Wharton/Lauder Blog

Language and job search: it takes two to tango

At Wharton, you quite often hear hiring managers at Employer Information Sessions (EIS’s) say something like ‘If anybody here speaks [your language of choice], please talk to [name of a person in charge of international recruiting]‘. At the same time, clusters of eager Wharton/Lauder students are quite often spotted around the international recruiting officers, and frankly, there seems to be very little competition.

One of the reasons why the overseas positions are a different ball of game is language: as in foreign language. While most people who come to business schools have been abroad on vacation, or have made short business trips to distant corners of the world, many employers are looking for long-term international exposure and a proven track-record of achievement in foreign lands.

In this regard, Wharton/Lauder students are a serious competition: we are an exceptional mix of people who have worked, studied and traveled extensively overseas. We as a group bring to the table a significant international management expertise, cultural adaptability and awareness, compelling linguistic fluency (most people speak at least two foreign languages) and broad international and American networks. A good illustration of the competitiveness of the Lauder students is our Japanese trackers who two weeks after the recruitment started have each secured several job offers for this summer. Not bad at all, especially given the current situation on the job market.

Needless to say, Lauder is all about globalization, international management, linking domestic and foreign markets and just about anything related to transnational business activity. Quite frankly, this is a great place to be in as more and more companies realize that fluency in a foreign language and international experience is a necessity for modern managers.

In my opinion, foreign language and international management will one day become a standard requirement at most business schools. Give it 20 years max. I can also predict that the graduates from the Lauder program will one day become a unique and elite source of managerial talent for multinationals. Another prognosis I can make now is that more business schools will start similar programs to satisfy the demand. In fact, some schools have already started doing this and quite pride themselves in having done so, while at other business schools speaking at least two languages is an everyday necessity and an absolute must. To me, this trend is quite clear.

An observation I made on Thursday during Pr. Mauro Guillén class made me think about the broadness of the Lauder Institute’s outreach. In his PowerPoint deck he used the term “Lauder countries”, i.e. countries where the Lauder Institute’s languages are spoken. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish cover pretty much all of the developed and most of the developing world. While I was amused by the simplicity and descriptiveness of the term, I also thought that no other business school program in the entire world offers the incredible diversity of languages or the depth of regional studies and broadness of international studies as the Lauder Institute.

Next post
My next post will be about volunteering and innovation both at Wharton and in my life (although I no longer see the difference between the two).

Posted in MBA | No Comments »

Speakers: America’s fluency vs. China’s stiffness

Speakers
Modern business world is an environment where communicating one’s thoughts in a clear and compelling way is a must. During the past several weeks I have observed a whole lot of different types of speaker here and while most presenters tend to be OK, some are definite outliers: either super good or just plain bad. The former are represented by Secretary Chertoff whose energizing crystal clear speech made a lasting impression on me—I would like to be a speaker like him one day—while the latter are exemplified by His Excellency Ambassador of China to the United States whose badly (if at all) rehearsed reading verbatim in the worst traditions of the Soviet apparatchiks sent a part of the audience into a deep slumber. The main lessons I have learned from the Ambassador’s speech were to practice public speaking more and NEVER read verbatim – the People’s Republic of China never looked bleaker in my eyes than after the boring Ambassador’s reading.

While Chertoff’s special service agents were the epitome of professionalism and efficiency as the Secretary himself, the Ambassador’s entourage came through as somewhat rude and disrespectful of their boss: while he was putting Penn professors to sleep with the uninspiring speech, his bureaucratic monotone in the ancient auditorium of Penn Law School was suddenly interrupted by a screechy sound of a cheesy Chinese pop song—one of the guys from the Chinese embassy did not turn off his cell phone.

Back in 1995 I was fortunate to participate in World Learning Inc.’s Ambassador Project in an elementary school in Sparta, NJ: I spent about an hour with a class of 6 year-olds telling them Russian tales and teaching them games I used to play as a kid. It was fun! The whole experience made me think about an individual’s role in representing his or her country around the world: every time an individual steps on a foreign soil, people around him make inferences about his country based on his behavior so, in effect, the individual becomes an ‘unofficial ambassador’ which is a big responsibility.  Too bad the clerks from the Chinese embassy do not seem to fully understand this simple concept.

[Show as slideshow]

Although the Q and A session (photo above) was a bit more lively than the speech itself, the Ambassador’s perfect command of the English language was not enough to do all the necessary damage control.

I love China, and I truly hope that in the future all Chinese diplomats and politicians will be just as interesting to listen to as Premier Wen Jiabao.

Leadership Ventures
In March, I am going on a Wharton Leadership Venture to Patagonia. This is promising to be a great trip with a bunch of exciting people from Wharton and the Vertical – an organization that specializes in organizing this type of experiential learning undertakings in the outdoors.

A Leadership Venture is an exercise at leadership in an outdoor setting. It is designed as a test of endurance: first, a person’s physical stamina is brought to exhaustion through several days of intense trekking in wilderness, second, this exhausted individual is then put in a situation where he or she has to lead a bunch of equally exhausted class mates. Hardcore and masochistic as it sounds, people nevertheless enjoy doing these ventures as they provide a unique opportunity to challenge yourself and develop your leadership skills in an unusual way. Destinations where a Leadership Venture can take a Wharton MBA range from the glaciers of Antarctica (a few of my friends are going there in December) to the forests of Argentina and Chile.

Here’s a quote from the Vertical’s website that sheds more light on what this is all about:
‘A Leadership Expedition is a structured learning experience through which participants improve their leadership and teamwork skills. The goal is to provide them with opportunities to work in teams, to lead groups of their peers, and to get first-hand experience in leadership. Participants are taken into an environment with which they are not familiar and where information and resources are limited, typically, given our expertise in the field, in the outdoors. This environment is used to provide numerous and, more importantly, genuine, leadership and team challenges for the participants. These situations require forward-thinking, rapid decision-making, conflict management and excellent communication skills. They require a bias for action and creativity.’

Next post
Next week I will talk about  why good foreign language skills and a dual degree are a big plus for MBA’s in the ultra competitive job market.

Posted in MBA | 5 Comments »

Lauder students get extra exposure to employers

Yesterday was a mad day from the very beginning to the very end.  I had to wake up around 5AM to finish up some work for my Accounting class, and it turned out that I had underestimated the amount of work a little so I had to work super fast to get everything done.  The day itself was a kaleidoscope of activities:  classes, resume editing, a lunch Employer Information Session (EIS) with the Bridgespan Group, then more classes, then another EIS with the McKinsey & Co., then a meeting with my team for the Wharton Business Plan Competition (WBPC) and a trip to a store nearby to buy a Halloween costume for today’s Lauder class (even the professor dressed up today!).  While I was shopping, Phillies won the World Series, and the whole city went totally nuts which was a cool thing to watch.  Apart from the brilliant baseball victory and wild exhalted screams and sporadic honking in the streets at 2:00AM, this was a more or less typical day at Wharton: by the time I got back home, I had no energy left.

Recruitment is the leitmotif of the second quarter. Employers come to campus to do EIS’s or organize coffee chats or both.  Students reach out to individual companies and do career tracks to specific regions of the world, e.g. London or China; clubs work on the logistics of the Days On the Job, etc.  It is very easy to spread yourself too thin so it is important to prioritize and focus on the career goals.

As far as job search goes, I personally think, the Lauder students are in a much better position then the rest.  We have more to offer to potential employers, we are blessed to be connected to an exceptionally supportive network of alums around the globe and in addition to this, there is a lot of interaction with the second years who are always there to help with just about anything you may have trouble with.  Moreover, companies often do a separate information session or a presentation specifically for the Lauder students which is a great opportunity to network as these events tend to be more detailed and informal.  For example, a few weeks ago Samsung Global Strategy Group invited Lauder students to learn about the benefits of working for the company, and JP Morgan did a Lauder-specific presentation today.  As far as I am concerned, non-Lauder students rarely have such opportunities so having more access to employers  is a major benefit of the Lauder program.

In my next post, I will talk about my preparation for the Leadership Venture to Patagonia I intend on going to in March, 2009; I also plan to comment on the speech that China Ambassador to the US gave at Penn last week and to post a couple of photos I took during the reception with the Ambassador.

Here is a great blog by a very well-versed writer, I am particularly fond of her intersting view on the role of China in the financial meltdown.

Posted in MBA | No Comments »

Q1

Quarter One is in the past: the exams are over, the team projects done, the Walnut Walk, the White Party, the Foam Party are all but a memory, as is the warm summer weather.

The first quarter has been a very intense, challenging and exciting time, and the most exciting part of this was the incredible mix of talent, personalities, backgrounds and nationalities that is the Wharton School. The students are the engine of the Wharton MBA program, and the faculty are the source of fuel for the Big Student Machine: a match made in heaven.

Much has been said about the high quality of expertise and the exceptional level of involvement of the faculty at Wharton. This is totally true! I think another important thing about this school is that the faculty are very accessible. The famous lunches with professors, for example, are a great way to get to know more about these exceptionally gifted and inspiring people.

Here is how it works: professors announce lunch dates, students then sign up online for a spot. The groups are usually up to five people, but can be bigger. Everyone then decides on the choice of a restaurant. They say, there ain’t such thing as free lunch, but the school covers all/most of the expenses in this case. The conversations are always lively and the recipe for this is simple as most people who sign up for lunches are obviously interested in the subject that the professor teaches, or the students would like to know the professor’s view on things that have been left out of the classroom discussions, or it is quite possible they want to discuss the professor’s article in the Wall Street Journal, etc. The learning never stops here, even at lunch there is always an opportunity to learn something new from some of the best professors and brightest students in the world.

Wharton Leadership Lectures have been a great source of food for thought. The school brings in high-caliber politicians, business people, social activists, etc to share their view on leadership. For example, Secretary Chertoff, who gave a speech and a Q&A at Wharton last week, surprised me with his clear vision of what needs to be done now to make the world a safer place in the future. He is an exceptional speaker with a sharp witty mind and a contagious personality.

This non-stop intellectual activity and the endless opportunities to interact with the coolest people ever is what made me happy at the Wharton School in quarter one.

By the way, here is a great view on happiness:

My next week’s post will either be about the leadership ventures at Wharton and/or the beginning of the recruitment process for the first-year MBA’s.

Posted in MBA | No Comments »

Research project: graduation requirement at the Lauder Institute

The major innovation of the Lauder present curriculum is the Research Project and Paper. Here is what the description of the course from the official webiste:

“INTS 991 Research Project and Paper
Students work in cross-language teams on research-oriented projects throughout three semesters of their degree program. The projects are designed to enable students to integrate their Wharton (or Law), SAS, and language skills. They are also designed to give the Lauder Institute, through the work of its students, a voice in major economic or policy debates. Projects involve delivery of results of the research to a specific audience, customer, client, or organization. Projects are co-supervised by two faculty members, one from Wharton (or Law) and one from SAS. Upon completion of the team-based project, students write individual papers on topics of their choice, but also based upon their team’s research.”(Note: SAS is the School of Arts and Sciences.)

The Lauder Institute started a pilot project like this last year, and it is going very well. This is the first time this format is a required course for every first-year at the Lauder Institute, and I think it will be an interesting project to be involved in for a number of reasons.

First, the way it works now provides the students a lot of options as to what projects they want to be involved in. In addition to quite a wide array of research projects the school offers, the students are free to suggest their own research topics, and if these topics generate enough interest among the fellow Lauderites, the school will most likely provide the funding and the guidance for the research. The most important part is that the projects have to span several countries, so that students from different language tracks could be involved.

Second, one of the requirements of the course is a research trip to the country or countries in question. Say, the small group of students who participated in the pilot last year travelled to Mexico, Russia and China. This is a great opportunity to practice one’s language skills. Most first-years at Lauder will travel to distant lands at the end of May next year.

Third, as some of the projects will have external guidance from interested sponsors, this can be a unique opportunity to learn from and interact with very experienced businessmen, consultants, managers, etc.

I am quite settled on researching the Sovereign Wealth Funds and everything associated with them in the context of the modern economic reality. Why? Well, this video explains the magnitude of the problems and controversy associated with the SWFs.

It is time to get back to exam prep - quarter finals start on Friday and finish next week. In my next post I will share a few details about professor-student interaction, and the general life perception in Quarter 1 at Wharton.

PS: It is time to buy stock. Hint: GE.

Posted in MBA | 8 Comments »

Language, language, language

My background is not so traditional–if there is such a thing as a “typical” pre-MBA background at Wharton :). Nevertheless, even the most nontraditional MBA’s are very rarely challenged with the same type of problems as me–I am married and have a four year old daughter who is trilingual, i.e. she speaks three languages: Chinese, Russian and English. Being married and having children is mostly a time management issue: it is nothing new, there are a plenty of people with families and kids at Wharton, and time is quite manageable, but the three languages are the challenge that is not so easy to tackle.

Although my daughter is not Asian, she was born in Beijing and grew up in China so Mandarin is her native tongue along with Russian. She also speaks English because I spoke English to her from day one, and she later picked up more of it in Canada when we moved from Tianjin, China to Toronto, Canada last year. After we moved though, I discovered that being able to communicate in Chinese was a huge part of my little daughter’s life and personality so I had to change the communication pattern within my family to make her life more natural and the transition–smooth: I stopped using English with my daughter, and switched to Mandarin instead. It was not easy psychologically, but with a bit of an effort I have been successful in establishing this pattern as the norm now, and all communication between me and my child is done in Chinese. My wife continues using Russian at home for communication with both myself and the daughter. Every day, these three languages are spoken in our home.

However, since the course load at Wharton and the additional course work at Lauder take most of my time now, the Chinese language has once again become an issue in that there was no one to support my daughter’s language skills. We decided to look for Chinese daycare options and private Mandarin tutors in Philadelphia and in the Wharton community to address the problem. And the outcome of this undertaking was great–my daughter is in an environment where her languages are developing in a normal and balanced way. Once again, I got the value added from being a part of the Lauder community: one of the professors at the Lauder Institute, Dr. Theresa Jen, has helped me in my search for an appropriate Chinese daycare. At the same time, one of my cohort mates has helped with finding a good Mandarin tutor.

The Wharton-Lauder combination offers solutions to any problems, even those as impossible as helping your children sustain three languages at the same time, and it is one more reason why being here is such a blessing.

In my next post, I will write about the research project that I might be doing as part of the Lauder curriculum: last lecture on Political Economy on Tuesday, October 7, made me think of looking into the role of the Sovereign Wealth Funds in the modern world.

Posted in MBA | No Comments »

Lauder makes all the difference

Now, due to a crazy course load, I have been unable to post here more often, and improving this situation is one of the things I will work on during my two years here.  I truly believe in sharing experiences with the world.  After all, the ancient Chinese believed  that learning is an everyday occurence that is just as natural as any other life-related process: 三人行，必有我师也 Hence this blog, hence Lauder, hence Wharton.

The so-called Hell Week, i.e. the week of mid-terms was a hectic test of time management skills.  On average I slept 5 hours a day — the rest was solely and totally devoted to school work. It does get overwhelming here, and it is easy to see how people can lose focus and motivation because the amount of work is serious as are the requirements.

I remain focused and motivated, though.  The Lauder community has been the best source of support for me: from advice on editing my resume to handling the course work to just simple advice on how things work at Wharton.  I do not see that much communication happening between the first and second year students in the Huntsman Hall, whereas at the Lauder Lounge where all the Lauder students segregate and mix, this is an every day occurrence.

I do enjoy most of my Wharton courses.  It is absolutely great to explore a new set of intellectual tools and see how they are utilized in practice.  Wharton is worth every penny and every effort one pays for the education and the experience here.

At the same time, the Chinese language classes have been a source of immense satisfaction for me (I am a language geek, I admit): the instructors are top-notch, the classmates are engaging, and the overall positive environment spurs quick progress.

I also love the Political Economy course that Pr. Mauro Guillén is teaching:  it is rare to get the chance to look at the political perspective of economic activities in the world within a highly diverse international team of very bright classmates and a world-known professor in the field.  Students have very interesting insights about everything we discuss in class: many of us have lived through and experienced first hand the effects of economic reforms in developing countries, quite a few have a keen interest and a profound expertise in other course-related subjects, so every class is exciting.

This is just one more reason why so many people fall in love with the Lauder Institute.

In my next post I will describe a few personal challenges that I have successfully tackled in Philadelphia not so many people deal with the same type of problems, but this city and the Wharton community makes it possible to find a solution to just about any problem.

Posted in MBA | No Comments »

Excitement and Fatigue

Wharton is an amazing place, where activity never stops. There are so many things one can do here: from the bizarre, yet richly cultural, lion dancing to the classic b-school consulting with a million of things in between the two.

Initially, I wanted to write about the mandatory team-building that takes place during the Learning Team Retreat, but then there is a wonderful illustration of that experience in a discontinued blog by a Lauder student David Retchkiman on Business Week’s blogs. To me the most valuable observation was the transformation that my learning team went through: from a random group of very different people to a team who are aware of each other’s differences and similarities. The major take-away from the Retreat is that ‘culture within a team or organization is created by default or by design’ and that I personally rather design the culture than passively watch it form by itself. I greatly enjoy my cohort L—we joke that ‘L’ stands for Leadership, Luck, Love, Long Life and other great words: we of course, tend to come with positive terms to describe ourselves— and my learning team 7, aka. “Wide Stance” team.

Classes have been hectic­—exactly what I had anticipated, but although the amount of work has been truly overwhelming, I am coping. Quite a few people (I dare say most first-year Whartonites) are just as overwhelmed as myself, though, and it does not surprise anyone here. This does not mean that people do not have fun—there are parties one can go to literally every night.

The famous WGA Club Fair took place yesterday. I will decide which clubs to join (I am now pretty much settled on the Consulting Club, Greater China Club, Canada Club) and enroll online on Sunday. The importance of social and professional clubs at Wharton cannot be underestimated because they are a huge part of the overall Wharton experience: the clubs’ activities embrace and influence practically all aspects of social life, recruitment, networking, entertainment, academics, religion, and whatnot. If one wants to get involved in life at Wharton, clubs are a wonderful opportunity to do so. Other ways of involvement are administrative positions at cohort level.

Meanwhile, I have been trying to get on the Global Consulting Practicum course with a five-strong team of first-years who have similar career interests, but very diverse backgrounds. Not everyone who wants to take GCP gets to do it because the placement process is competitive and even includes a team interview. If we present ourselves well enough as a team, we will get to do a real-life consulting project for a real client. It will most certainly be a lot of extra work (GCP is the only course at Wharton worth 1.5 credit units), and a lot of hands-on learning: needless to say, I am excited to get this chance.

The Lauder Institute is now a much livelier place than a week ago because second-year MBA’s are back in town with a million stories and insights about their internships. They are a source of inspiration for me—Lauder students are a truly unique bunch of weathered global trotters who have an enormous liking for cultural diversity. Today, we had Student Advisory Board elections (I ran for a position, but I did not get elected), and most of the election micro speeches noted that ‘Lauder is the best part of the whole MBA experience at Wharton’. And I can’t agree there more. The tight Lauder community is so much more than I expected, and I truly love being in this warm family-like environment. It is absolutely worth the extra work that comes with the MA course load. On the other hand, Lauder is not just the extra effort, it is also a whole lot of extra satisfaction and fun. Very few people know that Lauderites have quite a few of their own Lauder-specific social events, parties, gatherings, contests and so on. For instance, tomorrow we are all going for a ‘Day On The Beach’. I will finish this post here—time to pack my flip-flops and sunscreen!

Posted in MBA | 6 Comments »

To Waive or Not To Waive

A question that is not so easily answerable at Wharton is what core courses could be waived if any. The first-year curriculum is called The Core. It is a well-structured intensive one-year program that mainly comprises full-credit Management, Accounting, Finance and Economics courses. As the course load gets very heavy, and the core eats into the limited number of credits one is allowed to take during the two years at Wharton, there is a lot of incentive to waive some of the courses if one has had either academic or professional exposure to the areas covered in these courses. Pre-term is the only time to do this, so people have been busy with waivers.

There are two ways to waive courses: by credentials and by exam. The former can be considered if one has excelled in a similar course elsewhere—and excellence in a reputable school is what it takes for the credentials to be considered valid. Say, an A- as opposed to an A from, say, a school like Chicago will most often be an unbreakable obstacle in the process—the requirements are high.

Waiving a course by exam is available to those who did not attempt waiving that same course by credentials. One is typically given two weeks to prepare for a waiver exam; during the prep time students attend lectures and use all other available resources: from professors’ office hours and Teaching Assistants (TA’s) to tutors.

Roughly 40% of all Wharton MBA’s take all core courses.

Posted in MBA | No Comments »

MBA events

I am well aware that the audience of this blog consists mainly of aspiring MBA applicants, and since the first round has already started, many people are wondering whether they should visit a world MBA tour event or some other event to get a better understanding of the schools they are targeting.

My view on this is simple: any information one can gather about schools and their respective cultures will be very valuable in the MBA quest, and in determining what schools are right—most people target several schools, after all. To me, this is what one’s ‘fit’ is all about. Many MBA application books out there are focused on the fit, and the importance of showing fit with the school; simply put it is all about showing how one’s core values are aligned with those of the school.

The Lauder Institute’s representatives are hitting the road soon, and having received a lot of help from all the individuals on the admissions team in May when I was having some serious difficulties in obtaining a US student visa, I can say that these incredibly supportive people are the best source of info available outside Wharton’s campus. It is a great chance to reach out to them, so attending the events they will be hosting is a priceless oportunity.

As far as school research goes, I am a firm believer in visiting schools and in attending school-specific events. My experience shows that the undertakings where a score of institutions are present tend to be less valuable as visitors typically get a very limited time with the schools’ representatives. A school visit gives a much broader and precise perspective on a multitude of aspects that ultimately make a significant difference: What kind of people are there? What kind of facilities are there? What kind of environment is it? Is it a comfortable place to be? How responsive is the community to your questions? Eventually, the list of questions gets very long so a visit is the best and most efficient way to get a feeling and an understanding of many important things about the school. In my opinion, there is no better way to do data mining about schools.

Visit!

Posted in MBA | No Comments »