What Careers Can You Land After The Peking University MBA?

When researching a business school, it’s likely that you’ll be drawn to the career routes of previous MBA grads from the program. This helps you gain a sense of what industries or companies the business school has connections with—offering a glimpse into your post-MBA future.

Yet it’s important to get behind the employment data and figures to hear real-life stories of successful MBA alumni, helping you identify what careers you could land, and whether such business school careers would be right for you.

We spotlight the careers you could land after an MBA in China at Peking University (PKU) Guanghua School of Management, which is based in Beijing, helping you save time with your research into the global MBA program.

MBA jobs at Microsoft 

Jobs in big tech can be hard to come by. You’ll need an array of skills including the ability to innovate, make data-driven decisions, and strategic management.

Fortunately, these are just some of the skills you’ll gain from an MBA program.

Henry Sher is an alum of the Peking Guanghua Global MBA and managed to secure an MBA job at Microsoft through the Microsoft Aspire Program, which offers a two-year development experience for recent grads from university or business school.

Before his MBA, Henry worked in the finance and investment industries for around seven years. He wanted to join an MBA to further his business knowledge and gain new experiences.

“I know that the MBA environment is the perfect place to build, network, and deepen a person’s business management knowledge,” he says.

He explains he wanted to join a business school in Beijing to take advantage of the networking opportunities that the dynamic city has to offer.

Some of the competencies that made him successful in the Microsoft interview process included soft skills such as an ability to work in teams and hard skills such as technical aptitude.

The Peking Guanghua MBA offers courses in topics such as Organizational Behavior, which helps students learn how to communicate with one another, while courses in Data Analysis and Strategy Management help students learn those all-important hard skills.

MBA careers in entrepreneurship

Grads looking for a less traditional MBA career might look to entrepreneurship.

For innovative students looking to launch startups or lead a business, the Peking Guanghua MBA offers courses in areas such as Venture Strategy Simulation and Operations Management.

Beijing ranks highly among the best cities in Asia for startups, with artificial intelligence, fintech, and big data startups filling the entrepreneurial ecosystem in China’s capital. 

MBA grads and entrepreneurs, Kristofine Ekandjo and Aminu Ibrahim Hashim, travelled from Namibia and Nigeria, respectively, to join an MBA in China at Guanghua School of Management.

The successful MBA entrepreneurs have since used their MBA learnings to launch successful ventures. 

Kristofine is the founder of Tulande Online, an ecommerce platform that promotes African-based companies, while Aminu is working on an accounts reconciliation platform for small and medium-sized businesses in Africa.

Some of the Peking Guanghua MBA courses that the entrepreneurs found most valuable were Financial Accounting, Statistics and Data Modeling, and Entrepreneur Management.

Jobs in luxury goods

Joining a global MBA program will not only open you up to global networking opportunities but it can also help you access jobs at international companies.

This is exactly what MBA alum Jonathan Ly did after his MBA in China at Peking University Guanghua School of Management.

Jonathan, who is originally from France, was eager to join the Global MBA program to learn more about the digital transformation efforts and digital ecosystem in China. 

“Up until the MBA, my education was Eurocentric, but the MBA increased my exposure to Asia,” he says.

The PKU Guanghua MBA offers courses that help international students get up to speed with Chinese business such as China in the Global Political Economy and Corporate Finance. 

Many of the MBA courses offer case-learning, where students act as the protagonist to solve a given business problem.

Using his knowledge of the global business sphere, Jonathan landed a top job at luxury goods company Richemont—the parent company of brands including Cartier and Chloé—as chief of staff to the CEO in Asia-Pacific. 

Accessing MBA consulting jobs

MBA careers in consulting are popular among MBA grads. These top jobs enable MBAs to leverage a wealth of skills from business school, including presentation skills, operations management, and critical thinking.

MBA grad Xinyi Qin used her business school degree to leap into a consulting career at top consulting company Arthur D. Little, pivoting from her pre-MBA background in auditing.

She says that the MBA course she found most valuable was the Career Development Strategy course, which invites guest speakers from top firms such as Deloitte and EY to speak with MBA students.

Xinyi was able to hear more about what it’s like to work in consulting and gain resume tips and advice on consulting job interviews.

She even landed an MBA internship at Arthur D. Little during her PKU Guanghua MBA, which led to her full-time employment at the firm. 

Leaping into top MBA careers in finance

MBA grads are well equipped for careers in finance. From an ability to understand complex financial data to financial forecasting—business school grads can usually apply a wealth of skills to jobs in finance.

The Peking University Global MBA program offers courses in Financial Accounting and Managerial Economics, helping students understand finance in business from a variety of key perspectives.

As a mandatory part of the program, the Integrated Practicum Project (IPP) enables MBAs to put their knowledge to the test in a real-world consulting project for an external company. The problem is usually based on several core MBA areas, including finance.

Ruisha Yuan landed an MBA job at a venture capital fund in China after his MBA at PKU Guanghua, where he’s now responsible for investing in China’s next unicorn startups.

“We source companies with the most potential to become giants in their specific niche,” he says. 

Beijing is home to an abundance of startups and around 62 unicorns, including ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, which is one of the world’s most valuable startups.

Aside from Beijing, MBA grads at PKU can access finance jobs in other parts of the country, such as Shanghai, a global finance hub and financial powerhouse. Around 27% of PKU Guanghua MBA grads land jobs in consulting.

“China’s financial system is still in its developing period but this period will provide more opportunities for businesses, and of course more opportunities for the best talent,” Ruisha says.