Profile evaluation

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Profile evaluation

by Kenai92 » Wed Oct 26, 2016 11:29 am
Hey everyone,

Hoping to get a profile review. I'm currently working on R2 applications and just was hoping to get a little feed back on if where I'm applying is reasonable or if I need to sit out another year to go where I'd like!

Work Experience: Approximately 2 1/2 years as a project engineer at one of the largest oil refineries in the midwest. Act as the project manager for approximately 5 million dollars in projects from alternative selection to in field installation.

Extra C. : I competed as a division 1 track and field athlete for 3 years until injuries stopped me , started a drone building club that received approximately 20k in university funding, was active in a few other more vanilla student groups. Since graduating I've started training and doing amateur strongman, joined pheasants forever, volunteer with a river clean up organization.

Undergrad: Mechanical Engineer at a Big Ten school, 3.15 GPA (Not amazing, but athletic involvement really drained me. Senior year gpa was 3.4 ish)

Race/GMAT: White Male, 25

GMAT: 720, 45Q 44V 8IR 5.5AWA

Goal: In the long term I want to Lead or start my own outdoor gear company. I'm an avid hunter/fisherman and want to spend my time making the kind of gear that I'd want to use. As a way to get there, I want to pick up a financial skill set through an MBA and use it to transition from working as an engineer in oil and gas to working in a corporate finance type role in a large company connected to the outdoors world.

Schools I'm looking at now are Ross, Cornell, Tuck, Mccombs, and Carlson (I'm a life long Minnesotan). Is there anywhere else I should be looking at based on my goals? I know I could wait another year and be a stronger candidate with a little more WE and maybe tacking on another 20 points to my GMAT, but I don't think working as an O&G engineer for another year adds to my goals personally, even if it'd add to an application. I appreciate any feedback, positive or otherwise!

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by mbaMissionKate » Sat Oct 29, 2016 7:26 am
Hi there!

Thanks for reaching out. That's great you've had project manager exposure, and I can see why it would be a good time to make a career change. Yes, a little bit more experience could help but as long as you can show strong leadership potential and clear reasons for why now, I don't see that being a huge concern. Your GPA is good, not great, but the fact that you were balancing athletics and there's an upward trend will help a lot. The 720 GMAT helps a lot to show your academic preparedness for the MBA - great job! I would love to see your Quant score just a little higher, but hopefully you can demonstrate Quant skills via your job, and I'm not sure it's worth retaking just for that. Your extracurriculars seem really strong and I love that they are related to your long-term goals, that will make for a great "story" in your applications.

I like the list of schools you have -- good range and they seem to fit well with your goals of finance / outdoors company. I think your story will play well at Midwest schools like Ross and Minnesota, and also schools in more remote locations with great access to the outdoors like Tuck and Cornell. Maybe add UW Foster to your list? Would be pretty safe, but I suspect REI hires a lot there given the HQ location in Seattle.

Good luck, and keep us posted if we can help with anything else!
Kate
Kenai92 wrote:Hey everyone,

Hoping to get a profile review. I'm currently working on R2 applications and just was hoping to get a little feed back on if where I'm applying is reasonable or if I need to sit out another year to go where I'd like!

Work Experience: Approximately 2 1/2 years as a project engineer at one of the largest oil refineries in the midwest. Act as the project manager for approximately 5 million dollars in projects from alternative selection to in field installation.

Extra C. : I competed as a division 1 track and field athlete for 3 years until injuries stopped me , started a drone building club that received approximately 20k in university funding, was active in a few other more vanilla student groups. Since graduating I've started training and doing amateur strongman, joined pheasants forever, volunteer with a river clean up organization.

Undergrad: Mechanical Engineer at a Big Ten school, 3.15 GPA (Not amazing, but athletic involvement really drained me. Senior year gpa was 3.4 ish)

Race/GMAT: White Male, 25

GMAT: 720, 45Q 44V 8IR 5.5AWA

Goal: In the long term I want to Lead or start my own outdoor gear company. I'm an avid hunter/fisherman and want to spend my time making the kind of gear that I'd want to use. As a way to get there, I want to pick up a financial skill set through an MBA and use it to transition from working as an engineer in oil and gas to working in a corporate finance type role in a large company connected to the outdoors world.

Schools I'm looking at now are Ross, Cornell, Tuck, Mccombs, and Carlson (I'm a life long Minnesotan). Is there anywhere else I should be looking at based on my goals? I know I could wait another year and be a stronger candidate with a little more WE and maybe tacking on another 20 points to my GMAT, but I don't think working as an O&G engineer for another year adds to my goals personally, even if it'd add to an application. I appreciate any feedback, positive or otherwise!