Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chotaerang]

I'm batting around the idea of applying to an MBA program in Korea. Has anyone done this and what was it like? Useful? Difficult? Different from what you'd expected?

[pkang0202]

Look at Sejong-Syracuse MBA. Its an AACSB accredited program. Half the classes are taught by Syracuse professors that fly to Korea. The other half by Sejong professors. All the classes are in English. The MBA program has gotten a lot better, especially with the Student Union. Previous years the students never participated in any events. This year, a lot of them get together regularly.

BTW, the program gives a 50% discount to foreign students.

The classes are usually 2 or 3 nights on weekdays, and on Saturdays. Its perfect for those who work during the day. Professors are understanding when it comes to missing some classes due to work.

The biggest draw is the diversity. Current students hail from France, Afghanistan, Italy, Algeria, Indonesia, China, Ghana, Sudan, UK, USA, Canada, NZ, Australia, as well as Koreans.

I took business undergrad in the US, and the MBA classes are almost exactly like the way a summer/winter class would be at a US university. A summer/winter class is paced completely different than a regular class during the semester. The classes at Sejong have that US University summer/winter class feel.

You take 4 classes a semester (or 5 if you wish to add an elective). Each semester is broken up into 2 terms. For example, Spring Semester, from March til May you would take 2 classes, and from May-July you take 2 classes. A total of 4 classes a semester.


Another great thing about the program is the people. Its a great way to network and meet new people. There are events like attending functions put on by the EU, American, NZ, Australian Chamber of Commerces. They also have guest lecturers and speakers come. Last semester the guy in charge of Korean operations for DHL gave the MBA students a VIP tour of the DHL facilities, complete with food/wine.

BTW, its a full-time MBA program. Fully accredited. Some other schools in Korea only have their undergraduate business program accredited by the AACSB. Sejong has their MBA program accredited.

[DaeSung]

There are a few people on the boards that will probably be very helpful in answering this question. I think some people have had very positive experiences with the SKK global MBA program (http://gsb.skku.edu/2008_home/index.htm).

What really matters is what you bring to the table, and what you are planning on doing after you finish your MBA.

I don�t post on the board often so I�ll give you a quick background about myself. I did an undergrad degree in Accounting in the US (I�m from the US, non Korean). During university I did an internship with LG Electronics in Changwon and later got a full time offer to work for LG Electronics at the HQ in Yeouido. I married a Korean girl and we moved over to Korea to start our adventure working and living in Korea. I worked for LGE for 3.5 years doing finance related roles before I headed back to the states to do an MBA.

I enjoyed my experience in Korea and working for LGE, however, there is a brick ceiling internally. LG (along with most Korean companies) doesn't have very much experience dealing with foreign employees in Korea. As such they make no plans for you to advance and do very little to help you develop professional skills. (LG has actually brought in a number of top executives from overseas and this is a great improvement, but these people were not developed internally and were already successful before they got to LG. Still a step in the right direction.)

I wanted more out of my career and asked LG if they would sponsor me to do an MBA. I was told maybe if I worked for them for another 5 years this could be considered. And in their defense I think it might have been possible. I wanted something more and chose to leave the company. The next real problem with working for a Korean company (even chaebols, I�m generalizing but many people I know would agree) is the compensation. They pay MBA�s good by Korean standards. I recently was sent an offer by someone interviewing with a Chaebol asking my opinion on the compensation package. I laughed and told the person to reject it. He was getting the same package I was getting before I came back to do an MBA. By all means the offer was great for a Korean with an MBA, by American standards it was laughable. (Yes I know you have different costs and tax rates in Korea, but still significantly less than what you could net in the US). However I do know a few Americans work for multinationals that are fairly compensated at market levels but all of them have degrees from high tier schools in the US.

Anyway going back to where to do your MBA, I would suggest that if you do not plan on working in Korea at a Korean company and you are not Korea, than you should do it back in the states or whatever country you are from and go to a full time program. I know that there are a lot of qualifiers in that sentence but that is my opinion. I am back in the states at a top 20 school (and as you know if you want a high post MBA salary you need to either go to a top 10 school, or have amazing pre-MBA work experience. Our schools average post MBA salary for a finance person is around 100,000 USD annual base plus bonuses).

So why should you do it in the states (or UK) or someplace other than Korea? I think you can answer this in a number of ways but for me it was about the long term goal. I liked being in Korea so I want to go back, but I want to go back as an executive not middle management. From my perspective if you want to have a good position in a company in Korea you need to be sent their by the company from HQ. I choose my school knowing that many of the US companies that recruit there have operations in Korea. The logic being that if I work for a US company with operations in Korea they will recognize I have a unique skill set and they will send me back there in 5 to 7 years.
That being said the job market is tough right now. The Harvard and Wharton guys are not all getting the same jobs they used to, this push more of them down into jobs they would not have taken before (Jobs that the lower ranked top 20 would normally get). This push us down to jobs that we would not have taken before and the cycle is leaving a number of people all across the spectrum without jobs. So would you like to compete with these guys with your Korean MBA for a job an any place other than Korea? Good luck on that one. I believe I have good experience, I speak business Korean well, I want to live abroad, and I interviewed with 20 fortune 500 companies looking for jobs here in the states (with the end goal of going back to Korea as an executive). I got a job with a tech company that I�m very excited about. However, the rest of my MBA class isn�t doing so good. Right now we are at 44% placement. The year isn�t over yet but still not doing so good, and we aren�t the only school like that. Wharton, Stanford, yeah they have lower than average placement too. Until those guys decided they want lower pay they will just have to live with the fact that not all the high paying jobs exist anymore.

Yeah, I know really long reply but you should think about what you�ve done and how well you can sell that to future employers. Getting an MBA is more about getting connected and networked in with your post-MBA employer than about learning stuff. (You will learn a bunch and have to study like crazy, but it is more important for you to find a job. People are still lining up to take MBA�s just not as many as they used to.) Good luck on whatever you choose, if it was me to do again, I�d come back to the states to a good school (the best one you can get into) and then work hard to find the job you want. A very successful Expat told me �Being successful in the U.S. is a lot more likely to lead to being successful in Korea; the opposite is just not true.�

For what it�s worth you should really consider what you want out of life and the order you want to do it in. You can be successful at a Korean company with a Korean MBA (this won�t be easy and you�ll have to put in a lot of effort � but if you�re going to be successful anywhere the same can be said). And in the end if you are successful and want to come back to the states you might be able to make the move back.

Sorry to rant and rave, but I�ve talked to a number of expats in Korea and most did not travel the Korean MBA path, and I know some that have gone to Universities in Korea only to stop mid program and go back to the U.S. to restart so they can get a better valued education. Oh and there are a number of Koreans in my program that graduated with KMBA�s and are now doing them here because they want to work for Multinational companies and found their degrees given little recognition.

[pkang0202]

[DaeSung]

Hmmmmmm... wasn't trying to be demeaning in the post. Just wanted to give out some food for thought.

Top ranked schools are selective, and taking the GMAT is part of it. I took it three times to get a score that would work for my school, in the end my score was okay but the work experience was the most important part.

I posted with the intent to give a little about my experience and why I think it is more valuable to go back to the states. There is nothing wrong with doing an MBA in Korea, but if you can wait a year get ready and get some good work experience than you'll be better off at a better school.

That being said, I did try to qualify my statements with who I think they apply to. Everyone has their own situation and if going to a KMBA is the right thing for you to do than you should do it. I think if you are going to make that decision it should be informed and you should make it based on criteria that are important to you.

You can be successful with a degree from any university (or without a degree for that matter). Yes telling a high school kid he should go to an Ivy League school if they want a good job is silly. But just because it's silly doesn't mean its not true. Get the best education you can at the best place you can and you'll be better off than not. Just be aware that like it or not you will be discounted for having a KMBA compared to a US MBA. Not every time and not by everyone but people will do it. People either feel one of two ways about my experience in Korea working for a Korean company. It�s either really cool and they like it, or they discount it and wonder why I would choose to work there. Same thing with a KMBA, someone will value it. You should just be aware of how much value other people place on it. Some big companies don't even consider top 20 to be good enough.

Good luck with where ever the OP ends up going. I guess this is kinda the finance guy in me talking but you should look at the opportunity costs, the cash outflows for school, and the present value of future cashflows of doing an MBA vs not and see which one you'd be better off doing. Take the one with the highest NPV for you. (Yes it would be silly to say that even though you got a positive NPV you aren't going to go to school just because you could get a higher return if you went to Harvard. You need to compare with what schools are realistic for you.)

[pkang0202]

I think with the recent economy, there is a flood of people going ito mba programs. If the OP has a good chance of getting into a top 25 MBA program in the US, then going there is the smartest choice. If the OP wantz to pursue a program in Korea, there are good MBA programs. In my opinion, the Sejong Syracuse MBA is the most friendly when you factor things like time and cost. A full time in classroom MBA program for around $12,000 is pretty awesome.

An MBA is worthless without work experience. In a prevous post i outlined the value of MBA versus work experience. An MBA becomes morr valuable over time. People who get it expecting immediate payoff is going to be disappointed.

[chotaerang]

Thanks for the comprehensive answers. Pkang, I'm leaning towards Sejong. Are you still studying there or have you graduated? And this is a bit humbling to ask, but how difficult is the math?

[Yaya]

[Milkman Dan]

I'm also giving some strong thought as to attending Business School here in Korea once my current teaching contract is up. Upon researching the different MBA programs, I noticed that most of them offer Dual MBA programs. This requires about 1 year of courses in Korea, and then the last year at a Business School in the U.S.

From what I've gathered, this seems like a great option to people (like myself) who feel that having a Korean MBA alone could potentially be limiting to ones future employment prospects. Here's a list of some of the Dual Degree partner schools that I can remember seeing off the top of my head:

Duke
MIT
U of Illionois - Urbana
Syracuse
U of Washington
USC (Forget which one...)
Indiana University

The Dual degree is contingent on you being accepted into both programs, so it isn't like you can goof off in Korea and then saunter over to Duke without a care in the world. But this looks great because you'll save lots of money with a partial/full scholarship in Korea ($20,000 - $40,000) and then get your foot in the door of an American MBA program.

My current goal is to get accepted to the Yonsei MBA and do their dual degree program with U of Washington. I just hope my GMAT scores turn out good...

[pkang0202]

Nowadays, MBA's are a dime a dozen. The main reason I get one is so when I go back to the US, I can tell my future employer that I actually DID something besides teaching while I was in Korea. ESL is a great career and field for many people. In my case, saying I was an English teacher for 3 years in Korea isn't going to get me a good job at a company.

MBA in Korea isn't as good as one from a top 50 school in the US, but at least I can tell a potential employer that I did more than just teach ABC's and drink on the weekends.

[PRagic]

Curious as to how the public outcry over Sejong's (Syracuse) MBA program has ironed out. There was a big expose' on the Korean news about that program, something about it being advertised as an accredited and JOINT degree with Syracuse U. Turns out that you can apply credits for classes you take under a Syracuse prof. to THEIR MBA program if you choose to go to the US to do that, but that the actual degree is just from Sejong.

If that's the case, you'd be better off with SKK or Yonsei's programs; profs from top 10 US business schools and larger, more effective alumni networks.

Just my 2 cents. If you're going to make your MBA your terminal degree, it would probably be better to do it in the US. If you plan on continuing on for a doctorate, why not do it on the (comparative) cheap here?

[Yaya]

[kinerry]

In case you haven't noticed, Koreans still have yet to get this business thing down. Inventory systems here are horrid, as are marketing and design efforts.

Almost any MBA over here will be inferior to getting one in western nations (and Australia/NZ).