When at Berkeley this spring, he will hop a plane back to his native China for a job in management consulting rather than seek employment in the U.S.
Just a few years ago, most Chinese students returned to China reluctantly and only because they couldn't land a position with an American company that would sponsor them for a work visa. But Zhe Xu receives his M.B.A. degree from the University of California Berkeley this spring, he will go back to China for a management consulting job. He represents a new breed of Chinese M.B.A. student for whom China's booming economy is proving more alluring than a career in the West.
Career-service directors say a growing number of MBA graduates are much more willing -- even eager -- to return to their homeland after graduation. Abby Scott, executive director of M.B.A. career services at the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, even sees some Chinese-American students, who were raised and educated in the U.S., moving to China. At Stanford University, Virginia Roberson, the business school's international career adviser, finds entrepreneurial-minded students especially drawn to China. (Source: Ronald Alsop, The Wall Street Journal, Mar 13, 2007)