Samarth Sahi    India   MSE Graduate 2003-2004

"Warwick? It changed my life."

When asked to sum up his experience at WMG, Samarth Sahi’s answer was surprising to say the least. So exactly how did a year at Warwick help Samarth to become, in his own words, “a different person”?

It was the whole experience really,” Samarth began. “The learning to begin with. It went way beyond just studying a subject and gaining knowledge. Instead, the programme made me think about things in a whole new way. It changed the way I approach problems and solutions.”

We asked Samarth to define this more specifically. He described how students worked together on case studies of real life business situations. “That was a big part of it,” he said. “Taking theoretical ideas and seeing how they could be put into practice in the real world brought them home very powerfully. It also helped me to develop my thinking skills: my ability to analyse, question and challenge things at every level.”

But still, this doesn’t fully explain Samarth’s assertion that Warwick ‘changed his life’. “Well, there was a lot more to it that that,” he continued. “Like the fact that we went on to present our findings to the whole class, so throughout the course I was building presentation skills.

“There was also the way all of my classmates, people from many different cultures and backgrounds, worked together and co-operated closely. All of these elements together increased my confidence as a person. To be honest, I was a bit of an introvert before I went to Warwick. After my year there though, I became a lot more outgoing and prepared to say what I think in all kinds of situations. I would genuinely say that WMG made me much more of an extrovert!”

As Samarth is quick to point out, this change brings huge benefits from a professional perspective. “Yes, it makes you much more effective in a business situations,” he described. “Employers these days are looking for a complete package: a person with a well rounded skill-set that stretches across professional and personal abilities. Warwick helps you to become that complete package.”

Samarth joined WMG’s Masters course in Manufacturing Systems Engineering in 2003. “I was looking to enhance my practical knowledge – and to build my understanding of the concepts of manufacturing systems engineering within the wider business context,” he said. “Having looked into a number of MSc courses, I talked over the options with my uncle, a professor at Princeton University. He recommended either Cambridge, Oxford or Warwick. When I considered what was on offer, Warwick came out on top for me.”

Since gaining his MSc in 2004, Samarth’s career has gone from strength to strength. He first joined a division of the Bosch group in nearby Worcester as a Manufacturing Engineering Trainee. Since then, he has worked for a major engineering company in Italy before settling into his current role as a manager for global specialist in heat transfer technology in Bhopal, India.

“There’s no doubt that what I gained at WMG – on both a professional and personal level – has helped me to build my career,” Samarth concluded. “I have always said that WMG was the best thing that ever happened to me, and the way that my career has developed since I finished the course is proof of that.”