Graduate education provides an opportunity to expand academic horizons, to learn practical skills for real world applications, and affords the opportunity to do advanced research and influence future generations of students in a given field. University of Southern California’s graduate program in Finance will afford me the opportunity to conduct research, advance my knowledge of the field and study with some of the finest faculty in the profession. I will be able to advance my knowledge in a vibrant profession that has implications for a broad range of industries and services that are used daily by millions of people throughout the world.
My undergraduate education in Business Administration from Hong Kong Baptist University has prepared me to face the many challenges that await me in both the academic and professional realm. I have always been an active learner and enjoy reading diverse topics ranging from philosophy to psychology. My work experiences with China Minmetals Securities exposed me to the practical side of asset management and financial analysis. Furthermore, as an assistant associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers assurance department I held many responsibilities for auditing financials of clients. As an intern with Unilever China, I also gained experience in sales and conducted analysis on several metrics. While a student, I was also fortune enough to participate in the SIFE competition sponsored by Unilever, where I lead my team to become national champions in China. Finally, I have always been very interested in research and would be particularly interested to assist in any research conducted by the Business faculty at USC.
An M.S. in Finance from the University of Southern California would open up many career opportunities. The training in management, business, and mathematics it provides serves many professions, and is applicable in commerce, insurance, and government jobs. The enormous amount of flexibility of the degree enables the holder to branch out and discover areas beyond their immediate expertise, and in turn expand the scope of enterprise and discover novel solutions to old problems.
My initial goals are modest, insofar as my first step will be to seek a position as an analyst in asset management. Asset management would allow me to apply the skills that I have learned in my undergraduate studies with the education I receive at USC. The broad-based interactions that will occur during my master’s studies will expose me to many fields that will serve me well as I collaborate with the diverse groups involved in asset management. Portfolio managers, bankers, advisors, investment specialists, and traders will just be some of the professionals with whom I’ll be required to cooperate with. The global focus at USC will expose me to the diverse nationalities of the students, and consequently provide me with insight that will serve my clients as they seek to maximize their investment returns.
My ultimate goal is to be a portfolio manager in a large investment company. As a portfolio manager I will be responsible for making investment decisions regarding other peoples hard earned money. The position is one of high responsibility, which my training will prepare me for. As a portfolio manager I will be presented with the work of analysts and I will be required to make fast investment decisions while keeping the state of the industry, economy, and markets in mind. An education at the Marshall School of Business will further provide me with the broad background that will be required to analyze the business environment. The Corporate Finance and Managerial Economics requirements, as well as the myriad of elective courses will position me to use the latest finance techniques in support of my objective of maximizing investor returns.
The level of education, and the diversity in both course work and student body at USC is unparalleled at other institutions. In both my short and long term goals, I will leverage the education and contacts that I form to maximize my personal productivity. In turn, this will allow me to maximize investment opportunity for the firm and clients alike. Furthermore, I will be exposed to new enterprises with novel ideas and my position will enable me to advance new technologies as they are brought from the idea stage to the practical stage. An alternate goal of finance is to make new technologies available by providing and ensuring that the money required for creating novel ideas is available. Thus, my education at your institution and my future employment will allow me to serve a broader humanitarian cause of encouraging new developments in many field of activity.
