2017 was the year that I came to Hong Kong for my one year full-time MBA study. My aspiration to get an MBA was rooted a few years back when I was still working as a sales manager in a trading company. I got an opportunity to deal with an M&A case, including drafting a preliminary investment proposal and some due diligence work. Back then, it felt impossible for a non-finance background person like me to complete such a task. And since then, the idea of getting an MBA has been on the top of my to-do list.

As an international city in this part of the world, Hong Kong has its unshakable position in the Greater China area. So, when I was choosing my location, I chose Hong Kong with no doubts.

HKU Full-Time MBA was one of the programmes that really made a strong impression on me. The staff treated me not just as a candidate but someone they tried to understand and see if I was really the right fit for the programme. Their attention to detail really amazed me and left a great impression in my mind and resulted in my choosing to sign up for this programme.

The programme held lots of enriching and invaluable experience for me, I met a lot of international classmates with all sorts of backgrounds. There were the opportunities to participate in different clubs and reach out to professionals in Hong Kong across industries such as finance, accounting, legal, consulting and technology. Career development office put together many campus recruitment talks, and coaching sessions for both career related and personal growth. I was also lucky to be able to participate in an MBA fundraising competition in which my teammates became my lifelong friends, created great memories together, and won an award for the school. I was also able to explore areas that I had never had chance to reach. I participated as a volunteer for the Asia venture capital forum in that year and the experience really influenced me in my post-MBA direction.

My post-MBA role is a management associate in a local conglomerate. I ended up changing the work location from Taiwan to Hong Kong, changing my industry to consumer goods, and changing my function as a project manager. The biggest achievements from my MBA programme are that I learnt to navigate the dynamics of working in a team better, explored my potential in project management and problem solving, came to know myself better and am able to make concrete career goals for my future.

MBA study is not a must but almost everyone I knew who did it is not regretful. It is a process that helped many of us to learn about ourselves and get a chance to adjust a bit to where we wanted to go in our careers. It is a period that you definitely will miss after you have started working again because of the people that you have met and who accompanied you along the process.

Industry: Cosmetics
Company: Meiyume
Job title: Sales Manager