工科背景，Fortune 500工作经验，新人求MBA定位~~~

congconglu

tony3368 发表于 2015-6-19 10:15
也觉得奇怪，博士3年+硕士2年+本科4年，25岁毕业应该是16岁上大学。。。
我只见到过医科7年本硕博连读才 ...

我是直接本科毕业申请的美国博士。本科毕业21，博士4年毕业，然后就25啦。我没念硕士。

congconglu

sunneptune 发表于 2015-6-19 05:36
21岁就本科毕业了？17岁上大学？！我17岁刚上高中。。。

是17 上大学啊..... 我的年龄不算特别小吧，我是北方人，确实可能比同年级北方人小1岁，但有些南方同学还会比我小1岁。好像他们初中3年，忘记了，反正是少一年的。

congconglu

henryhsun 发表于 2015-6-19 09:22
楼主背景很好啊，借楼抒发一点意见，我是研究生毕业工作三年（香港外资银行管培出身，曾是李开复的客户经理 ...

哦对，你问道机会和成本。我觉得很多人可能都觉得有了博士还念什么MBA呢，我觉得这个和你将来想做什么有关系。像我前面说的，做研发我可以看到自己未来的发展，上升空间很小。我们公司只招最顶尖学校的博士，这些最牛的人来了以后每年都要forced ranking, 原本的top of the top 现在会变成相对的average, 甚至below average.  即使做的最出色，升职空间还是小，大部分人博士进公司，一辈子就能只有两个promotion.  所以很容易没有动力，一辈子么也就这样了。相对，business方面的，空间大很多，而且我觉得更exciting.  以后换工作也容易。technical 非常容易被局限在很具体的领域，比如你没做过这个，其他公司可能就是不要你。但MBA很多都是soft skill, 容易transfer. Manage large team, marketing, consulting 这种，任何公司都需要。

warumgmat

Your candidacy will be assessed in domestic pool. As an engineer myself, I am also applying to MBA programs, so far here is something I have learnt in the process and hope it will help you.

Leadership is the most important quality each school is looking for from your background. It doesn't mean you need to have a manager title. Leadership means how you motivate and influence people, and how you make extraordinary impacts when doing ordinary things, so no worries. Your project management experience can get you enough stuff to talk about, but you have to be more self-aware of your leadership capabilities and potential.

Being an engineer isn't a disadvantage. Actually engineers occupied 1/3 seats of each class in M7 schools. The quantitative analytical skills are a big asset of yours to the business world. However, you need to address your interpersonal capabilities and general management potential to make your background well rounded.

It sounds you need to get more work done in developing your career goals. Everyone knows that engineers need an MBA to bridge the gaps to the business world, but you need to address your motivation or passion that drives your future career. I would suggest you forget about differentiating yourself for now. Instead, think about what you really want to do, then next step you could work to differentiate yourself. You said you want to change/influence others by doing something. You need to be specific about what you want to change by doing what and why.

congconglu

warumgmat 发表于 2015-6-19 23:39
Your candidacy will be assessed in domestic pool. As an engineer myself, I am also applying to MBA p ...

多谢你的建议！非常具体和详细。你说的很对，我确实还没有想好我将来想做什么。还需要很多思考和深挖。我希望能够be involved in the critical decision making, broaden my vision not just for a particular business, but on a corporate level, set the direction for corporate growth, implement and drive the business plan to achieve this goal. 这个方向我觉得是business/corporate strategic planning/marketing. 在Eassy里需要说的更细节吗，还是这样稍微general 一点比较好?  我个人还是想回Industry的。 多谢你的建议。

还有，如何介绍自己的Interpersonal capabilities呢？这个也需要在Essay中写出来吗？你的建议都很好，Motivation和Passion都是很重要的，回答specicially what i want to change by doing what and why是我觉得最TOUGH 的问题。

你的申请怎样？也是16入学吗？

寂静岭的九尾狐

同RD工程师，膜拜25岁拿下PHD的大牛，
BTW你是EB1吗。。。

congconglu

寂静岭的九尾狐 发表于 2015-6-20 01:59
同RD工程师，膜拜25岁拿下PHD的大牛，
BTW你是EB1吗。。。

你好，请问你也申请MBA吗？有什么经验可以和我分享一下吗？

是的，我是EB1 办的绿卡。

warumgmat

congconglu 发表于 2015-6-20 01:24
多谢你的建议！非常具体和详细。你说的很对，我确实还没有想好我将来想做什么。还需要很多思考和深挖。我 ...

You are welcome. What about your long-term goal?

For short-term goal, I would suggest you think about the function and industry (and if possible couple of ideal employers) you would like to work with. Then explain why you want to do it and how it will connect with your long-term goal. On top of that, you need to address how the particular MBA program can bridge your past experience with your future goals.

All adcoms are super experienced to identify if you are clear about what you want and if their program can help you realize your career goals, so do not try to fool them around. The essay requirement and process is very different from Master or PhD programs in science and engineering. In case they don't understand your career goal, they will always turn to their career center for a further review, so please don't take any chances in your preparation.

Applying to an MBA is a systematic project. Please be sure to spend more time to read some related books, then you will have a basic idea how you could approach the application process. (I think CD has a lot of related resources.) As engineers, our career visions a lot of times are different from those of business people. I would strongly suggest you talk to MBA graduates from your target programs in your workplace. I am sure they will be happy to discuss with you about your case.

JonFrank

Thanks for reaching out! And it sounds like you're quite confused, so I'm here to help The good news is, you are already asking all of the right questions, which means you're on a good path. Now, let's just answer them, shall we?

You've got some GREAT stuff going for you already: Solid GMAT score, you're living/working in the US, you have leadership experience, you're female. Those things, if you leverage them properly, will work FOR you in this process.

And you're right, you gotta differentiate. When you're targeting TOP programs, you need to show why you're better than the rest. But before we focus on that, the biggest issue I can see right now is your career goals. You don't really have any! And the career goals are the foundation of the MBA application. If those aren't strong, the application will implode.

So that's where we need to start, madame. You already have a PhD, so the adcom is going to wonder why you need an MBA now. I understand, on a personal level, why you want an MBA: you want to do something different. But that's not enough to get in. The adcom needs to know that you have a very CLEAR path in mind, and you know exactly what you want... and the only way to get there is with an MBA. They need to believe that you're going to get a job when you graduate, and the best way to guarantee that is to show that you know EXACTLY what job you want, and the MBA is your chance to get there.

So you need to talk about a SPECIFIC job you want, in a SPECIFIC company. "I want change" is not gonna get you in. "I want to leverage AAA experience from my past, and pair that with BBB knowledge I'm going to get in YOUR program, to get YYY job at ZZZ company." It needs to be THAT specific. Even MORE so because you already have a PhD. Everything needs to tie together: your previous work experience, your previous degrees AND your future goals.  That's not easy, of course, but in order to be competitive at M7 (and Wharton, especially), that's what needs to happen.

Now, I can't tell you (with this limited info) what your goals should be, or how to differentiate yourself, but message me on We Chat and we can talk more, and we can figure out a good plan for ya. I'm always happy to dig in and help however I can!

Jon Frank

congconglu

JonFrank 发表于 2015-6-21 11:35
Thanks for reaching out! And it sounds like you're quite confused, so I'm here to help  The good n ...

十分感谢你的回信！我已经加了你的WECHAT, 希望能和您多交流~~~