Instructions: We are interested in learning more about you and how you work, think, and act. For each essay, please provide a brief overview of the situation followed by a detailed description of your response. Please limit the experiences you discuss to those which have occurred in the past three years. In each of the essays please describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did.

MIT M. Fin. Essay 1:
Please describe a time when you worked effectively with people to accomplish an important result. (300 words or fewer, limited to one page)

In a recent performance evaluation, my team was ranked first among four teams for the highest average returns on investment and this resulted from my ability to work effectively with people to achieve an important accomplishment.

A one point, our team was made responsible for developing personal financial management plans for a number of clients whose individual assets reached over 1 million RMB. There were two alternatives whereby we could proceed—either each team member took charge of developing plans for one or two randomly-picked clients or all team members were to get involved in developing plans for all clients, yet each concentrating on a field one is exceedingly familiar with. I proposed to adopt the latter option—two colleagues and I focusing on studying and picking bonds, funds, and stocks respectively, another on needs consulting, and yet another on development plans. Our synergy proved highly efficient. Working within one’s proficient fields saved the time of learning and assimilating in-depth knowledge about other unfamiliar fields. As every member knew the information of all clients, our discussions of individual clients were more comprehensive, the plans developed were more detailed, and our solutions for each case more specific. On my own part, based on information regarding the client needs forwarded from the colleague who excelled in marketing and needs study, I resorted to my expertise in stock analysis and chose the appropriate stocks. At group discussions, all the members made comprehensive comparative analyses of three different schemes from different perspectives and settled on the optimized portfolios that yielded the most satisfactory returns.

As an entry-level analyst, I am very proud of this achievement because I proved my value by exercising my acumen and making a sensible proposal that brought all team members into concerted efforts toward the accomplishment of a common objective.