Wharton Alumniによる非公式説明会＠東京

いやー夏っすね！！

とテンション高めにスタートしてみた。だって夏だもん。

天気が良すぎて、PCと英語教材にかじりついていることが精神的な不健康さをもたらしているのではないかと弱い気持ちになりつつあったここ最近。

Wharton説明会があり行ってきたが、充実した内容だった。

ちょうど最近の勉強状況が、Writingを本格着手して苦戦しているので、Independent taskの練習も兼ねて、英語で感想を記載してみた。

英語力の程度がばれてしまい恥ずかしい面もあるが、良くも悪くもこれが今の実力であるので、定点観測の意味も込めて、敢えて投稿することにした。

Yesterday, I attended information session of Wharton business school at Marunouchi. The contents were very interesting to me. My image toward to Wharton was changed by the alumni. For example, I had described Wharton’s culture as stiff and dry, based on financial back ground. The alumni, however, did not behave as I expected; communicated closely each other, articulated their “Why MBA?” with passion, and infused themselves eager for respective way of business.

Another observation was that Wharton has cooperative culture, which is rarely found around East Coast. HBS is famous for “UP or OUT culture” such as dismissing 10 % of candidates who get lower grades during a year. HBS students are bellicose and disputatious, and the atmosphere makes the students less cooperative. This is the typical story found at East Coast, but Wharton, in my opinion, was not the case.

Meeting alumni was very informative. They provided me with information relating application process, interview tips, and specific business perspective. To clarify the latest one as “specific business perspective”, I tell you a story. I work for so called Sogo-Shosha, started from trading company and now operates thousands of businesses as a multi-sector investor, and I affiliated to financial department. As I has engaged to the strategic investment projects for three years, I would like to brush up my skills both finance and administration perspective. I believe that the best places would be Private Equity funds or Venture Capital so as to improve both finance and administration skills. At this moment, I am considering about transferring to PE or VC after graduation of B-School. So, I was searching alumni who had back ground or are working for the industry.

Fortunately, I met with an alumni, working for Japan branch of Advent International, a global and named PE player. He taught me PE market overview in Japan. According to him, almost all the player face setback because the market at here is immature right now and it is difficult to find companies to be invested in. In addition, he described about Advent International as having value-adding mind set, and connecting with global branches. He also advised me that although transferring place to work in Japan is tend to be treated as risky and reckless behavior, it would bring us a lot of opportunity and exciting adventure. He said,” There is almost no risk to founder when you are young. Unless you try what you can do at this moment, you would miss it and would look back the decision with remorse in the future.” To me, had determined to quit my job and to study at B-School, his words were so inspiring.

The information session gave me new views ranging from impression of Wharton to my mid-long carrier plan.