Profile

Irene Poh
Senior Business Analyst, Procter and Gamble

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By Katie Ford

To other working professionals who are thinking about pursuing a graduate degree, Poh offers this advice:

• Understand your goals and why you want to go back to school. Do you plan to stay with your current employer or are you seeking a career change? The answer to that question could determine whether you go to school part time or full time.

• Find a routine and prioritize what is important. “It’s like going to the gym; if you go religiously every day, it’s always easier to motivate yourself to go,” she says.

• Set aside time for friends and family. Poh reserved Fridays as “date nights” with her husband. She also rarely stayed overnight in Chicago, so she could spend entire Sundays with family and friends.

• If you have a significant other, it’s important to have his or her support throughout the process.

Poh says her career trajectory can be attributed to the training she received at Cornell and the University of Chicago. However, she is quick to point out that an advanced degree by itself doesn’t determine one’s success. How a person applies their newfound knowledge is what sets the stage for success.

“I believe that my career has been internally accelerated because of what I do, not [because of] the degrees I achieved,” Poh says. “I’d like to think that [my advancement at work] is a result of the way I think and my effectiveness as a manager. [My MBA] has given me a competitive advantage in the breadth and depth of my thought processes.”

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