Going for MBA in China?

[gato]

If you earn $100k per year now, you'll take at least a 50% drop if you complete the Qinghua MBA, then stay to work in China.

If you are earning over $100K per year already, your best options are an MBA in the US.

[geeness]

Currently as a senior engineer I earn approximately $90,000 in a reasonably expensive city. Although I'm technically British, I work in the (better ;)) country to the North, so it's not quite as expensive as London, but comes close.

With bonus, compensation for inflation and general benefits, $100,000 in the next 12 months is possible. Taking a year out to study the Mandarin language would seem random to most employers.

I would like to get into a management position, and China would be really interested in that respect to me. However, the salaries aren't as high as they were three years ago, The new tax on the middle to high earning middle-class in China is going to have an impact on the expatriate population, unless you are inclined to spend the time using loopholes that may exist.

An engineer with immediate Chinese family who has completed similar work to myself, has a Masters degree from a good university and has rich family backing, to risk a massive loss of income in moving from the UK to a tier1 city in China is probably the likeliest of candidates to complete what I actually wish to complete.

The above negativity is the main reason I'm beginning to walk away from the BeiJing [insert university name] MBA option. I suppose China is addictive, and often people find a reason to attend; in fact your reasons seem similar to mine - perfection, over time, of the Mandarin language. I would suggest you choose between the MBA and immersing yourself in studying language.

At the end of the day, from a career perspective, for most people Mandarin will be the enjoyable hobby, whereas your career is paramount. I do wish life fully permitted the opposite!

[skylee]

your career is paramount

Is it?

I am bound to my work. But I think that if people have the interest and courage (and of course the means) to pursue what they like, they should do it.

[geeness]

I think, these days, the ridiculous competitive nature of life results in a career, if even a little varied, has to show some stability and forethought.

To pursue what one wishes, essentially means: do you have a lot of money in the bank?

I had an interview a couple of years ago, after returning from working in Beijing. At the end of the interview, one member of the panel said: "you are clearly ambitious, and keen to climb up the ladder - and entirely capable of doing so. You are, to some extent, overqualified for this position. You will get bored here after one year or so, then leave; what do you think?"

Having been struck by the honesty, I simply had to thrash out a quick answer to persuade them otherwise. A slight pause and change in eye contact quickly displayed that they were entirely correct. How does that apply to this thread?

Well, if I study abroad for one year to study Mandarin, the first question would be 'why' from a previous employer. Studying an MBA at the same time would also result in the question: Why didn't you spend the cash on an MBA from a more reputable institution?

Hong Kong or similar would be good, but the cost of living is much higher, which means I would end up broke, unless I took a humongous loan out

An MBA should be studied by someone with management experience, average age 28+... I really wish Chinese courses were ready for the same type of students that start MBA's in USA & Europe, but that's not the case yet.

[jbradfor]

your career is paramount.

It depends on your career, but yes, in some ways that is unfortunately true.

While there are many things I like about my current job, one unfortunately negative is that I can't really take a year off -- or likely even half a year off -- to go study Chinese for fun. If I were to, I would expect that my job would not be waiting for me when I return, and I fear I would have a very difficult time finding a comparable job. So I'm pretty much "stuck" working full time if I want to keep my current job. To some extent I envy people like Liebkuchen that can just drop everything at a week's notice and move to China. Someday, I expect I'd either be laid-off or have saved enough money to retire that I can change to a different type of career, but not today.

[Kodiak10]

As yourself this question - are you willing to live in China for a minimum of 10 years if you plan to do a MBA here. That is about how long it will take you to build a substantial network, comfortably pass the Advanced HSK levels, speak Chinese and literally know all of the characters tones, and lastly, have a network of MBA classmates that have 8+ years of experience.

As a laowai - you're going to have to suck up the 50K to 80K US a year job in China for the next decade, unless you find President of a small to medium sized foreign company who is willing to pay you 100K+ or vice versa, you work for a Chinese company - either for the rich Chinese who has a SME or a large Lenovo/Huawei/Haier that really values your work and makes you in charge of a global unit (as most MBAs still only make 50-80K in these departments unless they get promoted quickly).

The secret of the laowai making a good salary (aside from starting your own business) is good Chinese and good business skills and Western and Chinese EQ. It really comes down to this - sitting down at a dinner table with said Western CEO worth 1 billion dollars, a Chinese Governor or some Western Province, and some other Chinese business men, and being the translator/business broker/investor/commedian. Know your 成语, know how to talk about sports, know Chinese history, and know about the latest trends on profit margins and new innovation in the industry you are in. Then you should at least make $200k US - with hopefully a lot more if you have $1 to $5 million on the side for investments.

The MBA classmates - that is the secret to getting the Chinese governor and rich business man to the dinner table. But that again will take 10+ years.

[NickNamae]

I found this website by accident.

But as an Chinese student studying my MBA in a well-ranked US b-school. I have a say on this topic.

I was admitted earlier by HKUST fulltime program and I even remitted my deposit there(more than US$6,000, holy sh**!)

But after serious consideration, I thought I need more Western exposure rather than sitting in a classroom comprised more than one third of my own countryman and another one third of American-born Chinese, there is no point to read a "global" mba like that. That's basically why I end up in US.

However, for Westerners keen to gain a Chinese exposure(or more broadly emerging Asia), I found HKUST may be a viable option as it requires no Mandarin skills.

The quality of instruction is good, according to my friends who did attend that school. But from the professor list, I can convince my self it deemed a world top 10 ranking. FT ranking is seriously biased and well crafted to boost Commonwealth schools and bash American schools. The faculty quality and research capability in HKUST is barely on par with top 30-50 schools in US. That also holds true for most European schools(some exceptions may be INSEAD/LBS/HEC). Even Oxbridge bschool quality is very doubtful.

Regarding Tsinghua, it is well-connected with elite Chinese circle and would be very useful for someone want REAL China connections. Its program is accredited by both AACSB and EQUIS, textbook-wise, it use same HBS casebooks(maybe some Ivey cases and CEIBS/Tsinghua China casebooks, not sure whether Dardern cases been used or not).

Faculty-wise, Tsinghua SEM is highly international, with most professors Chinese-born US-educated and a bunch of professors of other origins. Coupled with its MIT-Sloan alliance and Stanford-Tsinghua Exchange, guest professors/stellar lecturers/senior business executives/officials as speakers/advisor. I found no reason to bash Tsinghua program. However, it is true that Tsinghua MBA isn't well recoginized elsewhere besides China, but that holds true for most schools(with exceptions like M7). HKUST/NUS hiring is also concentrating in their regions. Most schools are indeed regional schools. So it is really depends which region you want to work after graduation. Do schools like Indiana/UNC/Rochester/BU place better than Tsinghua SEM in China? Of course no way.

Chinese MBA graduates usually get a lower salary compare to their American counterparts, so be prepared to a lower starting salary. I alao have friends read MBA in Peking Uni Guanghua School and Beijing International MBA at PKU, also some other guys read Fudan SOM and SJTU Antai College. All good schools. Fudan have AACSB and EQUIS accreditation while SJTU Antai is triple-accredited by AACSB/EQUIS/AMBA. They all provides English-taught programs and professors quality is on par with international standard.