Though I am an Australian citizen, I was often tasked to work for Asian clients at IBM. This led me to think that I could not and should not cut my links to Asia and this is where I should build my career. And it was obvious that Asia, especially China, is growing so fast that a growing number of MBA holders from Western schools are coming to this region to find jobs. So there were few reasons for me to do an MBA outside Asia.
After doing research for a while, HKUST and Insead became my top candidates. But I had to consider that Insead has two campuses, one in France and one in Singapore, and staying on the Singapore campus may not have given the full experience one can get from the main campus in France. Meanwhile, HKUST is also rising fast in the global business school rankings (from 16th to 6th place over the past two years on the Financial Times list). Finally, the school offered me a partial scholarship, which I accepted with gratitude.
It's Money and Macroeconomics by Prof. Milind Rao. It opened my eyes to the world of money markets and stimulated my curiosity in current affairs around the globe. Prof. Rao continually prompts us with thought provoking and intellectually challenging topics. He has an uncanny ability of making students concentrate during the full 3.5 hours of his lectures. In class, we also had to give a full-day presentation from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in front of classmates and guests.
We had to pick one company in the context of the recent financial crisis, or one country in the context of the ongoing european crisis. We did Freddy Mac (U.S. mortgage firm) and the financial crisis.
No. The reason I quit engineering was that I wanted to work in a field that was not too technical. To me, finance just seems so and I don't feel that it fits my character. I am rather looking for a position at a strategy or management consulting firm, or an in-house consulting role at a big corporation. But it is true that many of my classmates, especially people with engineering backgrounds, are hoping to work in the financial industry. In such cases of career changing, doing an internship at the right place is crucial.
The summer internship application is in process for many firms and I have already secured two offers - one from a Korean conglomerate in Seoul, and one from an American industrial firm in Hong Kong. I'm waiting for the third one, and this is a U.K. bank operating in Germany. So I am quite open for opportunities and I am not against any specific industry.
There is a four-month exchange program in partnership with many schools around the world, and I am going to stay at NYU Stern. About 70 of us (out of a total 120) will leave HKUST for the exchange program in the final semester.
I recently played football in a 7-a-side tournament, against six other MBA schools in the region as well as the HKUST alumni team. We lost to the old boys in the semifinal and beat a team from Nanyang Business School in the match for the third place. Insead won the trophy.
I do not want to go back to Australia immediately, since Asia is becoming big in the field of business and I want to live a busy life for a while. But in the end, I think, I may go back and settle down in Australia or New Zealand when I come to have children to look after. I grew up there and I have so many fond memories on those countries. I also thank my parents for taking me there when I was young.
Interview by Cho Jin-seo