Alumni Career Mentor Q&A: A Cog in the Machine or a High Growth Enterprise?
Nov 06-2014
For the MBA students about to re-enter the workplace, the path forward may still be unclear and requires some insight. Should they enter a Fortune 500 company as a cog in a big machine or choose a fast growing firm and fly with the ‘up and comers’? Is vocational training or network more important?
Peking University’s National School of Development BiMBA invited a number industry veterans from its wide pool of alumni to share their views gained from years of workplace experience and light the path forward for current MBA students.
Key Points From Four of BiMBA’s Alumni Career Mentors
Summary:
Li Jianhong: Set Your Sights High but Keep Your Feet Firmly Grounded
Li Jianhong, Director of Human Resources at New Hope Group is an alumnus from the 2009 EMBA class. In the face to tough competition in the job market, he encouraged students to aim high but stay grounded. The so-called ‘right choice’ of job is, ultimately, a question of what is best suited to the individual – in terms of whether it should be a career or an start-up, the answer is in combining one’s own unique characteristics and not blindly chasing the trend. When deciding upon a company, one can make a judgment based on the career platform, company team and reward system. New Hope, a Chinese privately owned enterprise, was established in 1982 and is a representative agricultural firm in China. Its industries include farming and food products; chemicals and resources; real estate and infrastructure and finance and investments. New Hope will shift and shape its development towards internationalization, financialization and e-commerce. In addition, it will seek top managerial talent according to its business needs.
Lin Yi: We Also Talk About Salary
Lin Yi is a graduate from BiMBA’s first class. His own is experience is rather legendary. After over 20 years of technology management experience at NEC, Motorola, KPMG, Microsoft and Samsung Electronics, he threw himself into television and new media technology, COO of TV Mining (天脉聚源北京传媒科技有限公司). On salary expectations, Mr. Lin took this point of view: on average, a person aged 35-45 will reach his or her salary peak at 39. Therefore, MBAs may wish to take roughly how you took at graduation. Speaking about his own ‘cutting edge’ company and industry, Lin Yi emphasized that new media and internet technology is radically changing company-consumer relationships and in the digital age companies must ‘embrace’ their customers.
Li Yinxiang: Will Talented Personnel Choose a ‘Black Horse’?
Li Yinxiang is an alumus of the 2014 EMBA class. Although the health industry is difficult and many find it hard to prosper Mr. Li’s company has maintained a level of high growth. As Consibot (康姿百德高新技术开发有限公司) Chairman, Mr. Li stated his company culture adheres to the following principles: “Talent as a base, to keep fighting and customers at our heart.” For young MBAs he threw a ‘hot’ question: do you want to be a cog in a Fortune 500 company or choose to develop with a high-growth company? Perhaps at a Fortune 500 company with a well-developed management system young people will only be small cogs in a large machine but in fast-growth, developing companies MBAs will have the opportunity to participate in the whole process of building the management system, maintaining processes and continuously innovate and optimize systems.
Mei Dewen: One Can Only Compete with Oneself
China Beijing Environment Exchange General Manager Mei Dewen is an alumnus of the EMBA 2010 class. Mr. Mei distilled his growth experience into three key words: Tranquility, Action and Persistence.
Only with a tranquil heart can you earnestly think upon what one must do at different stages of life and develop body and mind and reflect. Once you have an idea, you must act upon it and become a true ‘do-er’, those who don’t can only daydream. Mei Dewen shared his own growth experience of when he compared himself to his high school classmates and came to this conclusion: you can look at those next to you, but you can only compete with yourself. This is like a marathon; you must persist until the end and never give up. Mr. Mei participates in many society events but insisted to MBA students: for a young person’s career development, one’s technical skills are more important than socials – workplace training is more important than networking.
MBA Career Mentor Closing Words
Dearest BiMBA seniors:
In October, the full-time BiMBA class has officially finished, entering the employment season. Students of this class were employed in industries such as Finance, Investments, Consumer Goods Marketing Management, PR, Management Consulting, Manufacturing and Operations Management, Retail Management, Real Estate Project Management and Investment, IT etc. If you have suitable job positions, please recommend to us.
BiMBA Career Development Mentoring scheme was established in 2007 and has been running for 8 years. In the last year, the Career Development Department (CDD) has organized six Career Mentor Sharing sessions for full time students. Our alumni have returned to the beautiful Langrun Gardens to share their BiMBA stories, management thoughts, work experience and industry insights to help MBA students on their career path. We thank our seniors for their contributions and welcome more BiMBA alumni to join the mentor team.
As BiMBA Career Mentors, you will be awarded the BiMBA Career Mentor Certificate:
Through class speeches, group discussions etc., sharing with MBAs your learning and work experiences, for recommending work opportunities to the new generation of BiMBAers, for providing a channel of talent to your company’s growth.
If you would like to recommend job opportunities, return to school to share your experience and become an MBA Career Mentor, please contact the BiMBA CDD responsible, Ms. Crystal Fang Ying.
Email: yingfang@bimba.pku.edu.cn
Telephone: 010-6275 8592
