Career Advice: Foreign MBA? China?

[SamAdams]

[jk]

Re: Career Advice: Foreign MBA? China?

i know nothing about bschools. however, you did not address the possibility of developing your career in place. you're in an interesting, high growth potential business right now, especially in light of itulip's thesis about the future of energy costs. are there ways to advance, learn new skills, gain more responsibility and, presumably, compensation within your current job, or more broadly by changing jobs within your current or some closely related industry? is there a related business you'd like to start yourself? perhaps you've already considered this and dismissed it for some reason[s], but if so, you should articulate your reasoning.

[BiscayneSunrise]

Re: Career Advice: Foreign MBA? China?

Just a quick note. your line of thinking is pretty much right on. You might also consider INSEAD in Singapore. The course is half in Paris, half in Singapore. It is a top tier bschool and is a pipeline for McKinsey. More later.

[BiscayneSunrise]

Re: Career Advice: Foreign MBA? China?

abex.

Your background in engineering can be used as a differentiator when applying for schools and jobs. Some consulting firms like people with varied backgrounds because it gives the firm a diverse world view and capability to handle different problems for the clients.

Is the competition for Asian schools more intense that US schools? It is hard to beat the pedigree of a top US school but as your school ranking showed, INSEAD is ranked 3rd worldwide. Not a household name in the US but among those who know, INSEAD is tops.

It probably wouldn't hurt to perhaps get a masters in some advanced technology subject as well. It would make for an unbeatable combination.

[SamAdams]

Re: Career Advice: Foreign MBA? China?

[touchring]

Re: Career Advice: Foreign MBA? China?

Me thinks an MBA in Asia is a bad idea. The MBA is an american invention. Asians are just following and coming up with similar concepts.

[SamAdams]

Re: Career Advice: Foreign MBA? China?

Touchring, sorry if I am not articulating well.... I agree with you that the MBA is a US invention. For this reason an MBA in Europe does not seem right to me. Still I think the actual classroom learning is secondary. As stated, my original intentions were to pursue the MBA for credibility and connections for a long term career in high technology entrepreneurship here in the US - not for classes. However what I envision for the long term is changing, and not for the good here in the US. I am beginning to wonder that an MBA used to "learn China/Asia" might be more valuable than my original intentions. Long term either the US is going to need to compete with China/Asia much better here in the US, or the opportunities in China/Asia (or at least by doing business with that part of the world) will be far more fruitful than anything I can expect within the US.

In short, we Americans need to learn a thing or two from the Asians, so perhaps an MBA there would give me a different kind of education.

[touchring]

Re: Career Advice: Foreign MBA? China?

Touchring, sorry if I am not articulating well.... I agree with you that the MBA is a US invention. For this reason an MBA in Europe does not seem right to me. Still I think the actual classroom learning is secondary. As stated, my original intentions were to pursue the MBA for credibility and connections for a long term career in high technology entrepreneurship here in the US - not for classes. However what I envision for the long term is changing, and not for the good here in the US. I am beginning to wonder that an MBA used to "learn China/Asia" might be more valuable than my original intentions. Long term either the US is going to need to compete with China/Asia much better here in the US, or the opportunities in China/Asia (or at least by doing business with that part of the world) will be far more fruitful than anything I can expect within the US.

In short, we Americans need to learn a thing or two from the Asians, so perhaps an MBA there would give me a different kind of education.

Varsity education in China, and Asia at large still lags behind the US, especially with respect to business administration. If you noticed, many top Asian executives had done their MBAs in the US.

[SamAdams]

Re: Career Advice: Foreign MBA? China?

Varsity education in China, and Asia at large still lags behind the US, especially with respect to business administration. If you noticed, many top Asian executives had done their MBAs in the US.

This is my impression too of the business education in Asia. Is the Financial Times Bulllsh*ting when it shows schools like Ceibs, Hong Kong UST, Insead's Singapore program in the top 20 schools in the world? :confused: I had never heard of these Asian MBA programs before so I have to wonder about why FT thinks they are so strong.

http://rankings.ft.com/pdf/global-mba-rankings.pdf

I can understand that many of the world's executives get their MBAs in the US because their aim is to "learn the US" as much as get their MBA education.

My aim was to get into a top tier school (Top 10) in the US but given the competition from all the laid off investment bankers I might need to aim for the best name school I can get into. As I said, I think name is so important for these schools - especially if I am getting it to build credentials.

Maybe the best strategy is a second or first tier school in the US and take Mandarin on the side or pickup on of those Rosetta Stone softwares!