Hello,
I plan to apply in 2017. Currently, I work in corporate strategy and development at a major healthcare insurer with focus on product innovation; I will have 2 years of experience by matriculation (think UnitedHealth, Anthem, Aetna, etc). Prior to the current job, I worked at a large HR consulting firm for 3 years with two promotions (think Mercer, Aon, Towers, etc). I would have 5 total years of work experience by matriculation. The rest of my background is below:
Extra Curricular: Associate board member and tutor at an education nonprofit (3 years). Also a mentor at a nonprofit that helps inner city high school students with high school life and college admissions (1 year)
Undergrad school/major: Economics from a top 15 university
Race/nationality: Asian American
GMAT: Male
GMAT: 750, 50Q 41V, 8IR, 6AWA
Undergrad GPA: 3.5
Goal of MBA: Switch from healthcare strategy to tech product strategy/development or into strategy consulting with focus on the technology sector
Target schools: Wharton, Booth, Haas, Columbia (probably will apply ED if I can), Sloan, Kellogg, Ross, Fuqua
It would be awesome if you have any input on my profile and anything I can do to improve my chances before next fall.
Thanks!
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Grandmaster331
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MargaretStrother
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Hi Grandmaster,
You've got a lot of good stuff here -- strong professional experience, super GMAT, excellent GPA. Missing for me are a clearly-stated leadership path and any international exposure. I'd want to see both of these before I could assess your chances more clearly.
Goals: frankly I'm not wild about tech as a goal for you, simply because your experience seems to be elsewhere and you'll be competing against a lot of people who already do nothing BUT tech. So unless I am misreading your professional background, these goals put you at a competitive disadvantage in terms of admittance (others might differ with me on this).
What I'd recommend between now and your applications next year:
1) Show your international exposure clearly, in your resume and in any discussions about your background. Global vision is paramount in top MBA programs.
2) Increase your extracurricular leadership: tutoring and board membership are relatively common roles for young professionals, so team or group leadership would add more value. I'd recommend sticking with the organizations you already have ties to, but expanding into a team leadership role, ideally recruiting and leading volunteers -- perhaps bring in some colleagues from your workplace to do mentorship days?
3) Rethink your goals. Haas had a terrific "goals" question in 2014; take a look at the wording of that question and think about the issues that would raise: Who will hire you post-MBA, and in what role? How is your background compelling to this company? What is something you would do better for this company than any other employee?
The good news here is that all the action items are in your hands -- with some tweaks in your current path and presentation, you should do very, very well in applications to top business schools next year!
Good luck,
Margaret Strother
You've got a lot of good stuff here -- strong professional experience, super GMAT, excellent GPA. Missing for me are a clearly-stated leadership path and any international exposure. I'd want to see both of these before I could assess your chances more clearly.
Goals: frankly I'm not wild about tech as a goal for you, simply because your experience seems to be elsewhere and you'll be competing against a lot of people who already do nothing BUT tech. So unless I am misreading your professional background, these goals put you at a competitive disadvantage in terms of admittance (others might differ with me on this).
What I'd recommend between now and your applications next year:
1) Show your international exposure clearly, in your resume and in any discussions about your background. Global vision is paramount in top MBA programs.
2) Increase your extracurricular leadership: tutoring and board membership are relatively common roles for young professionals, so team or group leadership would add more value. I'd recommend sticking with the organizations you already have ties to, but expanding into a team leadership role, ideally recruiting and leading volunteers -- perhaps bring in some colleagues from your workplace to do mentorship days?
3) Rethink your goals. Haas had a terrific "goals" question in 2014; take a look at the wording of that question and think about the issues that would raise: Who will hire you post-MBA, and in what role? How is your background compelling to this company? What is something you would do better for this company than any other employee?
The good news here is that all the action items are in your hands -- with some tweaks in your current path and presentation, you should do very, very well in applications to top business schools next year!
Good luck,
Margaret Strother
