Emily Palmer may be from London, but it is some 7,000 miles away at Nanyang Business School in Singapore that she is hoping to launch a business career. Back in 2009, she was graduating from BPP Law School in the UK, but flash forward to 2014 and she will have earned an MBA from one of Asia’s best b-schools.

She has swapped the world of gowns and gavels for business leadership.  After four years training to become a lawyer, she is passionate about finding a new path – and one in the business world. Out with the courtroom, and in with the boardroom.

On the Nanyang MBA, Emily will get a global perspective with an Asian focus. MBAs know that Singapore can be a gateway into a truly international career, one that unlocks a route into some of the world’s most powerful economies.

But while Emily’s friends went into investment banking and finance roles, she committed to law school after graduating from Imperial College London. She loved the idea of a law career in legislation, but after learning legal practice, was put off. “I loved the academic side of things but the second year, which teaches you how to be a lawyer, turned me off,” she said.

“I didn't want to be a lawyer. I was a bit disillusioned with the whole thing. I went to law school to see if I could get into Government law, but when I started my thoughts and preferences changed.”

After seeing the degree through, Emily went to work for the British Government’s Central Office of Information (subsequently shutdown in 2012) in a marketing and communications role. She ended up leading the team in her department, in what was “the best job atmosphere” she had ever had.

It was while working for her family’s engineering consultancy a year later that Emily was inspired to study an MBA. After working for a charity in a campaigning role, she joined her father in a commercial consulting role focused on oil refinery. With no background in engineering, she handled the business analysis.

In her first taste of business, there was no room for slack. “In oil refinery, the margins are so small you have no space for slack,” Emily said. “Being a small start-up I got a lot of exposure to things I never would have seen elsewhere. I enjoyed the corporate side of the business which is why I decide to do an MBA; I wanted to see how I could take the managerial role further.”

Far from hindering her development as an MBA, a background in law taught her a new way of thinking. Her transition to Singapore was seemingly made with ease. “Law school taught me a way of thinking; a way to look at risk and a way of taking a wider view of things,” she said. “The transition from law was not so hard.

“I certainly use the thinking that it gave me, all the time in business. I’m grateful for that. For me, it was more of a cultural transition to Nanyang.”

Emily picked that MBA program because of the pathway it provides into the Asian region. She is passionate about working in Thailand, where some of her family are originally from. “Doing an MBA in Singapore would only give me local exposure, and I wanted to have a more Asian outlook,” she said. “I wanted to meet different people, which I think is the best thing I’m getting out of the Nanyang MBA.”

With an international student percentage at 87 per cent in 2010, Nanyang is an attractive b-school for those seeking an international career. MBAs mix with twenty different nationalities and gain an average salary increase of 129 per cent - while up to 90 per cent of students are employed on average within three months of graduation. For UK students like Emily, Asia can prove to be one of the most exciting places to launch a business career.

After studying in Singapore, Emily is tempted to stay. She has a banking network in Thailand and thinks a few years in finance will “beef up” her CV. But Nanyang has given her the space to figure out what she is really passionate about in business. “I like Singapore and you never know, if I get a job here, I might stay,” she said.

“But the MBA gives me a good grounding in the basic topics that I haven’t covered before. Coming from a law background, it’s great to meet so many different types of people. It gives me the space to figure out what I enjoy doing because I’m not sure if there is one job out there for me; it’s about finding the function that I really like doing.

“We get a lot of support from the careers department and each time I meet with them, thoughts change.”

With Singapore acting as a business hub for Asia, many MBAs stay and launch careers there after graduation. With an economy ranked #2 in the world, it is easy to see why. China, boasting 9 per cent growth, is a popular Asia-Pacific destination for graduates to launch careers in and b-schools like Nanyang open an easy pathway.

While Emily doesn't know what industry she hopes to break into just yet, Nanyang is helping her realise what she is passionate about. After leaving law behind, she has some of the world’s most powerful economies on her doorstep.

Far from forgetting about her background, she takes lessons from law school into her MBA program. “Law teaches you to look at every loophole or eventuality,” she said. “It teaches you to structure your thinking in a way to prioritize, and that’s really important in business and also specifically in business leadership.

“It’s given me a good grounding. What I’m getting from business school is how to use that thinking with those around me and make the right things happen in my career.”

You sense that, with Nanyang, the right decisions have already been made.  

Even for students from the most diverse backgrounds, an MBA from Nanyang can give you a route into a career in one of the most popular MBA Jobs regions on the globe

Making a transition from a field as far away as Government law to business has been seamless. Emily's case is only just beginning.