The 25-year-old surprized colleagues and friends by calling his life in JP Morgan's UK Equity Pricing Team, based in Edinburgh, to an end. He is set to invest £80,000 of his own savings on tuition and living in London.
“I just feel that I won't get any higher if I stay at JP,” he says. “With an MBA I might have a shot at getting into international banking and eventually achieve my personal goal: establishing my own equity reporting firm.”
Yu graduated with a bachelor in Finance and Investment from Scotland’s University of Stirling in 2006. He secured a sought-after job as a junior business analyst at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh. Though his post-college career has been going exceptionally well to-date, the Beijing-born equity expert says he has been considering an MBA for some time.
“I see it as a process of expanding my knowledge, perspectives on life and getting closer to achieving my life goals. I always knew I would go back to school some day.”
Yu was offered a place at Imperial following a two-round interview in London earlier this year. He recalls how meeting professors from the School helped to make up his mind:“My long-term career plan is to set up my own financial services company,” he says. In interviews with professors he was impressed by their focus on encouraging entrepreneurship and managing your own businesses.
Though Yu's 18 months with JP Morgan gave him a taste of working in an international environment, he felt the job was repetitive and was perhaps limiting his potential.
He also felt the efforts of Chinese employees, in company with other minorities who were working “extremely hard”, were under-appreciated.
“As a Chinese guy who is trying to survive in the Western world, I need someone to work with as my mentor, in order for me to get on a bigger stage in the business world,” he says. “Unfortunately, this particular aspect hasn't worked out for me in my current job.”
Colleagues speak highly of Yu's personal attributes and abilities. His team manager Andrew Wilson describes him as highly motivated, industrious and conscientious: “As one of the most experienced members of the team he was managing four analysts almost single-handed... (his) experience and knowledge was instrumental to the smooth running of the team whilst I bedded in.”
Yu admits that many regard his decision as the “gamble of his life”, given the cost involved. “Of course it will be risky,” he says. “But I’m confident that it will turn out to be a wise investment. Also, with the pound being devalued right now, I probably won’t have a better opportunity to relive student life again.”
The global financial crisis may not be over next year, when Yu starts another round of job-hunting. JP Morgan Chase, the world’s third-largest bank, is cutting jobs around the world. Most recently the bank rescinded 40 to 50 positions granted to US college graduates. Between 20 and 30 employees have been made redundant from its Edinburgh office since December, according to one insider. Of these, ten have found other jobs and between five and eight moved on to further studies.
Yu doesn’t appear concerned: “Another reason I choose London for my MBA is that I have a good contact-base there,” he says. “Many people I’ve met professionally are now working in big-name financial companies, such as Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Mitsubishi. I’ll definitely be in touch with them this time next year for job prospects and advice.”
“If I need another justification, my girlfriend is working in London and she can always be useful company, if I regret it all one day.”
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