Masters in Strategic Project Management
Personal Statement (Motivation Letter)
― Apply for Masters in Strategic Project Management
My career goal is to be a successful entrepreneur or a senior project manager in an internationally orientated enterprise. In the past few years, I have planned four steps for my career life: university education – professional working – further study – working & lifelong learning. I believe the third step – further study will consolidate the knowledge and skills I already had and make up the things I’m short of. I think the program of Masters in Strategic Project Management perfectly matches my career goal, my employment experience and my education background.
I spent my college life at Shanghai Jiao Tong University – one of the best Universities in China where I was striving to be an all-round man. Since I entered SJTU with a perfect College Entrance Exam score, I kept on working hard. Besides those theoretical textbook studies, I team worked in several engineering design projects and got “Best” remarks. From then on, I was fascinated in doing projects. In order to broaden my vision and knowledge, I studied two subjects in Mechanical Engineering & Automation and International Finance. At the end of my undergraduate life, I successfully obtained two bachelor’s degrees (where only 10% students in SJTU made it). Four years studying of Mechanical Engineering and International Finance equipped me with a wide range of multidisciplinary knowledge. A great deal of extracurricular activities further improved my social skills.
The following work experiences broadened my vision and knowledge much further. The first job I did was a four-month intern in Shanghai Lianwei Electronics (PTY) LTD. Shanghai Lianwei is an Import & Export trading company mostly serves the overseas sub-companies and branches of SVA Group. I worked as a purchasing agent assisting senior managers dealing with purchasing related matters. From this job I got more familiar with the purchasing procedures and made important preparations for my future work.
After that, I came to South Africa and worked in UNIVA (PTY) LTD, which left a wonderful page in my life. Univa is the second largest stove manufacturer in SA with a long history began from 1958. It was bought by SVA at the end of 2001 after liquidation. Just one year later Univa made up the deficits and got surpluses. Because they used fewer people to do more work and imported lower cost parts to replace expensive ones. But the technical and management force of the company was very weak. That’s why I came up.
The first job I did was updating the technical drawings and BOM lists of all the stove models. I believed that those documents were the most important technical foundation of an industrial enterprise. Although it took me days and nights, my work did contribute a lot to the stable, healthy, orderly and smooth running of the whole factory. Then I made a series of service manual with vivid explosion views of each product of the SVA Group using 3D software. This manual helped a lot and solved many problems in the after-sales service area.
Since I got familiar with the technical side of the factory, I was put in charge of a big international project to develop a completely new series of under-counter stove. This project involved many companies both in South Africa and China. Univa, SA suppliers, Shanghai Lianwei, Chinese die manufacturers and parts suppliers were all participated in it. The process of dealing with them greatly improved my organizational and communication skills, as well as the international cooperation ability. From the stage of research to design, to drafting, to tool making, to mass production, I dedicated myself to every process of the project and acquired plenty of product development experience. Once I thought there are some South African families sitting enjoy well cooked meal from the stoves I designed, I’m very happy. What makes me much happier is that from the project I developed the character of attention to detail and considering situations from strategic perspective. I believe this character I possessed of will be invaluable in any field of research or employment. Besides these new product development projects, I did many other old products upgrading and improving projects, as well as some production equipments & techniques improving projects.
In addition to those R&D jobs, I did many other works like technical testing, quality control, document management, suppliers communication, production supervision, staff training, exhibition organizing and so on. I also undertook some other miscellaneous assignments, such as dealing with municipal departments, banks, polices, security companies etc. Guiding and escorting visiting delegations from China also happened to me sometimes. A lot of responsibilities were put on me because the company always tried to minimize the cost of production and management, one person should do the jobs did by several people before. Most of those things were trivial and non professional related, but they helped a lot in the development of my social skills and competences. A competent project manager should have the right personality, necessary managerial skills and a wide range of knowledge. All those jobs and works brought me a few steps closer to my goal of being a successful project manager.
The time I spent in Univa was not just blindly working, it inspired me lot thinking about management. The first advantage of Univa’s management is the flat organization and small-size staff. This structure greatly improved the effectiveness & efficiency of the company and sharply cut down management cost. But this method of management usually caused problems of unclear duties and indistinct responsibilities amid departments and managers. When something bad happened they began to blame each other. How to solve it? Only if everyone in the company is capable of thinking and working on his own and has great initiative would make it. But how much the company should pay to such excellent staff? It’s a contradiction requiring skill of balance. Similar contradictions occur in other management areas as well. When doing a project, project managers should keep a good balance of quality, cost and time. When choosing a part or component, the part’s cost and quality are two contradictory elements need to be well balanced. Best quality is not always the best solution, suitable to the real level of products is more desirable. This principle applies to Quality Control and Purchasing departments as well. Wise bosses know how to balance the product quality and the quality cost. For the people in the purchasing department, they should also keep balance of production, stock and cash flow.
As can be seen, I think the spirit of management is Balance. Balance to harmony. Management is somewhat like two legs walking on the ground, you must keep balance to be stable, but you have to break balance to move forward. A good manager should grasp the right balance among various elements and make decisions based on a strategic consideration. But how to balance? That’s one of the skills I want to achieve in the studying of MSPME.
From a basic draftsman to a department manager, I climbed rapidly in my career ladder. At the same time, I touched the first career ceiling quickly. But it’s still a long way to achieve my career goal. So I need change, I want something bigger. It’s the time to make the change. It’s the time to recharge myself. Once I found the program of MSPME on the Erasmus website, I fell in love with it. The MSPME program gives the unique opportunity to get acquainted with the social, cultural and economical life of different European countries, while learning leading edge approaches and methodologies about strategic project management, developed by three leading Universities in Europe. I believe the program will provide students with a systematic understanding of strategic project management and a critical awareness of the contemporary, pervasive issues concerning this subject. They are essential in achieving my career goal. And studying in the European Countries is about much more than gaining academic qualifications. Europe is the birthplace of western civilization and industrial revolutions that have directly influenced everything we see in our lives. She likes a colorful panorama of nations, people, languages and cultures, joined in peaceful unity. In there I can learn new languages, enjoy a rich diversity of cultures, hone my social skills and make new friends from around the world. I love to study in Europe.
21 years Asian experience plus 4 years African experience of me will definitely be adding to the diversity of the program. Being acquainted with the biggest developing countries both in Asia and Africa will surely be useful contribution in the communications among classmates. More than four years of practical working experience made me easier to understand and put theory into practice. And I’m eager to share knowledge, experience, vision and ideology with the peers from all over the world. It’s interesting and exciting. I’m looking forward to starting my new life in the program.
Source: EM Vietnam