I have a very bizarre atypical profile. Would like to get some feedback on my future plans.
Age - 27
Gender - male
Nationality - HK
GMAT: 790
Education - Accounting & Finance. University of London, LSE External, First Class Honors, Perfect GPA. Won Academic Prizes "Dean's List equivalent". Just graduated this year.
Will be leaving for a MSc in Accounting & Finance on a scholarship at LSE next year.
As you can see from the age, i did my degree much later than others.
I was supposed to do an Engineering course at University of Michigan straight after high school but during the gap period, I cofounded an ecommerce company that took off really quickly. I then made the decision to postpone the degree while I focus fully on the ecommerce startup. On hindsight, not going for the Engineering course was a great decision as I now know that I have zero interest in Engineering and I only applied for the course because all the students in my school who aced the high school math/science exams are "expected" to become engineers.
Well, we broke the million dollar revenue mark in our second year. We then did > 1 million/yr thereafter. We then sold the startup at year 4 to a rival company due to high competition that depress the profit margins.
Then instead of heading to college thereafter, I cofounded my second startup, a financial software company. This lasted for another 3 years until I started to pine for a big company experience. The entrepreneurial experience was great but I felt that 7 years was more than enough for me at this stage of my life. So I sold my stake to my partner and went for my degree.
I went to take the degree on a part time basis while working at a mid-tier accounting firm as a corporate tax consultant (predictable career progression: tax assistant -> tax associate -> tax senior). My non-startup working experience is only 3 years.
Right now, I'm undecided as to whether I should do an MBA straight after my LSE MSc or should I get a job after my MSc, get 2-3 years of working experience and then apply for the MBA?
My worry is that if i take the latter option, I may be too old (32) for my target MBA schools (Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, Warwick, CASS)
These target MBA schools' median age is 30.
I would personally prefer to do the MBA straight after my MSc but I am just unsure if my working experience is solid enough to garner a place in these schools. Don't get me wrong. I learnt a lot from my startups years (marketing, hiring, growing the company etc.) but I'm just not sure if the admission committee value it as much as the typical big company working experience.
My objective in getting the MBA is mainly to prepare myself for a CFO/CEO role in a large company.
My plan is to enter into PWC as an Auditor to prepare myself for the CFO position after my MBA. (although I could also enter PWC as an Auditor after my MSc)
Should I go for 2-3 years of audit experience after my MSc and then apply for MBA or should I go straight into MBA after MSc? If the latter, what would be a good strategy for the essay? Should I focus more on my entrepreneurial activities or my tax consultant experience?
Age - 27
Gender - male
Nationality - HK
GMAT: 790
Education - Accounting & Finance. University of London, LSE External, First Class Honors, Perfect GPA. Won Academic Prizes "Dean's List equivalent". Just graduated this year.
Will be leaving for a MSc in Accounting & Finance on a scholarship at LSE next year.
As you can see from the age, i did my degree much later than others.
I was supposed to do an Engineering course at University of Michigan straight after high school but during the gap period, I cofounded an ecommerce company that took off really quickly. I then made the decision to postpone the degree while I focus fully on the ecommerce startup. On hindsight, not going for the Engineering course was a great decision as I now know that I have zero interest in Engineering and I only applied for the course because all the students in my school who aced the high school math/science exams are "expected" to become engineers.
Well, we broke the million dollar revenue mark in our second year. We then did > 1 million/yr thereafter. We then sold the startup at year 4 to a rival company due to high competition that depress the profit margins.
Then instead of heading to college thereafter, I cofounded my second startup, a financial software company. This lasted for another 3 years until I started to pine for a big company experience. The entrepreneurial experience was great but I felt that 7 years was more than enough for me at this stage of my life. So I sold my stake to my partner and went for my degree.
I went to take the degree on a part time basis while working at a mid-tier accounting firm as a corporate tax consultant (predictable career progression: tax assistant -> tax associate -> tax senior). My non-startup working experience is only 3 years.
Right now, I'm undecided as to whether I should do an MBA straight after my LSE MSc or should I get a job after my MSc, get 2-3 years of working experience and then apply for the MBA?
My worry is that if i take the latter option, I may be too old (32) for my target MBA schools (Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, Warwick, CASS)
These target MBA schools' median age is 30.
I would personally prefer to do the MBA straight after my MSc but I am just unsure if my working experience is solid enough to garner a place in these schools. Don't get me wrong. I learnt a lot from my startups years (marketing, hiring, growing the company etc.) but I'm just not sure if the admission committee value it as much as the typical big company working experience.
My objective in getting the MBA is mainly to prepare myself for a CFO/CEO role in a large company.
My plan is to enter into PWC as an Auditor to prepare myself for the CFO position after my MBA. (although I could also enter PWC as an Auditor after my MSc)
Should I go for 2-3 years of audit experience after my MSc and then apply for MBA or should I go straight into MBA after MSc? If the latter, what would be a good strategy for the essay? Should I focus more on my entrepreneurial activities or my tax consultant experience?
