What you need to become a business leader of tomorrow

Hui Wang was looking for a bright and solid future in a new career. As business manager for a Chinese trading company, he saw that the job market was growing more complex. He knew he had to be better in four ways: professional expertise, self-confidence, world perspective and social network. An MBA was the only way to get there.

Today, the alum of the University of New Hampshire’s Peter T. Paul College of Business & Economics (Paul College), says: “Now that I have graduated, I can say, yes, UNH has fulfilled all of my wishes.”

Wang will soon be promoted to Operations Manager at a catering equipment company located in California, a job he says is the “perfect match” to his experiences, skills and qualification.

Tamilazhagan Ezhil is a current student of Paul College’s MBA programme. He feels it’s the “best career decision” he has ever made. For the 26-year-old from India, who plans to become a business analyst, the first month took some adjusting to the different culture. Now he’s more comfortable with his professors and peers, who have been very helpful. Every day presents a brand-new learning experience.

“The MBA from Paul College is a great course. It takes just one year and you get to places that you never could have dreamed of,” he said.

The MBA remains the undisputed gateway credential to the corporate world. In consulting, finance, marketing and management, MBA graduates are the ideal candidates that recruiters pay good money for.

According to the Corporate Recruiters Survey 2019, the median annual base starting salary US companies will offer new MBA hires in 2019 is the highest on record (US$115,000). More than half of companies plan to increase MBA starting salaries this year and hiring projections for 2019 remain bullish.

It’s the mission of Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics to empower MBA students to confidently seize opportunities. The state’s flagship university is known for its unique combination of rigour, relevance and world-class faculty.

The College ranks itself among the best business schools worldwide; it’s one of only five percent of business schools globally to hold AACSB Accreditation — the gold standard in business education.

From employees to business moguls

The College attracts talent from all walks of life, be it professionals from more traditional business fields like finance and marketing, to engineering, law, healthcare and the military.

The College does this in many ways. The MBA programme’s core curriculum zooms in on today’s business needs so students receive relevant insights to the business world. Electives supplement this knowledge – the six industry-focused options in finance, information systems and business analytics, marketing, global business, growth and innovation, and hospitality management let students customise their programmes to their future career plans.

Then there’s the dedicated Career and Professional Success office, ready to help students land their dream job. In 2016, as many as 94 percent of students won placements within three months of graduation. MBA graduates here now build successful careers with some of the most respected corporations in the world, including BMW, Liberty Mutual, Velcro Companies, Lindt & Sprungli, GE Capital and Honeywell.

If any business school is able to help students secure challenging, impactful and rewarding employment, it’s this one. Access is provided via UNH’s Handshake, a repository of jobs and internships posted by employers interested in hiring UNH students. Students can also sign up for appointments with Paul College career counselors to get a broad range of career-related help and advice.

University of New Hampshire

If the list of mentoring programmes is long, and so is the College’s internship opportunities.

Current student, Nishanth Rao, chose UNH for this very reason. “I was really impressed with how the programme was planned and in such a short time, incorporated with a practical business trip to China. I was also pleased with the physical location of the place,” he said. “It very much suits a person like me.”

Nishanth hopes to improve his decision-making and leadership skills from case studies. It’s still early but Nishanth has had some great experience already with staff and fellow students.

For alum Khue Thi Cam Nguyen, her time in China became one of her most memorable experiences in graduate school.

“I really enjoyed the study abroad experience in China as it allowed us to interact with a lot of executives working in the country, both expats and natives,” she said.

Other opportunities open to UNH students include the Paul J Holloway Prize Competition. Established by his family to honour his achievements and contributions to the educational and business communities in 1988, the competition is the oldest of its kind in New Hampshire. In this competition, students are tasked to conceptualise, develop and pitch the most compelling proposals to bring a product to the real world.

More than just an endeavour to win prizes, this encourages students to go down the well-trodden path of the entrepreneurial college student hatching a business plan in their dorm room to become multimillion-dollar business moguls.

“The excitement of running from building my prototype to dissecting business plans is thrilling. I have a promising career ahead of me as a direct result of the people I met through Holloway and with hard work, anyone can achieve that,” said Kate Aiken, a past competition finalist.

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