Journeying onto a New Adventure and Destination
From Taiwan to Hong Kong and banking to consulting, how did Wang Yi-ting achieve her changes?
Hong Kong is one of the world’s major financial hubs with a mix of Asian cultures and connections to the Western market. It naturally became Yi-ting’s top destination for her MBA, and as the place she wanted to start her post-MBA career. She could leverage her Chinese background while being in an East-meets-West environment. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)’s extensive alumni network, history and reputation were other pull factors.
Despite having experience in banking and finance back in Taiwan, an MBA helped Yi-ting look at things from different perspectives. Prior to her MBA, her focus was mainly on small project management. With business management and entrepreneurship related courses, she gained new knowledge that would soon become applicable in her new job. She began to understand how business owners made decisions and was able to apply this mindset in her current management consulting job, advising clients on their business issues.
Yi-ting was particularly grateful for the abundance of networking events through student clubs as well as her participation in case competitions throughout the MBA programme. These not only helped her with her job offers but also assisted her with business development, and most importantly, provided lifelong friends.
“This MBA journey was an eye-opener for me – in terms of looking at things from different perspectives, and learning to work with people from such diverse backgrounds, cultures and values. I have made connections to the other side of the world through study trips to US and China and case competitions with business schools in Europe. I’ve learned to understand differences, and how to embrace them in order to cultivate a more valuable business environment,” Yi-ting says.
As a sponsorship lead for the corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee during her MBA days, she had many opportunities to meet large corporates, through which she learned how to present an idea and showcase her capabilities in negotiations. On top of this, she received a better understanding of what these local and international companies were looking for in terms of CSR.
When talking about the fact that CUHK has such a huge alumni base, she says, “It is very easy to run into CUHK graduates wherever you go, and that really helps to create tight bonds.”
About Wang Yi-ting
Wang Yi-ting graduated from the CUHK MBA Programme in 2015. She is now a Senior Consultant at Sia Partners, Hong Kong. Prior to her MBA, she was a Digital Channel Manager of Standard Chartered and Product Manager at Citibank in Taiwan.
This article is first published by the MBA Programmes and edited by the Marketing and Communications Office at CUHK Business School.