Hi everyone, I'm applying for Chevening scholarship this year. I have drafted my essays below. Comment and/or/advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance
1.Chevening is looking for individuals that will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your own leadership and influencing skills to support your answer.
(minimum word count: 50 words, maximum word count: 500 words)
I define the leadership and influencing skill as the ability to make people around oneself to believe in his/her thoughts, opinions and ideas. Throughout my career, I have shown my leadership and influencing skill in both my previous and current jobs. There are two evidences to support my claim.
First, in my previous job, I worked as a system analyst for the design and simulation software that heavily used by aerospace and defense industry. The software is used in the new discipline for Thailand: Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) which helps improving the productivity of the large team. I saw the opportunity that if the company provides the knowledge and software relating to MBSE to Thai universities, it will benefit both the universities and the company. The universities will benefit from receiving the new technology and the company will gain the reputation from local society and have the new source of revenue when MBSE is adopted by the companies in Thailand. I proposed this idea to my manager and convinced him. With his support, the high level management and the owners agreed to initiate the cooperation program. The company provided the software to the university and sent me and my colleagues to teach student in several universities (Chulalonkorn, Thammasat and etc.) to teach MBSE approach to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Second, in my current job, I am in charge of developing the new mutual fund products that will be distributed by my organization. In the mid of 2014, I came to the idea of open-ended high yield bond fund which there is no one in Thailand distributes this type of fund. I firstly did the due diligence on the fund to make sure that it is the suitable investment for the customer. After that, I presented the fund to my boss that the high yield bond fund is the solution for the customers who seek the investment yielding higher return than investment grade bond but having less risk than equity. My boss agreed with my proposal and allowed me to present this fund to the sales team. I led the presentation to the executive vice president from sales team and convinced her that there is the demand in our customer for this type of fund. As a result, the IPO was very successful. During the IPO period of one week, we raised approximately 2 billion Thai Baht.
In conclusion, being the first mover in distributing high yield bond fund and the cooperation program between my previous employer and Thai universities demonstrated my leadership and influencing skills. In addition, those achievements also proved that I am a dynamic person who always comes up with new initiatives.
2. Chevening is looking for individuals with strong networking skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your networking skills, and outline how you hope to use these skills in the future.
(minimum word count: 50 words, maximum word count: 500 words)
IT professional who successfully switch to financial industry is a brief of my career so far. This can also prove that I have good networking skill and put it to the good. When I realized that I want to pursue career in finance in August 2013, I tried to reach out every friend who has the potential to refer me to the employer. I spend my time to tell few high potential contacts what is my strength and what I can offer. One of my friends told her boss about me and that led to a phone conversation and having coffee together. After that, he referred me to his colleague and that opened the opportunity for me to have an interview and secured the position of senior mutual fund products manager.
Working as a senior mutual fund product manager allows me to broaden my net work quickly. During 20 months of my current job, I met with approximately forty local and foreign asset management companies. As one of my main responsibilities is to develop the new mutual fund products, the network with asset management companies can help me find the new product idea for my organization. In addition to the product idea, I also adopt the methodologies and the best practices which can greatly help me both in my job and personal development. Apart from the network I gain from my job, I also extend my network to local CFA society. I actively participate in local CFA society events. The CFA society events allow me to meet local professionals who I can develop the relationship for potential mutual benefit in the future.
In the future, I will continue to hone my networking skill further but in the different way. As of now, approximately eighty percents of my networking activity is used equally for supporting my functional responsibility and personal development. Another twenty percent is used for gathering information that could help determine strategic action which I have opportunities to propose it with my higher-ups. However, as I advance in my career, I will allocate more effort to leverage my network to help me determine the strategic action. Because when my responsibility grows, the problem I need to solve and the result I need to deliver will need cooperation, information and resources from both people inside my network and outside my network. Therefore, in addition to network with the people inside my industry and client's industries, I will use more time to extend my network wider to other industries that are not directly related to my profession.
In conclusion, I have shown that I have strong networking skill by being able to use it to get into finance industry. Moreover, I continuously broaden my network as I progress my career through both professional and extracurricular contacts. In the future, I plan to extend my network to other industry to make my network more diversified and I will leverage my network to help me determine strategic action.
3.Outline why you have selected your chosen three university courses, and explain how this relates to your previous academic or professional experience and your plans for the future.
*Please do not duplicate the information you have entered on the work experience and education section of this form (minimum word count: 50 words, maximum word count: 500 words)
I have selected master of business administration (MBA) course in three different universities: City University, Imperial College and Cambridge University. All three universities have excellent reputation and robust course structure. I believe that studying MBA at the one of the universities in my selection will complement my background and help me fulfill my plan to become high level management in financial institution after graduation.
As I have already passed all three levels of CFA exams and have had degree in computer engineering, I have strong analytical skill and extensive knowledge in finance. With my strong qualification, I am entrusted to lead several projects and operations. However, I learn from my experience that in many occasions that I was able to deliver the good result, there are other key success drivers apart from technical prowess such as teamwork, leadership, communication and presentation skill. MBA will help me articulate my experience with the theoretical management knowledge and hone important skills such as leadership, communication, presentation and teamwork through both group and individual assignments. As a consequence, I will become better equipped young professional who is ready to emerge as a new leader.
In addition to the skills I mentioned in the previous paragraph, MBA will also allow me to meet with classmates with different background. The opportunity to discuss with high diversity classmate will broaden my perspective. The discussion will create not only the mutual benefit of exchanging ideas and experiences but also the friendship that will last long throughout the career. As I am working in finance and I will continue to work in finance after graduation, I have realized that having a large network with high diversity is a key contributor to my probability to success in my career. Besides the fact that the large network allows me to gather more information for my personal development, the large network will also help me in many strategic actions such as winning new client, planning strategy and etc.
In summary, I have selected to study MBA at : City University , Imperial College and Cambridge University because I believe that the strong course structure and learning methodology at theses universities will help me improve the skills I need to become leader in the future. In addition, I will have the opportunity to both broaden my perspective thorough out the discussion with classmates with different background and expand my network for my career in the future.
4.Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. Outline your immediate plans upon returning home and your longer term career goals, considering how these relate to UK priorities in your country.
* UK priority areas can be found on your country page of the Chevening website (My career will fall under "Trade and investment" topic in UK priority areas for my country)
Due to my passion in finance and investment, my long term plan is to achieve a top-level managerial position in a large financial institution in Thailand. My highest aspiration is to make a significant improvement in investment management industry because I believe that Thai people are now being underserved from their financial advisor.
After I return to my home, my first short-run objective is to secure the position of senior professional or first-level management in corporate strategy team. I believe that my qualification of completing all CFA exams and the industry experience as a senior staff will make me a qualified candidate. Working in corporate strategy team will allow me to use broad range of my skills to contribute to company's prosperity while sharpening my skills and improving my understanding of business. In addition, working in corporate strategy team will allow me to network with multiple departments including the senior management. This step will prepare me to become the better leader and decision maker in the future.
After the few years in corporate strategy team, I aim to accumulate the achievements that allow me to advance my career to middle-level management in business unit relating to investment management. As a middle-level, in addition to contributing to company's prosperity in larger scale, I plan to exercise my capability to conceptualize the vision from top-level management and use it to motivate team members. My key milestone in this level is to lead the team to make a huge impact on the investment management industry such as introducing the new model of investment advisory service that will not only benefit the customers but also will reduce the cost for the company, developing new financial products that suit the customers' need and etc. Within five to ten years, I believe that I will be equipped with both high leadership quality and solid track record to allow me to become perfect candidate for top-level management in the large financial institution.
In conclusion, my plan after graduation is to get into corporate strategy team in large financial institution. After working in corporate strategy team for a few years, I aim to transform myself from team member to a leader in business unit. From that business unit leader, I will build my track record to make me a high potential candidate for high level management position.
@Kampanath, this seemed to be a very long essay, so without further ado, I will help you out, one paragraph at a time so we will be able to thoroughly go through the essay.
- I define the leadership
- and influencingmotivation skill
- I have shown my leadership and
- influencing skillinfluenced people in both...
- First, in my previous job , I worked
- the higher level of management
- Second, in my current jobCurrently , I am in charge
- In the mid of 2014,
- I came toup with the idea
- ...which there is no one inis not existing in Thailand and no one distributes this type of fund.
- I firstly did the due diligencespearheadedon the fund
- ...Thai universities demonstrated my leadership and influencing skills. ( I clear out the words, "leadership and influencing" as they are already been used many times in the essay )
- In addition, thosethis achievements...
This is just the first part of the essay as I mentioned and we will go through them per paragraph and I just remembered that there are a few students here on EF who are going for the Chevening scholarship too, I will go through the lists and I'll let you know so that you can look it up and get a few suggestions too.
@kampa, for this particular prompt, forgive me if I'm wrong but I believe the prompt is asking you to write about the three courses that you have already taken, how did this relate to your academic achievements and how did this lead you or influenced you in taking this masters degree, furthermore how did this affect your plans for the future.
I did further reading and if my understanding to the prompt is correct, there is no way that you will be able to respond to the prompt using the paragraphs.
Should you revised this part of your essay, kindly refer to the following guidelines;
- what are these 3 university degrees
- elaborate each of them and be detailed as possible
- how did this hone your desire to take up you masters
- what are the advantage and disadvantages in taking such courses
- are there any other course that could also lead you to your goals of taking your MBA
- how did this affect your decisions
- does this courses have relations to you MBA more so to your goals
- finally, how will you courses help you in passing and getting that MBA
Double check and try to read the prompt again and again, forgive me if I'm wrong , that's just how I understand it.
