old dog, new tricks

So, ok.

It all started last Friday night, after a couple of drinks (my soda was without alcohol, but it was still a drink) with my colleagues, my Biz & Client Services Director Magda commented to me, "You know, you should think about doing a bit of strategy. I mean, you're doing PM work yet you're also doing well in contributing ideas during our brainstorm sessions, perhaps you might want to branch out and start heading towards strategy 'cos I think you have the potential. It also helps you grow as a person."

And that got my mind all whirring and thinking about it.

The day after, Magda had another farewell dinner with a few other friends, and I was there as well. Again, she brought it up. "Think about it."

Here I am, starting on the 4th decade of my life, pretty good job, comfortable in my own skin, going about every day like any other day. I guess these past few years, although I've made a switch from being an IT auditor to a project manager, my so-called career still lacked what it really needed the most to give it a competitive edge - paper qualifications.

I'm a business graduate, never learned anything about IT until my first job where I made the head-on plunge into the tech world without a backward glance at accounting and finance. And though I had enough of numbers, I still completed my CPA papers during my stint in the accounting firm and have professional certification for that.

Today, if I really scrutinise my work experience vs. my qualifications, it's a total mismatch. What's an acc/fin business grad doing in an interactive media agency, managing web projects? Duh. You could say I was far from what I thought I'd be, some financial analyst or traditional bean counter.

Back to "thinking about it".

I did. For the rest of the weekend, the past few days.

Here's what slapped me in the face.

5 years from now, I could be an obsolete dinosaur in this industry if I don't catch up. Just like in any other industry, if we don't constantly develop new skills and keep abreast with the latest developments, we become stagnant. I guess some people choose to not be part of the rat race and I thought I wouldn't want to either. I still don't. Yet funnily enough, I'm tired of being complacent. I'm tired of settling in on a job without the proper qualifications. I guess I'm just tired of myself. I need re-inventing.

The past few days, I talked to a few friends and asked for opinions on what it would mean to move towards marketing and business strategy. "An MBA would be a good place to start, apart from hands-on experience."

I checked out the Global MBA rankings for 2006 by Financial Times. I looked up a few business schools, checked out the syllabus and subjects, and went through the admission requirements. The tuition fees are definitely not cheap - London Business School (ranked 5th) was at a whopping £41,970. The cheaper alternative, Lancaster University Management school (ranked 30th) was at £17,000. Still a lot of money once I made the conversion to Ringgit. I had to keep reminding myself that these were only the tuition fees; there were still the living expenses and other costs like textbooks to factor in. Even INSEAD (ranked 8th), which had a campus in Singapore, was still at a very hight EUR45,000. I didn't bother looking at US schools, they were way too far for my liking. 13 hours of flight to London was bad enough as it is.

I had another problem at hand as well. What about my Oz visa? Hadn't I already made up my mind to take that giant leap and start anew? I definitely am not in the position to request for a deadline extension; I hadn't a good enough reason except being a major procrastinator. I had to look for a path that went my way.

I checked out the only 2 Oz business schools that were listed in the top 100. Melbourne Business School (ranked 69th) was one, Australian Graduate School of Management (ranked 75th) was the other. And since my heart's set out on Sydney... it'll have to be AGSM for close to A$50,000. Although the rank isn't so good - the last among the few I've looked at - it's still not bad either. Sometimes, we can't always afford the very best. And hey, I wouldn't have to compete with the super-duper smart, either.

So, here I am.

All these options at hand, and the right decision to make. I had a look at the submission requirements for application, and they'd already scared me half to death with essays to write and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) to sit for. I probably wouldn't be financially stable enough for the next couple of years until I settle in nicely in Oz, and earn a bit more to cover expenses. There's always a scholarship but that would mean competing with thousands of other students vying for the handful of handouts. Either way, it requires planning and preparation until I'm ready. That'll be about 2 to 3 years' time. If I'm going to be serious about it, I have to start now. Not going to be an easy road for sure. Oh, my mind gets all screwed up just thinking about it (especially financing the MBA).

Alternatively I could do the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. That was what I had intended to do when I first started out in this line of work. If I compare MBA and PMP, however, of course the former had much more appeal and ease in moving to other aspects of business rather than being stuck in just project management.

If at the end of the day I decide to chicken out and not pursue any further paper qualifications at all, my last resort would be... a Yoga teacher. About RM15,000 to take this locally, I think. How did this come across my mind? Well, a couple of friends asked me this before (incidentally, one asked just 4 days back), and I did give it a passing thought. But hmm, do I really want to give up the corporate life? Oh my goodness, what am I saying? Ok, really out of my mind now. See what happens when your mind is too idle?

This would be a great time for a Sugar Daddy to appear. Any volunteers to be my sponsor?


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