CORe gave me a new lens through which I could look at the world. I applied what I learned right away at work and continue to apply it now in business school.
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.
Another aspect of CORe that greatly added to my learning was the diverse cohort I was able to interact with - the stories and instances from their lives added more color to each topic we learned.
The excel I learned from Business Analytics has become useful as I started working as a data analyst for an economic research firm, BMI Research. The techniques I learned make it easier to comprehend the more complex functions. In addition, the integrated learning I took from the case studies allows me to apply “total analysis” in my everyday work and assessments, which is in fact the core business of my company.
In an ever fast-changing world, it is important to keep abreast with how people around the world tackle finance-related issues and the experiences they go through.
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.
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.
We are at a time in history where we need leaders now more than ever. Someone who has CORe on his or her resume is a leader, in my mind.
CORe is something completely different from any online course. It captures the key components of a live classroom and makes it possible for classmates to interact and help one another.
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
Exceptional. It's about as good as online learning can get.
What I found most valuable were the methods and tools, which were useful and practical. I’ve already applied some of my learning at my job.
Professor Hammond is an outstanding and inspirational teacher. Her Business Analytics course helped to demystify statistics for me, rendering the subject matter approachable and appealing. The fabulous visualizations and graphics, combined with relevant and interesting case studies, brought the concepts to life in a stimulating and engaging way. Mastery of data analysis is critical for business success and I now feel confident that I have the foundations in place. I am looking forward to embracing this capability further in my career.
CORe is giving me that extra lens I was missing: how products, services and other contents are created, consumed and exchanged from a business perspective.
Meet Sheneka, a CORe participant who took the program in order to advance her career and to begin an Ed.D. in Entrepreneurial Leadership.
The course’s content and teaching method through case studies and practical examples was remarkable.
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.
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.
Professor Sahlman’s careful observation of the best and brightest entrepreneurs over the last 30 years has given him a perspective and an insightfulness that few others can rival. He keeps his students leaned in and eager to dissect and analyze the situation and range of solutions.
CORe proved to be so rewarding. I went in with the mindset of something to set my resume apart from others and came out with a broad and detailed understanding of the fundamentals of business.
I would be very surprised if the concepts that we talked about in the course are not core to our strategic planning process this year… I expect that we will have a lot more conversation about the course going forward.
The course is a comprehensive introduction filled with dynamic case studies that I found fascinating.
Thanks to Business Analytics, I learned to apply statistical analysis to real world problems. For instance, I am currently doing a research project using regression analysis to see if we can predict emergency department demand on any given day - important for staffing and resource allocation.
CORe is not an ordinary online learning platform; it is an amazing learning experience that will probably surprise you (as it did to me).
I really appreciate how Professor Christensen introduced high-level complex theories and broke them down into digestible chunks. When applied to real-world examples, the concepts are brought to life.
The academic rigor was thrilling. What made it extra special was the people I met through the experience. That community stays with me every day.
The CORe program will help me to better understand the world around me…and to hit the ground running in any job after graduation.
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.
The course masterfully interwove design thinking theory as a process with helpful tools and outstanding examples from practitioners and companies.
After summarizing what I learned from this program, I introduced finance in a 90-minute class to junior and senior college students in order to show them different ways of doing business plans in the leisure and sport domains.
Today, I am applying this new knowledge to continue to make a difference in the world, develop innovative strategies and technologies, and more vibrant partnerships toward collective action to solve some of today’s complex global challenges.
Harvard Business School Online is one of the best things I've ever been a part of. Proud to be an alumni of two HBS Online programs, and looking forward to more. HBS really got it right with this.
Each course provided distinguished knowledge and presented that in a beautiful manner.
In my opinion, the true value of CORe is the ability to interact and network with fellow CORe members.
Sharing experiences and thoughts with other learners is the greatest value. Having so many smart people in one place with different cultures, habits, jobs, and education is a huge benefit. Take the opportunity to communicate.
I was impressed by how well the course material fit my personal challenges and goals at work, and how easy it was to use the material to improve my team’s strategy execution.
This part of the course was exceptionally entertaining, and by putting this human element in place, it enhanced the real life importance of understanding finance at a high level.
I feel like I have an unfair advantage now knowing what I've learned from this course. It has given me confidence and clarity in my decisions, and I can already see the material impact of applying this model and mindset to our business and our culture.
I think CORe may be the extra push I need to connect with jobs that really interest me.
The course is useful for startupland citizens—founders, investors, and joiners—to get complete, honest insights about the industry through various lenses.
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.
By the end of the program I realized that CORe was a total game changer on how I see and understand things around me.
As an in-house counsel at a multinational for two decades, I’ve reached two conclusions about negotiation and business. The first is that it is the core of everything we do; it is a shared language of business around the world. The second, surprisingly, is that so little attention is given to developing skills in this field. In fact, often people with important responsibilities do not even realize that they are about to enter a negotiation and, as a result, fail to prepare for it. Working with Mike Wheeler has been a critical part of a continuous process illuminating my colleagues so that they, and our business, are more skilled and confident negotiators and deliver better results. What Mike brings to our trainings has been the depth of his years of experience teaching and writing about the subject, and his studies of leading negotiators in difficult situations, all of which have played a critical role in driving a cultural change that puts competency in negotiation front and center where it belongs.
I use my CORe training every day. Whether at work on in my private life, CORe was a paradigm-shifting event for me.
Already, knowing the fundamentals of business has deepened my understanding of the context and consequences of the commercial disputes I manage daily.
Weekly, I negotiate strategic partnerships for my company, and Negotiation Mastery has given me additional skills that I have put into practice and have resulted in much more successful agreements.
During my conversation with a Boeing recruiter (my dream company), he was curious about my experience with HBS Online. He asked, ‘What was the most impactful thing you learned from Economics for Managers?’ Sparing details, I responded with the concept of WTP [willingness to pay] and how important it is to understand how to price a product. He loved my response, and I was fortunate to receive an interview, which led to an offer. Understanding E4M [Economics for Managers] helped me diversify myself as a STEM student in a conference full of technical perspectives.
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.
CORe will challenge you to stretch yourself. But if you put in the hours and the hard work, it will prove to be an extraordinarily rewarding experience.
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.