MBA Application Essays: Career Goals and Leadership

Five-Year Career Plan

Experience has taught me that despite one's best intentions, the unexpected sometimes intervenes. Taking this into consideration, I gladly outline my five-year goals with the understanding that unforeseen events or circumstances may slightly alter my path, but will ultimately not interfere with my primary purpose: to develop and manage my own company.

In the next five years, I plan to acquire the professional skills and experience needed to start my own information systems business in the global economic market. To facilitate this goal, I intend to seek employment on Wall Street in a position that will provide me with practical knowledge in product development within the international finance market. I plan to acquire a position that will teach me how to market products successfully, so I can translate these skills into solid business practices and strategies when I launch my own company. I also hope to gain networking experience and make contacts that will support business success when I enter the corporate world. In the short term, I plan to sit for my CFA exam in 2006.

To prepare myself for this path, I have taken many steps, including attending a university in Atlanta, Georgia, where I received a B.B.A. in July 2005 while minoring in Information Systems. The coursework I completed was both challenging and exciting. I maintained a respectable GPA while learning to be self-sufficient, and I made choices that helped me develop interpersonal skills and manage stress in a diverse and often demanding environment.

During my employment with the multinational firm MeiDA Pharmacia, Inc., in Taipei, I performed many key functions that facilitated efficient business development. I worked in an environment that continually reinforced the importance of open-ended business processes and acceptance of diversity in the workplace. There I learned to manage multiple tasks and overcome the stress often associated with performing several job functions simultaneously.

I expect to leverage work and school as efficiently as I have done in the past. My skills and ability to work quickly have enabled me to advance in each position I have held. My five-year goals include launching my own financial business that is competitive and successful in a global marketplace. I also aspire to become an innovative business leader who earns the respect of peers, employees, and competitors alike. I further intend, through my business, to provide jobs for equally talented and motivated individuals throughout the course of my career.

Throughout my life I have made choices that have enabled me to grow both personally and professionally. I have become a productive member of the global economic community through my varied experiences. My personal skills include speaking and writing in Mandarin and English, with some knowledge of Japanese and Taiwanese. To succeed in business, I have developed strong presentation skills by managing multicultural group presentations, with experience addressing groups ranging from two to seventy-five people — delivering inspirational, persuasive, and informative lectures.

An Innovative Solution: The HyperSpa Marketing Project

My ability to manage multiple tasks is also demonstrated by my experience at the Hilton Hotel Chinese Restaurant, where I was required to remember and recall customers' names and preferences while providing personalized service and resolving complaints.

During my time at university, I had the opportunity to participate in a new business creative project focused on marketing promotion. As part of my research, I was tasked with creating an innovative solution for HyperSpa, Inc., a corporation offering a new skin rejuvenation process using high-volume oxygen. I faced multiple professional challenges, including creating a unique business plan, developing a SWOT analysis, crafting a successful marketing mix, and producing a sales forecast and budget analysis for the company. Through this process, I helped HyperSpa position itself as the new standard for premium medical care at an affordable price in a state-of-the-art facility. The hard work and dedication that went into this project enabled HyperSpa to prepare for rapid expansion and ensure that patients could recover more quickly using innovative, accessible treatments.

By its very nature, HyperSpa faced the unique challenge of providing customers with cutting-edge care for complicated medical conditions that fail to respond to traditional treatments. The technology offered customers unique possibilities in a distinctly therapeutic environment. The challenge included developing a marketing plan that helped customers understand that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) could provide effective treatment for a variety of seemingly unrelated medical conditions. The project's goals also included encouraging doctors and insurance companies to consider HBOT first when confronted with complex cases, and increasing awareness among patients who might otherwise be too unwell to advocate for HBOT as a preferred form of treatment.

Through much hard work and dedication, I was able to overcome these challenges and provide a plan of action that would enable HyperSpa to succeed in its mission: to deliver the utmost value to critically ill patients and their healthcare sponsors using state-of-the-art technology.

I believe it takes a strong leader to overcome all challenges and obstacles that arise in any corporate environment. A leader is many things — some define a leader simply as a manager, but I believe a leader is much more. A leader must possess practical management skills, including the ability to direct staff, perform complex budgeting tasks, manage financial transactions, and ensure that corporate objectives are met through strategic business practices. While developing the business plan and strategy for HBOT, I believe I experienced all of these key functions.

A leader must also possess strong interpersonal skills. In today's global marketplace, where diverse populations are often required to work together in demanding environments, interpersonal skills can be more critical than technical ones. They enable a leader to motivate and empower employees to achieve not only corporate goals but also their own personal and professional objectives. Through the challenges I faced during the HyperSpa project and through my broader personal experiences, I believe I have developed the interpersonal skills necessary to motivate and empower others — skills that will serve me both in graduate school and in my future business career.