MBA & Co.: Your Door to Post-MBA International Consultancy Experience

Ask any MBA aspirants or those who are currently doing their MBA or just finished; at some point or another, I am sure most of them wanted to join the big name consultancy firms. After all, the high-flying job commands high pay and high profile; a good add-on to your resume. But, we all know how competitive it is to get into these big boys. Just the assessment phase would have eliminate 95-98%. Only the cream of the crop would get in. With the present uncertain economy, hiring could be frozen.

So, for the newly minted MBAs, it is still an option for you. MBA & Co. started by an MBA from IESE, started a freelance consultancy firm. You can bid for the project that you are interested and if you matches their project profile criteria, you can join other MBAs on the project. Sound interesting? You bet. You are a freelance and get referenced. A good opportunity to network and who knows, it could open the door to the company that you wanted so badly to join.

Give this a thought. Check out www.mbaandco.com

Jimmy Low

To Specialise or Not to Specialise?

I was often asked whether one should specialise in MBA. I had a thought about it; in fact, when I research for my MBA program I want a focus on technology management. I guess for most of us since young, we have been compartmentalise or stream. In high schools, we were either in science or arts stream. Then came university, the major or concentration to go for. As a result, we became specialist or functionlist.

Is that bad? I don't think so. Since the Industrial Revolution and the foundation of management theory by Fredrick Taylor, labour force has been classified into functions with the aim of "the more you do the same thing, the better or efficient you become". That's all right for a start but as you move up the career leader, you become more of a generalist. You manage people, and though them results. You may not know a lot about a particular subject but at least a good understanding. But what you learn is more about inquisitive skills. Asking the right questions and hopefully, these will help you make informed decisions. That's what MBA is about.

Having say that, I see no wrong in specialization for a couple of reasons. Firstly, many of us want to switch from one industry to another. Very often from one technical field e.g. engineering to another e.g. finance or from one for-profit to non-profit, and vice versa. Whatever our choice is we want to have a stronger focus on a specific concentration to give us a more indepth understanding and yet retaining the general management perspective. Thus, you see many business schools are focusing on some concentrations. In fact the other alternative is to masters program (MSc), which has strong, academic focus in a particular field.

Secondly, certain business schools have strong association with certain industries. As a result of the close collaboration and cooperation between the academic and the industry, it formed a natural channel for admission in the industry. For example, if you want to go into finance sector, London School of Business and Wharton should be on top of your list. Naturally, this also means that the faculty members and their research have a high focus in that area which will attract more brains to the schools. Thus, the schools themselves by their own design, are already industry or subject concentrated.

Lastly, specialisation at MBA level is like giving you a higher degree in a different concentration or major from your first. By arming yourself with both a technical degree and work experience, and now with a master degree with a business focus, you could, hopefully, learn new things and apply to your managerial role. After all, if you look at class profiles of any business school, a good 30-40 percent of students from engineering background and wish to pursue a management career.

So, my usual advice is look for an MBA that will bring you to where you want. If there is a concentration that you want, then go for the best school in that area. Of course it would be nice to have the top 10 schools as your choice but if it does not give you what you want or can afford, then using concentration is a good selection criteria. Think about it.


Jimmy Low

GMAT Malaysia Goes Mobile

Google has updated the features and setting functions of the Blogger.com. In addition to the statistics function, which I found extremely helpful, I could now turn on the mobile function for our GMAT Malaysia. With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets/pads, I am sure this function will come in handy while you're on the go. I occasionally follow the comments from my Android. I hope you will find this mobile function useful too.

Happy reading on the go!


Jimmy Low

Doing MBAs in Malaysia - Spoilt with Choices: Part 2

I stumbled upon this French consulting and rating agency in higher education, EDUNIVERSAL. Annually, it ranks over 1000 business schools around the world and categorised them according to number of PALMS; between 1 and 5 PALMS. You can read more in its Wikipedia.

6 Malaysian universities were grouped into 3 PALM categories. There are as below:

I also suggest that you visit the respective universities' MBA website and talk to the alumni, students or admissions officers for more information.


Jimmy Low

Doing MBAs in Malaysia - Spoilt with Choices: Part 1

I was monitoring this blog's statistics and found that one of the common search words was "MBA in Malaysia". Then I realised that over the last 3 years, I have been talking about GMAT and MBA but can't recall blogging about MBAs in Malaysia. Either I was not asked or I wasn't looking at MBAs in Malaysia. I wanted to do my MBA overseas and I am sure there were many who set their eyes to overseas MBA too. But this does not mean that no one is looking for MBAs domestically.

I am sure some of you did yours or planning to do yours in US, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, France, Hong Kong, India or Australia. These are the few typical countries that many want to get their MBA from. MBAs from these countries are in the annual Financial Times Top 100. In fact, you see these countries in top 20 or top 50.

Hence, one of the criteria in choosing an MBA program is the brand name of the school. You want to be an alumni of Harvard, LBS, Insead, Manchester, etc. That brand name says who you are and being a part of the school's network open doors to career or business opportunities. Of course, this means paying the entry price and being competitive with everyone around the world. Ask any applicants and you will find the big names in MBA as their choice of schools; getting in is another matter. Already some of these schools won the brand mind share, as they say in marketing or brand management.

If you have plans to work overseas or migrate, often it is also a good choice to do an MBA or masters program from that country. One, the school is known among the big corporation in the country or region. Two, you add diversity to the class and probably the employment pool. Very often certain regions are less represented in an typical class. South East Asian, Latin American and African countries were somewhat the underrepresented countries. So, if you are from these countries, you should stand a good chance for admission and perhaps a scholarship. This adds to a good chance Malaysians look outside for MBA which opens the door to the country or region. Malaysians are now a discerning group of people and do want an overseas MBA if they could afford. Financing is an issue and looking for an affordable MBA makes them think between doing locally or overseas.

Often you will hear this term in Malaysia - doing MBA locally. What does this mean? It could mean - either offered by a local university (public or private) or studying foreign programs locally through educational institutions e.g. colleges, education centers or perhaps local branches of foreign universities.

Over the last 15-20 years, private colleges have proliferated. Starting with undergraduate twinning programs with foreign universities from US, UK and Australia/New Zealand, colleges also offer MBA or post graduate programs for working adults on the same basis. Courses are done locally and with perhaps a semester or two overseas. In fact, with the Malaysian government giving private colleges university or university-college status, many of these "office" universities offer their own MBA program, with or without accreditation from a foreign partner university. In fact, one college in Malaysia offers its own MBA program but confers two degree - its own and those of its foreign partner. Some foreign universities set up a Malaysian campus to offer MBA program. In all cases, these institutions claimed that their programs are moderated by partner universities in spite having majority taught and examined by local lecturers. In the end, the degrees are conferred by the foreign universities and are said to have equal status as those conferred in their country. Most of these MBAs done in Malaysia do not require GMAT score.

The other truly local MBA or post-graduate programs are those offered by local public or private universities. These universities do not partner with any foreign universities and conferred their own degree. As far as I know, these MBAs also do not require GMAT score for admission.

Of these two groups of MBA programs, majority of Malaysian professionals opt for foreign MBAs conducted locally; many of which are Australia and UK-accredited MBAs. In fact, UK and Australia are the biggest exports of secondary (IGCSE) and tertiary educations (bachelors and post-graduates) in the world. For reason of cost and continued income and employment in Malaysia, these programs made it affordable to Malaysians to pursue tertiary education. For post-graduate programs, these could be done part-time without sacrificing career, income and at own pace.

I don't have any statistics on the size of the MBA market in Malaysia but it would interesting topic for me to cover in my next article. In the meantime, I leave you to think about doing MBA in Malaysia. Perhaps you can agree or disagree with my writing above. I would love to hear from you why you choose to do MBA in Malaysia.

I also leave you with this article published by the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM) in December 2007 - Do Malaysian MBAs Want International Careers? by David M Hunt, Md. Zabid Abdul Rashid, Osman M Zain and June ML Poon.


Jimmy Low

QS World MBA 2011 Tour Coming to Your City

Although this blog is called GMAT Malaysia, many of our readers actually came from around the world. So, I will make this blog more "global" but still retaining our identity as Malaysians initiated blog.
Anyway, QS World MBA is starting its 2011 World Tour this August. This is your chance to meet some of the top global and regional business schools in one location. Please sign-up for this event and share this link with your friends.

GMAT Malaysia has been a keen supporter of QS World MBA Tours since our formation in 2008.


Jimmy Low

Improved Topic Labels for Easier Search

I have gone through all 130 postings since the beginning of this blog and re-tagged all the labels. I hope this effort will make it easier for you to search the relevant materials. This re-labelling effort is also a result of the keyword searches feedback that our 12,000 visitors made over the past 3 years. Thanks to Google Blogger stats, I can now improve this blog for you.


Jimmy Low

Share your GMAT preparation tips or test experience

I have blogged about GMAT and MBA over the past three year and still counting. I will continue to do so but most of the questions I have received I have written about. So as not to sound like an old gramophone, please search for the topics on the right side bar and see if I have answered your questions. Thanks to Google Blogger stats, I can now see what were the frequently visited pages and keyword searches. I will continue to monitor and hope to address new areas.

One of the reasons I still blogged about GMAT is that I still believe that many GMAT takers and MBA aspirants want to overcome the fear of this test. I have done all I can to cover them. As our reader, I welcome you to share your GMAT preparation tips, how you did well and what insights you have for our readers about the GMAT test. Send me an email and I will be happy to post it. Let me know if you want to stay anonymous.

In fact, for those who have completed GMAT, you can do us a great service if you can lead a study group. I am now in Germany, and other core members are now overseas. We cannot guide you face-to-face; hence, whatever we can do via this blog or emails, we do our best. I hope to sustain this blog by having new people spending some of their time helping others. If you are like one of us, email me and let's help others.


Jimmy Low

More about AWA and Integrated Reasoning

Recently, I received a couple of emails about Analytical Writing Assessment aka AWA. So, I thought it would be a good time to blog about this "mysterious" test. Firstly, let's go to the fine print, which like any other fine prints, no one cares to read or notice.

"Writing scores are computed separately from the multiple-choice scores and have no effect on the Verbal, Quantitative, or Total scores." - MBA.com

To do or not to do?
So, what does this mean? Either you can skip it entirely or do your best and be done. I won't recommend the first option, at least not if you're a first time GMAT taker. I don't know how much time the Admissions Officers or their part-time assistants have to read your AWA essays but given a typical top 100 business school with more than 1000 applications in any other year, I don't think they even care. However, does this mean that you should score 0 out of 6 points? Nope. Do at least a 5.5 out of 6. It's doable and I will explain how, next. For retakers, you can skip the AWA if you already hit a good 5.5 or above.

So, how do you do AWA?
As mentioned in the MBA.com website, AWA is designed to measure your ability to think critically and communicate your ideas. All the things you learn in high school and in the Sentence Correction and/or Critical Reasoning books will be used now.

There are 2 questions, each for 30 minutes including reading, thinking, planning, writing and rereading.

For Analysis of Issue, it tests your ability to explore the complexities of an issue or opinion and, if appropriate, to take a position that is informed by your understanding. So the operative word here is "take a position". So think about it - either agree or disagree. Don't be a fence-sitter. If you agree, why; if you don't, why.

For Analysis of Argument, it tests your ability to formulate an appropriate and constructive critique of a specific conclusion based on a specific line of thinking. In this case, you start with the "conclusion". Be careful now. Look for the main conclusion - weak or strong, not the subsidiary conclusion. In Critical Reasoning, you learn about different types of conclusions and must be able to differentiate which is the main one.

You can find a list of AWA questions here and sample answers. The GMAT Official Guide has examples of sample answer for a 2/6 scorer, 4/6 and 6/6 scorer. Check the Guide and learn the techniques.

How did I do it?
I spent 5 minutes reading and planning the structure, 2o minutes writing and 5 minutes proof-reading per question. Some time back, I shared my analysis of GMAT. Here it is again if you missed it. Have a structure:
1. Opening paragraph
For Issue analysis, what is your understanding of the issues? Do you agree or not?

For Argument analysis, what was the main conclusion? Do you think it was a weak or strong conclusion?

2. Body Paragraphs
Have 3 paragraphs, max. 1 point per paragraph and quote examples from real-life events or from your country. Each point and examples must support your position of the issue.

For Argument analysis, look for the assumptions. Remember, Premises (P) + (hidden) Assumptions (A) = Conclusion (C). Because assumptions are hidden premises, you need to analyse what were the assumptions that led to the conclusion and whether the assumptions were valid. Again, 3 paragraphs, max. 1 point per paragraph and examples.

3. Closing Paragraph
Sum up with your stated position (Issue analysis) or what would make make a weak conclusion stronger (Argument analysis).

I always find that using real-life examples would boost your arguments in the body paragraphs. The examples also something you can relate and tie to your arguments. Don't worry about quoting numbers. You can make it up. The examiners are not going to check anyway, except for some obvious facts or numbers. If you make up on these, God bless you.

After May 2012
Starting from 1 June 2012, there will only be 1 AWA essay for 3o minutes. It could be either Analysis of Issue or Argument. Whatever it will be, the above technique applies.

In place of the other 30 minutes is the Integrated Reasoning. Now I can't tell you how tough it is or how to prepare. I did not take it and do not plan to take it. You could be the first to do it. Again, GMAC has said that you will get a separate score for Integrated Reasoning. Read this press release.

Since GMAC has consulted business schools on Integrated Reasoning and the schools welcomed this change, it means that how well you do in it matters a lot. You can expect at least for the next 2-5 years, Admissions Officers will look closely at how well you do in Integrated Reasoning AND the usual Verbal/Quant score than AWA. GMAC already announced that takers can try out between now and May 2012, inclusive without affecting your score. How true this is I can't tell. But if you choose to try the Integrated Reasoning during this trial period and is reported in your GMAT Score report, then be prepared to explain during admission interviews.

Overall, these changes are said to be in line with the reality of next-generation business managers which business schools will churn out. Just be prepared to take that next step.


Jimmy Low

Forming Study Group in KL/PJ

I have received many emails regarding study groups in KL/PJ. Some have found the GMAT classes too expensive for them. Forming study groups is one way to help each other with GMAT. I am sure you have experienced this in college or uni days. As the core members of GMAT Malaysia is no longer in Malaysia, we are not able to help you in person.

As I received a few emails about study group, and if you're interested to form one, please send me an email and I will coordinate to get all of you together. In the meantime, read this blog for more information on GMAT.


Jimmy Low