If I showed you any of my CVs or motivational letters today, the first things you would see among my skills are strong communication skills, intercultural communication, and the ability to work in diverse teams. Not only that, they would be followed by flexibility, creativity, quick learning, and openness to new experiences. But it wasn’t always like this.
I remember when I arrived in Tartu four years ago. I was someone who preferred to stay within familiar boundaries and I never really had international friends. In this blog, I want to show how studying Business Administration helped me become who I am today.
My studies started with Marketing, Economics, and Entrepreneurship courses. These courses immediately introduced me to the way the programme works – lots of group work, case studies with open discussions, interviews, presentations, and more. The structure of the studies supports achieving high results not through competition or rankings, but through cooperation and knowledge sharing, just like in a real workplace.
I believe this approach prepares us to work in real teams, where we communicate with very different people (sometimes those we would never naturally interact with) and achieve great results. The same applies in courses: you find yourself in a group working towards a common goal, and that’s how learning happens naturally.
Of course, it didn’t stop there. Already in the first semester, I was challenged with filming a speech in pairs – a great exercise as part of the Business Communication course. Almost every course involves public speaking and presentations. But that’s not all, you also learn how to answer questions afterwards, which develops your ability to summarize, think critically, and improvise without losing confidence.
In parallel, I studied Estonian, which is recommended as part of the programme. And as you can imagine, this is where you meet international friends – people from all over the world learning the local language together. It’s definitely a great way to immerse yourself in intercultural communication!
My second year was no less influential. That was when I took Statistics and Econometrics, where we worked on a complex project under strict guidelines. We approached it as a real team: gathering around laptops and whiteboards, combining everything we learned in lectures with our own ideas. This was the moment I truly realised that we are encouraged to work in teams to find creative solutions and share knowledge, and this is something we could never achieve alone.
Meanwhile, I also completed a project-based internship that I found through Futulab – a platform where the university shares traineeship opportunities. As a business student, I was excited to join a team working on solving a real business problem and apply the knowledge I had gained.
My university journey became even more diverse through my Erasmus exchanges. Thanks to the flexibility of the programme, it is possible to transfer credits from many partner universities, which makes organising an exchange much easier. While completing obligatory courses abroad, I also explored new subjects that interested me. This experience broadened my knowledge in the field with complementary subjects and new perspectives on the courses I covered earlier. Most importantly, it significantly improved my adaptability, openness, and way of thinking – all thanks to the opportunities the programme provided.
After returning, I continued with even more engaging courses. One I would like to highlight is Principles of Innovation, which made us look at innovation from a completely new perspective. I especially enjoyed the part where we visualised our projects through hand-drawn posters that were later digitised and used in presentations. Seeing the variety of ideas made me realise how differently people think and how important it is to keep creativity alive both in studies and in work.
The programme is particularly valuable because it allows us to work on real-life cases and sometimes even implement them. For example, in the Project Management course that I am studying now, we develop a project plan throughout the semester and will actually implement it at the end of the semester, experiencing the full process from initial idea to the final event day! I guess I don’t even need to mention how much this improves our skill set and prepares us for future job challenges.
In addition, the research component in the final year gives you the opportunity to work closely with a supervisor – a professional in a field you are genuinely interested in. The professors in the BBA programme are incredibly supportive in this process. My research improves my public speaking, time management, and flexibility.
Beyond the programme itself, studying Business Administration at the Delta building means being surrounded by a vibrant environment of events, performances, and exhibitions. I would highly recommend not only attending these events but also getting involved in organising them. From helping with Delta Trends Day to now being the lead organiser of TEDxUniversityofTartu, I can confidently say that these experiences have tremendously improved my self-awareness, communication, and leadership skills. The confidence to take on such impactful projects is something I have built through both the coursework and the opportunities my Business Administration programme offers.
Now, as I approach graduation, I am grateful to have gained much more than just theoretical knowledge. The BBA programme has taught me how to collaborate, how to find my own approach, how to embrace new challenges instead of fearing them, and how to lead and share with others.
All images are the author’s own unless otherwise specified.
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