Hi All,
I am applying for Diploma in Accounting and Finance offered by London School of Economics.It is a post graduate conversion course for people who donot have their graduate degrees in finance.
I am an engineering graduate with 6 years job experience as a software parogrammer.These are the points to cover:
Why have you chosen the course you have listed?
What interests you about your chosen subject?
Any job, paid work or placements you have undertaken, and what you have learnt from them. If these experiences influenced your choice of degree, why?
If you are applying for deferred entry, then you should indicate why you are taking a gap year and what you plan to do in it
If you are applying at the post-qualification stage, then why did you take time out between college and university? What have you been doing during this time?
Your social, sports or leisure activities - although these are not as important as your academic capabilities
Have you held any positions of responsibility in your School/or College?
Have you attended any schemes or activities at LSE or other universities (such as Summer Schools, Saturday Schools, LSE Maths, LSE Choice, etc)
Any sponsorships or placements you have, or have applied for
Emphasise any skills you have gained e.g. communication/IT/decision making etc
What are your career plans for when you graduate from university?
What are your future plans?
Why should we choose you over the other 19,000+ applicants who apply to LSE
May I have your opinions on how good/bad is the statement and what else need to be done?
===============statement====================================
I am an engineering graduate working as a senior developer in a technology company. I work with different technologies and write code for both the Microsoft and Java platforms. This keeps me in the habit of studying everyday as I have to learn a lot and this habit makes me happy and satisfied. I have gained good technical skills; have learned effective communication and analytical skills while working in the corporate world and have done requirement gathering for a couple of projects in my current organization. But I was lacking in any industry specific knowledge that is domain knowledge and this was hindering my plan to become an IT consultant for a specific industry in the coming years. Since I have always been interested and keen to know management of money so I decided to do an MBA majoring in finance which will help me to add valuable skills and help me to establish myself as an IT consultant specializing in finance industry.
While contemplating with the idea of doing MBA, I wanted to do some homework on my chosen area of specialization. I wanted to know whether I can understand the subject I am interested in. So I started to read microeconomics. I was intrigued by the demand and supply curve, price elasticity and analysis of cost. Armed with a basic understanding of microeconomics, I decided to learn something about finance also. So after consultation with my mentor, a CFA and an MBA, I joined his CFA classes. I learned to analyze a balance sheet and this gave me immense joy. I could actually understand how much leveraged the company is and what is its P/E ratio. I learned to analyze a cash flow statement and the methods to analyze inventory. I am satisfied and have become confident about my choice. Although I learned to analyze a balance sheet which is a small portion in finance, my understanding of how a balance sheet is prepared and about journal entry is limited. So I need to know accountancy as I want to learn every skill needed for understanding finance. I think that accountancy and finance go hand in hand and that the absence of the knowledge of former makes the understanding of the latter incomplete.
While doing my homework I have become so much interested in finance that I have decided to make my career with it. I have decided to become a full fledged finance professional. Though some of my present skills may not be utilized but my analytical skills developed through doing requirement gathering, designing and developing new and existing systems will help me when I do a financial statement analysis or solve an economics problem. My mathematical background has helped me immensely until now. However after discussion with finance professionals and my mentor who is himself a CFA and an MBA, I realized that an MBA with a specialization in finance may not be sufficient for a hard-core technical role in finance domain. And I have always enjoyed being the technical fellow. That I need to start from the basics was quite clear to me and I am comfortable with this development as I am investing in an education which is going to give me return for the next 30 years of my career. In addition I have appeared for GMAT and have got a decent score. While doing some research on colleges I could not find a suitable course for me due to difficulty in finding a post graduate finance course that is for students with a different background and that is not itself a masters course. By this time I understood clearly what I need. And that need is a course which teaches me both accountancy and finance from basics and is a course that will pave the way for master level study. My mentor suggested me to look for a sort of a bridge course but one that has a very high reputation. A thorough search on the internet in addition to multiple postings on forums yielded the name of Diploma in Accounting and Finance from LSE. It starts from basics, acts as a conversion course for people like me who do not have a finance background, paves the way for masters, has a wide spectrum of curriculum and finally though it is expensive for me, it is not prohibitive. In addition it prepares me for masters in a year. I am sure that it is not possible to find a competing course with all the above features and is taught by a faculty of such high reputation.
Working on a number of projects in the information technology industry for six years has taught me the power of team work. I have learnt to listen patiently to other's ideas even though they may be totally opposite to mine. I have leaded my team when it was in the most critical position and I was not the official lead. My experience has taught me that when the situation demands you have to step out from your shoes and do every bit you can do to make the team function properly. I have observed that a diverse team works more closely and is more successful than a team which has all identical profiles. People are more accommodating and bring fresh ideas for the same problem. For these reasons I am impressed by the diverse student profiles at LSE and I believe that every student is going to offer something new to me while I can offer all my team building skills, team management skills, IT skills, analytical and problem solving skills in addition to how to work in stressful situations. I was a cadet in NCC (National Cadet Corps) which is run by selected schools in collaboration with Indian armed forces. I have attended two camps run by senior officers from Indian Air Force and was praised by a wing commander, who was also our camp head, for my leadership skills. I have learnt the meaning of discipline from my NCC days and this has helped me a lot in my professional life. And this will again help me when I start student life as I will start something from scratch and will go to advance level.
I plan to pursue my Msc in accounting and finance immediately after my diploma as I believe that I need sound knowledge of both the subjects. I plan to work in London for a couple of years to gain experience in my chosen field as London is the financial capital of the world. Also I plan to give back something to United Kingdom and as such will try to be actively related with the community services for the underprivileged. I am involved in corporate social responsibility program of my current organization and know the importance as well as the joy of doing it. In the long term I plan to come back to India and join the financial services industry as an analyst for fixed income. The bond market in India is developing and it will need many skilled people for becoming as important as the Indian securities market. I have learnt the basics of fixed income instruments and plan to specialize in it. I have started doing the hard work even after doing a demanding job and appearing for GMAT. My determination to realize my dream in the face of all odds will help me succeed and guidance from one of the most highly rated departments in the subject in the world will help me to master the subject.
I am applying for Diploma in Accounting and Finance offered by London School of Economics.It is a post graduate conversion course for people who donot have their graduate degrees in finance.
I am an engineering graduate with 6 years job experience as a software parogrammer.These are the points to cover:
Why have you chosen the course you have listed?
What interests you about your chosen subject?
Any job, paid work or placements you have undertaken, and what you have learnt from them. If these experiences influenced your choice of degree, why?
If you are applying for deferred entry, then you should indicate why you are taking a gap year and what you plan to do in it
If you are applying at the post-qualification stage, then why did you take time out between college and university? What have you been doing during this time?
Your social, sports or leisure activities - although these are not as important as your academic capabilities
Have you held any positions of responsibility in your School/or College?
Have you attended any schemes or activities at LSE or other universities (such as Summer Schools, Saturday Schools, LSE Maths, LSE Choice, etc)
Any sponsorships or placements you have, or have applied for
Emphasise any skills you have gained e.g. communication/IT/decision making etc
What are your career plans for when you graduate from university?
What are your future plans?
Why should we choose you over the other 19,000+ applicants who apply to LSE
May I have your opinions on how good/bad is the statement and what else need to be done?
===============statement====================================
I am an engineering graduate working as a senior developer in a technology company. I work with different technologies and write code for both the Microsoft and Java platforms. This keeps me in the habit of studying everyday as I have to learn a lot and this habit makes me happy and satisfied. I have gained good technical skills; have learned effective communication and analytical skills while working in the corporate world and have done requirement gathering for a couple of projects in my current organization. But I was lacking in any industry specific knowledge that is domain knowledge and this was hindering my plan to become an IT consultant for a specific industry in the coming years. Since I have always been interested and keen to know management of money so I decided to do an MBA majoring in finance which will help me to add valuable skills and help me to establish myself as an IT consultant specializing in finance industry.
While contemplating with the idea of doing MBA, I wanted to do some homework on my chosen area of specialization. I wanted to know whether I can understand the subject I am interested in. So I started to read microeconomics. I was intrigued by the demand and supply curve, price elasticity and analysis of cost. Armed with a basic understanding of microeconomics, I decided to learn something about finance also. So after consultation with my mentor, a CFA and an MBA, I joined his CFA classes. I learned to analyze a balance sheet and this gave me immense joy. I could actually understand how much leveraged the company is and what is its P/E ratio. I learned to analyze a cash flow statement and the methods to analyze inventory. I am satisfied and have become confident about my choice. Although I learned to analyze a balance sheet which is a small portion in finance, my understanding of how a balance sheet is prepared and about journal entry is limited. So I need to know accountancy as I want to learn every skill needed for understanding finance. I think that accountancy and finance go hand in hand and that the absence of the knowledge of former makes the understanding of the latter incomplete.
While doing my homework I have become so much interested in finance that I have decided to make my career with it. I have decided to become a full fledged finance professional. Though some of my present skills may not be utilized but my analytical skills developed through doing requirement gathering, designing and developing new and existing systems will help me when I do a financial statement analysis or solve an economics problem. My mathematical background has helped me immensely until now. However after discussion with finance professionals and my mentor who is himself a CFA and an MBA, I realized that an MBA with a specialization in finance may not be sufficient for a hard-core technical role in finance domain. And I have always enjoyed being the technical fellow. That I need to start from the basics was quite clear to me and I am comfortable with this development as I am investing in an education which is going to give me return for the next 30 years of my career. In addition I have appeared for GMAT and have got a decent score. While doing some research on colleges I could not find a suitable course for me due to difficulty in finding a post graduate finance course that is for students with a different background and that is not itself a masters course. By this time I understood clearly what I need. And that need is a course which teaches me both accountancy and finance from basics and is a course that will pave the way for master level study. My mentor suggested me to look for a sort of a bridge course but one that has a very high reputation. A thorough search on the internet in addition to multiple postings on forums yielded the name of Diploma in Accounting and Finance from LSE. It starts from basics, acts as a conversion course for people like me who do not have a finance background, paves the way for masters, has a wide spectrum of curriculum and finally though it is expensive for me, it is not prohibitive. In addition it prepares me for masters in a year. I am sure that it is not possible to find a competing course with all the above features and is taught by a faculty of such high reputation.
Working on a number of projects in the information technology industry for six years has taught me the power of team work. I have learnt to listen patiently to other's ideas even though they may be totally opposite to mine. I have leaded my team when it was in the most critical position and I was not the official lead. My experience has taught me that when the situation demands you have to step out from your shoes and do every bit you can do to make the team function properly. I have observed that a diverse team works more closely and is more successful than a team which has all identical profiles. People are more accommodating and bring fresh ideas for the same problem. For these reasons I am impressed by the diverse student profiles at LSE and I believe that every student is going to offer something new to me while I can offer all my team building skills, team management skills, IT skills, analytical and problem solving skills in addition to how to work in stressful situations. I was a cadet in NCC (National Cadet Corps) which is run by selected schools in collaboration with Indian armed forces. I have attended two camps run by senior officers from Indian Air Force and was praised by a wing commander, who was also our camp head, for my leadership skills. I have learnt the meaning of discipline from my NCC days and this has helped me a lot in my professional life. And this will again help me when I start student life as I will start something from scratch and will go to advance level.
I plan to pursue my Msc in accounting and finance immediately after my diploma as I believe that I need sound knowledge of both the subjects. I plan to work in London for a couple of years to gain experience in my chosen field as London is the financial capital of the world. Also I plan to give back something to United Kingdom and as such will try to be actively related with the community services for the underprivileged. I am involved in corporate social responsibility program of my current organization and know the importance as well as the joy of doing it. In the long term I plan to come back to India and join the financial services industry as an analyst for fixed income. The bond market in India is developing and it will need many skilled people for becoming as important as the Indian securities market. I have learnt the basics of fixed income instruments and plan to specialize in it. I have started doing the hard work even after doing a demanding job and appearing for GMAT. My determination to realize my dream in the face of all odds will help me succeed and guidance from one of the most highly rated departments in the subject in the world will help me to master the subject.