Ben’s MBA story: FIFO by day, MBA by night

Imagine you’re sitting in your mining camp room after a hard day of work. But instead of scrolling on your phone, you’re learning about different leadership frameworks that can increase your effectiveness as a people leader.

This is the reality for technical services manager Ben Goldsworthy, who is living proof that any career can benefit from an MBA. Here’s why Ben decided to invest in developing his career and how he juggled FIFO work with parenting and study.

Finding flexibility: studying around a FIFO schedule

Ben started his MBA while he was on 3 months of parental leave from his job at a central Queensland coal mine. As a fly in, fly out (FIFO) worker, Ben is usually on site Monday to Thursday. Then he flies home to work in the company’s Brisbane office on Friday before spending the weekend with his young family.

“I wanted the ability to do face-to-face, in-person lectures and learning, but I knew I also needed the flexibility to do online lectures as well,” he says.

“For me, UQ was the only option that had both in-person and online and had both the intensives and part-time courses.

“Day cares aren’t that easy to get into, and we had to secure a spot for my daughter prior to finishing my parental leave. This meant I could sprint through some in-person intensives while getting a university experience, and then when this wasn’t possible because of work commitments, I could complete courses online over a couple of months while in my camp room after work.”

Ben says he knew adding study on top of his existing parenting responsibilities and work schedule was never going to be easy. 

“I knew the only way I’d be able to progress through the MBA is if it could be flexible and I could pick and choose subjects and how they were delivered. That’s why I chose the UQ MBA.”

With so much already on his plate, you might wonder why Ben decided now was the right time to add study into the mix.

“I put off doing the MBA until I knew in my head why I was doing it and what I was hoping to get out of it for myself and for my employer,” he says.

He also had a mentor who had previously completed an MBA and encouraged him to prioritise this opportunity for personal and professional growth.

“They said ‘Look, it’s never going to get less busy. There won’t be any big breaks between now and your kids leaving home at 18. So, there’s no better time than now and you can always put it on hold’.”

“That’s the other thing with the UQ MBA; you can pause your studies at any time and take up to 10 years to finish the program. The flexibility of the program means I can knock over some intensives and some part-time courses this year and before I know it, I’ll be halfway, and it’s all downhill from there.”

Leading with purpose: from technical expert to business leader 

Ben manages a department of around 50 technical specialists who look after everything from plan execution to life of mine planning and mine closure, as well as exploration drilling, geological modelling, reserve reporting to the ASX and geotechnical engineering. He also oversees around 25 contractors who perform exploration drilling.

“If it’s not the biggest mine in Australia, it would be close to it,” says Ben.

“That means there are lots of different moving pieces that need to work well together as part of the one giant system. And to do that, you need to have an outstanding team culture with people who trust each other and have autonomy in making their areas work well together.

“I enjoy my role because my purpose is to help people be outstanding at their jobs.”

Ben sees the MBA as a vehicle to new leadership opportunities with his current employer, transitioning from being a leader of a technical function to a generalist business leader.

“The real benefit of the MBA is the breadth of skillsets it will give me, which will allow me to branch out beyond leading a technical function and more into contract management, general management or potentially corporate leadership roles.”

“Building a broader base of business acumen has been a big thing for me. Accounting and finance, marketing and strategy are the big 4 that have really benefitted me so far. What I’ve got out of the leadership course is about high-quality change management, helping the workforce deal with change and then also developing a big understanding of self.”

Unexpected lessons and lightbulb moments

In addition to gaining broader skills from the course content, Ben found value in the diversity of the peers he studied with, who brought a variety of perspectives into the classroom.

“The best part of doing the MBA is the breadth of experience you gain learning with peers from so many different industries,” he says.

“You can have someone from a military background, someone from a health background and someone from the arts sitting down solving problems together. It’s an enjoyable learning experience that teaches you to approach problems in a completely new way.”

Ben found he was surprised by the amount of value he got from the MBA courses he completed.

“I thought I’d dislike HR as a subject, but I absolutely loved it. The lecturer was super knowledgeable and had contemporary knowledge. He also extracted a lot of knowledge out of the students who were in the class. HR always seemed like a necessary evil, whereas the reality was, as soon as I started reading some of the theory and the why, I gained an understanding of how those systems function and what value they add to a large company.

“I was working for one of the world’s largest mining companies when I started the course and I realised they do HR very well because we had all these systems and processes in place that help foster talent within the workforce, manage performance and manage growth of individuals. But in talking to my classmates, we were the exception. So that was a real lightbulb moment.

“One of my favourite lecturers was Associate Professor Terry Fitzsimmons. Terry has done a lot of research unpacking underlying factors that contribute to the gender pay gap in the workforce. Even though I’ve come from a large international company, who I consider quite progressive in this area, he challenged my thinking in terms of how we can reduce the gap. That was really valuable to me professionally, as a leader of a large team, and personally, as a father of 2 daughters.”

Real-world impact: turning theory into action

The mining company where Ben works sells metallurgical coal for steel making. He says once you build a steel plant around a specific type of coal, you typically stick with that coal type for 30–40 years. This means the main way the organisation can expand their customer base is by reaching out to new markets when they’re building new steel plants.

“One of my marketing strategy courses in the MBA was entirely around how we could reach out to the biggest emerging market for metallurgical coal, which is India, and start working with them to negotiate different product qualities they may want to build their coking ovens around. It was an awesome experience, which saw me reaching out to different arms of the company such as marketing, strategy and the commercial teams as well."

Another project Ben worked on as part of the UQ MBA Impact Academy was with a not-for-profit industry client that provides affordable housing.

“Often the business we were working with didn’t fully understand the problem they’d asked us to solve themselves yet. The humble discovery process is diving into that difficult, complex problem and asking a lot of similar questions in slightly different ways to try and get to a real understanding of:

• what the problem statement is
• who the stakeholders are
• what the things people need versus want are.

“We came up with some really good ideas about how to:

• attract more people to the website
• understand what the charitable arm of the business was for
• attract more donations
• make the website more personalised for tenants and micro donors.

“Many of our recommendations are now being actioned by the business.”

These experiences have not only helped Ben contribute meaningfully to his workplace but also shaped his growth as a leader ready to take on new challenges.

Ready to take the next step in your career?

Ben’s story shows that with the right MBA program, it’s possible to balance a demanding work, family life and study schedule and discover true value during the process. Whether you're looking to broaden your leadership skills or make a meaningful impact in your industry, the UQ MBA can help you get there.