MBAs in Japan: Everything You Need To Know about Hitotsubashi ICS

There we go. See, we're still waiting for people to join. How many registrations did you get?

We had around 60 registrations.

So let's hope this is a good time.

Oh, hey, good morning everybody.

I hope you're doing well.

Thanks for joining us today while everybody kind of filters in because I know it's a bit late for you guys.

If you don't mind, maybe in the.

Chat telling us where you're from, where you're calling in today. We always love to see where everybody's. Where everyone's from. It's always fun for us.

I know.

Especially kind of seeing who's up at.

This time in the world.

So today we are joined by Aiko, who will be presenting Hito Subashi ICS more information about the school, what you guys need to know. We have a panel of alumni and students set up to answer some questions for you guys about the school, their experience. So we're really excited to have them with us today. So without further ado, I'll turn things.

Over to you, Aiko, if you want to kick it off. Thank you, Ellen. Thank you very much again for hosting us. I'm Aiko Tokiyama and I'm a specially appointed assistant professor at Hitotsubashi ics and today I'm going to be introducing the program to you. I just want to share with everyone. Hitotsubashi ICS just earned the AACSB International accreditation and we are very excited about that. But we're more excited about we were just ranked number one business school in Japan. We had that title also in 2019 and we have it now again for IQS rankings. And for those who have never heard about Hitotsubashi University, Hitotsubashi University was a national university in Japan, was founded in 1875 and it's the first national university in Japan that specialized in management and social sciences. Our main campus is in Kunitachi which is in the western suburb of Tokyo. But the business school that offers programs in English is in Chiyoda campus which is very close to the Imperial palace in a very, very central like Otemachi area of Tokyo, the business kind of hub of the city. And we were founded in 2000 and we were the first national university to offer a program in English. And this is really, really kind of like important for us. We are already been here for 20 years and we just got again ranked for number one business school. We offer three programs, but today I'm only going to be talking about the MBA program, but we do have executive mba, DBA A doctorate in business administration and we also have executive ed programs. So if you have any questions about those programs, feel free to ask. But I'm probably just going to be talking about MBA. Our class size is about 40, 40 to 40 to 50 people depending on the year and the average age is 30. We usually have about really kind of good gender percentage in terms of almost 50, 50. I think this year is the first time in like a couple of years that we don't have 50, 50. And we have 45% of the class being female and 55 being male. We have about 17 nationalities represented in the class of 40, so I think it's pretty good in terms of diversity. And the average GMAT is 650 with the highest 70 70. And about 50% of our class is Japanese and 85% of the class is international students. So even though it's a program in Japan, don't expect to have all of your classmates being Japanese. Also you will be stationed in Tokyo, but well, if Covid allows it, of course. But you will have the chance to have a lot of like really, really develop a global network. So we have double degree opportunities with five institutions. So we have double degree with SNU in Korea, PKU in China, Remin in China, IIMB in India and Yalesom. And then we have also 19 partner schools which you can do exchange. We also have a best alliance which is an alliance of three business schools in Asia, PKUs and UN ICS. And also we're the only Japanese business school that is part of the Global Network for Advanced Management, which is a network of 32 top business schools across the globe. And regarding the global network, something that really was like a silver lining of the COVID 19 is that all of these 32 top business schools really committed to offering at least two online courses and they're open to everyone in the network. So if you are ics, you can be now taking class at IE or at IMD or esmt. So you can really just like the. Our offering of electives just expanded like 60 courses just like that. And it's really, really I think a unique opportunity to do that. Eco, quick question about that because I'm.

Curious for those classes, are those for credit that you can take online with the partner universities?

Yes, you can take up to six credits which. Yeah. And I mean for graduation there's no limit of the number of courses that you can take, but for credit only up to six cred.

That's cool.

That's really cool.

Yeah, sorry, I'll let you keep Going yeah. And then this is just to give an example, a professor who was a former program director of the MBA program, he's doing one of the Snoff courses that we're offering and it's a service profit change service management class. And he had I think about 46 students that were from like 30 schools. So it really, really provides like a really enriching learning experience because you are interacting with other MBAs from across the globe, which is really interesting at this COVID 19 pandemic situation. Our MBA we have a one year program and a two year program. And the one year program is this and the two year program for follow the same curriculum during the first year, making the second year of the two year program a completely customizable year. So we always recommend students that want to relocate to Japan and start your career here to take the two year program so that in the second year they can focus on learning Japanese or doing internships or doing both. Also if you're interested in doing a double degree, this is a great chance to take on that opportunity. And we recommend the one year program for those students that just kind of want to advance vertically in the same kind of industry and role that they're just doing right now. And also if they already have experience working in Japan. Another very, very unique feature of our program is the student faculty ratio. And this is because we're a national university, we can only accept certain amount of students based on the number of faculty that we have. The interactions that you get with the faculty are really close interactions. Of course it's up to each student to develop and leverage those. But also the faculty has a lot of really has an incredible network with the real business world in Japan. And also outside of Japan you have most of our faculty that have that sit in one or two boards in like really large corporations. And so some of our students found find their jobs through these connections as well of course from our career service. So to summarize kind of very quickly we offer like a world class curriculum that you're going to have a Japanese expertise. Of course you're going to learn a lot about Japanese management. But, but not only that, you're also going to be learning about western management practices and you're going to try to be able to leverage on those and kind of cherry pick the best of both sides and then just build on that. Then we offer bespoke learning. It's a really customizable program. Even if you take the one year, you have the global network week when you can choose to go for a one week intensive course at one of those 32 partner schools. Tokyo is actually one of the most popular programs, if not the most popular program for the past five years. But we really have our students always sharing with us that they enjoy the Global Network Week a lot. Also, our students are really truly global students, because as I said, even if you're in Japan, for example, right now we have students that are not being able to enter the country yet, but there are also students that are in Japan. So everyone is joining from a different. They have different professional backgrounds as well. Because we have a small class size, we really, really kind of try to select students based not only, of course on the diversity in terms of nationality, but also in the professional background and what you can contribute to the class. Because we promote a lot of the peer learning in our classroom. And as I mentioned, our faculty, they have a lot of global impact and real world experience. They have a good combination of faculty that has always been in academia and also faculty that has been in the industry and later in their career joined the academia. Something that I didn't mention, we have a seminar system which is that throughout the year that you are here or the two years, you are in a group of students that are always meeting with the same faculty on like weekly, by weekly basis. And it's really depending on the faculty the kind of activities that you do. But for Charlie, like to give you some examples, like I know one of the seminars goes to visit companies or they do kind of like small consultation projects with other companies or also they do independent research with the faculty. And so it's really kind of like a, kind of like a club, you could say. If you compare it to other schools, then we are in the heart of Tokyo. So you get access to a lot of guest speakers and company visits. Company visits, of course, now with COVID we cannot conduct those, but we do have a lot of guest speakers joining us. And it's really like C level or high management just joining us. And this is again because of our faculty connections and networks. Also our alumni community. We have about 1,000 of alumni, about half of them in Japan. And also you are a graduate of Hitotsubashi University, which is very, very renowned university in Japan. And so you are part of their Hitotsubashi Yosuikai alumni community, which is over like 20,000 or more. And then we are the only school that is part of the global network, as I mentioned. And we have real access to the business. So we are highly connected to corporate partners. We work with Them for courses, we work with them for many like executive ed, we work with them on a daily basis. So you will have access to the corporate partners throughout your MBA program. And all of this comes with a very very very cheap tuition which is about a little bit less than US$10,000. And this is not because we're a cheap university but it's because it's highly subsidized by Japanese government and until now the Japanese government has always offered the same tuition for Japanese nationals and international students. So it's really, really a great, great program. In terms of ROI then admissions we are currently in the final round of the admissions period and it's open until February 16th and the application requirements are pretty standard like GMAT or GRE score your essays, your official transcripts, two letters of recommendation. The TOEFL has become optional so you don't have to submit that. But a lot of the scholarships do require that so just take a note on that. And we do offer a lot of scholarships. The majority of our self finance students receive some sort of financial aid or scholarship in the current class. And you can see the different kind of scholarships that we offer. There's one that's called the Young Leaders program which is like a full ride scholarship. It not only pays the tuition and matriculation but also gives you a monthly allowance and also with the one with Maxt and Bioshan is $25,000 and the whole tuition and matriculation is 10,000. So it's also they are all like full ride scholarships. Having said that all of the scholarships are merit based and you can find out the exact number of the average GMAT or GRV on your application package but I think it's about 700 for those that were granted this scholarship. Also scholarships each institution has a different criteria so some are only available for some nationalities and other require you to be working in certain industry or whatever. So we, we are offering, we're kind of connecting you with all of these scholarships but we don't have any kind of thing on the final take of the scholarships to be to be considered for the scholarship in your application just have to check a box that says I would like to be considered for a scholarship or financial aid. And if you are to be accepted then you will be communicated like oh you were nominated for this scholarship. If you want to follow the, then you just have to continue with the paperwork with them but there's not like any others that you need to take when you apply. And I think that's it for me. I don't know if we want to take any questions.

I think an had a question about scholarships and if those scholarships are still available for this round.

Well, the young leaders program scholarship, you have to apply separately. You have to apply through the Japanese embassy and it's only for participating countries. The max scholarship is one of the ones that we nominate the students. And I think for the round two, you don't meet the deadline. So that's out of. But I'm not sure about Baishan. I think Hanami is here. Someone from my team and maybe she. Hanami, do you know if Bishan is available for round two?

Looks like she said yes.

It's still available. Okay, so and so maybe we'll do.

Because I have our panelists here. So maybe we'll start with the panelists and then kind of jump back to questions at the end. Does that work?

Yeah, that would be great. Great.

So I will get that started.

Just give me a second.

All right. Good morning, panelists. Thanks for joining us. If you guys don't mind maybe turning.

On your videos and audio whenever you're ready. Okay, perfect. Oh, whoa.

Okay, so we are just waiting on Matthias.

I don't he might have be running.

A little bit late today.

Oops.

All right, there we go. But thank you Nadia and Viola for joining us this morning. So we wanted to just start off today with asking you both to maybe introduce yourself first and just tell us a little bit more about you.

Oh, I don't think we can hear Alum Helen.

Yes. Oh.

Oh, gosh. Sorry. That's my fault. It's the headphone.

Can you guys hear the panelists now?

Nadia and Viola.

Hi.

Thank you for joining us tonight. Should say if we can I test.

She'S hearing us say something.

Hi everyone.

Can you hear I can hear v.

Okay through my son the cough so if you giving us a brief intro go ahead. Sure.

As you said I'm 99.

I now.

Graduate I am original I have been in for the last five years.

Doing.

The MBA in the education hotel in the spa graduated I sp for hoshnotel management company largest next to my dear.

Guest yeah.

Too much free to ask.

Okay I'm from home based student I fast and I will be graduate 22 and my graduation is in the unit and then after graduation I went to get my and I'm doing my ego shooting company and I will bank in.

Awesome a little bit about the reviewer training.

Okay well for me pretty was very small.

I didn't have intern in order and I scholarship from CS as well as.

Because I had a side.

Benefit grant from Japan. My dream job is so than what I expertise. Yes of that I learned I didn't know anything when I and I when I graduate specially I could upgrade a bit also program which still can.

Basically.

And after I just stressing and.

Being.

Much more on the thing the return on invest huge because I went from a lot.

Sorry.

Can you hear me?

Ellen? I think it's your congratulations.

You've been on your job.

Yeah, yeah.

Hey guys.

Hello. Okay, can everyone hear me? Anyone here still? Okay, I think we have some technical difficulties as is clear.

Okay, there we go. Yes, I'm trying to restart and see if that works. I'm going to send them another link and see if that might get them back in. So maybe we can take some of the questions. Maybe we can take a few questions during that. Sorry guys, I apologize. Last time we worked fine. This time we've had some software updates on the platform. We're having a little trouble. So maybe if you want to take a few questions.

Yeah, definitely. Okay. So does anyone have any questions?

I did see one question asking a little bit about staying in Japan and what that process is like. If you could maybe talk a little bit more about that.

Definitely, yeah. If you graduate from our program you are like a highly. You're considered like a highly skilled worker. So you have to change your student visa for that kind of visa. But we haven't had any student have issues with that so far. And then you can have some time. I think it's up to six months to find a job. If you and if you don't find one you can renew it up to one year. So until now we haven't had any issues with people not being able to stay in Japan after graduation.

And I saw somebody else asking a question about starting their own business and how that kind of all works. Can you maybe talk a little bit more about that?

Definitely. In Japan there's actually been effort from a public effort to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem In Tokyo there's a lot of tools and resources available for people who want to start a company. There is this place called Pospic which is a one stop place for you to open your startup. There is also a lot of like and when I say resources I mean like there is like interest free loans. Of course they come with many clauses that there is funding. There is also kind of like supporting terms like payment of payroll or office space. And it's just really kind of like you have to be here in Japan, go out, do the networking you if you know what you want to do, it's really, really kind of. I would say it's relatively easier than in other locations to start your company as a startup. Then of course you also have to deal with all the Japanese bureaucracy. And for that I would really recommend for you to learn some Japanese to take care of all the paperwork that still needs to get done.

And so I think maybe what we'll do while we're waiting for our panelists to join is just keep going and then come back. Guys, I'm really sorry about that. It's been a little bit tricky today. So is that okay with you? I go, we'll wait for them to join in the. Definitely.

Yeah. I can just keep answering questions.

Perfect. Perfect. So I know that there was also a question about some of the internships. Is it usually found through career services or do students go after those more on their own?

I think, I mean, depends. But a lot of our students do find internships through our career service. Actually, if you are a two year student, one of the like the two year activities possibilities is for you to just do an internship. It would have to be an unpaid internship. But yeah, we do have connections with companies as I mentioned, and the career service is kind of very active. Usually kind of has like a company position about once a month. And a lot of those companies and positions are tied with a potential internship. Yeah. Also some other ways our students find internship is through faculty and faculty connections, guest speakers and just kind of networking around the school.

And for people who opted for the one year program, is it possible to do an internship while you're still looking for permanent jobs?

Yeah, if you're open to that. I think many companies are happy to. Instead of giving you like a full time offer, if you're open to do a kind of like internship, kind of like trial for a couple of months and then if that turns out into a full time offer, I think many companies feel safe to do that.

I had another question about age limits for admissions. Is there an average age? Is there? You're too young, too old. Do you maybe mind talking about that?

We don't have any cutoffs in terms of age specifically. We do have one cutoff in terms of we do require people to have at least two years of working experience and that is full time working experience. And that's again because our class is so small that we really want to promote peer learning. So if you are an undergrad and just like a fresh graduate and then want to join the program, it's just there's not so much experience that you can provide for the rest of the class. So that's just going to be the limitation in terms of, like, the eldest person that we've had in the program. I think probably early 40s, but we don't have any limitation in that sense. Average age is 30, though.

And is it possible to work and study at the same time?

It's really, really not recommended. And the reason why is, like, that's also kind of why the tuition is so low. We really want you to focus on the studies and to be very sincere from the start of the program until maybe March is literally impossible. I would say. It's so intense the first year that students always joke that ICS stands for I cannot sleep. So we really don't recommend that. Also, with student visa, you have a limitation of how many hours and what kind of jobs that you can have. So just also take that in mind.

And I know a lot of people this time of year start to worry about getting their GMAT score on time and making sure that they have, like, the best score possible. I guess, maybe. Can you give us a little bit of advice about, you know, if your score is a little bit low, should you still apply? Should you wait for next year?

That's such a personal choice. I would say you should apply with the best score that you think is, like, the real best score that you will be able to get. Sometimes I think, I mean, I did also the gmat, we fixate on one number. And if you are ready to apply, you know, you want to have to start the MBA in September. I would just say apply. There is two optional essays, and in those you can just explain any shortcomings in terms of maybe your gmat, and you can show other reasons that I don't know that kind of compensate for having a low GMAT score. Again, I think this is also common across most programs. We do take a look more of the quant part of GRE and gmat.

And Madeline asks what percentage of the cohort receives some form of scholarship.

I don't have the data, and I'm not sure we disclose that, but it's like majority. So more than half. More than half.

And then also, could you maybe talk a little bit about what the kind of daily schedules like Nadia talked about kind of being there several hours a day from 2 to 6. Could you maybe talk a little bit more to what a day on campus looks like or what students end up kind of doing with their time?

Yeah, I think for the first term, it's quite kind of like an early start, maybe 8:30 or maybe 9. And then you will be having classes up to like five with of course a lunch break. And a lot of people with this Covid situation, what we notice is that everyone was very anxious about building human interactions and actually creating connections online. What we decided to do from last year is we broke the class into study groups. Each study group has their own rules. But just to tell you an example, I know one study group has a daily meeting at 8am and then they break for the day. And so I think usually students will be looking to start a day at 8:30 or 8. If they have a study group meeting, then first class is two hours, then probably lunch, then afternoon, two more classes, two hours each. And then in the evening you'll have assignments, case readings, group work. So literally that's why people say ICS is for I cannot sleep. Because sometimes it's just. Especially during final week, we start seeing people like just really, really. We can see how they're getting very tired, how they start missing a little bit of the small deadlines for small assignments. So it's a pretty intense program during the first part of the program that is September until, like I said, beginning of March.

So it seems like hopefully we've got another, another link going. We'll try again, guys, again, let us know if there's audio issues. I really apologize. If not, maybe we'll just have the panel answer some questions in the chat. I apologize, but we'll try, we'll try right now. So just give me a moment. Welcome guys. Sorry again about the issue. Let me just share my screen really quickly. All right, so let me know if you guys can't hear us. We have both Matthias and Nadia and Hanami's back on the call. So do you guys. Maybe again, Matthias, maybe you can introduce yourself. We didn't hear from you before, so that would be great.

Yeah, great. Great to be here. Hold on one second. Yeah, great to be here. My name is Matthias Muldauer. I'm originally from Australia, living in New York City at the moment. I was at ICS in 2018 after finishing up as a management consultant at PwC. Ended up being part of the MAM program at Yale School of Management and graduated in 2020. May. At the moment I'm working. I'm a founding partner at a firm, Club 1.5. We're a strategy firm focused on climate change. Been doing that for about one and a half years. Yeah. Excited to be here.

Awesome. Thank you so much. And I know that Nadia, you were talking a little bit about if your ICS experience was worth it, what the return on your investment was. Matthias, maybe can you tell us a little bit more about that as well, what you've been doing since then, how you see the ICS MBA as having been in terms of was it worth it? Are you happy with the money you invested?

Sorry, was that directed to Matthias or to Nadia?

Oh, yeah. For you, Matthias.

Oh, sorry, yeah, no worries. Absolutely. For me it was pretty life changing. I ended up changing the trajectory of my life after heading to icf. The I guess time and effort and money, I guess invested a year in Tokyo has dramatically changed my life. It moved me across the world and I think when I've spoken about my experiences at the mba, it was about. It gave me time to really think about what I wanted to do with my life. And definitely the curriculum gave you some fantastic frameworks and models to think through how you want to live your life, what kind of purpose do you have and how do you want to impact the world? For me, I thought climate change was an area that was a really interesting problem that I thought that I could have some impact on using my existing sort of consulting skill set and background from the mba and that's sort of where I am now. So I co founded a firm based in New York City. We're completely remote and we're essentially deploying climate experts onto sustainability projects and we've grown to around 10 people working at the moment and we have an expert network of climate experts around 50 people. And so, yeah, that's sort of what's driving me at the moment. And a lot of the cognitive models, the way that we're approaching business and we have an expert network of climate experts around 50 people. And so yeah, that's sort of what's driving me at the moment. And a lot of the cognitive models, the way that we're approaching business and the way that I'm understanding impact and.

How.

My time at icf, from the time I set that and Nadia way that I'm understanding impact. And how.

Could you maybe tell us a little bit more about what your main focus was when you started the experience? Was it academics, was it network, was it career?

Yeah, it was academics and network. Obviously because of Corona, it was a little bit difficult to end up networking. So that failed, that didn't fall through. But because, yeah, everything was, everything became very complicated. The classes got shifted online, all the networking event to participate and organize couldn't be made possible. So I ended up just focusing on classes on the proper learning and on getting my cfa. Since I ended up with much more time than I thought I would. And I have learned a lot on the academic level, I have learned a lot. So that was not my main focus. But I kind of had to go with it because of the circumstances. I think we all had to kind of adjust a little bit. Thanks or because to Corona. But what we learn in ICS is that anything can be seen as an opportunity if you treat it that way. And this is what we had to do. That was also a very good learning. Try to deal with the situation, try to deal with whatever is coming through your road and make the best out of it.

So yeah, and Nadia, we actually had a small audio problem before and they couldn't hear about your experience. So maybe you can introduce that part.

Again if you don't mind my experience.

What you were doing before, your kind of job experience, what you're doing now.

So before, so yeah, I, academic wise, academically wise, I focused on linguistics. So in Belgium I studied formal linguistics. I got my bachelor and my master. So that allowed me to teach French or teach French literature pretty much any anywhere on the planet. So I traveled a lot and I taught in several different countries. But sometimes I would just get a little bit bored of teaching. And so the other part of my experience is in the hotel industry. And the last job that I had in that industry was guest manager. It was a job with a lot of responsibilities. It was. There was a lot of problem solving and it was very interesting. When I came to Japan, I came as a teacher because it's the easiest way for me to get a job anywhere on the planet. But I soon got bored again and I realized that I prefer the business aspect when it comes to professional life. So that's why I did my mba. I didn't know that I was going to go back in the hotel industry. I wasn't sure because again, Corona hit and the hotel industry is really not the industry you would think of going when nobody can travel. But the company that I joined has very interesting, a good future ahead of it. And so, yeah, I'm back in that industry but with much more tools than before. So I can get into position that I couldn't really hope gets before because I didn't have all the business lingo. I couldn't. There is a lot of knowledge that I was lacking. This is what I gained into while, you know, studying in ics.

Awesome.

And Viola, do you mind also just introducing yourself briefly and telling us a bit about you and your experience?

Yeah, sure. I'm Viola and I'm from Hong Kong and before joining ICS I worked in pharmaceutical industry. I worked in Beijing for three to four years in Pfizer and I was doing new product development and also portfolio strategy. And after that I came to ICS and spent one and a half year here and then I'm now doing internship in one of the biggest Japanese pharma company is called Estelles. And after this and I will join an investment bank which specialize in pharma as well. So basically my career is all around life science and pharma.

Awesome. And Matthias, maybe you can pick back up with kind of what your focus was when you started the program. Was it more career academics?

Yeah, that's a good question. I think the answer is probably both. I had to, I was actually studying before COVID I guess. So I had the opportunity to focus on both. I guess I wanted to say mainly yes to most things and explore lots of different options and then see kind of where my, I guess heart would take me. And so I explored things like startups. I got involved with volunteering with Venture Cafe in Tokyo. I got involved with some volunteering with Human Rights Watch as well as on the academic side exploring subjects that were sort of interesting to me as well, like entrepreneurship for example. And then I guess you're networking, I guess every day with your classmates I suppose, when you're really building strong bonds with your fellow classmates in the trenches, I suppose. So there is that inherent nature of networking just by going through the course as well. And you're, you know, I guess paraded lots of different speakers as well through your classes as well, which gives fantastic opportunities for you to connect with industry leaders, practitioners as well. And they can be in the classroom or over zoom as well. So I guess it's a combination in the end which I think is a great mix as well as you're sort of a mid career professional that also wants to learn, that also wants to expand your career and see where you can take your career after the mba.

And Viola, do you mind telling us a little bit about your focus when you joined the mba?

My focus? You mean like what do I want to achieve?

Yeah, yeah, more digital focus on networking, getting a job. What were some of the most important things for you when you started at ics?

Yeah, I think my purpose of joining an MBA because I didn't think of MBA in other countries because I want to come to Japan and I want to build my career in Japan. So Japan is my destination. So among all the MBA program. And Hitojiba CICS is one of the top. So that is why I decided to join here. And also networking and career is my focus, like choosing the mba. And I knew that like Hitachubashi University is not limited to ics, the MBA program, but like the school and also the main campus, Gunitachi. And they have a very strong network and strong reputation among the Japanese companies. So that would be a plus if you want to develop your career here in Japan. And Hitachibus is really a big name. Yeah. And most of the like, even for the like financial minister in the government and also many big Japanese corporate and their like senior management, both some of them are from Tito Japan. So that would be a very valuable network when you like try to get a job here in Japan.

And do you guys maybe mind telling us, sorry, they're doing construction in my neighborhood. I apologize. Do you guys maybe mind letting us know what the best part of your MBA program was?

Sure. Well, beside the learning, obviously I made very good friends among the students, from the students. But also I have some teachers which have become very close friends because the cohort is so small. We're like maximum like 40 students or so for like what, 10 to 15 professors. We have a lot of, you know, quality time that we can spend with the professors. And some became very good friends and mentor. So even today, even last week I was. So I'm still going through my training on my new job and it's not always fun or easy. It's my first time in a Japanese company. I just pick up my phone and I call one of my former teachers and I complain and I cry and I ask questions and they're still here to give me guidance and support and good advice. So I would say the people is what I think was the. Yeah, for me it was the most valuable thing that I got from ICS is the network that. And I mean, it really doesn't hurt in Japan to say that you graduated from Hitotsubashi. It is, as Viola said, one of the best universities in Japan. And it's beautiful to have that on your card. It just opens so many doors. So when I do network right now I just feel much more confident because I know I have that huge university which everyone respects in Japan behind me. So those two things, the name and the people.

Awesome.

Viola, what about you? What was the most rewarding part for you or what was the best part?

Yeah, I think maybe the change of mindset because like before joining ICS you may have some like you have your purpose and you think, oh, what I can do in the future. But like after the whole years of study and you meet different people and you try different things here and you will be able to think bigger and think broader because like the faculties and the courses and your classmates just bring different perspective to you. And then you, you will be more there to try new things and you will have courage and also have the confidence in yourself. I can do anything. Yeah. I think this is the biggest learning through the MBA program and this is bring by like all the people around me and also like I. I sharpen my skills and also have a bigger picture of what the business world look like. So that gives me confidence to try new things.

And Matias, do you mind sharing with us from your perspective?

I probably should have gone first. Now, listening to those pretty fantastic answers. I think both, both of them have some great points. The faculty side and then the mindset side. I think I just want to go a little bit deeper into the mindset side. I guess from my background, I grown up and worked in a fairly Western context. And so I have that approach that I take the most ways of problem solving. What was really fascinating was the ability to, with each case that we would sit through, I could almost put a different hat on and look at an issue from a different perspective. And as that continued throughout the year, my perspectives from doing business in an Eastern context as well as a Western context started to be interchangeable. And that was something that for me was pretty amazing, that they talk about being the bridge between east and west, and there's not too many people that can comfortably go back and forth between the two. I think that really resonated with me working in a global business context as well, engaging with Asian and making sure that you are taking into account all the information that you're required to attend to. And previously that was not available to me. And then just probably tying back to Nadia's sort of comment, the professors, they're like family as well as the students. And so much so that I have a professor that we're invited to Thanksgiving every year at the house. And I've attended a couple times and it's a home away from home. And you have alumni that are from that specific seminar, Zemi. And that's something I can look forward to for the rest of my life as well. I know that's for life. And so that for me is the real valuable thing there. That a decision I made to spend a year at ICS has now provided me with this really Rich experience that I can enjoy for the rest of my life and have I guess a point that I can return back to in Japan as well as this sort of like rallying point for other people that are like minded from this part of my life, which yeah, that's really rewarding from my perspective.

Awesome. And maybe as a final point, what advice would you give to people who are applying to ICS right now?

Apply.

Just go for it.

I would say apply and I mean if you don't have formal knowledge in accounting, finance, I mean start studying. I mean it's never too early. You should just assume you're gonna get in. You should just have like a very like good application, you know, file just like work on your gmat, make sure that you write interesting essays if you have the work experience and you know, like there will be something interesting about you that you can share with the class for sure. So already try to think that you will get in and start working because the first term in ICS is extremely extreme heavy. And I mean most students.

Have, I.

Think the hard, the hardest classes are the class I mentioned accounting and finance. So just start working on it and brush up on your quantitative skills for sure. Just, just do it now and work on your Japanese. Do work on your Japanese, you will need it.

Yeah, I have a different opinion from that year because I think like even though you have like maybe you don't have any financial background or accounting background, but you can like the courses in ics, they are suitable for all levels of professionals. So it may be tougher if you don't have the foundation, but it's easy to catch up so you can leverage the resources from the faculties, from your classmates and you can always learn from others. So that won't be a very difficult.

Path, I may say.

Yeah. But do get your GMAT prepared earlier because it takes time and if you want to get a very good score and then to ensure a stage. Nice. So it's better to start earlier. And also another advice is that I think about the purpose of studying mba. Yeah, no matter. It's a big reason or small reason, but you will be surprised after like a whole year of study. You will be surprised by your growth and your experience and what you gain.

Awesome guys. Well, thank you so much for having for joining the call. Matthias, thanks for joining us so early. I know it's pretty early for you, we appreciate it and for you too. It's probably a bit late, so thank you so much. Really valuable insights and good luck with everything and have a good rest of the year.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me.

Bye.

Bye.

Awesome.

So thank you guys so much for your patience as we figured out a few of those issues. So we'll just go through a couple more points primarily to help you guys with your application. And if you have any other questions, Hanami has been a rock star answering those in the chat, so feel free to keep going with those. One other thing that we want to just mention is that, oh, I think for some reason the slides. It's all right. So I'll just go through a couple of tips really quickly on how to prepare your application. So one of the things they mentioned is start your GMAT early. I would say that having done this for nearly a decade, that's the one thing that we see people make the biggest mistakes with. They oh, you know, I've done a lot of tests. I'm good at tests. I'll just leave the GMAT for later. It's no big deal. And of course, you know, the GMAT is a test that everyone can eventually do well on if with enough study. But it's a different kind of animal. So give yourself plenty of time. You know, you want to make sure with your application that you put your best foot forward and doing everything as well as you can. So giving yourself more time on the GMAT will really make sure that you give yourself the chance to put your best foot forward. The other things that I would say are, you know, think about your letter of recommendations and your essays again sooner rather than later, especially letters of recommendation. You know, if you're applying from, you know, the US or Europe or Latin America, we find that it's pretty difficult after about 20 December to find your recommenders. They're already, you know, if not on a beach, in the beach state of mind after that. So, you know, if you're asking someone a couple days before Christmas to do a letter of recommendation or, you know, a couple days after New Year, it's probably not going to happen so quickly. So, you know, if you haven't talked to them yet, try to already talk to them. Talk to them about, you know, the kind of topics that you think might be interesting to cover. Of course, you know, you'll never know for sure, but it's always great to sit down with your recommenders and have a discussion. You know, here's how I'm presenting myself. Here's the topics that I want to mention. I'd really like to highlight my leadership skills and that project that we did in the Philippines is one of the things that I'm proudest of. So maybe if you could talk about that. So it's a good idea to really sit down with them and kind of walk them through how you're presenting yourself in your application. It's also good just to make sure that they understand kind of how the process works. Are they going to, you know, they're going to submit through an online system? How long will they have? What should they expect? So always make sure to give them the courtesy of giving them the time to develop a good letter for you. It's better for you, it's better for them, it's better for your application. So definitely give yourself enough time with that. And then of course, with essay writing as well, we can tell, and I think you guys from admissions can agree, we can tell an essay that was written yesterday. We always know. It's always obvious. So, you know, it's one opportunity that you have to really tell the school more about you. What makes you stand out, why an MBA is going to be helpful to reach your goals, why the ICS program is the perfect fit for you. And that takes time to really think about. Do research, talk to students, talk to alumni, attend one of the events or one on ones that Hanami just posted a link to in the chat. That will really give you a lot more depth in your essays and will give the admissions committee a greater understanding of what you bring to the table and why you belong in their class. Another good thing to always think about in the essays too is make sure you talk a little bit about what you can contribute to the school. It's great to be able to get a lot of things out of it and show that you want to take these classes and do internships and take advantage of study options, maybe even exchanges. But ultimately too, it's interesting to think about what you're going to learn from your classmates. Even just in the panel today, you.

Saw a huge divergence on the proper learning and on getting my cfa. Since I ended up with much more time than that was not my main focus. But I kind of had to go with it because of the circumstances. I think we all had to kind of adjust a little bit. Thanks. Or because to Corona. But what we learn in ICS is that anything can be seen as an opportunity if you treat it that way. And this is what we had to do. That was also a very good learning. Try to deal with the situation. Try to deal with whatever is coming through your road and make the best out of it. So yeah.

And Nadia we actually had a small audio problem before and they couldn't hear about your experience. So maybe you can introduce that part.

Again if you don't mind my experience.

What you were doing before, your kind of job experience, what you're doing now.

So before. So yeah, I, academic wise, academically wise, I focus on linguistics. So in Belgium I studied formal linguistics. I got my bachelor and my master. So that allowed me to teach French or teach French lithuature pretty much any anywhere on the planet. So I traveled a lot and I taught in several different countries. But sometimes I would just get a little bit bored of teaching. And so the other part of my experiences in the hotel industry and the last job that I had in that industry was guest manager. It was a job with a lot of responsibilities. There was a lot of problem solving and it was very interesting. When I came to Japan, I came as a teacher because it's the easiest way for me to get a job anywhere on the planet. But I soon got bored again and I realized that I prefer the business aspect when it comes to professional life. So that's why I, I did my mba. I didn't know that I was going to go back in the hotel industry. I wasn't sure because again, Corona hits and the hotel industry is really not the industry you would think of going when nobody can travel. But the company that I joined has very interesting, a good future ahead of it. And so, yeah, I'm back in that industry but with much more tools than before. So I can get into position that I couldn't really hope gets before because.

I think in terms of experiences and geographic locations. And that's one of the things that makes the program so interesting is having that diversity, being able to learn from your teammates, from different experiences, that they've had different professional challenges and professional, professional background. So in your application, make sure you can tell people and tell the admissions committee what you bring to the table and how you'll add value. And then finally, I would say don't ignore the filling the form section. A lot of people too say like, oh, I'll just do that last minute. You know, maybe you have a technical problem with your computer or, you know, maybe you're filling it out too fast and you make some typos or you don't take as much time as you should to answer thoughtfully. You know, you also need to upload certain documentation. So I guess, number one tip, don't leave things for the last minute and really try to make sure that every point of your application, you're being Very thoughtful. And you're including information that will help the admissions committee not just evaluate your professional success and your potential future success, but also what your unique contributions are. So that those would be my main tips. Aiko, I don't know if you have any other tips that you'd like to share to help them prepare successful applications.

Just one. And it's the same as you've been saying, just don't leave everything till the last minute. Don't do that. Bear in mind that if you're applying from somewhere else outside of Japan, you might be also in a different time zone. So our response timing is going to take. There's going to be a lag between that. Right. So. So don't leave everything to the end. As Ellen mentioned, better start working on it before December 20th when everyone gets the holiday mood on and just. Yeah, just start the application on the online system. Just get familiar with the system and all of the requirements and then you can take it step by step from there. That's my.

Well, thank you so much. I don't know if there's anything else that you want to share. Probably a little bit about upcoming events. I think that would be great. So maybe you can talk a little bit more about that.

Yeah, I want to be very mindful of everyone's time. So I'm just going to be very quick as we have an upcoming trial class for human resource management. It's going to be led by Professor Hiroshiono, whose research focuses on happiness in the place. Then also we have. We offer like a one on one consultation and that's going to be on December 22nd and you can book or register for the event on that QR code. So if you scan that, you can just book a one on one consultation with our team or I really, really highly recommend you to attend the trial class. I think a lot of the questions that we usually get is how are the classes now online hybrid, how does it really look like to have a class in Japan? Is it really interactive or not? So this is really a good chance for you to experience that.

And just for those of you like me, who are coming from different time zones, since those are in Japan, time for the class, will there be a recording available later in case people are not able to make that time frame?

We haven't done that. We haven't done that. We have recorded Webinars on our YouTube channel, but we haven't shared the recording of the trial classes. We will have another event in January 21st. That's an open campus. We also Have a trial class, mock class activity during that. Yeah.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much for your time. Thank you guys for hanging on with us today. If you have any questions, please reach out to the ICS admissions team. They're wonderful. They're always super helpful and welcoming. And of course if you have any questions about writing good essays or preparing for your interviews, you can definitely check us out and we'd be happy to help you. So thank you. I go have a good rest of your day. Thank you Hanami. And then thank you to all of our attendees today.

Thank you Ellen. Thank you everyone for joining us.

Bye bye.

Bye bye.

I didn't have all the business lingo. I couldn't. There is a lot of knowledge that I was lacking. This is what I gained into while, you know, studying in ics.

Awesome. And Viola, do you mind also just introducing yourself briefly and telling us a bit about you and your experience?

Yeah, sure. I'm Viola and I'm from Hong Kong and before joining ICS I worked in pharmaceutical industry. I worked in Beijing for three to four years in Pfizer and I was doing new product development and also portfolio strategy and I. Yeah and after that I came to ICS and spent one and a half year here and then I'm now doing internship in one of the biggest Japanese farmer company, it's called Estellis. And after this and I will join an investment bank which specialize in pharma as well. So basically my career is all around life science and.

Awesome. And Matthias, maybe you can pick back up with kind of what your focus was when you started the program. Was it more career, academics?

Yeah, that's a good question. I think the answer is probably both. I had to. I was actually studying before COVID I guess so I had the opportunity to focus on both. I guess I wanted to say mainly yes to most things and explore lots of different options and then see kind of where my, I guess heart would take me. And so I explored things like startups. I got involved with volunteering with Venture Cafe in Tokyo. I got involved with some volunteering with Human Rights Watch as well as on the academic side exploring subjects that were sort of interesting to me as well like entrepreneurship for example. And then I guess, you know, you're networking, I guess every day with your classmates I suppose when you're really building strong bonds with your, with your fellow classmates in the trenches, I suppose. So there is that inherent nature of networking just by going through the course as well and you're, you know, I guess paraded lots of different Speakers as well through your classes as well, which gives fantastic opportunities for you to connect with industry leaders, practitioners as well. And they can be in the classroom or over zoom as well. So I guess it's a combination in the end which I think is a great mix as well. If you're sort of a mid career professional that also wants to learn but also wants to expand your career and see where you can take your career after the mba.

And Viola, do you mind telling us a little bit about your focus when you joined the mba?

My focus? You mean like what do I want to achieve?

Yeah, yeah. Focus on networking, getting a job. What was, what were some of the most important things for you when you started at ics?

Yeah, I think like the, my purpose of joining an MBA because I didn't think of like MBA in other countries because I want to come to Japan and I want to build my career in Japan. So Japan is my destination. So among all the MBA program and Hitachibasi CS is one of the top. So that is why I, I decided to join here. And also networking and career is my focus like choosing the mba. And I knew that like Hitachubashi University is not limited to ics, the MBA program, but like the school and also the main campus. And they have a very strong network and strong reputation among the Japanese companies. So that would be a plus if you want to develop your career here in Japan. And Hitachibus is really a big name. Yeah. And most of the like, even for the like financial minister in the government and also many big Japanese corporate and their like senior management, most senior, some of them are from Titoja Batsi. So that would be a very valuable network when you try to get a job here in Japan.

And do you guys maybe mind telling us, sorry, they're doing construction in my neighborhood. I apologize.