诚心诚意地请教大家，能读什么样的。

sophiefzhou

嗯，是牵强了些，不过都是实话。如果写在essay里，估计不能“实话实说”。

funnytiger

hope my words won't offend you, I always speak what is in my mind.

your China story is great and can certainly draw eyeballs, but unfortunately the job itself does not sound very challenging to adcom(although it is very challenging). Since you were not a manager at the very end, it is very hard to convince people about your leadership and managing ability.

Since you have graduated from a MIS master degree, I guess the best thing is to work for a few years, let your US experience talk to the adcom.

I am sure you will get into some MBA program somewhere right now, but MBA is a name game. if your family is in US and you are in no hurry to go back to China, my recommendation is to wait.

sophiefzhou

Bro Funnytiger, your suggestion is also what i'm thinking. That's why I posted my backgroud here to get some feedback. Acutally I don't think MS in MIS help my applicaion for MBA, and the most weak point is that I didn't get a manager position in China before I came to U.S. I should have hold for a year at that time, but sometimes life is not predictable and under my control. As there are 5 criteria used to evaluate MBA applicants, could I use GMAT score, GPA, reference letters, and good essays to make up my weakness? I wonder does everyone apply for a MBA program with a manager position? To be frankly, I only want to get an offer from a top 20 school, or top 40-50 I will also take into consideration.

Your suggestion is very helpful. I will do both: look for a job, and apply for MBA. I just worry whether I'm too old for the MBA program after I worked several years in U.S.

funnytiger

first of all, it is very common for a person in his/her 30s to apply for MBA, if you are not 30 yet, you are in good shape

I know you have everything except great working experience. I believe you should be just fine for a top40-50 school. But for a top20 school, it is very difficult to tell. Usually adcom wants to recruite people at manager position if your past WE is in more traditional industries. Of course, there are exceptions.

The typical model in US is that you go to work for two to three years and then apply for B school.

sophiefzhou

Thank you. I will think about it.

sophiefzhou

funnytiger兄，由于我对MBA的了解还是很有限，有两个问题想和你讨论，听听你的意见。

2-3年北美的工作未必能做到manager，即使topMBA毕业也未必就能有manager的职位。如果我在美国再工作2-3年，还没有做到manager，对我的申请来说情况会如何？

top50和top20的学校有非常significant的差异吗？这个差异如果放到将来的工作和发展中来看，到底有多大？如果在结合个人的工作能力来看，又有多大？

funnytiger

so let us just talk about your career

there is NO guarantee in life. Everyone knows that. most people won't be able to reach manager position in two/three years, that is why not everyone will get in to top20 schools.

Being a manager means many things. you can be promoted at your work. you can be a leader in a non-profit organization (work as a volunteer), you can be a partner in a home-based business. There are just too many ways to achieve it.

what is the difference between top 50 and top20? no difference in class! I went auditing a local Business school class with my friend. They have a real life financial director teaching the finance class, the class is very interesting, because he used his own working experience to explain many things. The same class in top 20 schools are usually taught by a famous professor who has great achievement in research. the class is boring and the exam is tough. So everyone should assume that the local B school provides better education than a top20 school.

Unfortunately, the value of your degree is not judged by your or me, Job market judeges it. companies go to different schools looking for different level of people. and many elite firms only recruite in top20. And I cannot explain why.

sophiefzhou

I agree. Thanks a lot. This time i got u more clearly. Actually I have some leadership experiences when I was working in Shanghai. The tickets of festival celebration is handled by my department, and I'm the person in charge of it. It's kind of a sales project occurs every year. 2 persons in my team. I don't know whether this could be count as a example of my leadership ability?

I'm in a local B-school, professors here normally have 20 years industry working experiences, and another good point is all of my classmates are Americans. The reason I mention this is that many Chinese students came to America especially those Ph.Ds, they don't have many chances to practice their oral English after they got into the program. Because many students in ph.D programs are from China, they talk in Chinese even in the class. I think that's not good. My classes are very interesting, as what u said, the professors use plenty of examples that happened in the real business life to illustrate a concept or definition. I learned a lot about the life of Americans too, as they are always talking about the things in their life, which is not fimiliar to me.  The only regret is my classmates are not so competitive. I want to go to a top B-school, because I believe the people there have a better and broader view, especially for the business career, which could benefits me a lot. I also feel honor if I could be one among those elites.