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Using Economics to Take the Next Step in a STEM Career

Mining
  • 12 Dec 2017
Pankaj Prashant Author Student Bloggers
tag
  • CORe
  • Economics for Managers

Building a STEM career

I studied and worked toward an engineering career for many years. After I graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, I joined Rio Tinto, one of the largest metals and mining companies in the world.

As a medium term planning engineer, I currently spend most of my time in the mines of a remote area in Western Australia. In my role, I provide technical mine planning support to help implement and ensure effective mine plans to achieve corporate goals.

Why an engineering degree is not enough

While I have a strong technical background, I also know the importance of having business knowledge. Working for a mining giant, and seeing colleagues scale the ranks with their command and knowledge of various aspects of business, encouraged me to look for courses in business for my own advancement. As an engineer with a very niche background of mining, more often than not my approach to tackle problems was fairly limited and through the single lens of a technical engineer. I recognized that learning business fundamentals was important for broadening my knowledge base.

In addition, I plan to do an MBA at some point, and wanted to understand the basics of what an MBA program may entail. CORe fit the bill perfectly with all my requirements, and I signed up for the program in 2016.

The impact of CORe

All three courses were beneficial to expanding my knowledge base and learning business fundamentals. I was able to use Business Analytics when a project on truck optimization for my site came up while I was enrolled in the course. I was able to apply the statistical concepts that I learned during the course to create an optimizer tool for truck usage and scheduling at the mine.  This tool resulted in significant cost savings, which was highly valued by the site management team.

Before CORe, reading a balance sheet was completely alien to me. Since taking Financial Accounting, I’ve been keeping track of my company’s annual reports, and the accounting that I learned helps me in understanding where the business may head in the future. I’ve also been tracking a few other companies for investment purposes, and I’ve realized that I can make more informed decisions with my improved knowledge of company financials.

Bharat Anand’s Economics for Managers course has proven to be the most influential for my career. Understanding the basic concepts of economics from the course really broadened my approach to various planning-related problems I tackle each day. My ability to identify details related to business efficiency and performance that I may have missed in the past was fine-tuned in the program, and my understanding of the business is now much stronger. After my CORe experience, the level of discussion with my managers at work has been highly insightful and productive.

Learn more about Economics for Managers

The economics coursework has been particularly important in helping me understand pricing. The mining industry experiences cyclical price fluctuation every few years, and now I understand the reasons and factors that dictate these changes and how supply and demand affects commodity pricing. Since completing CORe, I’ve been using the concepts taught in Economics for Managers to build more accurate pricing models for my business so that I can better forecast prices and fluctuations.

Lastly, I’ve been considering a start-up idea I’ve been thinking about for a few years, and the way Economics for Managers was structured and taught is helping me create my business plan. Learning economic principles like pricing and supply and demand have given me confidence in developing my idea.

About the Author

Pankaj Prashant has completed both CORe and the pilot program of Managing Your Career Development. A medium term planning engineer based out of a remote mine site in Western Australia, Prashant took CORe to learn business fundamentals and better understand the business of the mining industry.
 
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Our platform features short, highly produced videos of HBS faculty and guest business experts, interactive graphs and exercises, cold calls to keep you engaged, and opportunities to contribute to a vibrant online community.

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All programs require the completion of a brief application. The applications vary slightly from program to program, but all ask for some personal background information. You can apply for and enroll in programs here. If you are new to HBS Online, you will be required to set up an account before starting an application for the program of your choice.

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We also allow you to split your payment across 2 separate credit card transactions or send a payment link email to another person on your behalf. If splitting your payment into 2 transactions, a minimum payment of $350 is required for the first transaction.

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