Sophia Lin

University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business

“A trilingual business professional with a multiple ethnic background and a growth mindset.”

Hometown: Taipei, Taiwan

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’m Taiwanese but don’t speak Taiwanese, and a Canadian who has never lived in Canada.

Undergraduate School and Major: National Taiwan University, BBA, International Business

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Lin Trading Company Limited (Family business), Operations Manager

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: As the product manager of Polaroid instant photography products, I drove a 294% year-on-year growth in revenue in Q1, 2017.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Collaborative. Although everyone has different backgrounds and experiences, I found my classmates extremely collaborative starting from day one. We are all more than happy to share our strengths and weaknesses with one another, hoping that we can achieve the best results as a team by leveraging our personal strengths and experiences.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? The C4C events! USC has won the First Place Prize 8 times in the past nine years by fundraising and contributing volunteer hours. I can’t wait to be a part of this series of charity activities and help keep the Golden Briefcase at USC.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? After working for my family business for more than one year and gaining experience in leading a team, I think it is great timing for me to go back to business school and learn the soft and hard skills to become a better decision maker in the future.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? Once I realized that pursuing an MBA is the most effective and efficient way to achieve my goal, I believe it is worth the investment as long as I utilize the resources given to me and work hard!

What other MBA programs did you apply to? HKUST Full-time MBA, CEIBS Full-time MBA, Boston College Full-time MBA, UCLA Full-time MBA, NYU Full-time MBA

How did you determine your fit at various schools? For me, the two most important factors are “location” and “alumni network”. Location is so important in that it pretty much determines the lifestyle for the next two years. USC has a huge and close-knit alumni network in not only the States but also Asia. Therefore, it is a network that I can still utilize and contribute to even if I go back to Asia.

To learn about top business schools’ culture and how they differentiate from one another, I browsed program websites, attended info sessions and coffee chats, reached out to current students and alumni, and of course, read articles on Poets & Quants!

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? It was the time I competed in a national consecutive interpretation contest that I wasn’t fully prepared for. I can still recall the overwhelming fear of failure and the urge to quit. However, instead of breaking down and admitting defeat, I managed to pull myself together and smoothly completed the competition. This incident has been remarkable as the sense of accomplishment completely outweighed the fear of doing things that make me uncomfortable, and also reminds me to constantly step out of my comfort zone to pursue personal growth.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I am interested in strategic planning positions and product management in the tech industry. But I am keeping my options open to see if the MBA will guide me to an unexpected path.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Probably working in a tech company’s branch in Asia, making influential strategic decisions based on data, and leading a great team of global talents.