Phuong Tran

Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University

Hometown: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Fun Fact About Yourself: I love spontaneous trips, carefree walking along the beach, and listening to the ocean breeze while talking to people.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, B.A in Banking

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Zuellig Pharma Vietnam, Chief Accountant

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My biggest accomplishment so far is to develop and implement financial profit and loss reconciliation that can give my client a complete picture of their financial performance and prevent errors.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? I can say those best qualities are competence, being unique, and becoming friends for life. Coming to the MBA, my classmates are seeking knowledge and challenges. At the same time, they also bring friendship and laughter, despite the differences in language and background.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this programme for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? It was the programme length and openness of local communities. A one-year programme is suitable for me because the programme intensity forces me to be efficient in terms of time and money. Also, because the market is constantly evolving, being out the off the work force more than a year is challenging for managerial positions. Moreover, I place great importance on career perspective, so the fact that the Netherlands is the friendliest country to English speakers in Europe makes it my top choice.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I’m so excited about Woman in Leadership activities, where we meet with female executives, learn from their experience and exchange ideas to encourage more woman at leading roles. This topic is particularly relevant to developing countries, where gender bias is still not only a social but an economic matter. Hopefully, with experiences obtained from the club activities, I can contribute to tackle this problem and play a good role model. Apart from the academic programme, we also have super interesting events organised by the Sailing Club and the TEDx team.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I am inspired by my CEO and CFO about how effectively they convey their messages, interpreting problems with a plain language so that people from different departments can see the same picture. It takes broad knowledge, innovative views, and leadership skills to coordinate people and business. I decide to take MBA abroad, particularly in the Netherlands, which is the most driving and sustainable market, to develop those skills.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? Quantitatively, an MBA degree can be measured by ROI when I finish and go back to work. However, so far to me, the progress I have made in terms of self-development and friendships is invaluable.

What other MBA programmes did you apply to? University of Texas (McCombs)

How did you determine your fit at various schools? Analysing school is important. That’s especially true to working people like me whose time is constrained. I just want to focus on schools that matter. I categorised schools in three main areas focus, teaching method, and cultures. I then evaluated my desires and strengths in those areas. After forming my own opinion and compiling a list of choices, I talked to MBA alumni about their experiences with the programs to decide. Alumni can give you insights such as differences between expectation and reality and programme requirements from a student’s perspective –not that of the MBA marketing office.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? I was good at chemistry and dreamed of being a chemist. However, when I needed to choose a major in college, I was persuaded to choose economics instead of chemistry. I did not want to fail the entrance test and disappoint my parents. I was also afraid of the social norm that science was a male-dominated area, so I could barely compete. With my result, I could have been admitted by the science school. I learned my lesson to listen to my inner voice, not that of others.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I want to pursue my career in finance and controlling. A part of my job will be to change the perspective on how accountants impact business and society: they are not solely bookkeepers.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I will build up my experience here in Europe in five years. Then, I will come back to Vietnam and apply those experiences to develop local companies and communities.