How My Academic Background Will Help Me

The centerpiece of my college education was that it offered me a chance to read extensively, develop writing skills and learn to think logically, coherently and analytically. I developed and nurtured these skills inadvertently by participating in class discussions, group work and research papers. These tools have subsequently been useful in my personal and work experiences. The breadth and depth of my college curriculum offered me the chance to take classes that cut across a broad spectrum of academic disciplines. The relevance of such a broad educational preparation to management is that it helps widen the horizon of analytical, service and product possibilities. Nevertheless, I was cognizant of the need for me to acquire work experience to help ground my education in a practical framework prior to enrolling in graduate school. My choice of management as the area of career interest was not fortuitous. My relentless participation in extracurricular activities in college and the insights I gained helping my mother in her small business helped galvanize my interest in management training and MBA education. Hence my interest in a finance and brokerage operations work after college. By virtue of my three-year work experience, I have been exposed to several management challenges and opportunities. Perhaps most importantly, the challenges have reinforced my interest to seek modern management solutions. I am intrigued by the manner in which the various facets of management affect each other including finance, operations, human resources, marketing, strategy and information technology. My career plan has been to seek different experiences by virtue of six-month stints in different departments. In this connection, I have had assignments in corporate finance, brokerage and human resources, culminating in my current position in back-office operations and settlement. In the above roles, certain characteristics have been apparent to me as critical success factors. I have learned that the attributes of teamwork, initiative, sense of urgency and leadership are at the core of success in management activities. In graduate business school, I would seek to explore the intricacies of modern business management efforts, challenges and opportunities. Moreover, I intend to learn about the relationships of the various disciplines within management and how their interplay may be optimized to benefit a particular entity.