SOP: Member of engineering team of raw material handling & storage division of blast furnace project

Economic Development - Acceleration and Expansion Management

Personal Statement for MSc in Project Management

Hello everybody, my name is Andrey. I am preparing my personal statement for MSc Project Management in two different universities. To do that, I personalized one paragraph in my personal statement according to the course content in the related university. I would be really appreciate if you can review my PS below in terms of grammar, content or also coherences. Looking forward for your feedback and thank you in advance :)

Currently, the government in my country aim for high economic growth through implementation of the Master Plan for Acceleration and Expansion of the Country's Economic Development. Those aim for high economic growth can only be achieved by execution of the infrastructure project in various sector, and consequently, the professional in Project Management field would be essential as a part of the project execution.

Being a metallurgical engineering graduate, I have been working in my company construction project since 2010 as a Project Engineer in engineering team of raw material handling & storage division of blast furnace project, and also as a Project Management & Control in harbor stockyard project since 2014. My role vary from reviewing the engineering design with our engineering consultant, monitoring progress of the project, preparing information for the stakeholder, managing project administration, and also responsible for the communication from and to the project team.

From my current job, I have been experienced the project life cycle from conception, tender phase, contract negotiation, engineering design, and construction phase. For me, it is very amazing to see how a project develop and progressing in every step of project cycle. However, at some point, I realize that my previous experience through the project will not be enough for my future career development as I lack of the theory about how supposedly to manage a project. For that reason, I have decided to take a Master Degree in Project Management to improve my knowledge to continue working in the future bigger and more complex project.

Usually Project Management Program in universities are based in business or management school. Unlike those universities, Project Management Program in [University Name] is delivered within an engineering faculty of the university. That makes the program suitable for a person with engineering background like me who wish to advance both my technical and project management skill. Another important thing is the program has a strong emphasis on practical experience such as research project, case studies, field studies, to ensure the students understand the application of the knowledge they have learned.

for university A:
As a person with engineering background and working in construction project, I believe that the success of the project is not merely about how to finish the project in time, but also how reliable operational of the facility after project completion. For that reason, the engineering design would be an important key to achieve reliable operation of the facility. It is very important to develop a structured approach for a design during engineering phase to ensure the ability of the design can meet the objective of reliable operation. Further modelling would be required to predict the behavior of designed system in various condition providing information about the optimum operating condition and its limitation. Considering the reason above, I am very confident to select MSc Project Management in [University Name]

for university B:
The challenge faced by the developing country is the huge amount of infrastructure project to be execute with a very limited budget available to fund the project. Therefore, it is very critical to know every possible option available to fund the project. However, the amount of capital investment should not be the only factor to decide the execution of the project. It is important to see a facility or infrastructure in a whole-life-asset point of view. This approach will provide consideration balance between capital investment, maintainability, and renewability of an asset to deliver value-for-money in a facility of infrastructure. The reasons above have lead me to confidently select MSc Project Management in [University Name]

Master Degree in Project Management will benefit me in several ways. One, it will help me to do my works better. A project involves a team with multi-disciplinary education background. The wide and diverse range of module in the course will provide me the ability to communicate effectively with every part of project team with different role in the project and will help me to see problems from different point of view, leading to a more comprehensive recommendation to solve the problems. From that, it is clear that mastering wide and diverse knowledge would be a competitive advantage for me. Two, it will makes me more efficient to get my works done. A deep understanding about every phase in the project lifecycle and proper application of project management will help me to visualize my future works in a Project, which would allow me to prepare for the works in advance.

My previous professional experience will be the complement for the theory taught in every module. I am confident it will be a solid foundation for me to success in the course. At the same time, it can be a good reference for other students during the class time and will benefit the program in the end.

Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play. (Immanuel Kant)

Andrey, there is a clear disconnection between your opening paragraph and the rest of your essay. You need to connect the plans of your government under the "Master Plan for Acceleration and Expansion of the Country's Economic Development" connects or has inspired you to pursue higher studies in "Project Management". Regardless of whether I read University A or University B, I do not see any connection. Clarify the motivation and relationship that the two have with your ambition for higher studies.

Do not use a quote at the very end of your essay. That always goes at the very top. Placing the quote at the end does not make sense. The quote is usually used to signify your inspiration for higher studies or your understanding of the reason why people aspire for a certain higher career. In my opinion, quotes are not really necessary in these instances as most students have a difficult time connecting the quotes with their statements.

Another piece of important advice. Make our job of reviewing your essay easier by presenting complete essays for university A and then University B. In fact, you should be presenting them as separate threads because these will be submitted to different schools. The way you have your essay set up for review at the moment makes it very hard to follow the flow of discussion that you are trying to create. It is hard to piece together your essay because of the way you have it set up. We only read parts of each essay, making it impossible to get a full picture of what you are trying to say. So present University A completely, then University B completely as well. Then it will be easier to review your essay.

Hi Vangiespen, appreciate your feedback.
I have to admit that I created my essay in pieces and then try to collect them as one essay, which makes it less connected

thank you anyway, I'll try to make it better :)