-
ricardomba
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2011 8:21 am
Hi there,
I would love to know where I stand and on what I should concentrate in the following months. My goal is to get an MBA from a top 20 school. I plan to apply this upcoming Fall.
Profile:
26, born and raised in El Salvador (but did exchange programs in Guatemala and Argentina); moved to LA at age 16 where I learned English and finished HS. I love to travel (have been to over 30 countries in my life) and I think I have a pretty interesting background. Aside from international background, I worked as an English tutor for 3+ years in college, flirted briefly with philosophy and international studies before settling for international business and finance double major. After college, I moved from California to Minneapolis to work for Target HQ. I started in Financial Planning & Analysis, where I worked with expense budgets and was the company expert on payroll planning. Eventually, I lead a SAP implementation in my area (complete with all the problems & learnings that come with a ERP project). After getting that taste for a strategy in that project, I decided to take a non-traditional route and moved to the Merchandising side of the business. I now act as internal consultant for buyers by leading Negotiations and Business Partnerships with vendors in Electronics and Entertainment. Because of the way that it has allowed me to see the entire product cycle (from manufacturing to product development, from supply chain to retail), this role has confirmed my desire to work in Strategy/Brand Management in the future.
Undergrad: Finance & International Business from CSULB; 3.62 GPA
- Worked throughout college to pay for studies (main reason why LB)
- Improved GPA in upper levels (3.82 last 2 years) despite working full time (Boeing), taking more units & heavily involved in school organizations (president of International Business Association, officer for Hispanic Student Business Assoc)
- Selected by faculty as "most outstanding graduate" in International Business
- Studied abroad in Harbin Institute of Technology
Work Experience: 3 years as of today
- 6 months contracting for Boeing while still in school (Finance)
- 2.5 years in Corporate Finance at Target HQ
* Lead SAP Implementation in are (sort of Project Manager/Business Lead for project)
* Captain of Expense Planning Process for several planning cycles
* Responsible for HQ planning payroll expenses at Target
- 1 month (and counting): Expert in Negotiations in Merchandising at Target HQ
* Lead negotiation events for Electronics & Entertainment
* Facilitate strategic planning meetings with Target's biggest vendors (Apple, Nintendo, Sony, etc)
* Act as internal consultant for merchants on business partnerships & negotiations
I'm positive I can get two (possibly 3) strong recommendations from my time in Expense Management; I was promoted twice in the area, and received various awards for leadership. My plan is to get promoted in a year, so asking for my current supervisor is out of the question.
Extra-Curricular
- Founding member of Association of Latino Professionals in Finance & Accounting in Twin Cities
- Co-Lead of Community Engagement committee for Hispanic Business Council at Target
- Reading Buddies: Mentor a middle school kid in Minneapolis
- ESL Mentor at Lakewood High School (CA) for ESL Students
- Teacher Assistant and ESL mentor for Los Angeles Community College (3+ years)
- MLT Fellow
I can get a strong letter of recommendation from ALPFA work, and I'm sure I could also get another one from the professor at LACC. Thoughts on which one I should go with? To be quite honest, I'm most proud of my work at as a TA. Not only is English my second language (I didn't speak it all when I moved to states), but I'm very passionate about helping other students (particularly Hispanic and/or ESL) achieve their dreams. In a way, I felt that role gave me the opportunity to really do this & although I ended up doing something completely different with my life (corporate instead of teaching), I feel like I've never stopped learning/teaching ever since.
GMAT 660 (82th percentile)
- 87 verbal
- 61 quant
I know I can do better on both the quant and the verbal section, but to be quite honest I'm a getting a bit burned out studying for this test. I'm currently taking a Kaplan class, but I don't know if its really helping me all that much. I like that I have 8 CATs I can take, but its tough to have to study 10-15 hours a week and see my scores be so inconsistent. I'm particularly frustrated with quant portion. While in verbal, I can go all the way to 96th percentile in some tests, I can't seem to get over 70 in math. I was never a rock star when it came to math in school but aside from accounting (which I think I hate just on principle), I got pretty much all A's in all my math/stats/finance classes. I realize that a higher score can only help in applications, but I don't want to start hating my life to get there. Any thoughts? Realistically, how far away am I from proving schools I will do well in 1st year?
Thanks guys!
I would love to know where I stand and on what I should concentrate in the following months. My goal is to get an MBA from a top 20 school. I plan to apply this upcoming Fall.
Profile:
26, born and raised in El Salvador (but did exchange programs in Guatemala and Argentina); moved to LA at age 16 where I learned English and finished HS. I love to travel (have been to over 30 countries in my life) and I think I have a pretty interesting background. Aside from international background, I worked as an English tutor for 3+ years in college, flirted briefly with philosophy and international studies before settling for international business and finance double major. After college, I moved from California to Minneapolis to work for Target HQ. I started in Financial Planning & Analysis, where I worked with expense budgets and was the company expert on payroll planning. Eventually, I lead a SAP implementation in my area (complete with all the problems & learnings that come with a ERP project). After getting that taste for a strategy in that project, I decided to take a non-traditional route and moved to the Merchandising side of the business. I now act as internal consultant for buyers by leading Negotiations and Business Partnerships with vendors in Electronics and Entertainment. Because of the way that it has allowed me to see the entire product cycle (from manufacturing to product development, from supply chain to retail), this role has confirmed my desire to work in Strategy/Brand Management in the future.
Undergrad: Finance & International Business from CSULB; 3.62 GPA
- Worked throughout college to pay for studies (main reason why LB)
- Improved GPA in upper levels (3.82 last 2 years) despite working full time (Boeing), taking more units & heavily involved in school organizations (president of International Business Association, officer for Hispanic Student Business Assoc)
- Selected by faculty as "most outstanding graduate" in International Business
- Studied abroad in Harbin Institute of Technology
Work Experience: 3 years as of today
- 6 months contracting for Boeing while still in school (Finance)
- 2.5 years in Corporate Finance at Target HQ
* Lead SAP Implementation in are (sort of Project Manager/Business Lead for project)
* Captain of Expense Planning Process for several planning cycles
* Responsible for HQ planning payroll expenses at Target
- 1 month (and counting): Expert in Negotiations in Merchandising at Target HQ
* Lead negotiation events for Electronics & Entertainment
* Facilitate strategic planning meetings with Target's biggest vendors (Apple, Nintendo, Sony, etc)
* Act as internal consultant for merchants on business partnerships & negotiations
I'm positive I can get two (possibly 3) strong recommendations from my time in Expense Management; I was promoted twice in the area, and received various awards for leadership. My plan is to get promoted in a year, so asking for my current supervisor is out of the question.
Extra-Curricular
- Founding member of Association of Latino Professionals in Finance & Accounting in Twin Cities
- Co-Lead of Community Engagement committee for Hispanic Business Council at Target
- Reading Buddies: Mentor a middle school kid in Minneapolis
- ESL Mentor at Lakewood High School (CA) for ESL Students
- Teacher Assistant and ESL mentor for Los Angeles Community College (3+ years)
- MLT Fellow
I can get a strong letter of recommendation from ALPFA work, and I'm sure I could also get another one from the professor at LACC. Thoughts on which one I should go with? To be quite honest, I'm most proud of my work at as a TA. Not only is English my second language (I didn't speak it all when I moved to states), but I'm very passionate about helping other students (particularly Hispanic and/or ESL) achieve their dreams. In a way, I felt that role gave me the opportunity to really do this & although I ended up doing something completely different with my life (corporate instead of teaching), I feel like I've never stopped learning/teaching ever since.
GMAT 660 (82th percentile)
- 87 verbal
- 61 quant
I know I can do better on both the quant and the verbal section, but to be quite honest I'm a getting a bit burned out studying for this test. I'm currently taking a Kaplan class, but I don't know if its really helping me all that much. I like that I have 8 CATs I can take, but its tough to have to study 10-15 hours a week and see my scores be so inconsistent. I'm particularly frustrated with quant portion. While in verbal, I can go all the way to 96th percentile in some tests, I can't seem to get over 70 in math. I was never a rock star when it came to math in school but aside from accounting (which I think I hate just on principle), I got pretty much all A's in all my math/stats/finance classes. I realize that a higher score can only help in applications, but I don't want to start hating my life to get there. Any thoughts? Realistically, how far away am I from proving schools I will do well in 1st year?
Thanks guys!
