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After two decades of competitive skating, former Canadian champion Craig Buntin isn't an obvious candidate for business school. Virtually his whole career to date has been spent in the rink - and he's never been to university. Nonetheless, the former Olympian has hung up his skates and embarked upon an MBA at McGill University after launching his own coffee-retail business. Buntin had already created Teabean Coffee - inspired by his quest for caffeine during punishingly early training sessions - during his last year of skating. Unfazed by his lack of commercial experience, he believes an MBA will equip him well - and he's already scooped an annual prize for entrepreneurship.

"In all honesty, this MBA has changed my life," he says. "I can't say it's been a walk in the park. I probably could've developed the business plan and moved the company in the right direction without it, but pursuing my MBA has allowed me to see the bigger picture."

Not all MBA students seek a transformation as dramatic as Buntin's. But changing career is the second most important reason students cite for going to business school - after career progression. And business schools say many more decide at the end of the course that they want to do something different, even though they didn't know that when they started.

"An MBA is a brilliant course for testing whether you might like something - if you want to learn, here is your chance," says Cana Witt, MBA career development manager at Lancaster University Management School.

"The whole process can be transformative," agrees Ceridwyn Bessant at Newcastle Business School.

But is an MBA - rather than, say, a specialist Masters - the best means to reinvent yourself? Well, it depends, say business schools. Because MBAs don't look at candidates until they have several years of experience, students might appear less agile and more pigeon-holed within a particular sector. "A previous career can act as a millstone if you don't have anything else to offer," says Witt. "But the beauty of an MBA is that it transforms people from one-track backgrounds and gives them passion to talk and act in new ways."

Read full article: , October 13, 2011

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