Personal Statement
Program: Machinery Manufacture Management

According to Chinese traditional value system, a person who has reached 30 years of age should have been well established in his or her own career. For a person like me who is now over 30 years old, I am proud to say that I have made painstaking efforts in my pursuit of this objective, a pursuit that is replete with the sweetness of success as well as the bitterness of failure. Having experienced successes and failures, I have now come to some earnest reflections on my career objectives. In my contemplations, I have realized that what I need at the moment is to transcend my existing conditions and to scale new heights by launching new pursuits in a new environment.

Twelve years ago, I obtained my Bachelor‘s Degree in mechanical engineering. During my undergraduate studies, I not only devoted myself to a systematic training in the field of engineering, completing all my coursework with outstanding scholastic performance, but also came to acquire effective learning strategies that would benefit the rest of my life. Even in undergraduate years, I had cultivated a strong interest in courses related to business management. This factor, combined with the necessities of my actual work I undertook upon my graduation, prompted me in 1992 to attend an advanced training class in administration launched by Economic Management College of Beijing Industrial University. While it was somehow difficult to study under the heavy workload, I made utmost efforts to comprehend and to master the abstract basic theoretic knowledge and apply it readily and effectively to my work. The experience of studying administration during this period produced a profoundly beneficial impact on later-day work. It also constitutes an important asset indispensable to my career and my sustained pursuit.

The job that I took up upon my graduation was working as engineer at a research institute in Beijing. However, deep inside my heart, my zeal for the science of management made me much more interested in how to coordinate and complete a project with high efficiency by successfully organizing a well-qualified task team than in the project itself. Therefore, I did not allow myself to be totally immersed in technological development or in purely technical research. After two-year experience in conducting military-oriented product projects, I switched to working at the more market-oriented department of civil projects. I was responsible for providing various enterprises with services for technical tenders with our technical expertise and consultation. I acted as project manager for three different projects and played a leading role in organizing project members, coordinating relationships with all parties involved in the projects, project bidding, the establishment of the project task team, contract negotiation, equipment purchase, and the actual execution of the projects. In undertaking those important projects, I was able to accumulate a wealth of practical experience in management.

In 1997, I joined a multinational company YiHe Group, which was among the world‘s top 500 enterprises for many years consecutively. There, I worked at its subsidiary company YiHe Machinery Company Ltd., which became a larger arena for me to demonstrate my comprehensive talents, though it was full of fierce competitions. It also marked a turning point of my life. I worked from the most basic level of sales and was gradually promoted to the positions of Team Leader and Business Supervisor. I was in charge of the mechanical projects of over 40 commercial office buildings in which I carried out the overall contracting, subcontracting and direct supplies of motor and electrical equipment. I dedicated tremendous efforts to the project tracking, project tender, subcontracting, business negotiation, equipment procurement, and project administration. The knowledge acquired from practice and the remarkable achievements in those projects became the best rewards for my painstaking efforts.

In 2000, I was promoted to be the business executive of the Department of Mechanical Equipment. With this promotion, I started my competition and cooperation with many international companies including Philipp Holimann (Germany), Lee Developing (HK), Bechtel (USA) on the Chinese market of commercial building construction. In those cooperation and competitions, I continue to exercise and to improve my organizational and administrative capabilities, coordination and cooperation skills, and the spirit of perseverance. I really began to play the role of a leader in team organization, project decision-making, coordination of relationships, and the accomplishment of tasks. In this process, I became increasingly aware that the essence of management is the management of human resources.

Appropriate ways of management can maximize the potentials of all the personnel. As administrator, I learned to discipline myself in the first place. I required myself to work with maximum efficiency. I kept enhancing my administrative skills, especially in controlling the schedule of projects and in exploiting human resources. In organizing a task team, I would take into careful and detailed account the nature of a particular project, and give appropriate assignments to team members according to their individual characteristics so that the efficient operation of the entire team could be guaranteed. At the same time, I was fully aware of the importance of team spirits. Since many unpredictable things would happen anytime in the course of a project, the concerted efforts of individual members counted importantly in the solution of specific problems. Therefore, during the two distinctive stages of my career, whether I worked as a member of the team or as the leader of the team, I was constantly guided by the principle of close cooperation and mutual support.

My work experience over the past 12 years has made me profoundly aware of the crucial importance of effective management. In China, what is most urgently needed is a well-developed mechanism and advanced management. Compared with the Western countries, China has a greater demand for professional managers. Under such circumstances, I had the notion of pursuing advanced studies in Canada. I have chosen Canada not only because I have become the permanent immigrant of Canada but also because Canada is a country with the world‘s first-rate management expertise, management strategies and management ideology. The University of x x x is one of the most reputable universities in North America with a time-honored educational history. It has the strongest faculty. I wish to apply for an advanced degree program in management because this program ranks among the world‘s best programs in management. If I can ever be admitted into this program in such a university, I would be in a most advantageous position to master on a systematic basis the most advanced and up-to-date managerial expertise.

I have formulated a tentative study plan. In the first place, I will construct a solid foundation in basic professional knowledge. In combination with my accumulated practical experience, I will lay special emphasis on the case analysis and seminars conducted in formal classroom education, whereby to assimilate advanced managerial strategies and experiences. Finally, I will make full use of the opportunities provided by the field trips to really apply my acquired knowledge to the solution of realistic problems. I believe that as long as I wholly commit myself to this full-time program, I will be able to acquit myself satisfactorily in my future program.

I entertain high hopes and expectations from my prospective program because I am convinced that it will significantly improve my professional qualities and produce a positive impact on personal orientations. Already a mature person with a strong sense of social responsibility, I have more ambitious aspirations. To contribute to the well-being of the society as a whole and to be able to let my family members and friends share the joy of my success would be my ultimate objective.