Postgraduate Management Personal Statement
Postgraduate Management Personal Statement
From a young age I can remember walking past the first generation banks in Nigeria and commenting to my mother that I would one day work for one of these institutions. Studying and working in global business and finance has been a long-held dream and, through dedication and hard work, I have been lucky enough to realise it in both my academic and professional life. Undertaking postgraduate study will offer the knowledge and skills I need to keep progressing in my career and give me the broad perspective I need to play a shaping role in global business and finance.
My academic focus and subsequent achievement are a testament to my family’s respect for education in the face of adversity. Both my twin and myself are diagnosed dyslexics, the result of our mother being given expired drugs in the final days of pregnancy. My father has always instilled in me the attitude that our own adversities could be overcome and that we could also both achieve a good education. I am fiercely proud of my family, and of my heritage, and consider myself to have been privileged to grow up in a context that so values education. I consider my cultural background, and the dedication, inspiration and international perspective with which it has imbued me to be one of my greatest assets as a student and as a businessman.
These experiences have inspired me to work hard to achieve my goals within business and I am currently in my final year of an Accounting with Business and Management degree at Brunel University. I feel that I have benefited greatly from both the varied and the practical nature of this course, which has encompassed a range of subjects and working practices; including researching essays based around real world business situations, focusing not just on current needs but casting ahead to the future. It has also allowed me to gain experience of researching and writing long-form work, as well as debating and presenting within a seminar setting. As a diverse university it has also allowed me to improve my communication skills with a range of students and staff from various countries; key to my future plans of studying and working in international business.
I have also been lucky enough to gain hands on experience in the world of both regional politics and international business, creating a reciprocal relationship in which each informs the other as well as my studies in the field. A position in the Abia State Government House in Nigeria, for example, offered an excellent insight into the preparation of local government budgets and the creation of IT and management systems to implement them. Taking this experience into positions with Guaranty Trust Bank and Diamond Bank, two of the biggest in Nigeria, I gained knowledge an experience of all aspects of both corporate and personal banking. Using my considerable communication and leadership skills to take personal responsibility for both creating and maintaining customer relationships and managing relationships with external agencies, I found that my broad knowledge of both public and private finance has allowed me to play a useful role in both sectors.
Bringing the knowledge I have learned through this practical experience into my study has also allowed me to maintain a practical focus throughout, crucial if I am to enact what I have learnt on a global scale in future. I am writing my dissertation of the banking industry and have found that comparing the practical and academic knowledge I have gained, in Nigeria and the UK respectively, has proven to be extremely fruitful in fostering an international perspective on business and finance. A visit to Goldman Sachs in New York, under the supervision of my cousin who works there, has also inspired a greater interest in the truly international nature of contemporary business and finance. This has strengthened my motivation to study International Management, creating a bridge between the practical and intellectual, but ultimately local, knowledge I have gained through my work in Nigeria and the global scale of my ambitions.
When I envision my future, I see multiple paths that I could potentially follow. Each one branches off from a central avenue defined by my passion for international business, however. Whether I work in the profit-driven private sector, to start my own business or to play a role in shaping the national or global economy, the broad knowledge and strong intellectual foundation I gain at King’s will play a role in defining the scope and effectiveness of my abilities.
Having spoken to many staff and students at King’s College, there is no doubt in my mind that studying towards the Master’s in International Management will expose me to multiple management practices through the skill and experience of its tutors, while always maintaining a global perspective. As I hope to return to Nigeria to start my own business in the future, gaining a strong grounding in this field from a prestigious UK university will allow me to export realistic and effective systems to a currently volatile and academically under-explored environment. I also believe that King’s offers a diverse range of activities outside of the course, such as workshops and seminars from leading employers, that retains an essential focus on the application of the knowledge taught which is essential to a student such as myself, who wishes to combine intellectual endeavours with the practical knowledge learnt from past and future work experience.
To study International Management at King’s College would be the realisation of an academic dream that has remained a strong focus throughout my life. My bringing the hard work, determination, talent and sheer passion that have allowed me to gain knowledge and experience in the field to postgraduate study at such a prestigious institution, I have no doubt that I will leave better equipped to make a global impact on the financial and business world.
Hopefully this personal statement will be of considerable use to you in your personal statement endeavours.