Graduate / I grew up under the influence of my father; SOP- PhD in Finance [4]

Dear Sir/Madam:
I grew up under the influence of my father. He served 35 years in the government as a manager in different organizational levels. As his first child, I was regularly present at his office so that his work environment interested me in management. I developed this attraction by reading newspapers, magazines, books and my father's documents rather than novels and comics. I remember I read Lester Thurow's "Head to Head: The Coming Economic Battle among Japan, Europe and America" even before I was sixteen. Although I had a primitive perception of the book, it greatly influenced me with its perspective of the western management style represented by the U.S and eastern management style represented by the Japan. It also gave me some ideas about the importance and the role of economic management is in the confrontation of the world powers.

Keeping that background in mind, I believe that by gaining knowledge people can liberate themselves from a routine life and cherish a life of creativity and innovation, so I have always craved for learning. I used to read a lot, especially about management and technology, as much as my friends recall me by this feature. In high school I always ranked among the top three students with an overall GPA above 19 out of 20 for diploma. After high school I enrolled in IAUM University-Iran for Bachelor's degree in software engineering. At the time, as a freelancer, I used to program windows applications.

After graduating from BSc degree and doing military service, I entered a contract with "Statistics, IT and Computer Services Organization" of Mashhad Municipality. I was working in a unit responsible for hardware, software and network maintenance. Meanwhile, since I was competent in English language, I was cooperating with an R&D team in the organization assigned to acquire the knowledge of the existing technologies and standards regarding Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The team was aimed at creating basic knowledge for the organization in ITS. Its efforts have led to utilizing a contactless card payment system for the subway and bus transportation system.

Back to my background of management, I have always aspired to have a career related to the management in a position that I could contribute to the field of management. Hence, to enrich my knowledge in this field, I attended some management courses. But after one year of work I found that low level job positions do not have much space for creativity and cannot satisfy my inner self need for prosperity. So I decided to promote myself by continuing my academic studies. Considering high quality education and affordable living expenses in Malaysia, I enrolled in Putra Business School, AACSB Accredited business school of University Putra Malaysia, to earn an MBA degree. In PBS, I had professors with valuable experiences from the Malaysian Ministry of Finance, or international companies such as Nestle; I attended industrial talk sessions with business managers from Dunnhumby and Nestle companies; I also made visits to big names' sites such as Microsoft regional office in Kuala Lumpur that was an amazing experience.

At the start of my MBA, I had the idea that financial activities are the heart of any economic entity when I chose Finance as my specialization. But after studying Financial Management, Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, I felt attached to Finance. The way that financial activists, for example, analyze the price of shares or decide about the profitability of taking on a project grabbed my attention. While most people conceive of these activities somehow as speculative, these activities follow rigorous scientific mathematical and logical analysis. The more I extended my Finance knowledge, the more it fascinated me. I concluded my MBA degree by doing a thesis on a subject related to Asian Flu, Asian financial crisis of 1997.

I found Finance as a field that can fulfil my most durable desire since I read the Thurow's book: to be influential through management. I want to devote myself to add something to the field by getting a PhD; moreover, a PhD degree could bring me what I most expect from a job: a challenging and dynamic environment. I find the academic environment both challenging and dynamic because in academic environment you are constantly in touch with the frontier of the current knowledge.

I started looking for an opportunity to pursue my PhD. I happened to know XXX through one of its Iranian graduates, Dr. --- who writes regularly on the web and for Iranian publications. He introduced XXX in an article for those Iranians who are interested to continue graduate studies in Economics and Finance. I visited the XXX website and I was impressed by the student placements that prove the strength of the program in XXX.

I am interested to research in the areas of 'investment analysis', 'corporate finance' and 'information analysis and financial decision making'. I found Professor A and Professor B researches relevant to my interests. I reviewed their research interests and followed their selected publications through XXX website. I familiarized myself with the quality of their works and their views on the different subject matters which I think are closely related to my areas of interest. Certainly, it would be an honor to work under supervision of such prominent faculty members and I value every opportunity to be part of research done there.

I believe that success results from hard work, dedication and aspiration. I think I demonstrated my dedication by quitting my job, going abroad to get a qualified degree and spending my own money. It was not an easy decision since that money came from my savings and my parents. I practiced hard work during my military service and during my MBA. Above all I have had the aspiration since I was young, an aspiration to contribute to the management and I am determined to make that goal come true by doing research in Finance. If I am given the chance to be on the XXX Finance PhD program I am confident that I will be successful and confirm your affirmative faith in me.