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In conversation: MBA Alumni, Nicole Sheikh

In this conversation with Dr Paul Harrison, Deakin MBA alumna (2023) Nicole Sheikh, an accountant, non-executive board member, mum, and small business co-owner based in Canberra, shares her experience of personal and professional growth throughout the MBA program.

Nicole Sheikh
Nicole Sheikh

Nicole discusses how the diverse perspectives of her peers, the formal and informal learning opportunities, and her decision to shift her career direction have shaped her journey. She also talks about the importance of embracing vulnerability, making meaningful connections, and how she navigated the challenges of studying during the COVID era.

Paul Harrison
Paul Harrison

Paul Harrison: Nicole, thank you for doing this.

Nicole Sheikh: It’s a pleasure, Paul.

Paul Harrison: How did the Deakin MBA program help you grow both professionally and personally?

Nicole Sheikh: Oh, goodness, okay. Personally, it was the start of a huge change for me. It exposed me to lots of different worlds with the different people who were participating—other student peers, lecturers, and the staff at Deakin. It just exposed me to a different world that I hadn’t previously seen or acknowledged in my normal day-to-day life.

Paul: What was that world you were in, in your day-to-day, just so our readers can understand?

Nicole: I was a director at KPMG. So, a lot of government work, consulting work.

Paul: And your original training?

Nicole: An accountant, originally. And we run a small business in Canberra, my husband and I—a mix of retail businesses. But predominantly, the consulting; consulting to government world. [In the MBA] I was seeing pharmacists, nurses, lawyers, a guy who ran a security company, miners—just so many different people. I’m a really curious person, so it added fuel to the flame of my curiosity and, personally, it really sparked this very deep reflection of what I’m doing with my life, and that set me off on a tangent.

Paul: And [how did the MBA help you grow] professionally?

Nicole: Professionally, it confirmed a lot of the informal learning I’d had in my career, but also helped me to see things differently. It asked me questions about what I believed I knew, which sparked even more questions about what I didn’t know. It was great to be exposed to formal frameworks and subject matters I hadn’t necessarily learned in a formal way before. Overall, it just helped to change my perspective and spark my existing curiosity.

Paul: Can you expand on the formal and informal learning you mentioned, within the MBA?

Nicole: Yeah, we all learn on the job, and the formal content at Deakin was great, but then you would have contact with other students. You would have time to talk through that, and challenge each other, face to face – or not necessarily face to face, but Zoom face to face. So, you did have content that was really great and useful, and I could absolutely take that back to my day job at the time. But then you would have the chance really challenge each other and debate it and question each other, particularly when you would find peers or people that were open to that kind of workshopping. So, you had this great mix of the opportunity to debate and think and question and go through things and translate that back to everyone’s real life experience. So, it was a really enriching experience overall.

Paul: Did you feel like you were evolving as you went through it, or did it come with a lag?

Nicole: There was a slight lag. I think when I started, it was Covid-y times initially, so there was a lot going on. My approach with that changed and evolved as I went through. My reason for starting the MBA was probably similar to many other people’s motivation, where it’s great on paper, having an MBA. It’s great for the CV. And I think initially, you’re like, “Well, I just how do I get a HD? How do I do really?” But then I very quickly went into Nic mode of, “Okay. It’s about the learning. It’s about, how can I get something really great out of this that’s more than just the outcome of a good grade.” So that lag and that evolution shifted maybe one- or 2-units in. I had to remind myself that this is more than another bullet point on my CV, this is really quite life changing for me.

Paul: Can you share a specific moment or some moments that shifted your perspective?

Nicole: It was particular conversations with people. So, absolutely connecting with you, because you were open to debating things, and you challenged me. I remember calling you and having a session about one of my assignments and it was just a great conversation that was intellectual and safe, and I loved that. You challenged me in a way that made me think differently. For another unit, we had guest speakers, and I reached out to them after the session, and had some really good conversations with them. And that was another moment turning point where I realised the people doing the MBA…everyone is accessible. Everyone is happy to talk to you and have a conversation, and I could extend what I was thinking or learning or doing as part of the unit by just taking some ownership over and just reaching out to classmates, we had a pharmacist, a miner, a nurse. And there was this moment – a kind of ‘click’ – these are my people. It made me realise that while our professional worlds were different, we shared similar challenges in.

Paul: It’s interesting you talk about that ‘click’ It’s so hard to plan for that, don’t you think?

Nicole: Yeah, I couldn’t have planned for it.

Paul: So, what can leave you open to be ready for that click?

Nicole: I think it is knowing that it can happen at any time and just being vulnerable. For me, it’s not overthinking the decision to just do so. Don’t [allow] those thoughts like, ‘that person might not,’ ‘oh, will they want to talk?’ ‘I don’t want to bother them, they’re busy people,’ blah blah. Actually, just do it, Nic, just do it, because I think it’s being open to it and seeing the opportunities when they pop up and not, for me, getting in my head and put the walls up.

Paul: That’s good advice—don’t get in your head.

Nicole: Yeah.

Paul: I think we could all learn something from that. What were some of the most valuable skills you developed during your time at Deakin, and how do you apply them in your current role?

Nicole: Everyone brings a different perspective and different experience to whatever problem we’re solving or challenge that we’re facing. So yes, there might be great frameworks or models or things that you can learn that you can take back and apply to your day-to-day, your workforce, or whatever it is that you do. Use those as a starting point, as a scaffold, and then apply context and the experience of the people that you’re working with, or who you’re trying to solve the problem for. That, without a doubt, was a huge thing that I think I already had thought. You think you do that, but it really reinforced for me to do that, to think about the context, the people, and use the framework or methodology as a base, as a scaffold, as a starting point. But it’s not always the thing that’s going to work. Be open. So that was a huge learning for me.

Paul: You said that you did your MBA during Covid. Did you do all of your study online?

Nicole: Yeah, I didn’t do any residentials or a study tour.

Paul: You’ve talked about making connections. How did you overcome the barriers of online learning when it comes to personal connections?

Nicole: It’s not quite the same, is it? Being on a Zoom call. But we were right in the thick of it; everyone was working that way anyway. I was working every day in my job like that, and then my study was like that, too. I think it’s a perceived barrier. You’re never going to have the ease of being in a room physically with someone—body language is so important and great—but you can still have a connection and conversation virtually. So, yes, it’s a barrier, but I think it’s not as big a barrier as we sometimes think. Just reach out, have a virtual coffee, have a virtual chat. I would sometimes travel for work, so if I was in the state someone was in, I’d hook up a coffee. It’s manageable—you can still create that connection with people, even if we have to work virtually.

Paul: It sounds like you took ownership of making those connections.

Nicole: I think you need to take ownership and responsibility. If you want that connection and want to reach out to someone, I think you should just do it. Sometimes the reasons we don’t are not real—we tell ourselves things, but they’re not actually real. So, I would take responsibility for that if I wanted to reach out to someone. You need to do that, and no one’s going to do it for you. The experience is what you make it, and you can dive in and still create those connections, even with the restrictions that might be there.

Paul: How did the diversity of backgrounds in the student cohort influence your experience?

Nicole: Oh, it was so good! It was great, like learning about how pharmacies are set up for people to go through, and how a pharmacist would do their job. Incredible. Also nursing… a miner. Just different walks of life, different people with different work experiences, but still facing the same problems that I was. So, even though their experiences were so different and opposite to mine, the human experience was so similar. I loved that realisation, and I loved having those conversations, getting to meet and hear from different people for that learning experience, but also that lovely penny dropping of, ‘we’re all the same.’

Paul: So good. And music to my ears.

Nicole: We all have the same problems and the same doubts and the same thoughts. And we’re all looking for the same thing. It’s. It was a beautiful experience to meet all of those people.

Paul: So keeping all that in mind, what advice would you give to someone starting their Deakin MBA journey?

Nicole: I would say, go all in. If there are opportunities to meet people, if you’re curious about something when you hear from a speaker, or if any opportunity arises, even if it’s tiny, and you have the time and space, go hard on it. You might think, ‘Oh, well, it’s online, I’ll just dial in with the screen off,’ but that’s not really taking the opportunity you could be taking. So my advice would be to go all in and be open to what might happen and what your mind might think about, not just the content necessarily.

Paul: What hobbies or passions outside of work help you stay balanced?

Nicole: Oh, that’s a nice question. I’m an avid knitter—I have a knitting group with a wonderful cohort of women of all ages, so they keep me sane. I’m also a runner, I love being outside, and I have a family that keeps me busy. I love reading. My curiosity frustrates me and makes me happy. I love reading and learning about all sorts of different things, so that keeps my mind busy. I’m often jumping down rabbit holes of weird, wonderful, and random things.

Paul: How do you define success in your personal life, and has that definition evolved over time?

Nicole: Yeah, it absolutely has. When I was younger, my definition of success was what was on my CV—what I had achieved, my status, my title, how much money I was earning. Those tick-box exercises that tend to be talked about as success measures. That has shifted over time. Success to me now is being able to have more choice over what I do every day, who I get to spend my time with, and the experiences that I have. So, if I can have more control and more choice over that, then that is success to me—where I get to have more design authority over my life.

Paul: Sounds like that is a very wise thing; moving from extrinsic factors to intrinsic factors.

Nicole: Yes, my mum was right.

Paul: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be, and why?

Nicole: Oh, so not a specific place, but I would travel to somewhere quiet, somewhere in the bush and spend some quiet time with my family, with no distractions—just quiet for a week or two.

Paul: And you don’t feel like you could do that at the moment?

Nicole: Not right now, but hopefully soon.

Paul: Great. Finally, what is a personal or professional accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Nicole: It sounds weird, but I’m most proud that I decided to shift my direction earlier this year and kind of change the direction of my career a little bit by leaving my previous job. That was a big move for me, so I’m really proud I was able to do that.

Paul: It feels like it took a lot of thinking and time.

Nicole: It took a lot of reflection, a lot of thinking, and the stars needed to align for us personally with many things. But I’m really proud that I took that move. Before that, professionally, I was just thrilled that I was able to climb the ladder in such a large organisation and still feel like I was delivering good work and mentoring some great people.

Paul: I love that you said you had to let the stars align.

Nicole: Yeah.

Paul: It’s not like you just decided to do it and it happened. You also had to sit back and wait, ‘There are things I need to wait for and see how they come together.’ But there’s a lot of uncertainty in there as well.

Nicole: Yeah, absolutely.

Paul: Thank you so much for your time, Nicole.

Nicole: Thank you!


Paul’s perspective

It fills me with joy to hear about Nicole’s journey through the Deakin MBA program and reminds me of transformative power of education and self-reflection. Although her early motivations were about enhancing her CV, as she progressed through the program, she drew upon a deeper sense of purpose and curiosity and embraced both the personal and professional growth that the MBA was able to provide her. A key moment in her journey was when she felt the ‘click’; the realisation that, despite different professional backgrounds, she shared common challenges and experiences with her peers. This connection deepened her learning and shaped her perspective. The wise advice of learning the importance of getting out of your own head, taking risks, and embracing opportunities rather than overthinking, goes to the crux of postgraduate learning. Nicole’s willingness to shift her career direction and her focus on intrinsic success, rather than external markers shows the value of taking ownership of one’s journey. And her final advice to future MBA students – to go all in – sums up the drive and openness that have defined her own path and would put all students in good stead for their MBA journey.


Nicole Sheikh

Nicole is an accountant, a Deakin MBA graduate, a non-executive board member, a mum, and a small business co-owner based in Canberra. Nicole has over 20 years of professional experience working with both state and federal government. Nicole’s varied experience has led her to develop an understanding of public sector policy, stakeholder engagement, corporate governance, and risk management. Nicole’s strengths center on combining strong levels of integrity, emotional intelligence, and empathy-based leadership to build strong teams. Nicole also runs a long-standing small business with her family in Canberra.