為何出國攻讀管理學碩士？

Outsiders often bounce off Paris’s surface — something I experienced when I was a foreign correspondent there a decade ago. The social networks built up by the French at school can persist at university and carry through to work, creating an impenetrable knot for newcomers. At least that was my excuse for the woeful lack of dinner party invitations I received when I was living there; I’m sure Parisians had their own reasons — ones that were perhaps less consoling to my eggshell ego.

當外來者想融入巴黎時，往往會無從著手——這是10年前我擔任駐巴黎記者時體會到的。法國人在學校建立的人脈網(wǎng)可能維持至大學，然后帶入職場，對新來者構(gòu)成難以克服的屏障。至少這是我在巴黎生活期間極少收到晚宴邀請的借口;我肯定巴黎人有自己的理由——或許難以撫慰我的蛋殼般的虛榮心。

Qihua Wang is obviously faring a lot better than I ever did. A student on the MSc in Management programme at France’s Essec business school — and a settled Parisian — she is something of an advert for the cross-border movement of talent in an age when the globalisation of professional careers is under threat from political isolationism and slower economic growth.

王琪華(音)顯然比我成功得多。她在法國巴黎高等經(jīng)濟商業(yè)學院(Essec)攻讀管理學碩士課程，并已定居巴黎。在職業(yè)生涯全球化面臨政治孤立主義和經(jīng)濟增長放緩威脅的當今時代，她是人才跨境流動的典型代表。

The 24-year-old Wang’s knack is partly a result of taking things slowly. Having studied for a degree in English literature at Tsinghua University in Beijing, she worked out that a higher degree in the arts might be a little too abstract. She instead cast her eye over masters courses in both management and finance in the UK, the US and France. She opted for Essec, partly because she wanted to learn a new language, partly because it allowed her to spread the course over several years, aiding her French assimilation.

24歲的王琪華得以融入巴黎，部分是因為她從長計議。在北京清華大學拿到了英國文學學士學位后，她認識到攻讀人文學科的更高學位可能有點抽象。于是，她把目光投向英國、美國和法國管理學和金融學方面的碩士課程。她最終選擇Essec，一方面是因為她想學一門新語言，另一方面是因為該課程允許她分幾年學完，有助于她融入法國。

Now, coming into the third and final year of her course — and after various internships and an international case study competition in which she represented Essec and France — she has an offer from the French arm of KPMG to work as a junior consultant in its Paris offices.

如今，進入課程的第三年、也是最后一年之際，在完成了各種實習，并代表Essec和法國參加一次國際案例研究競賽后，她得到了在畢馬威(KPMG)法國分公司的offer，在其巴黎辦事處當初級咨詢顧問。

But does she not feel she is missing out on a more dynamic career back home in Beijing by putting down roots in Paris? “It is true that there are much more growth opportunities in China. I guess you have to choose the lifestyle as well. I really like the lifestyle in France. It’s much more relaxing,” she says, without ruling out a return to China later in her career.

但是，落戶巴黎的她，難道不覺得自己錯過了回到北京踏上更有前途的職業(yè)生涯的機會嗎?“中國確實有更多的成長機會。我猜你也不得不選擇生活方式。我真的很喜歡法國的生活方式。這里放松得多，”她稱，但她也不排除未來回到中國尋求職業(yè)發(fā)展的可能。

Wang’s experience highlights the resolute — and highly individual, even idiosyncratic — personal determination that drives many young people to criss-cross the globe picking up the skills they feel they need to prosper over the course of their careers. As Andrew Hill, the Financial Times’ management editor, explains, these working lives are likely to be much longer than those of their grandparents and parents — perhaps even as long as seven decades.

王琪華的經(jīng)歷突顯了堅定——以及高度個人主義、甚至特殊——的決心，這種決心推動很多年輕人奔赴地球的另一個角落，學習他們認為在自己的職業(yè)生涯中取得成功所需的技能。正如英國《金融時報》管理編輯安德魯•希爾(Andrew Hill)解釋的那樣，這些年輕人的工作生涯很可能遠遠超過他們的父輩和祖輩——或許長達70年。

The prospect of such a long haul before retirement is a complication for business schools seeking to design a curriculum that can at least have a shot at remaining relevant over the course of such a long period of employment. But it also underlines the need for today’s twentysomethings to launch themselves successfully into the world of work at the start of their careers.

在退休前要工作如此長的時間，這種前景成了商學院在設(shè)計課程時面臨的一個復雜問題，此類課程至少要試著在如此漫長的職業(yè)生涯中保持相關(guān)性。但這也突顯了現(xiàn)在20多歲的年輕人有必要在職業(yè)生涯的開端成功踏入職場。

This in turn suggests that it will take more than a hardening of political rhetoric against globalisation or deceleration of growth to choke off demand for masters in management courses akin to the one Wang chose to follow.

這進而表明，想要打消人們對管理學碩士課程(類似王琪華選擇的課程)的需求，僅僅加強對全球化的反對或增長放緩是不夠的。

One enterprising graduate of these pre-experience masters courses profiled elsewhere in this report is Tim Kunde, the 36-year-old founder of Friendsurance, a peer-to-peer insurance start-up based in the German capital of Berlin. He tells Guy Chazan, the FT’s Berlin correspondent, that his masters in management degree at WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management — including stints in Kobe, Japan, and Lyon in France — instilled in him “a kind of business instinct . . . with an academic underpinning”, something that chimes with the idea that flexibility will be the watchword in the new world of work.

在這一系列報道中，另一位完成了這類無工作經(jīng)驗碩士課程的具有創(chuàng)業(yè)精神的畢業(yè)生是36歲的Friendsurance創(chuàng)始人蒂姆•孔德(Tim Kunde)。這是一家位于德國首都柏林的P2P保險初創(chuàng)企業(yè)。他告訴英國《金融時報》駐柏林記者蓋伊•查贊(Guy Chazan)，他在德國科布倫茨奧托貝森管理研究院(WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management)學習的管理學碩士課程——包括在日本神戶和法國里昂的短期課程——給他灌輸了“某種商業(yè)本能……其帶有學術(shù)基礎(chǔ)”，這與“靈活性將成為新職場關(guān)鍵詞”的觀念相吻合。

But value for money is still vital for young graduates contemplating a masters in management — and the debt burden of tens of thousands of euros that most of these courses will create. The rankings of business school courses, are a powerful tool that looks at salary gain, international mobility and many other factors to help graduates choose.

但是物有所值仍然是年輕畢業(yè)生在考慮攻讀管理學碩士——并背上絕大多數(shù)此類課程將帶來的數(shù)萬歐元債務(wù)負擔——的關(guān)鍵因素。商學院課程排名是一種有效工具，列出了薪資漲幅、國際流動性以及其他許多因素，可幫助畢業(yè)生選擇課程。

The tables also break new ground in including for the first time a US business school: the WP Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. This addition highlights a diversification of the masters in management qualification away from its European heartland. The horizons are not narrowing for the world’s ambitious footloose youth, it seems, even as the gaze of their elders turns inwards.

今年的榜單還實現(xiàn)了新突破，首次納入了一所美國商學院：亞利桑那州立大學(Arizona State University)的WP凱瑞商學院(WP Carey School of Business)。此舉突顯了管理學碩士課程的學歷正從歐洲老家向其他地區(qū)擴散。對于世界各地雄心勃勃且志在四方的青年來說，他們的視野似乎沒有變窄，即便他們的長輩正在將目光轉(zhuǎn)向國內(nèi)。