Profile Evaluation for Hospitality Manager

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Profile Evaluation for Hospitality Manager

by schellha » Mon Aug 27, 2012 9:23 pm
First off thank you for taking the time to help a non-traditional applicant like myself. I am currently a 26 year old assistant beverage manager at the second largest Hyatt hotel in the world. I oversee a $3 million dollar operation within the hotel. I originally graduated with a 3.4 in hotel management from the University of South Carolina. I was accepted in Marriott's manager development program out of college and moved to Boston to complete my training. I was then asked to go to Memphis to help improve the worst performing hotel in the company. I was able to move them from last place, out of 341 hotels, to middle of the pack. I was then recruited to the Hyatt Corporation to help a large Hyatt hotel (1300 rooms and $90 million in revenue) re-establish a poorly operating new concept bar concept of theirs. I have taken the GMAT and have scored 700. I would like to attend Darden, Emory, UNC or Wharton as a stretch school. Post-MBA I would love to move into strategy consulting, preferably at one of the big 3. What are my chances?

Also, I believe that I might be an appropriate applicant for a admissions consultant due to my non-traditional nature. I would love to speak to you further to see if I would be an appropriate candidate. Again, thanks for your time!
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by Shawn@StratusPrep » Fri Nov 30, 2012 8:07 am
Dear schellha,

Thanks so much for writing. In your case, I believe that being a non-traditional applicant could and should be an incredible asset. Business schools are looking for diversity in their students, so they like seeing an alternative to the typical pre-MBA banker and consultant. From your operations work in hospitality, you almost certainly have great examples of people leadership and successfully confronting operationally challenges, both of which admissions committees will appreciate as you could add an invaluable perspective to the classroom. I would not view your non-traditional background as a detriment or act defensively about it in the application materials. Own your diverse experiences and let's leverage them to get into the very best possible MBA program.

For Darden, Emory and UNC, your GPA and your GMAT score are average, and for Wharton you are just a bit below average, so that means you need an exceptional application package to win over admissions committees (which is actually the case even for those with above average scores given how competitive these schools are).Your experience differentiates you, but how you write and speak about your experience and convey your story will be crucial. Each of the four schools on your list is looking for slightly different traits, so you really need to personalize each application. I would also like to see a bit more about your personally and any leadership outside of work.

Providing strategic guidance about what to write about and how to best convey your ideas is where an admissions counselor can be most helpful. My colleagues at Stratus Prep and I possess expert knowledge in what all the top schools are looking at, so we can best guide you. To begin our work together, we invest the time to really to get to know you and understand your experiences through our proprietary Introspection exercise (which are akin to structured brainstorming). This allows us to then best counsel you on your unique admissions strategy.

We have worked successfully with many applicants from the hospitality industry, and I would be happy to discuss your particular situation further to decide how we could best work together. Feel free to email me at [email protected] to set up a free consultation.

By the way, given your profile and interest in consulting, have you consider Kellogg? I think it could be a great fit for you, and we have helped very similar applicants who were successful in gaining admission to this top program.

Best,
Shawn
Founder/Director, Stratus Prep
Harvard JD/MBA

[email protected]
212-307-1788
www.stratusprep.com

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