Senior Digital Marketing Strategist, HG Insights
The U.S. military may not have coined the phrase 鈥渆mbrace the suck,鈥� but it certainly popularized it as an ethos for making the best of a bad situation.听
Michael Lau has mastered it.听
In the final year of his Leeds MBA, the former U.S. Army sergeant was extended an offer to return part-time to the marketing internship he completed in the summer. As the months went by, he was certain that he鈥檇 be getting a full-time offer after graduation, to the point where he and his wife celebrated it.听
鈥淚 was like, 鈥業t would take an act of God for me not to get this,鈥欌�� Michael said. 鈥淭wo weeks later, COVID happened, and they had to rescind the offer. That was a very humbling moment.鈥澨�
Invaluable experience
Michael applied elsewhere, but heard the same story most job-seekers heard in the spring of 2020. That鈥檚 how, with the ink on his diploma barely dry, he wound up back in the classroom, this time in the business analytics master鈥檚 program.听
鈥淚t was kind of like that nightmare where you鈥檙e back in high school鈥攋ust a sense of d茅j脿 vu where you鈥檙e asking yourself, am I really going to commit another year of my life to this?鈥� Michael said.
But he鈥檚 the first to say the experience was invaluable, especially as he looks to advance his career in marketing and keep an eye on rising through the ranks.听
鈥淥ne of the things an education should do is challenge your own ideas, as opposed to just reinforcing what you already know.鈥�
Michael Lau (MBA鈥�20; MSBA鈥�21)
鈥淚鈥檓 able to ask the right questions of people who鈥檝e been doing this for five or 10 years鈥擨 can speak the language that makes sense to them, and I can also understand it,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n many 听ways, it was like a language course鈥攜ou鈥檙e learning programming languages and learning how to speak them so you can do your job more effectively.鈥澨�
At HG Insights, Michael鈥檚 work focuses on planning and executing digital campaigns, then evaluating their success and making tweaks as needed. His MBA means he knows what strategic questions to ask, while his business analytics degree helps him frame those questions for analysts.听
鈥淚t鈥檚 very valuable to prove a campaign isn鈥檛 doing well, as opposed to just feeling that way,鈥� Michael said. 鈥淭hat lets you drive decisions using data, as opposed to just experience.鈥澨�
鈥楽tubbornly determined鈥�
That kind of informed decision-making helped him choose Leeds, but the school actually came on his radar when his father鈥攁 university professor who still lives in Hong Kong鈥攇ave his son some 抖阴旅行射 swag鈥攁 water bottle, which he still has鈥攁fter attending a conference near Fort Carson, where Michael was stationed.听
Sound impulsive? He doesn鈥檛 disagree, calling himself 鈥渟tubbornly determined.鈥澨�
鈥淚 think tenacity has been something I鈥檝e really embraced, not just in returning to America鈥濃�攈e and his family moved to Hong Kong when he was 9鈥斺�渂ut in joining the Army, in pursuing higher education.鈥�
Something he liked most about his grad school experience was the diverse network he built as a result of all the connections he made.听
鈥淚t was just like the military鈥攜ou meet all sorts of different people, from different walks of life, with different backgrounds,鈥� Michael said. 鈥淭hose differences are so important, because one of the things an education should do is challenge your own ideas, as opposed to just reinforcing what you already know. That was something I took from the military and graduate school, and it鈥檚 been helpful to me both personally and professionally.鈥澨�