Ask Stacy Blackman

Hi Amy,

I would like to hear your estimation about my chances. I plan to apply for the class of 2011, so I still have some time left for some fine tuning. I apologize for the length of my post, and I thank you in advance for your answer.

General:
I’m 26 (will be 27 by R1). I live in Israel for the past 18 year but am originally from Moscow, Russia.

Academic:
• I have a BA in economics with a minor in history from a major Israeli university. My GPA is 3.2 (according to the conversion table of Columbia.edu). I’ve dragged my degree for 4 years (it takes 3 years in Israel) because I wanted to focus on my professional career, and treated my bachelor studies an educational supplemental for my life.
• My GMAT score is 700 (Q49, V37, AWA 4.5).

Work Experience:
• I served in the Intelligence Corp in a special elite unit. After 18 month I was sent to the Officers Course, and got my 2nd Lieutenant rank. I served for another 18 month supervising all the intelligence aspects of complex operations. (42 month)
• I worked in a small IT company as a QA team member. (12 month)
• I then got a better offer from a large software company, and worked there as an inner tier of customer support team. (16 month).
• In the last two years I work for a start-up company as an internal product manager. A year ago I got promoted to lead the product management team of three people. I will work here at least until R1. (36 month)
I’m not sure how the admission will evaluate my work experience. I will have 106 month of full-time work experience. The problem, as I see it, is that none of it was in the area of my bachelor degree, half of it was while I attended the university, and only 12 month will be after I finished my BA. From what I’ve read so far that might be an issue.

Extra Curricular:
• Four years ago I’ve joined a project of a local institute of financial education, which combines groups of people into investment companies. I was elected to be one of the three board members of that company (the chairman was appointed by the institute). About six month after the foundation of the company I’ve led the company’s separation from the institute (I didn’t feel that we received proper management). The eldest of the investors was elected as chairman, while I was elected as the CFO. After another six month I was elected chairman. I will continue acting as chairman at least until R1. In the last four years the company’s capital almost tripled itself.
• Two years ago I’ve founded another PE company. I raised the funds myself (from 22 private investors), signed the contracts with the services companies (legal, and accounting), located the potential investment opportunities, and negotiated the deals. I’ve raised about 500K$ and according to the latest evaluation (made by an external company) the company is now worth about 2.5M$.
• For four years I am part of the Rating&Regulations Committee of the Israeli Chess Federation, and actively manage a chess team in the local league.
• In the last two years I volunteer as a business guide of a “Young Entrepreneurs” project in a high-school in my town. Each year I guided a group of about 20 students in founding their own company and developing a new product. Both groups were highly successful in developing, manufacturing, marketing and selling their products.
• For several years before that I’ve volunteered in various educational organizations.
• I speak 5 languages (Hebrew, English, Russian, Italian and Polish).

Recommendations:
I can get good recommendations from my commanding officer in the army, the CEO, and VP Sales (who is a Sloan graduate) in my current company, from board members of the PE company I manage, and from the principle of the high-school where I lead the entrepreneurship project. I would like to hear your thoughts about which recommenders to choose.

I see myself in the private equity world, preferably running a PE fund of my own, maybe after a few years of work in other companies. I would like to focus on schools which are stronger in the area. I prefer to look at schools which are located near large Jewish communities. Harvard and Columbia come to mind, but I’d like to hear your suggestions to more down-to-earth schools, which I’d have a good shot at.

Thank you in advance for your advices

Hi YokMok,

You have a very interesting profile. I'm curious why you would continue working in tech while running what sounds like a successful PE company on the side? I would definitely focus on that work experience since it fits with your long term goals.

You may want to look at Sloan, and perhaps Columbia and NYU. I'm not sure how down to earth you want to go. The sticky thread on school selection may help narrow the search.

Good luck!

Amy