Prof Eval Pls (710)

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Prof Eval Pls (710)

by jl1875 » Fri Aug 10, 2012 3:48 pm
710 GMAT (Q50 V35 AWA6)
Undergrad: Electrical Engineering at a top Canadian Engineering program
3.0 GPA
27 y/o male, Canada

Steady (but not upward) trend. My course load was difficult and I spent a lot of time working on a nonprofit during undergrad. We raised money and sent volunteers to teach English and IT skills to communities in Africa. I also played intramural sports.

During undergrad I had a total of 2 years of internships (with 6 months in China at a major telecom). One semester of exchange at a top Chinese university.

Work Experience:
2 years at a small engineering consultancy. I led some projects with our most important clients. My recommender will confirm how my leadership impacted the firm.
6 months (and running) at a major Canadian retailer. My title is business analyst in the Supply Chain department, but most of my work is project management. My boss can verify my leadership skills, impact, and growth despite my short tenure here.

I took a Finance and Marketing courses over the summer at a community college and got A's in both courses.

Extra curricular:
I continue to volunteer with the nonprofit from my undergrad days. I do recreational sports and I volunteer at an organization downtown, mostly mentoring for inner city youth.

My question is about my goals:
My long-term goal is to start a boutique consulting firm targeted towards small businesses in Africa (because of my relationships through the nonprofit). Specifically, I want to help businesses through that initial growth period and help them become sustainable.
My short-term goal is to work at a top consulting firm and focus on service operations and growth/sustainability.

The idea is that my 2 years experience consulting with small engineering firms and my current job, understanding the business side of a supply chain would give me some background for consulting with small businesses.

Are my goals realistic for a Top 7 MBA program? Are they detailed enough?
I'm having difficulty searching for anything like my type of ST or LT goals online. An answer to my questions or even some direction to some helpful reading material would help me a lot.

I appreciate you taking the time to read this. I can add more specific detail if that helps.
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by milimbamission » Mon Aug 13, 2012 2:09 pm
Hi there,

You've got an impressive background and very noble goals. As for your story, you want to think of your career narrative as an equation: a+b+c = d, where a = your current skills/experience, b = skills/experience you'll gain through bschool, c = skills/experience you'll gain through your short term career, and d = your long term goal.

For "a", you've got great entrepreneurial experience and Africa regional expertise from your non-profit and some consulting experience (but mostly tech oriented) and some supply chain/project mgmt experience. Your short term goal is to work at a consulting company to gain the business operations and consulting expertise you would need to advise African business owners. During business school, you'll likely focus on learning strategy, operations, entrepreneurship and international business. Ultimately, you'll go on to start your own firm.

All in all, I think it's a pretty good story. Normally I am weary of social enterprise stories as they seem to be a dime a dozen these days, but since yours is really grounded in first hand experience and works well with your short term plans, I think it makes sense. You should check out an organization in Washington DC which does exactly what you want to do -- perhaps someone there can help you crystallize your goals even further (not that you need to, but it might help!!): check out Grassroots Business Fund.

Best of luck,
Mili
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by jl1875 » Wed Aug 15, 2012 5:42 am
Thanks Mili,

I appreciate your detailed feedback. Thank you also for directing me to GBF. It's very helpful and in line with my LT goals, especially since I noticed a few MBAs on staff.

I had one more question, if possible:

I understand that many people get their MBAs to switch careers, but would a top 7 MBA program admissions committee view my path from my background (tech consulting and supply chain project management at a large retailer) to my ST goal (mgmt consulting in growth/sustainability) as a smooth, credible transition?
If not, is there anything that I ought to do in my application to address this?

Thank you again for taking the time to read this.

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by milimbamission » Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:31 am
A lot of folks want to get an MBA to get into consulting -- I don't think that's going to be a big stretch in your story. You can say that you want to do more management/strategy consulting to complement your supply chain/operations background.

Hope this helps,
Mili
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by jl1875 » Wed Aug 15, 2012 4:23 pm
This definitely helps.

Thank you for taking the time to provide an additional response for me. I appreciate this very much.

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by milimbamission » Thu Aug 16, 2012 4:47 pm
Sure! Good luck!
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