What is the most important decision you have made in your life? In retrospect, would you make the same decision if you could start all over again?
Looking back to my life of the last 20 years, I must say that the career decision I made upon graduation from Beijing University in 1995 has a most profound impact on who I am and where I am today. I am glad that I made the right decision at the time, a decision that I can find nothing to regret about today.
At the time, a number of choices were presented to me. As high degrees are revered in China, many of the students in my class, me included, contemplated pursuing graduate studies right away. After toying with the idea for a long time, I eventually decided against it, thinking that I should accumulate some significant hands-on experiences before I should embark on advanced studies and research. I knew that management is an applied science, and one can hardly learn to be a good manager without ever managing anything.
Once I decided not to enter into graduate school, I had to choose where to work and what kind of work to do. Like most university graduates in Beijing today, most of my classmates back then wanted to stay in Beijing, the nation's capital, even though the government was encouraging graduates to pursue jobs elsewhere. But I went against the trend in choosing to work in Shenzhen, the boomtown across the border from Hong Kong, attracted by its reputation of being pioneering in the country's economic reforms and development.
Choosing Shenzhen over Beijing does not end the decision-making process. At the time, I could either join a bank as an accountant or a foreign trade company as an ordinary office worker in Shenzhen. Many people prefer the bank for its high income and steady job security. But I felt that accounting with the bank would not be challenging enough for me. So I chose to join the foreign trade company Tigerta Group Corporation Ltd., one of the country's top 300 companies. The decision was proved right. Although hired as an ordinary member of the staff, I quickly stood out among the company's employees with my knowledge and perseverance. Soon, the CEO took me on as his assistant. As such, I not only learned first-hand how a modern Chinese is managed but also participated in the policy deliberations. In the process, I gradually developed my own thinking on management.
Three years has passed since my graduation. With devotion and brilliance, I have reached higher on the corporate ladder in my company than virtually any of my classmates in theirs. For the past two years, I have been serving as the company's top manager in its South Africa chapter, where I have mapped out a business expansion strategy and significantly increased the company's sales. During this period, I have given full play to all my business training and business acumen.
Working independently in a foreign country, I have also learned to be self-disciplined and confident. Moreover, I have significantly improved my command of English.
Even if I had not been as successfully as I really have been, I would not regret having made the choice of working in Shenzhen for a foreign trade company, for the choice would still lead me onto a challenging yet promising career path. Once on this path, I would be full of ambitions, as I am now.
ZZ:tol24.com
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