Hi everyone,
Hope all is well, I just want to try and get my feet wet a bit here, just to see where I currently stand as I am looking to apply for R1 in a few months, and probably might need some assistance with my application. I believe I would be considered a "non traditional candidate"? maybe just a little.. Any advice would help.
Here is a little info on me:
23 year old Male from the Mid-East, just got my Canadian Citizen ship (been in Canada close to 6 years) Been attending British schools from day 1.
Graduated in 2011 from a local University (one of the top 3 in the Province), Majored in Marketing/Minored in Business Management 2.7 GPA out of 4.3, super low (Because I was more focused on work instead of school, more details below)
GMAT goal 720-750
Looking to get into LBS, HBS, McGill, Hult
With this year it will be over 7 yeas of work experience (consecutive years) and if I get accepted to start out in 2014 it will be over 8 years of work experience.
Before joining University I was the Assistant Operational Manager for a Govt. Contract within a Call Centre and was responsible for close to 200 staff, handled the PR for the contract, Staff scheduling, Training, Hiring/Firing (almost fired one hehe, that's never fun) and whole lot more responsibilities. That was for a few months though, after that my family and I decided to migrate to Canada (from Dubai, U.A.E), for better education opportunities, and of course we had to start off all from scratch.
After we landed, 1 month later got a PT job (just regular customer service nothing fancy), 3 months from landing joined the Uni. (First in the current generation and the youngest to complete high school and join University right away, was still 17 when I attended my first class)
During my 2nd year of Uni I took a web design course and got the idea that I should start my own web design company on the side, which worked out just great. Got a merger proposal, jumped on it. There was some unnecessary drama between the two companies 2 years down the road, (they were receiving a big chunk of the profits for no good reason, and during the contract renewal negotiation they asked for more.. go figure) I ended the merger (was going to the courts, but I beat it) Got new partners and I switched the company over from a simple web design company to an Interactive agency to offer a whole lot more services and capture more market share.
I was only 19 when I launched my first company, was also busy with being a FT student, and a super FT job running my company (I quit the PT job after starting the company), just so I can make as much money for my family (total of 6) as my Dad wasn't around. So unfortunately I didn't have much time for studying, (forget partying, playing around or sleeping for that matter) I didn't prioritize my workload to balance it out the right way. But I aced almost all my Marketing classes as that came naturally to me, the rest that required a lot more time I passed them with average grades... Of course not helpful in my current situation.
While in my last semester at Uni, (kept working 25/8 on my company from the 2nd year of Uni till the end) I worked with a Major insurance company in North America for 2 years to gain access to the corporate culture (Assets holdings of over $20b) didn't have a major role but had a lot of responsibilities, wanted to climb the corporate ladder, but I left after two years as nothing good came up and also because I got 2 partnership offers on two different start-up companies, and took them both.
Now I Co-own 3 companies, my own Interactive agency, a Professional Moving service, and an Ink Distribution company (with global sales) and all doing well. (All my employment history can be verified)
My Goal?: To join a major tech corporation Like Google, Samsung, Mercedes, etc and run major projects/provide consulting. I find myself being extremely proficient in refining business processes by creating/introducing business solutions, to cut costs and maximize profits. I know this for a fact as I have implemented it within my companies and others ("accidently" while working for them or any of their projects through my companies) and those issues were resolved and turned the whole case around with actual gains.
I don't really have any extracurricular activities, and 1 thing I noticed when dealing with several companies, a lot of them don't last long (especially the startups) Now, yes, you have all the regular stats on how many last and all the common pitfalls, and etc, but when you deal with such companies on a personal level, you have a great working relations with each other, services rendered and they head out their own way, then 1 day they call it quits and close down for good, and its depressing to see that cause I went through all those struggles with the companies I own and know it first hand, but never quit put in hard work 20hr days, sleepless nights, got proper advice from other business owners etc etc and it worked out in the end, those days in the rear-view mirror.
But I can't help, not thinking about them, so I am in the midst of working out a plan with a few of my partners, either setup an non-proft organization or something on the side, just to try and offer business, management, marketing, etc solutions/advice and services, either for free or a minimal fee to get them out of the quick sand that they would be in, and actually concentrate on actually moving ahead with their passion with the business they started up.
I mainly want to try to asses my chances to get into any of those top MBA programs or get some assistance on my application because of my low GPA (I know I'll get a proper GMAT score, I have a proper plan that I already started working on) I'm at a point where I am able to switch over to a silent partner and just be a "student", like I always wanted but never could. You get to a point where you feel you need more power (knowledge), to actually move further and do more, help more, enhance your skills and further yourself, I'm not sure about others but just reviewing some of the classes those schools offer just stirs me up and want to get them under my belt to conquer even more.
That's about it, I guess, there is a whole lot more, but I think my novel (sorry) above should paint a good enough picture on where I currently stand.
I would certainly appreciate your time with this.
Mike A.
Hope all is well, I just want to try and get my feet wet a bit here, just to see where I currently stand as I am looking to apply for R1 in a few months, and probably might need some assistance with my application. I believe I would be considered a "non traditional candidate"? maybe just a little.. Any advice would help.
Here is a little info on me:
23 year old Male from the Mid-East, just got my Canadian Citizen ship (been in Canada close to 6 years) Been attending British schools from day 1.
Graduated in 2011 from a local University (one of the top 3 in the Province), Majored in Marketing/Minored in Business Management 2.7 GPA out of 4.3, super low (Because I was more focused on work instead of school, more details below)
GMAT goal 720-750
Looking to get into LBS, HBS, McGill, Hult
With this year it will be over 7 yeas of work experience (consecutive years) and if I get accepted to start out in 2014 it will be over 8 years of work experience.
Before joining University I was the Assistant Operational Manager for a Govt. Contract within a Call Centre and was responsible for close to 200 staff, handled the PR for the contract, Staff scheduling, Training, Hiring/Firing (almost fired one hehe, that's never fun) and whole lot more responsibilities. That was for a few months though, after that my family and I decided to migrate to Canada (from Dubai, U.A.E), for better education opportunities, and of course we had to start off all from scratch.
After we landed, 1 month later got a PT job (just regular customer service nothing fancy), 3 months from landing joined the Uni. (First in the current generation and the youngest to complete high school and join University right away, was still 17 when I attended my first class)
During my 2nd year of Uni I took a web design course and got the idea that I should start my own web design company on the side, which worked out just great. Got a merger proposal, jumped on it. There was some unnecessary drama between the two companies 2 years down the road, (they were receiving a big chunk of the profits for no good reason, and during the contract renewal negotiation they asked for more.. go figure) I ended the merger (was going to the courts, but I beat it) Got new partners and I switched the company over from a simple web design company to an Interactive agency to offer a whole lot more services and capture more market share.
I was only 19 when I launched my first company, was also busy with being a FT student, and a super FT job running my company (I quit the PT job after starting the company), just so I can make as much money for my family (total of 6) as my Dad wasn't around. So unfortunately I didn't have much time for studying, (forget partying, playing around or sleeping for that matter) I didn't prioritize my workload to balance it out the right way. But I aced almost all my Marketing classes as that came naturally to me, the rest that required a lot more time I passed them with average grades... Of course not helpful in my current situation.
While in my last semester at Uni, (kept working 25/8 on my company from the 2nd year of Uni till the end) I worked with a Major insurance company in North America for 2 years to gain access to the corporate culture (Assets holdings of over $20b) didn't have a major role but had a lot of responsibilities, wanted to climb the corporate ladder, but I left after two years as nothing good came up and also because I got 2 partnership offers on two different start-up companies, and took them both.
Now I Co-own 3 companies, my own Interactive agency, a Professional Moving service, and an Ink Distribution company (with global sales) and all doing well. (All my employment history can be verified)
My Goal?: To join a major tech corporation Like Google, Samsung, Mercedes, etc and run major projects/provide consulting. I find myself being extremely proficient in refining business processes by creating/introducing business solutions, to cut costs and maximize profits. I know this for a fact as I have implemented it within my companies and others ("accidently" while working for them or any of their projects through my companies) and those issues were resolved and turned the whole case around with actual gains.
I don't really have any extracurricular activities, and 1 thing I noticed when dealing with several companies, a lot of them don't last long (especially the startups) Now, yes, you have all the regular stats on how many last and all the common pitfalls, and etc, but when you deal with such companies on a personal level, you have a great working relations with each other, services rendered and they head out their own way, then 1 day they call it quits and close down for good, and its depressing to see that cause I went through all those struggles with the companies I own and know it first hand, but never quit put in hard work 20hr days, sleepless nights, got proper advice from other business owners etc etc and it worked out in the end, those days in the rear-view mirror.
But I can't help, not thinking about them, so I am in the midst of working out a plan with a few of my partners, either setup an non-proft organization or something on the side, just to try and offer business, management, marketing, etc solutions/advice and services, either for free or a minimal fee to get them out of the quick sand that they would be in, and actually concentrate on actually moving ahead with their passion with the business they started up.
I mainly want to try to asses my chances to get into any of those top MBA programs or get some assistance on my application because of my low GPA (I know I'll get a proper GMAT score, I have a proper plan that I already started working on) I'm at a point where I am able to switch over to a silent partner and just be a "student", like I always wanted but never could. You get to a point where you feel you need more power (knowledge), to actually move further and do more, help more, enhance your skills and further yourself, I'm not sure about others but just reviewing some of the classes those schools offer just stirs me up and want to get them under my belt to conquer even more.
That's about it, I guess, there is a whole lot more, but I think my novel (sorry) above should paint a good enough picture on where I currently stand.
I would certainly appreciate your time with this.
Mike A.
