8 QUESTIONS WITH MONIKA HAMORI
Where is your hometown?
Miskolc, Hungary.
What do you teach?
The core Human Resource Management course in the MBA program.
Your favorite thing about teaching?
That I can help others with my knowledge. Another great thing – especially with my subject: Human Resource Management – is when students suddenly realize, halfway through the course, that this subject may actually be very useful to them, and it is not the “soft useless stuff” that they originally thought it to be.
What do you wish someone had told you when you were in school?
…that it does make a great deal of difference at which employer you start your professional career. My own research shows that affiliation with reputable companies boosts career success. It is especially important in your early career. Upon graduating from university, however, I had no clue about this: I turned down a job offer at Opel/GM, a great employer in Hungary in the mid-1990’s, because I wanted to go on vacation and did not want to start working for them in June… In hindsight, I should have accepted that offer.
What accomplishment (so far) are you most proud of?
My research was published in the Harvard Business Review three times (for example)… HBR is a very exclusive journal, so publishing there several times is an accomplishment for a young scholar from a non-US business school.
Your favorite spot in Madrid?
Madrid Río – there are few other cities that can boast a 10-kilometer pathway that combines playgrounds, a skating rink, a series of bars and even a “playa.”
How do you relax?
I swim and I love hiking long distances.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
As strange as it may sound, I wanted to become a professor.
Professor Monika Hamori was photographed by Kerry Parke at Museo Sorolla in Madrid, Spain (July, 2013.)