How an MBA Helped This Yale Student Get Out of Her Comfort Zone

For many applicants, an MBA might seem like a perfect opportunity to improve their skillset, expand their network and increase their chances of landing top-tier jobs after graduation.

While this is true for many, an MBA can also be much more than that.

TopMBA caught up with Jia Zhang, Yale MBA candidate from China, to find out how her business school experience helped her get out of her comfort zone and evolve on a personal and professional level.

While Jia grew up in China, she always felt drawn to studying abroad. In fact, during her four-year undergraduate business degree in Accounting and Finance at the National University of Singapore (NUS), she embarked on a one-year exchange programme at the University of Southern California, where she had the opportunity to experience life in another continent.

Upon her return to China, Jia worked in the finance industry for five years – first at Credit Suisse as a Summer Analyst and Senior Analyst; then at Haitong International Securities Group as an Investment Associate. It is then, she says, that she began considering taking the next step into her business career.

She said: “At that point, I felt like I had already had my start in Asia, especially in China and Singapore. But I wanted to see what was beyond what I was familiar with, so I decided to challenge myself.

“Some of my friends were already doing MBAs abroad, and I’d never really lived in the Western world for a long period of time before, which further pushed me to look into schools in the US.”

After applying to and interviewing at multiple b-schools, Jia realised the MBA programme at Yale would be the “best fit” for her skills and ambitions.

She said: “Yale has a social mission, which educating leaders for business and society. That resonated with me, because I also think that you must have some form of social mission while pursuing something in the business world. That, combined with the school’s focus on commitment, leadership, and professional development, was a defining factor in my choice.”