Graduate / "economic cases from my mum" - Personal Statement for MSF [7]

This is my PS. Thanks for your advice.

Instead of Snow White, my bedtime stories were economic cases from my mum, who is a reputable lawyer well-known in economic field. While at dinner table, my dad, who is a governor in charge of the economic development of Jiangsu Province, would mention the happenings in his department concerning financial issues. Raised up in a family made up of professionals, I was vested with the interest and aptitude for business. I was curious about the reasons why these things told by my parents happened, and wanted to find out the way to solve these problems. In order to answer my questions, I was eager to be a professional in business field. So I chose the Business School in the *****University, one of the top business schools in China. During my school days, based on my interest and talents, I set my career goal as a senior finance manager who can make the financial system in my company more effective and efficient. To fulfill my dream, I realize that advanced financial knowledge offered by the MSF program is needed.

I have been well prepared to be a qualified candidate to attain a MSF. My strength can be divided into the following 3 aspects.

A strong background in accounting and finance

My undergraduate major is accounting and I have an excellent school standing, evidenced in a 3.70 major GPA, which can reflect my ability in past learning and show my potentials in future schooling. In addition, I have cultivated my ability to analyze and solve problems through my research coursework of "Political Risk and Precaution of China's Overseas Direct Investment ", "The Profitability Comparison between PetroChina Co. Ltd and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. in 2006 and 2007", "the Reform of the Personal Income Tax System in China", etc. Apart from the curriculum required. I have also taken the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) training course so as to be qualified for international business, and 4 courses of it have been successful completed. As a co-founder of ** Accounting Association, I was in charge of selecting topics for our academic digest. I had to read several academic journals every week, like Accounting Review, Chinese Accounting Journal, China Taxation News, and rewrote the selected topics in a more understandable way to introduce them to students, that made me exposed to the new ideas and broadened my vision. With the solid academic background, I am confident that I can grasp the knowledge on MSF program more easily and deal with issues in career more efficiently.

My leadership capability

I have actively involved myself into various school activities, such as founding the Accounting Association, managing the school's TV station, leading the volunteer team, which equipped me with strong leadership, teamwork spirit and administrative abilities. In the summer of 2006, when I volunteered for teaching at Awe Village in Shanxi Province, I discovered that the people there essentially owned excellent cattle resources, but still lived in poverty. In order to determine the exact cause, and help them overcome their poverty, I initiated and conducted a research project on villagers and market conditions with my teammates. According to our survey, we found the main restriction is the capital dispersion. If the villagers put their resources together and formed a centralized management, the economies of scale could be achieved which would cut costs and earn profits. So we suggested the villagers setting up a cattle cooperative and we would assist them in management and finance. As a team leader, I knew the key elements of a successful team were specific goals and collaborative atmosphere. At the very beginning, I drew up a plan including drafting the regulations, building up the management system, getting loans and so on. Based on different majors and strengths, I assigned tasks to my team members respectively and monitored the performance. Moreover, I encouraged spirit of teamwork and cooperation. Brainstorming became an indispensable part of our work and inspired us in many ways. Now three years later, profits from cattle business have continued to rise and the per capital income has risen by 40%. These experiences greatly developed my leadership skills, and ability in applying different disciplines to tackle practical problems.

Work experience

In July of 2008, I interned at the R&D department of MSS Securities Co. Ltd. My work was to collect data and assist the researchers to analyze the impact of the financial crisis on Chinese banking industry. In addition, I interned at the Finance Department of Securities Association of Jiangsu from March to June 2009. I sorted source documents, made entries and prepared the financial statements. Upon graduation from ***, I started working at the Bank Card Department of Jiangsu Branch of Bank of China. As a management trainee, my main task was to analyze the consumption habits and age structure of our card holders through market investigation and mathematical models. In my work, I found that, with the growth of the number of vice-card, a flaw in our current model of age structure had become more and more serious. Nowadays, the payment of vice-cards, whose holders are always teenagers, has increased significantly. Unfortunately, our bank did not place enough emphasis in the model accordingly and the coefficient was outdated, which led to an overestimation on the age structure. I wrote a report to my boss and my initiative spirit and responsibility had been highly appreciated. I reaped the statistical, marketing and financial experience from work. However, I come to a realization that there is something missing in my knowledge system. To achieve my short-term goal of finding a job in one of the top 500 companies and my long-term goal of being a senior decision-maker in 10 years, I know the graduate study is the missing link. Thus, I am more determined to pursue a master's degree in your esteemed university.

The MSF program of ****is the most suitable choice for me, due to its long history, global reputation and strong faculty. Through the training of MSF, I will raise my professional level which can help me achieve my career goal. Furthermore, I think my financial knowledge, transferable skills and firsthand work experience will fill me with useful subject matter and interesting stories to share with my new classmates at *** University.