Career Progress Initiating, Inspiring, Leading Essay

Career Progress Initiating, Inspiring, Leading - Essay Example When I worked as an engineer at Intel from 2001 to 2004, I inspired my mediocre team into a top unit, by initiating an out-of-the-box thinking environment that resulted in over 30 technical innovations in just 1 year. I followed up this innovation culture by leading a cross-departmental platform where engineers from across the company could contribute and share a think tank of ideas that solved several long-running problems of many a unit. I learnt that inspiring others to achieve their dreams is a wonderful achievement in itself. I also learnt that taking initiative to lead a change process is well worth the risk of failure. The team of engineers that I led published ten articles on the prestigious Intel Disclosure Forum in one year - a record by far. From 2004 to 2007, I worked as a business consultant at Accenture, in charge of setting up the billion-dollar industry giant's operations in China. It was a daunting task to apply the best practices of the company in the traditional Chinese environment. I found my way around the problem in two ways. Customizing these practices to best suit the local needs, and innovating new ideas that helped the client learn and adopt them. I learned to interact with the top management and the employees of several Chinese companies to make them familiar of the changing business realities and inspiring them to embrace new ideas. This consulting experience gave me tremendous insight into different businesses, managerial philosophies, operational styles and global perspectives. I also got to learn how to communicate with top executives and persuade them to see my point of view. My Candidacy Since I worked as tennis coach I have always dreamed of building a tennis school of my own. Since I applied last time at Wharton my life has been very eventful. I have gone ahead and implemented my dream to some extent. I have been making plans and accumulating a small fortune on my own for my school all this time and things finally fell into place early this year. A high school was on sale in the neighborhood and I decided to buy this school and transform it into to a sports school. This sudden turn of events has caught me unawares on several skills of entrepreneurship that I had no idea about. First, I learnt how to write a business plan and persuade others to invest in it. I raised money from eleven colleagues in Intel and Accenture and four alumni. They became my founding shareholders. Secondly, I learnt the psychological side of managing people. It took a lot of efforts to make the former management team of the school to understand my ideas and to keep them from quitting. Third, I learnt about marketing & sales, a function that I had never touched before. This entrepreneurship experience has given me tremendous confidence in myself and hands-on experience in setting-up and running a business from the scratch. I feel, I am better equipped to understand the latest theories and practices of the business world than last year. I am also more focused in my approach to studies, with a well etched out career plan. Career Goals Based on the current business, I set my short-term career goal to build a brand name for this sports education venture by associating it with famous athletes, pioneering education philosophies, and sponsoring local sports events. I want to