32岁离开中国到美国读MBA是不是太晚了？

jade_lee

以下是引用Swinerton在2006-1-21 11:17:00的发言：

Chinese put too much on age. When I came to Sates for my first Master's degree, I had plenty of old American classmates. I once asked one of them why he wanted to get a graduate degree. He told me: I am just 45, I am still young!!

If you mentally think you are old, you are physically old even you actually are only 26 or 27

If you mentally think you are young, you are physicall young even you are 40 or 50.

If you have dream, go and chase it!!! Chaseing dream doesn't only belong to young kids!

edwardxu

Do you mean you are 32 now and you are considering an MBA abroad or you predict that when you get in you will be 32? This is different. Because you have to spend one or two years to get in, actually you will be 33 or 34 when you get in. That’s a little bit too old. And you will be 35 or 36 when you graduate. I have to say age is a big issue here. You cannot simply ignore it. I'm not discouraging you, but believe me, it is tough.

Before you make your decision you have to ask yourself several questions.

What is your objective to get an MBA?

If you want to go back to corporate world, maybe it is a good idea. If you want to get into banking or consulting, don't count on it. Most likely, you won't get into investment banking or consulting. Because these are labor intensive industries, those firms don't like people over 30. You still believe you can compete with twenty something people, but those managers or VPs in consulting and banking don't think so.

Are you a career switcher?

If yes, then it could be tough. You are already thirty something and you want to change your career to a new industry or new job function. It is not easy to convince recruiters. This is still possible, but not so easy. You have to go extra miles to reach your goal. And finally you have to either go back to your old industry or old job function. It is unlikely you could switch both industry and functions at the same time.

What is your expected return of your MBA?

Basically, the return of your MBA (at least for the immediate pay back after graduation) becomes lower and lower as you become older and older. As I mentioned in the first question, the possibility of old guys to get into high-paid consulting or banking job is quite slim. In the long-run, it is still possible to have a high return. However, please imagine this. When you graduate, half of your classmates land jobs in consulting or banking with salary around $100K. But you only get an offer with salary around $80K. How do you think about this?

Think about your career development. Don't pursue an MBA for the sake of MBA.

I'm talking about general situation, so please don't argue with me by giving some specific examples. Every rule has some exceptions. If you believe you are exceptional, just go for it. But ironically, if you are truly exceptional, why do you need an MBA? Geniuses, such as Bill Gates and Michael Dell don't need education.

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-1-21 15:38:02编辑过]

annyz

以下是引用Swinerton在2006-1-21 11:17:00的发言：

Chinese put too much on age. When I came to Sates for my first Master's degree, I had plenty of old American classmates. I once asked one of them why he wanted to get a graduate degree. He told me: I am just 45, I am still young!!

If you mentally think you are old, you are physically old even you actually are only 26 or 27

If you mentally think you are young, you are physicall young even you are 40 or 50.

If you have dream, go and chase it!!! Chaseing dream doesn't only belong to young kids!

agree! not old at all! people live a longer life now. But think it over, make sure what you want, than make your own decision. You will not regret when you are really old.

chasing_dreams

Thanks to everyone for your advice. Sorry not to mention all the names below.

I will be 32 years old in Oct and I just resigned from China Telecom in which I was a manager of a 20 members' office in a coastal large city in East-south China. I worked there for about 6 years and have very abundant experience in this field. I had also  tried to start my own business in the past 8 years. Once I failed, the other time sold my company and got a good return. I am in North Europe now and will enter a top business school there to study financial economics this autumn.

I asked some questions in this forum 10 days ago and some friends gave me good advice. Now I  made up my mind to have a try to a top10 MBA. With a good work experience and 750+5.0 GMAT that I have got, I think maybe I have the chance though I have never thought it about before I came here(thanks for CDers).

I noticed that edwardxu gave me some alarm and I really appreciate all of you.  I've once planed to apply for financial P.H.D. in top30 US universities but now I know that it's harder than applying for a top10 MBA and I lack pure academic background before though I am really very interested in reasearch in economics. Though I have never thought that I was genius like Bill Gates, I really think that I am very smart(IQ exceptional) so I prefer to academic career. in the future

Edwardxu's advice makes me think over my desicion carefully. Really thanks a lot. What I care most about is the job after graduating from these business schools. You know, I really want to  get into banking or consulting to get better return, but maybe there's another way for me, which is to enter a telecomunication enterprise. Is it a good selection? Or should I try my best to enter a investment bank good at Hi-tech invests? Or something else?

Thank you for your answer. God bless all of you.

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-1-21 18:43:04编辑过]

howardhu35

What you lack is a little bit more confidence and a deeper thinking about what you want.

32 is old? come on.  I am much older than you.

Make your mind and go for it, man.  You seem not to like a typical graduate from the school you got your BS degree in China.  As far as I know, they are more aggressive in general.

Well, a higher IQ usually means less aggressive.  I suggest you to apply to MIT,

Wharton, NYU and CMU.  For your career switch, focus on first three.

RUDI

有志着，事竟成。年龄的问题虽然有，不过估计不是太大的问题。

kevinao

edwardxu's answer is quite comprehensive! But according to chasing_dream's situation, i would like to write my opinion:

1. business school life is challenging and interesting. Even if you won't have short-term finance benefit, this experience is great! I mean a break in life, change your way of life for 1-2 years, know different classmates etc.

2. as to career development, there can be the following options if you enter a top business school (e.g. top 10 in US or LBS/Insead in EU):

1) finance related

- investment bank: probably not good for you due to your background and age

- private equity/VC: maybe good for you if your industry background (e.g. telecom) is useful

- assets/investment management: can be good only if you have genuine interest and can utilize your inudstry background

2) consulting related

- there can be opportunity. but you might start from associate level. do you like that?

3) industry related

- management development program: probably you are too old

- senior position for experienced people: again i believe you have to utilize your industry background or management experience

JohnsonBaby

坚信自己就行

edwardxu

Chasing_dream:

Your background is very impressive. But I’m a little bit confused here. You mentioned that you were “in North Europe now and will enter a top business school there to study financial economics this autumn.” So you will enter a top European b-school, right? And you said that “Now I made up my mind to have a try to a top10 MBA.” Is this your plan after this European school?

So you still want to get into banking or consulting. I’m not so sure about the situation in Europe, but in both Asia and America, 34 or 35 is a typical age for a manager in consulting or a VP in banking. Although you are very interested in this career path, you are using your disadvantage to compete with younger people. This seems not your game. And for banking and consulting, they never lack ambitious, smart, aggressive and young people. When you go to an interview, what can you bring to the table? If you are an ex-consultant, they like you. If you are an ex-banker, they like you. If you have neither financial related working experience, nor business working experience (for example, you were leading a team of engineers before), you will have a tough time. Put yourself in the shoes of a recruiter and think about it.

Actually, think b-school as an asset portfolio. There are some relatively high-return assets, typically banking and consulting jobs, and also some relatively low-return assets, such as marketing, general management and operation jobs (just relatively lower). If you take those high-return assets out, which consist of around 50% of this portfolio, the average return would be much lower. Why is an MBA in top b-school so sexy? To a very large extent, it is because of those consulting and banking jobs. A young MBA around 30 can earn $100K right after b-school. It is like a dream comes true.

Finally, do you want to come back to China after your MBA? In China, nowadays, only consultants and bankers in large global firms could earn global pay. They want either young smart people or a little bit old, maybe around 33 or 34, but with oversea working experience. I’m not saying with an MBA from top b-school you cannot find other jobs in China with a decent pay, for example, $60K or $70K, but you have to painstakingly do off-campus job hunting. It is not like those consulting and banking firms. They come to campus to do recruiting.

You could also consider corporate finance, if you are really interested in a finance job, but in some big firms, they are more about accounting. If you think you won’t be bored with an accounting-like job, you can think about it.

Again, I’m not discouraging you. If someone who read this note feels that way, I’m sorry about that. “Aim high and hit low” is good. But you should not only pay attention to the first part “aim high”. What if most likely you would hit low? What if you really hit low?

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-1-22 1:09:53编辑过]

chasing_dreams

Thank all of you. Thank edwardxu, kevinao, etc.

I am in North Europe and get an offer of master in financial economics from a top North-Europe business school (not Europe). I went to Europe this year because of special private reasons.

The first choice that I made after my resignation was to get a PHD degree in finance from a top30 US university, but I knew that it would be very difficult because of my industrial background though I am confident with my ability to do research such as finance in the future (Is it the truth? Or I have something to do?). So I made up my mind 10 days ago to try a top10 MBA in US and to continue my industrial career. I am sort of disappointed not only because I think there is no chance for me to show some research talent within 2 years during the period when I study in North Europe but also because it seems that I am a bit older to go abroad. I will quit my current study if I get an offer of top10 MBA and I think this period of finance studying is also useful to my future career.

I am not the typical person who gives up his interest only because of earning more money. However if the annual income of a top10 MBA is only about $60—70k, I am really disappointed because even my wife’s fellowship is over $45k (pretax) and my ex income is over $30k. With such a low return, I really doubt the necessity to get an MBA degree because I have to spend $100k in 2 years. Why? Thank all the friends for any explanation to this.

Lucky to meet all of you.

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-1-22 1:32:04编辑过]