Routeway to Success
Interviewee: Zhao Dong, 28 years old, majored in Mechanical engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Before CEIBS: System Analyst, Procter & Gamble Asia, Singapore.
After CEIBS: Consultant, Boston Consulting Group Greater China.
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Can your share some stories of your job searching experience in the last months?
"When I started looking for job opportunities, I had quite a wide spectrum: marketing, sales, consulting, IT, virtually anything was worth to try. Industry specific functions usually require in-depth industry related knowledge, which I don't have; but it seems that I'm especially appealing to consulting firms, since most of the top consulting firms that came to Ceibs for recruiting this year invited me to an interview. After several rounds of case interviews and some trade-offs, I finally made my mind for BCG."
Why you? Why do you think they choose you, from the many candidates?
First, of all, the MBA degree from CEIBS is the indispensable doorknocker. Most top international consulting firms won't hire any consultant without MBA education. After all, the best profession fit to an MBA is consulting. The international environment in CEIBS definitely helps you to be competitive even with graduates from the top-tier b-schools in the world. Companies such as Mc Kinsey or BCG won't even consider recruiting MBAs from other business schools in China; they don't even recruit from second-tier b-schools in the U.S. or Europe.
Although CEIBS still has a distance from world top business schools, they know that our students are high standard, mainly because of the reputation built by many CEIBS alumni in the consulting industry; that is why they come to CEIBS for recruiting year after year. Also our CDC (Career Development Center) had spent a lot of efforts on maintaining a good communication with those consulting firms, and convincing them that recruiting from CEIBS is a worthy attempt."
In addition, my age is the advantage. the consulting job requires a lot of energy to deal with all the pressures of work and overtimes, and being young is definitely an advantage. Also, being young with not so much industry experience makes you easy to be molded according to their standards and ideals.
Most companies will look at the international exposure of the candidate; some will be very specific on the industry background; if they have many clients in the telecom business, they will look for a candidate with telecom background; if they have projects in the marketing or HR area, they will look for that.
Education is also a key differentiator; top consulting firms will always select candidates graduated from the best universities or business schools. Since consulting basically sells people, they need a CV that looks impressive.
I had several years of working experience abroad, in a multicultural environment; so I had plenty of opportunities to work with diversified and international teams, talk in English and have a good practice of the language. I think maybe this is also one of the reasons."
From your 18 months in CEIBS, what would be your most memorable moment?
"The most memorable… they are so many… I think one thing I would never forget is my wonderful group of classmates. In this year-and-half, I shared so many moments with them, and we established a solid friendship that would be life-long. It is very different from the kind of relationships you have at work, since there is much more competition and interests involved; here it is much purer, you don't have so much pressure, and everybody is more willing to share and help each other.
In CEIBS, since you don't have fixed duties as in work, you are unconstrained, so you can have all kinds of imaginations and thoughts: if you are suddenly interested in Investment Banking, you just talk to classmates who had such experience; if you find marketing appealing, you can attend one of the many seminars carried out after class. You are basically open to everything.
From the many seminars and lectures we have every month, you can meet all kinds of people: government officials, successful businessman, reputable professionals, and you can learn a lot from their stories and experiences."
It is CEIBS' 10-year Anniversary, and you are weeks from leaving your Alma Mater, what do you have to say on the school?
"The impetus and momentum of the school's development is amazing. CEIBS had made a huge progress since it's beginning, and compared to other business schools in China, we are in a much better position since we are independent. I sincerely hope that after graduation I can contribute to the reputation of CEIBS, and I wish its growth continued faster and better!"
Do you have any advises for someone that is thinking on pursuing MBA education?
"Many interviewers during my job-hunting process asked me why I've chosen to come to CEIBS, instead of a more prestigious business school in the U.S. or Europe. If you want to enter into the consulting industry, graduating from Harvard or INSEAD would be a much better option. But when I had to make the decision, I considered if I want to buy something with potential or something already established. Although you will have more certainty with established ones, they are also expensive; but if you go for a potential, you will pay less, but your return could be much higher. Just think what if you bought a house in Shanghai 3 years ago!
And location is also important. I have many friends that are graduated from reputable American business schools, but when they came back to China, they had a very hard time looking for a suitable job. Of course their salaries expectations are higher, but also their school doesn't have any resource here that can help them to establish business contacts; it would all depend on their personal network. In this sense, CEIBS has a clear and peculiar advantage. You are able to build a solid network in the Chinese eastern coast; they are all your classmates and they share your same experiences and understandings, and they are a powerful resource in the business world.
You should only go abroad for your MBA education if you badly need international exposure. But even if you do so, 2 years is a short time, and usually Chinese students stay in their own group; the relationship you will have with foreigners will mostly remain formal."
- Interviewed by Marina Jiang of K.I.S.S.
