7. WHAT’S YOUR ENTRY TICKET TO A FLYING START?
7. WHAT’S YOUR ENTRY TICKET TO A FLYING START?
Your education from top universities will be your entry ticket to a flying start. MBA will be a double bonus.
During my nine years of fulltime employment with Malaysia's number one job portal Jobstreet.com, I had the opportunities to have face-to-face chats with many fresh graduates and jobseekers at the annual MCTF (Malaysia Career and Training Fair) organised by Jobstreet.com. As one of the resume clinic's volunteers, I helped to provide resume writing and job counselling advice to these young millennials. Occasionally, I also became one of the speakers sharing on job markets, job interview skills, etc. Due to my job nature, I also met up with clients from various industries who were looking to hire new talent.
Jobstreet.com's key business is to provide a platform for employers to find the right candidates for their companies. I was in the thick and thin of it since I was in sales.
From my personal experiences gained during Jobstreet.com days, I can safely come to one conclusion. In order to make more money in a nine-to-five job, it's almost certain that you need to obtain at least a bachelor's degree. If you can pursue a master's or doctorate degree, that will be even better but not mandatory.
What should you study in university?
You can assess your own high school results to see what you are good at. If you excel in chemistry, biology, and mathematics, you can probably consider a career in medicine, pharmacy or food science. If you are good in physics and mathematics, you can probably consider engineering or computer science as your study. If have strong interest in business studies, you can definitely go for accounting, finance or business administration degree in university.
Of course, you also need to seriously consider if your interest in that particular field can sustain for the next thirty to fifty years. The reason is pretty simple. Besides at least four years in university, you are most likely to spend another thirty to forty years in that profession after your graduation. You need to have a long-lasting passion and interest. Otherwise, you will feel miserable halfway through your career in the wrong field feeling unfulfilled, unhappy.
Not all professions and jobs are paid the same. Jobs in higher demand can help you find a job more easily. Hence, you may also want to take into consideration the job market demand and salary of your career choice.
Knowing the trend of job markets and what future jobs will be created may help you decide what degree to study too. If you land yourself in a job of the future after your graduation, your potential income will probably grow faster compared to the standard market rate over the next ten to thirty years. If it's the trend of the future job market, it means there will be more and more demands for such top talent in these jobs. The demand will probably outgrow the supply. If so, you will be in an upper hand in your career knowing that your job is not in a sunset industry, but rather a rising profession. It gives you an upper hand to negotiate your salary package.
What will the future job market look like?
Then, what will the future job market look like? According to a report Jobs of Tomorrow (January 2020) published by the World Economic Forum, the jobs of tomorrow or emerging jobs will fall within these seven professional clusters:
1. Care economy (37%):
Some of the most in-demand roles in the care economy include medical transcriptionists, radiation therapists, medical assistants, personal aides, and fitness instructors.
2. Sales, marketing and content (17%):
The critical new opportunities in this cluster include digital marketing specialists, content specialists, social media assistants, and customer success specialists.
3. Data and artificial intelligence (AI):
In the data science and AI cluster, the role of artificial intelligence specialist is the fastest growing profession while data scientist positions form the third-largest opportunity among this professional cluster.
4. Engineering and cloud computing (12%):
In the engineering and cloud computing cluster, highly demanded roles include site reliability engineers, Python developers, DevOps engineers and full stack engineers.
5. Product development (10%):
Among the in-demand jobs in this cluster include quality assurance testers, agile coaches, software quality assurance engineers and product analysists.
6. People and culture (8%):
In the people and culture cluster field, positions that will be in demand are information technology recruiters and talent acquisition specialists.
7. Green economy (1.6%):
The green economy professional cluster includes some of the fastest-growing professions, in particular, solar energy installers, methane gas generation technicians, and green marketers.
Among these seven professional clusters, the largest growth is in the care economy and the smallest is in the green economy.
You’ll notice that the jobs of tomorrow will increasingly require both "digital" and "human" competence.
Apart from technical skills, other skills that will be highly demanded are specialised industry skills, core business skills (e.g. marketing, project management, budgeting, and business development), and general and soft skills (e.g. leadership, communication, negotiation, creativity, and problem-solving).
Knowing what the jobs of the future requires of you after your graduation will probably shed some lights for you to equip yourself better while you still study in university.
Are all universities the same?
Now that you know what you will study, bear in mind that not all universities and colleges produce top-notched quality candidates for employers.
Why so?
Based on the US News and World Report 2019, the university that I graduated from, the University of California at Berkeley, USA, which is ranked fourth in the world, has a highly competitive acceptance rate of 15%. As for Stanford University, ranked third globally, the acceptance rate is even lower, at only 7%. However, University of Toledo in Colorado, USA, has a very high acceptance rate of 94%.
Here is the complete list of the top 20 best global universities:
1. Harvard University, Massachusetts, United States
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, United States
3. Stanford University, California, United States
4. University of California – Berkeley, California, United States
5. University of Oxford, United Kingdom
6. California Institute of Technology, California, United States
7. Columbia University, New York, United States
8. Princeton University, New Jersey, United States
9. University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
10. University of Washington, Washington, United States
11. Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, United States
12. Yale University, Connecticut, United States
13. University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
14. University of California – Los Angeles, California, United States
15. University of San Francisco, California, United States
16. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
17. University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
18. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
19. University of California – San Diego, California, United States
20. Imperial College London, United Kingdom
At the local front, QS Asia University Ranking 2019 has listed top 100 best universities in Asia. The highest ranked university from Malaysia in the top 100 universities in Asia are:
19. University of Malaya (UM)
34. Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)
41. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)
43. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
47. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
99. Universiti Teknologi Petronas
In a separate rankings by The World University Rankings 2020, the top 8 universities in Malaysia are:
1. University of Malaya (UM);
2. Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR)
3. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, University Malaysia Perlis, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and Universiti Teknologi Petronas
Please take note that UM and UTAR clearly stand out from the rest. The other five local universities share the same number three ranking.
Graduates from these local universities may attract more employers to hire them than some other universities and colleges. Simply put, many hiring employers prefer to hire university graduates from top universities, not any universities.
Based on employers’ hiring experiences, many fresh graduates who graduate from lesser known universities or colleges have a large gap in terms of qualification and skills. Their English communication skill is also usually below par.
Many hiring employers don't mind paying much higher salary than the average salary in the job market to these top talents graduating from top universities. They believe fully that people are an asset to an organisation. And when they see one, they will grab him / her.
In fact, a lot of top global companies and multi-national organisations visit university campuses yearly to "lure" top talent to join their firms even before they graduate.
Yes, the universities you graduate from matter a lot.
Therefore, no matter what field you study in university, as long as you graduate from one of the top universities in Malaysia, or even better, from the top 20 UK / US / Asia / Global universities, you are off to a flying start in your career.
If you study a professional field in STEM - science, technology, engineering or mathematics, it will be even better. You will always be highly employable in future.
My university education's experience and journey
In 1984 when I was seventeen, I went to further my study in California, the United States of America, under an American student exchange program. I was grateful to have stayed with 2 loving American families – Webster’s family of three and Beers’ family of five. They treated me as a part of their families.
Being educated in Chinese school in Malaysia, I had challenging times studying in America. I spent two years in US high school, trying hard to polish up my English grammar and communication skills to fit into America's education system and culture. Fortunately, I successfully graduated with a high school diploma from Sam Marcos High School in California.
Instead of gaining direct entry into a US university paying higher tuition fees, I decided to attend a two-year community college first to help save money for my parents. My parents had to borrow money in order to finance me through my education.
Two years in community college also gave me more time to figure out what I degree wanted to study. I didn't simply choose any community college. I was accepted by the number one community college in California, De Anza College, situated in the heart of Silicon Valley surrounded by giant corporations like Apple, Google, Hewlett Packard, Facebook, etc. I know it would be tough to be in a top community college. But I knew I had gone all the way to US to study and I must strive for the best education I could get.
I was still young then. Like many young people at that age, I couldn't decide whether I should study medicine, law, political science, psychology, computer science, engineering, mathematics, or statistics. As you can see, my interest was rather wide. Or I should say that I was utterly confused and directionless.
It was a blessing that US education system allows college students to take as many general courses as possible covering all aspects, especially during the freshman (first year) and sophomore (second year) years. The ultimate purpose is for students to explore their own interests.
I ended up taking classes in accounting, sociology, psychology, music, economics, computer science, and statistics. English composition was a compulsory class for non-English-speaking students like myself.
I also took the opportunity to visit many university campuses trying to figure out which university I should transfer to for my junior and senior years.
I visited the University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of California at Sacramento, the University of California at San Diego, San Jose State University, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. During one of the summer holidays, I visited Harvard University, New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University and Yale University. These were all the top universities in America. Deep inside my heart, I told myself that I wanted to get accepted into one of the top US universities.
Finally, I set my eyes on the University of California at Berkeley as my top choice for few reasons.
It’s ranked the number one / best public university (and one of the top ten public / private universities) in USA with relatively cheaper tuition fees compared to other private universities like Stanford University and Harvard University. It's located in Bay Area, California, which was my preferred choice of living area. It's near Santa Cruz, perfect for summer beach times. It's near the mountains for hiking (Yosemite National Park) and snow skiing (Lake Tahoe). And it's surrounded by some of the most intelligent people in the world being close to Silicon Valley.
Fortunately, I was accepted as a transfer student to complete my bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley. My final two years at UC Berkeley were the toughest college times of my life. I had some of the smartest people from all over the world in my classes. I learned not only what the courses taught me, I also learned about rich cultures from students coming from all over the world, even from Tibet.
Until today, I still remember vividly what Tibetan people drink in the morning as breakfast. It’s fragrant Tibetan tea with crispy rice inside the tea. In fact, I was offered to drink this special morning tea a few times during my university years staying at fraternity house. One of my house mates was from Tibet. What a memorable experience indeed!
With many hours and night of burning midnight oil, I finally graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in Statistics, which falls into STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).
I’m sharing my university experience with you because I would like to assure you that it’s perfectly okay not knowing what to study initially.
It’s okay to be confused during the first two years of your college. You are exploring. You need to spend some time discovering more about your own self. You are trying to find out your long-term interest and passion. I’m sure slowly but surely, you will be able to enjoy your preferred university, studying what you love most.
Nowadays, virtually everyone can obtain a university degree. Some paper qualifications can even be "bought" as long as you attend classes. There are universities that I haven't heard of.
Therefore, the paper qualification no longer means much unless you graduate from one of the top universities. It definitely will give you a good head start. When you go for interviews, hiring employers won't say, "Where is your university located? How is the university?".
Instead, hiring employers will say, "Oh - you graduate from MIT. Congratulations! It must be very tough and competitive." Instead of you begging for a job, employers are begging for you to join them.
How about obtaining a full-time MBA degree?
If you can further your higher education obtaining an MBA (Master of Business Administration), again, not from any MBA schools, but from the top MBA schools in the world, you are definitely gaining an added advantage compared to others.
Obtaining an MBA is also especially good if you want to have a career change from one profession or field to another. For instance, you studied engineering in your undergraduate and you have been working as an engineer since graduation. However, you would like to have a career switch to a finance industry. You are a perfect candidate for that MBA in finance master's degree, gaining the in-depth knowledge necessary for your career change from engineering to finance.
For the similar reason, most of the top notch organisations from all industries and consulting firms (Accenture, Deloitte, Mckinsey, etc) prefer those graduating from top 10 to top 20 MBA schools.
Since most of the top leaders in such organisations are also alumni to these top MBA schools, naturally they also want to hire their juniors. It's all about networking as well in addition to being professionally qualified.
During my good old Jobstreet.com days, every year without fail, the founder Mark Chang invited a few interns from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the number two university in the world, all the way from America to Kuala Lumpur. For the record, this was made possible because Mark Chang was a graduate from MIT. Similarly, then Chief Operating Officer Suresh Thiru and Chief Technology Officer Albert Wong were also graduates of MIT. This shows the power of alumni and networking from top universities.
Jobstreet.com provided these top MBA talents free accommodation during their three-month internships in Kuala Lumpur. The top management let these MIT interns soak themselves in Jobstreet.com’s business operations. They let them swim in it.
Before they left, they were required to present their business findings and recommendations for Jobstreet.com. I fondly remember one of the batches because I was working closely with them. They have graduated ever since. I’m still connected with a couple of them through LinkedIn and Facebook. One of them is a founder of his own company now. And the rest are having very well-paid jobs in America.
One of my greatest regrets in life: offered but declined a full scholarship to study MBA (Finance) at Yokohama National University in Japan
Throughout my educational journey, one of my greatest regrets in life happened in 1994. I gave up Monbusho full scholarship to study MBA in Finance at Yokohama National University in Japan. This two-year full scholarship was jointly offered by Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) and Embassy of Japan with a conditional bond after graduation.
I had to go through several rounds of panel interviews. My ex-colleagues at Seagate Penang applied along with me. Their applications were rejected but mine was accepted.
However, when my dad handed me the Monbusho scholarship’s offer letter, I should have jumped with joy and grabbed this chance-of-a-life-time immediately. But as fate might have made a big joke out of my life, I was given only 14 days to accept the offer letter and within another one month, I should be flying to Japan for MBA study. But during that period, I was an ordained monk in a Thai temple located in Kedah.
It so happened that I was at the lowest point of my life. I was struggling with my own identity, career and I wasn’t sure what I wanted in life. I ended up seeking refuge in a temple for peace and self-discovery. I became an ordained monk. I was in temporary monkhood trying to figure out about life, about myself. I was a confused soul.
Traditionally in Thai Buddhism, temporary ordination is for a term of a single vassa or rainy season (Thai phansa). During this ordination period, I wasn’t allowed to be disrobed. If so, I was told that bad things would happen to me. If I were to accept the Monbusho MBA full scholarship, I would need to break my wow and cut short my ordination prematurely by one month. The time I was supposed to fly to Japan was the time I was still supposed to be an ordained monk.
Because of my fear of something bad going to happen to me if I were to cut short my ordination prematurely, I reluctantly turned down this chance-of-a-lifetime opportunity.
I was so devastated with my decision. I was so despaired by not being able to go to Japan to study my MBA with a full scholarship. I was so sad and depressed. And it was all out of fear of my future, that something might have happened to me in future.
My dad was very disappointed at me for giving up on this hard-earned full scholarship. I could see the sadness and anger in his eyes. I could hear his disappointment in his tones. He couldn't figure out why I wanted to continue to obey to the temple rules and give up on this chance-of-a-lifetime Monbusho scholarship to study MBA in Japan. Seriously, I didn't know what really got into me during that time. I was really lost. I was really scared.
My immature decision of not accepting Monbusho full scholarship to study MBA in Japan in 1994 left a an ugly big scar and deep regret inside my heart until today. Even as I am writing now, I’m full of regrets.
At times I’d wake up sweating and wandering how my life would have been if I were to study in Japan back then. Perhaps I would be working in a top Japan organisation and living in Japan by now. Perhaps I would be jet setting around the world being a top Chief Operating Officer or Chief Financial Officer of a multi-national company by now. Perhaps I would have made much more money out of my career by now.
How I wish I could turn back time. How I wish I was more mature and logical in my thinking back then. But I know I can't turn back time. It will continue to remain as one of my greatest regrets in life. Please don't repeat my mistake about MBA and live with deep regrets like me.
My personal view on MBA for you
I encourage you to save enough money and go for your full-time MBA at a top business school after three to five years of working in corporate world. Don't study MBA immediately after your degree though. You need practical working experience for you to appreciate MBA more.
If you are a graduate from a top global university and your employer is one of the top-notched companies, you may be offered a two-year study leave with full pay. Your job will still be yours after you complete your MBA. Some companies may even sponsor your MBA tuition fees for you. Why? You are a talent! And talented people are hard to come by. Talented people are great assets to organisation. Now you can see why a degree obtained from a top university is a great entry ticket to many wonderful things to come in your career, including furthering your MBA and securing a future job with a top-notch company.
If possible, try to obtain not any MBA, but a full-time MBA from a top MBA business school. According to QS Global MBA Rankings 2019, the world’s top 20 full time MBA business schools are:
1) Stanford Graduate School of Business, California, United States
2) Harvard Business School, Massachusetts, United States
3) University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, Philadelphia, United States
4) London Business School, United Kingdom
5) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts, United States
6) INSEAD, France and Singapore;
7) HEC Paris, France
8) University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Chicago, United States
9) IE Business School, Spain
10) Columbia Business School, New York, United States
11) University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Anderson School of Management, California, United States
12) Oxford University Said Business School, Oxford, United Kingdom
13) ESADE Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain
14) North western University The Kellogg School of Management, Illinois, United States
15) University of Michigan Ross School of Business, Michigan, United States
16) Yale School of Management, Connecticut, United States
17) University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley) Haas School of Business, California, United States
18) IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain
19) Imperial College Business School, London, United Kingdom
20) Duke University Fuqua School of Business, North Carolina, United States
Please invest in yourself with a full-time MBA for your career growth or career change. It is definitely going to increase your value and worth your while.
Is distance learning or part-time MBA program the same as full-time MBA program?
Talking about Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs, there are also online e-learning, part-time or weekend programs available.
If your main purpose is just to obtain an MBA master's degree as feather in your cap, or for the purpose of knowing new friends or networking, then it's fully understandable.
Perhaps due to financial reason, you need to work fulltime in order to support your family commitment and MBA's tuition fees. This too is understandable.
But imagine that if you were to compare a full-time MBA graduate who spends 80 hours a week studying versus another part-time MBA graduate who spends 40 hours at work and another 40 hours studying, who do you think will have added advantage? Who do you think the future employer prefers to hire? This is especially true if you are looking for a career change to a totally new environment or industry or specialization.
Spending two full years studying MBA in a university campus is not only for paper qualification, you will be learning from other MBA students in a more in-depth level. You will get the opportunity to participate in many campus activities which may ignite another fresh new learnings that are beneficial to your next job.
Hence, I personally encourage you to enrol in a full-time MBA program in a top business school if you can. What you will learn studying fulltime is far greater than what you will learn through e-learning, part-time or weekend MBA programs.
Bear in mind that educational qualifications are just entry tickets
Having said that, the moment you join the company, your resume is no longer relevant or important. Your bachelor’s degree or your MBA certificate can only open great doors for you to work your dream company.
The moment you step foot into the company of your choice, no matter which top university you graduate from, your degree or resume have become a thing in the past.
Why?
Your past excellent educational background only reflected your inner potential and capability. It demonstrated that if you could be successful in your bachelor’s or master’s degree, logically speaking you should be equally successful in your career.
But since whatever lies in the future is not a guarantee, you need to perform well and contribute to the growth of the company to prove your worth.
Nonetheless, gain that degree and full-time MBA from a top university is crucially important. You will then be having a flying head start in terms of your salary and career potential compared to others.
SECTION 2
INVEST IN YOURSELF AND YOUR CAREER
“The best investment you can make, is an investment in yourself…
The more you learn, the more you’ll earn”
Warren Buffet
F I L L
Financial Independence, Live Life
achieving financial independence from 9-to-5 job before 50
Book manuscript written in 2020 & blog articles published in 2021 by Vincent Khor
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
