SMU MBA Alumni Interview | More Than Knowledge: A Career Upgrade, Cross-Cultural Teamwork and Personal Growth!

Starting out in the Department of Life Science at National Taiwan University, Howel didn't begin on the typical "business track." After graduating, he went into digital advertising and e-commerce, building years of hands-on experience in a high-intensity, results-driven environment and gradually moving into roles that required strategic judgment and cross-department collaboration.

It was at this stage that he began to realize work experience alone was no longer enough to carry him into the next stage of his career. He needed more complete, systematic business training.

In the end, Howel chose to go to Singapore for the SMU MBA, completing a cross-disciplinary shift from a life science background and industry practice to formal business education. This interview takes a close look at why he decided to apply for an MBA, how he shaped his application story, and the key reasons he chose SMU out of many programs. Howel also shares what studying in the SMU MBA is really like, including how a multinational cohort shook up his learning, the challenges and rewards of cross-cultural group work, and how the program actually shaped his thinking about his career positioning and long-term development.

If you're wondering whether to apply for an MBA, whether a non-traditional (non-business) background is a good fit, or whether the SMU MBA suits an Asia-focused career, this interview offers an honest, concrete perspective you can compare against your own situation.

Howel's application background:

National Taiwan University, Department of Life Science, GPA: 3.57 / 4.0, TOEFL 100, GMAT (10th Edition) 700 Work Experience:

• Digital advertising network

  • Account Executive → Digital Account Manager → Account Executive Supervisor (about 4.5 years)

  • Handled major clients in skincare and health supplements, managing over TWD 12 million a year in performance advertising and SEM budgets

  • Collaborated across departments (media, analytics, engineering, creative) and led regular business reviews and performance optimization

• Digital advertising agency

  • Digital Account Manager (about 1.5 years)

  • Built in-house programmatic buying capability, cutting Google Ads costs by about 30%

• Tech equipment manufacturer

  • Specialist / Product-side role (about 1.5 years)

  • Worked with the engineering team on product planning and early system architecture for an international price comparison platform

Other Experience:

• Years of experience working with multinational clients and Japanese brands

• Familiar with performance marketing, CRM, data analysis and business decision-making

• Languages: Chinese (native), English (fluent), Japanese (JLPT N1)

Admitted to:

• Singapore Management University (SMU) MBA (where he enrolled)

About the Singapore Management University (SMU) MBA

Singapore Management University (SMU, official website) is located in downtown Singapore and is one of Asia's most representative business-focused universities, known for highly interactive teaching, close ties to industry and an international campus. Its Master of Business Administration (MBA) is part of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) and aims to develop managers with strategic thinking, cross-cultural communication skills and practical decision-making ability.

In international rankings, the SMU MBA has long held steady global visibility. In the QS Global MBA Rankings, the SMU MBA ranks 41st in the world, reflecting its competitiveness in teaching quality and international reputation, and making it an important choice for many applicants who want to center their careers on Asia.

The SMU MBA is a full-time MBA program built around the Asian business environment with a global perspective. Students come from very diverse backgrounds, across different countries, industries and functions. The curriculum emphasizes case-based learning and small-class interaction, encouraging students to engage in in-depth discussion, real-world scenario analysis and decision-making across perspectives, rather than stopping at theory.

In terms of content, the SMU MBA uses 8 core modules to form a complete management training framework covering the key skills needed to run a business: corporate finance, financial accounting, business analytics, marketing, operations management, strategic management, organizational behavior and leadership, and leading digital transformation.

This design lets students build an integrated view of finance, data, strategy and organizational management at the same time, instead of focusing on a single function.

Structurally, the SMU MBA is a 15-month full-time program with a high degree of flexibility: it can be completed in as little as 10 months, which particularly suits professionals who want to finish their degree quickly and move on to the next stage of their careers as soon as possible.

Overall, the SMU MBA isn't simply about "switching careers." It's positioned as a program that helps professionals who already have practical experience raise the level of their decision-making, broaden their international outlook and strengthen their leadership. That positioning is exactly why many applicants like Howel, with years of industry experience, choose the SMU MBA.

From life science to an MBA: how the career shift and motivation to study took shape

What made you decide to pursue an MBA?

Q: You started in life science at National Taiwan University and then went into digital advertising and e-commerce, which is already a very cross-disciplinary path. At what point did you start to feel you "needed more systematic business training," and end up choosing an MBA?

A: It started around when I was promoted to digital account manager at my second company (2019); that's when I began thinking about further study. I had joined an ad agency hoping to learn marketing on the job, but because it was an agency, in practice we mostly only executed the promotion part of the 4Ps, and most projects were fairly standalone, so we usually didn't see the big picture.

At the same time, my main client then was a Japanese company that cared a lot about ROI, and its ad budget was basically concentrated on the lower funnel of customer acquisition (I later found most e-commerce clients are like this). I found what I was exposed to at work was even more limited, so I started thinking about going back to school.

I originally wanted to do an MSc in Marketing, but after joining my third company I communicated and worked more with teams in other functions, and realized I needed more than marketing knowledge. I needed to fill in broader business thinking, so I decided to apply for an MBA. It just happened that COVID hit, and the GMAT and other tests went less smoothly than I'd expected, so it took a long time before I actually went back to school.

What "skill gap" did you feel at the time?

Q: Was it the level of strategic decision-making, integrating resources across departments, or understanding the overall structure of business and markets? How did these thoughts lead you step by step to an MBA?

A: The main gap I felt was probably the level of strategic decision-making and integrating resources across departments. On strategic decision-making: because of the nature of agency work, a lot of things only came down to us for execution after the client already had a clear idea, and many constraints were added before a project even started, so the projects weren't very large or deep. The upside was that they were easier to execute, but the scope of what I could influence and contribute to was limited. Also, my undergrad background is actually in science, and I always felt my business knowledge was lacking and wasn't that confident about higher-level strategy. That also pushed me to decide to go back to school.

On integrating resources across teams: I once handled a project to simplify the tracking setup for ad conversion attribution. The actual changes weren't complicated, but because the team members involved rarely interacted, the requirements defined on the user side never matched how the web engineering team understood them, and the whole project stalled for at least six months with no progress. To push it forward, I joined the team partway through to help.

Because I had experience communicating with web engineers in my first job, I understood fairly well how engineers like requirements to be written. After joining the project team, I first gathered the exact use cases from the other users and redefined the requirements clearly. Then, at a meeting attended by both the engineers and user representatives, I proposed a solution that got both sides to agree, which got the stalled project moving again. Finally, I ran a workshop explaining how the workflow would change, to make sure all users understood and got used to the new process. Two months after I joined the team, we successfully changed the existing tracking setup, saving at least 50% in time and cost. That experience made me appreciate again how important cross-disciplinary knowledge is, and it's also why I chose an MBA: besides learning more well-rounded business thinking, I could meet people from different professional backgrounds and broaden my cross-disciplinary perspective.

MBA application strategy and positioning: how to tell your career story well

How did you shape your application theme and career narrative? What did you focus on most when preparing your application materials?

Q: In your application, how did you connect "academic background × work experience × future goals" so schools would understand why you're a good fit for an MBA? Looking back on the whole process, which part do you think was most worth investing time in (e.g., clarifying career motivation, résumé structure, choosing recommenders)?

A: Every school's MBA looks for a different portfolio, but what they broadly have in common is wanting a diverse student body and strong career growth after graduation. In my case, a science academic background combined with business-related work experience isn't extremely rare in an MBA, but it's relatively uncommon. I felt that in an MBA that values diversity, this combination highlighted the different way of thinking I could bring and added to the class's diversity, and it also showed I could adapt to the MBA's diverse environment.

On the other hand, my science background lacked complete training in business thinking. That's a weakness an MBA program can fill, and once I'd finished the MBA and filled that gap, I'd have the chance to grow more in my future career. Combining the two was the strategy I set for my application materials.

As for the whole application process, I think clarifying your career motivation and goals is what's most worth investing time in. It doesn't just help with your MBA application; most importantly, it helps you sort out your own future direction. In the process, the most important thing is to make sure that what you need is something the MBA you're applying to can provide, and that the MBA can help you move toward the career direction you want. Otherwise you're really just wasting your own time and money, and possibly the school's resources too.

How he chose schools and made the final decision: why the SMU MBA?

What were your criteria when choosing an MBA program?

Q: Among the many MBA options, what aspects did you mainly compare (e.g., location, curriculum design, industry ties, learning atmosphere)?

A: One factor I considered was program length. I was already over 30 when I applied, so I didn't have much time to study at a leisurely pace; I wanted to finish an MBA within 1-1.5 years. The other main factor was location. Since I wanted to work in Singapore, I mainly chose schools in Singapore, because where a school is located has a big effect on the network you build, which helps more when you look for a job there afterward.

What key points about the SMU MBA won you over?

Q: Looking back on why you chose it, which features of the SMU MBA were what really made up your mind?

A: With the two main considerations above (program length and location), I was left with only 4 options: SMU, NUS, NTU and INSEAD. But INSEAD has higher TOEFL requirements, my score wasn't enough and I didn't plan to spend more time retaking it, so I couldn't apply and it was out.

Comparing SMU with NUS and NTU, SMU's classes are more interactive. SMU's internship is also required (though you still have to apply to companies yourself), which basically gives you a chance to experience working in Singapore. And since it's right downtown, it's easier to get back to class during an internship. So it became my first choice. One more advantage I only learned about after getting into SMU: apart from the core courses in the first six months, which are during the day, the electives are all in the evenings or on Saturdays. So even though it's an MBA you finish in about a year, you can still do a 3- to 6-month internship at the same time, which other one-year MBAs rarely allow.

What studying in the SMU MBA is really like: classes, classmates and learning style

How did the SMU MBA's diverse cohort shake up your learning?

Q: What concrete effects did classmates from different countries, industries and functions have on how you learn and think?

A: In terms of learning, there doesn't seem to have been much concrete difference because of the different backgrounds, but in class discussions or group work there were often moments like, "How interesting, I never thought people from other countries would see it this way." The main effect a diverse class had on how I think is probably that I think more about whether the listener will understand what I'm about to say. A lot of the time I assume the other person might not know, so I add more background explanation.

That may sound obvious, but in Taiwan, which is very homogeneous, people often assume the other person should already know, and forget to consider that they might not know or might not be clear on certain things, so what the listener takes away ends up oversimplified.

The other side of diversity: dealing with communication costs and team challenges

Q: In group work, when you ran into dominant personalities or uneven participation, how did you usually adjust your role and mindset? How has the diverse cohort affected your later international career path?

A: I actually didn't mind uneven participation much. As long as the group project got done and I learned something along the way, I don't think everyone's contribution has to be perfectly equal. But when you run into free riders who contribute nothing at all, it's hard not to feel it's unfair and complain. Still, each term is only 10 weeks, and complaining alone won't finish the project, so you really just have to put up with it, do their part, and not group with them next time. Word about free riders spreads fast, and in later terms they usually have a harder time finding teammates right away.

As for dominant, forceful personalities, I don't think I personally ran into any (I heard a few classmates were, but I happened not to be in their groups). It may also be that in classes outside my strengths (like finance), even though I'd have my own ideas, I'd still trust the final judgment of teammates with relevant experience. So even if someone else took the lead, as long as I agreed with the final result and learned something in the process, I didn't see it as a problem. (If anything, I seem to be the forceful one in areas I know well 😅)

Honestly, I haven't yet felt a big impact from the diverse cohort on my own career path. After all, I chose an MBA precisely to meet more different people and gain more knowledge, so it's the environment I expected. But what I can say for sure is that it did achieve my goal of broadening my perspective.

Curriculum and learning model: the effect of the cohort system and mixed classes

What difference does the SMU MBA's structure of core and elective courses actually make?

Q: Core courses are taken with a fixed cohort, while electives are shared with part-time students. How does this affect the depth of learning and your perspective?

A: Part-time MBA students are basically working at the same time, and most are older, so their contributions to class discussion are often recent experiences from work. Compared with full-time classmates, their questions or what they share can be more practical, which brings a different perspective.

Also, because SMU's classes are small, taking classes with part-time students really did add more chances to meet people from different professional fields and build connections.

Is this curriculum design close to the real workplace?

Q: From your point of view, did the SMU MBA's learning model bring you closer to how collaboration and decision-making work in a real business environment?

A: Honestly, I'd say yes and no. The yes part is that in MBA projects teammates are equals, so discussions are usually fairly constructive. When opinions clash, you have to persuade the other side, and you only reach a conclusion once both sides find common ground or one side compromises. In some flatter, creativity-focused teams, that may well be how they collaborate and make decisions.

But in real workplace collaboration, power between teams is usually unequal, and decision-making authority still sits with the key stakeholders. If you don't have that authority, all you can do is try to persuade the key stakeholders, and that part is different from the MBA. Even so, the frameworks from MBA courses do still help with clarifying problems, analyzing the current situation and making decisions.

Cross-cultural collaboration and personal growth: an MBA brings more than knowledge

Which ability do you think changed the most for you during the SMU MBA?

Q: Beyond professional skills, were there clear changes in how you communicate, the pace of your thinking or your leadership style? Was it communication, decision-making logic, or how to find consensus among diverse viewpoints? Was there a particular project or course that made you especially aware of the change?

A: Honestly, I didn't feel much of a change myself. If I had to name something, what changed most is probably how I think about problems. Education in Taiwan basically trained us to look for the one objectively correct answer, but in business decisions there often isn't an absolute right answer; often the answer is "it depends." The same question can lead to different conclusions in different situations, and basically every option has pros and cons. Often a decision isn't made because it's objectively the most advantageous, but simply as a subjective choice, a trade-off you accept after weighing the pros and cons.

We actually think this way a lot in daily life, like deciding where to travel or what to eat, but I didn't use to think this way so consciously. Specifically, I started doing it more consciously from the Entrepreneurship and business planning elective in my third term. The project was to put together a startup plan. With such an open-ended topic, uncertainty was high, and group discussions tended to diverge first and then converge, so I gradually got used to this way of thinking.

The real impact of the SMU MBA on his career

What concrete changes has the MBA brought to your career planning? How did SMU help?

Q: After finishing the program, how has your view of career choices, role positioning or long-term goals changed?

A: Overall, not much has changed. It mainly made me more certain that the career direction I'd set for the MBA is what I want.

Which skills have you "actually used" most since the MBA?

Q: Whether analysis, communication, strategic thinking or cross-department collaboration, which skills do you see as the most direct return on your MBA investment?

A: At this stage the most practical skill is probably problem solving. After all, whether in daily life or at work, solving problems is still the task you need to do most often. But personally, what I think will help most in the future is still broadening my perspective and strategic thinking. Seeing things with more breadth and from a higher level is what I feel I gained the most from.

Advice for future applicants: if I could do it over

Looking back now, are there things you wish you'd started preparing earlier?

Q: If you had to pick 3 things "most worth investing time in early," what would you suggest to future applicants?

A: Career planning, networking and storytelling skills. Career planning has a big effect on which schools you choose, and in the process you figure out what you're missing and what you need to reach your career goals. That helps not only with choosing schools but also with preparing your application materials and interviews.

Networking, on one hand, helps you get to know schools, so it helps with choosing schools, interviews and preparing application materials. On the other hand, when you look for a job later, your network is also a useful channel.

Storytelling is probably the most important interview skill. It matters in both school and job interviews, and you use it in case study discussions too. Frameworks like STAR can make what you're explaining easier to understand. I bring this up because my thinking tends to jump around, and when I'm nervous it's easy for me to fail to organize what I want to say, so this took me some time to internalize.

For younger students planning to stay and work in Singapore, are there any tips or lessons you most want to share?

Q: If someone hopes to use the SMU MBA to stay and work in Singapore, what experiences or thoughts can you share?

A: Honestly, I can't give advice on this right now, because I haven't found a job here yet. The Singapore job market isn't very good at the moment. Most companies are required by the government to consider locals or people with PR status first, so foreigners who need a visa haven't found it easy to get jobs lately. Many of my classmates ended up choosing to go back to their own countries.