Graduate / The essay for USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism [6]

Thank you very much helping me review my Personal Statement! The information below about the program may be helpful. My statement is in the last section.

The Program
The Master of Communication Management program teaches concepts and skills relevant to today's communication professional. You will learn how to design and execute effective communication strategies and tactics across a range of settings, such as supporting a corporation in crisis to regain credibility, or crafting a compelling story for a non-profit organization, or researching new markets for an emerging brand. Throughout the program, you will enhance your critical thinking, presentation and writing skills, to be persuasive to colleagues and clients.

·If there are other details about academic performance, etc. that you wish to share.

The Track I Choose

The Marketing Communication track focuses on the management of business communication with customers, clients and general consumers outside the organization. It is particularly valuable for individuals with career interests in marketing and sales, publicity and promotions, market research, marketing management, social marketing, advertising, public relations, public communication campaigns, and public or community affairs.

Personal Statement

Begin with the end in mind, the very first lesson I learnt from my father, has always been the guideline of my life. I was born to a textile town in a time of demographic bonus, when thousands of textile enterprises bloomed. However, after I graduated from high school, my family who owned a silk quilt company suffered great losses as a result of economic recession. Just as most of Chinese businessmen did, my father decided to open an online store to improve the situation. As the only child in my family, I was determined to help my family go through the crisis, so I took over the job of managing the online store. However, communicating with customers is sometimes tiring, and I was always confused why customer just cannot understand what I said. Fortunately, my father gave me a hand by pointing out that I should figure out the purpose before getting work on. He called this "begin with the end". Magically, I found that by clarifying my goal in mind, I barely encountered any misunderstanding in the conversation and I also received the customer feedback with a higher satisfaction. Moreover, I found myself stand at a much higher level, where I can think strategically and comprehensively. The great sense of achievement in this experience really drove my interest in communication- I felt a strong personal conviction to become an expert in the communication world who could make difference.

I do know this faith is not a business that can be undertaken in a day or swiftly improvised by a mere command of the will, so in the university, I devoted myself into various extracurricular activities, managed to grasp general skills and thus lay a firm foundation for my future ambition.

Fortunately, I did manage everything smoothly during the extracurricular experience by following the mindset of "Begin with the end". As a marketer who interacted with audience al lot, I realized that launching an event by intuition was a kind of self-serving, so I spontaneously conducted an exercising-behavior survey when I was working for the Student Union and extracted significant tags from students' answer which accounted for the unwillingness to exercise. Based on these tags, I managed to create an atmosphere of exercising by establishing an official networking account where racers could daily sign in and check their ranks. The data-based method and audience-oriented strategy proved to be effective since visible number of students joined the long-race activity. What's more, as a team player who had worked in several consulting firms, I considered every task from the end- the project's delivery and client's requirement. With such perception, I always endeavored to figure out the need of clients and tried numerous breakdown methods to obtain the intended conclusion, instead of just saying "I cannot find the information", which meant nothing but kicked the ball back to the team. The different application of my understanding toward communication-which showed to make impact on my team and audiences-gave me great self-affirmation, and encourages me to further explore this field in depth.

This exactly why I need Annenberg as my new beginning. As a student majored in economics, I do realize the profound gap between myself and an expert in advocacy skills, critical thinking ability and theoretical understanding. Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism would provide me a solid framework in communication concepts and principles, and equip me with proficient language skills which could change the way business works. Moreover, the great location of L.A. would enable me to connect with alumnus and find communication-related internships. After graduating, I believe my post-master path would begin as a marketing trainee in fast-consuming company, where I would grow rapidly and gain exposure to industry experience. Combining my career planning, I think I would choose "marketing communication" as my main focus, where I could supplement my business experience with marketing understanding. Besides, I wish myself could add value to Annenberg community as well. My consulting experience and general skillset would help my teammates work on the group project with great efficiency. To sum up, I am always setting at different start points in different periods and never fearing of missing out, since I am always clear about "my own ending".

I do like to hear some suggestions on how to tell a compelling story! Just let me know your opinions!