Good day, world.
Today is Friday, 19 December 2025. 20:57. Just a regular day for me. However, today I would like to discuss something that happened recently. It has always (sort of) been my long-time dream, and this dream came true in October.
It was on Thursday evening, 17:46 30/10/2025. An email came into my mailbox:
Started from this interview invitation
I was still in the office, just finished giving Jason, a colleague visiting from Pogo, Alaska, a site tour. That day, I was pretty much acting like his tour guide; I picked him up from the airport, gave him a brief Kalgoorlie town tour, and introduced him to the good old majestic meat pie and sausage rolls (sort of, I kind of unsuccessfully introduced him to the wrong thing). It was quite funny that he thought sausage rolls came with an actual "sausage". No, I said. It is a long-ish pastry filled with savoury minced meat. But then he saw an actual sausage wrapped in pastry! Guess what, he picked that one. Shit. Lucky I'm not a real Aussie, so I don't have any shame. Even worse, since I have been turned into a plain Jane guy in the past year, I don't put tomato sauce on mine and didn't introduce this to him either. Putain..
Ok, back to the story, I go through my day as per usual, working away, I believe I was on my last day too, so I don't really mind too much about work, just handing over outstanding tasks to my back-to-back metallurgist. Gave Jason a brief 3-hour plant tour (yes, I know. It was only half the plant), as soon as we got back, and planned to drop him off at his accommodation and planned to go for dinner at Paddy's. I checked my email on my phone. Saw the email. I couldn't believe what I read. Is it real? I wanted to scream. I didn't. I still don't think I will take the offer. You might wonder why? Well, because I freakin don't know how I will fund myself to pay for the whole tuition. It is a whoopfuckin 103,000 pound sterling. But this is too good to be true.
I got accepted into a Global Executive MBA program at Cambridge Judge Business School!! What on earth did I do to be able to get into such a prestigious program, let alone the second-oldest, one of the most recognised universities in the world!?
Well, I applied to the program without much expectation, really. I know I won't be the most experienced person among the candidates, yet I still applied. I reached out to the admission team, sent my resume to ensure that I got a chance to get into the program. I have 8 years of experience in total. And this was enough to be considered. The essay part. I have got a template from my unsent Stanford MBA application I started in 2024. It was not too hard to 'tell me about yourself' part. But the motivation to get into an MBA was tricky. I know what I want. To get into a business/commodity valuation role, either in IB, a resources company or a valuation role within a VC.
Being made redundant from BHP in 2024 has pushed me to action and realise what I want to do next. I like being in a technical role. I just moved to a pure engineering role. Yet, as a human being, I have never been satisfied. Looking back, I always want to prove to myself that I can do hard things. Things that people thought I wouldn't be able to do. I wasn't always the smartest, yet I'm not afraid to dream high. got into one of the best public high schools at the time, got into the best university in Indonesia, moved to Australia, completed two degrees from Indonesia and UQ, got into a technical role with BHP, and now starting my GEMBA journey with Cambridge Judge.
I told Jason. I am going to the UK to study for an MBA. He looks happy for me, but I have just known him for a few days (met him at an NSR Metallurgy Conference a few days back in Perth), his reaction wasn't that enthusiastic. Perhaps because I am quite awkward in social situations as well, with my lack of confidence, I don't like sharing my successes/achievements with people. Tall poppy syndrome, I believe. Anyway, at that time, I didn't think I would do the program because of the money part. And I also already started my MBA study this year with UWA first, then transferred to AGSM. I was completing my Strategy course at the time. And AGSM is an excellent school. But the downside is that the program does not align with my intention to move to Europe. I know Australia is one of the best countries for mining, but I would like to challenge myself further! Europe sounds nice, I have been there three times in the past 5 years! I love the continent, I want to live there, but with excellent work, I love money, it gives me the freedom to choose whatever I want to do in life. So my target is to enjoy life by living in Europe and in a high-value role with excellent remuneration. This will be the next challenge for me after my MBA.
I forgot to mention about Executive Assessment. I needed to pass this.. and at that time, my test was scheduled for the 2nd of November. So basically, I wasn't fully in yet, and the offer was conditional (with 9 condition points!). At this time, I did my first test when I was visiting Indonesia back in September, and I failed my first test miserably. I only got 144 overall. The main issue is that I took the test online without considering internet speed in Jakarta is slower than in Kalgoorlie. I didn't study much for my second EA test. I took a different approach as I believe I have studied hard enough for the first test, the mistake was that I did it in a less than optimal environment, and I needed to wee the whole time I am doing the test. I reviewed the material just for the last 4 days before the exam and I did not study at all the day before, but I went for a run and F45 instead. I remembered someone said to me excercise is just as important as studying. You cant keep yourself stagnant forever and expect your brain to perform. Long story short, the test went well and I got the score required! 153. What. This was like universe is telling me, I need to go to Cambridge - you passed the EA, which I thought was impossible, you really need to take the opportunity, or you will regret it! Money will come back later, I need to invest in myself at the best programme so here I am. Doing the course.
After thinking about the opportunity cost, sunk cost I will incur by leaving AGSM, Cambridge seems to be a logical option.
That's it for tonight!
In the next post, I will talk about my experience so far, my expectations, thought about my future classmates, Cambridge, Judge Business School, and St Edmund's (my college at Cambridge)! This is just like Gryffindor in Harry Potter.
Catch you all next time!
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