Columbia: What are your short-term and long-term career goals? How will the Columbia Business School MBA help you achieve these goals?

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My diverse professional experience since college have included financial brokerage, commercial banking and defined contribution consulting. My goals have evolved through experiencing in those diverse settings, and my goal now is to obtain my MBA from the Columbia Business School and to join a prestigious finance organization with the eventual goal of owning my own consulting firm.

In selecting a career I have always been told to figure out what you like to do and then make a career out of it. Eight years ago, armed with this bit of philosophy, I set out to find out what I like. Before entering college, I came to the realization that my interests lay in business. My courses in business were the ones I always look forward to, and my business projects and presentations were the most challenging and rewarding of all my undergraduate course work. Upon graduating, I interviewed with, and was offered several enviable positions with well-known firms in New York City. I forewent those offers and decided to join Anderson & Stevens as defined contribution analyst.

As a defined contribution analyst with Anderson & Stevens and The Johnson Companies for the past two and a half years, I have developed a solid foundation in teamwork, analytical and problem solving skills. I work in a group that currently has four members. The success of the group relies on the extraordinary amount of cooperation from each of us. As a junior member of the team, I am able to the contribute to the group in several ways including, managing and accurately completing multiple requests with short turnaround times, gathering and conveying information from client, collecting and calculating data, maintaining databases, and strengthening my own foundation of knowledge to be used as a resource. However, while I am an excellent team player, these experiences provides expansive career opportunities in consulting, I have reached a plateau in developing the analytical and management skills necessary to achieve my goal.

Being a successful leader of an organization, I have to learn all aspects of organization outside of defined contribution such as marketing or system administration. I have found that I need to overcompensate for my “soft” appearance in order to get my point across. By attending Columbia Business School, I will gain exposure to both theories and practices in the world’s financial centers. I will attain a deeper understanding of management concepts and be able to apply those concepts to real life situations on the job. I hope to improve to negotiating skills and to gain more experience in getting group members to carry their own weight. At the same time, I do not want to be a tyrant. To be effective, it is important for a manager to maintain the proper balance of power and compassion. Only in this way, will I be able to lead a team of people to realizing the goals of the firm.

Following a successfully completion of my MBA program, I would like to seek a position in a prestigious finance organization. Because of the excellent preparation of the basics Columbia will have provided me, I will excel among my peer and eventually climb up the corporate ladder. After excelling in all aspects of the defined contribution, I would like to start with consulting in the area of retirement services and eventually expand my business to other areas of consulting such as actuarial and life insurance. Initially, I would like to concentrate my clients within United States. Eventually, I would like to expand my client base oversea starting with the Asia market where the foundation of the defined contribution is still very weak and unfounded. The ability to converse in Chinese and an understanding of Chinese and American Culture, It will give me a top advantage to initiate my business in the Asia market.

Furthermore, an effective manager in the 21st century must be well-versed in international business. Unfortunately, my desire to gain this broader understanding of the increasing interdependent global economy remains unsatisfied at the current position. Columbia Business School is located in the heart of the New York City. The students of Columbia Business School have the advantage of being able to study in one of the top school in the dynamic and cosmopolitan city where most of the multinational corporations are located.

My professional experiences thus far have enabled me to gain much confidence in my ability to set very high professional goals because I know I will maintain the personal dedication and hard work necessary in achieving them. I feel that these diverse experiences have prepared me well to receive an education from Columbia just as a MBA from Columbia will undoubtedly help me reach my short-term goal along the line proceeds to that end point.

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