Practicality of Thailand

Snapping back to reality for a moment, but without getting too far off course, I think Thailand can be a contributing factor for me to help obtain admission into a top MBA program. Now that I have successfully completed the CPA exam (yep, just got the results back from my last section! Yeah!!! CPA!!! Me!) and will shortly be officially licensed, the next road-mark in my progression to realize all my professional goals in obtaining a Masters of Business Adminstration from a top MBA program. While I initially considered this upcoming adventure of mine to be a complete detour and break from my career, I have begun to consider some of the potential professional development opportunities that this trip can potentially afford me.

In the past week or so, I have spent far less time researching Thailand travel, and more time considering my future career. I suppose the reasoning behind this is that now that the CPA exam is complete, I feel that I have accomplished everything that I have set out to accomplish in the accounting world. I have gained valuable business experience, learned how to succeed in a corporation culture, been promoted, and now have the CPA to validate all my these experiences. For me to stay within public accounting, the next steps would be for me to become a manager and ultimately partner, which have never really been goals of mine.

It’s ironic after officially be certified to be an accountant, I have absolutely no desire to use any of these new abilities (preparing tax returns, attestation services, etc) in my future career. Instead, the foundation that I have obtained as an accountant and as evident by my newfound certification will be used in the future to help a company make financial and operational decisions. Having an accounting background and understanding of accounting is critical for success as a CFO, and being a CPA will forever label my competence in this area.

A CFO of a company is appointed with the responsibility of managing the financial risks, raising capital, financial planning, and financial reporting. When a company is making the decision to enter a new business or purchase new equipment or issue a dividend, it is ultimately the CFO who is in charge of making that decision. For me, having the responsibility of making multi-million dollar decisions that can make or break the future of an organization is the type of pressure and involvement that I seek. For years, while I have helped all sorts of clients from the federal to non-profit to commercial industries with their financial reporting, I have felt left out of the bigger picture – the decision-making and strategic operations of a business. I want to feel apart of a company and share in its continued success. I want the results of my work to be more defined. Right now, it certainly is a feeling of accomplishment when one of my clients issues their financial statements complete with our letter stating that we have audited the statements, and they are free of material misstatement, however, the results of the company’s performance are not mine or a result of the work that I did.

As such, in order to successfully advance my career from accounting into the private sector, obtaining an MBA is the logical stepping stone to altering my chosen career path within the business world. In order to be accepted into a top MBA program, the application and competition is obviously intense. In fact, even more so than law and medical schools, the prestige of the school in which you receive an MBA will have a direct correlation to the employer and specifically the salary of the MBA graduate upon re-entering the workforce. So, its very important to go to a top program, otherwise, I’m not even sure if its worth it, quite frankly.

While being a CPA and having Big 4 accounting experience, in addition to the corporate and growth experience of working in a mid-sized firm in rapid growth mode, is a very solid basis for my resume, I realize that the ultra-competitiveness of the top programs requires more. The MBA program admission criteria can be divided into roughly 3 equal parts: Tangibles (Work Experience, Qualifications, Education), Intangibles (References, Essays, Interviews), and Standardized testing (GMAT). While I believe that I will rank right up there based on my tangible qualities, I realize that I’m not going to be the only CPA with Big 4 experience applying to the top MBA programs. I’m sure that we are a dime a dozen when it comes to potential Harvard MBA candidates. I absolutely need to obtain above a 700 on my GMATs (roughly the 93rd percentile), which is often considered a cut-off point for many of the top programs.

However, it’s the intangible qualities in which my trip Thailand comes into play. The top business schools are looking for more well-rounded students who have leadership and worldly experiences outside the work-force to share. If I play it right, I can use my experiences in Thailand as a basis for an essay. If I go with the mission to met tourism business owners or individuals who have opened up a business in Thailand, or to go investigate how the economy has so quickly rebound since the Tsunami in 2004, then I could also obtain relevant business knowledge in addition to having fun and exploring and learning about different culture and myself. In fact, the recently released list of Harvard 2008 Essays for the HBS September 2008 start-class, includes the question, “How have you experienced culture shock?” If putting myself alone in a foreign country half-way around the world doesn’t provide me with a basis to answer that question, then I probably should lower my MBA standards.

In looking at application deadlines, the deadlines for submitting your completed application for a September 2008 start are in October 2007, so the only issue of course is that I would have to have my applications submitted prior to leaving. I still think my planning, and perhaps even this blog, is worthwhile essay fodder regarding my trip, so I think I can weasel an MBA essay out my trip to Thailand prior to it even starting. I guess the bigger issue is that I really don’t have much more time to procrastinate prepping for an MBA around considering I have to take the GMATs after first attending a course, obtain letters, write essays, conduct interviews, visit campuses, decide on schools, etc. Lots to do in really not all that much time. But how sweet will it be to go to Thailand already having all my applications submitted?