Please share your thoughts on Utility industry applicant

[xxpatzz]

Hello everyone

I am a prospective fall 2012 MBA applicant. Here is the background about myself. I graduated from a top public school in southern California with a degree in chemical engineering, GPA 3.5/4 and scored 740 on GMAT (M51 V38)

My professional work experience is in electrical utility industry and I work in project management organization. Upon graduation from college, I choose this job over other offers because I believe this job would provide me the best experience to support my future career goal, start up my own renewable energy firm in China, where I originally came from. At my current position, I led the team to develop a sophisticated cost structure of the project, managed projects' schedule and budgets and accumulated a good amount of experience on how to deal with solar developers on utility perspective.

My short term career goal after MBA is to enter the strategy consulting field with emphasis on renewable energy; a path coupled with my project management experience would allow me to acquire best business practices in renewable energy field.
My target schools are Columbia (ED), MIT (1st) and Stanford (1st). These schools may seem financial emphasized; however, after exploring their program, all of these schools offer a unique entrepreneurship program that fit into my ultimate career goal. In addition, I am the team captain of a weekend league basketball team and I volunteer at local hospital for a year and half now (started after college).

I think the weakness in my profile would be the shortage of work experience. By the time I enter the school, I will have just around three years of experience. Please advise me on how should I approach in my essay to address this lack of WE?

Thanks in advance for your kindness.

[PrepMBA.AlexLeventhal]

Having two years of work experience is what it is. Talented folks do get in with that profile, just in smaller numbers at many of the top schools. But your work experience as an energy project manager can be quite attractive, and the key will be pushing not just your individual technical/analytical achievements, but also your teamwork and team leading stories. Your gmat is strong, and slightly below average gpa is in a very serious major. Which undergrad school?

All in all, you could be competitive with some strong essays and interviewing.

Good Luck!

[xxpatzz]

Having two years of work experience is what it is. Talented folks do get in with that profile, just in smaller numbers at many of the top schools. But your work experience as an energy project manager can be quite attractive, and the key will be pushing not just your individual technical/analytical achievements, but also your teamwork and team leading stories. Your gmat is strong, and slightly below average gpa is in a very serious major. Which undergrad school?

All in all, you could be competitive with some strong essays and interviewing.

Good Luck!

Thanks Alex

I am from UCLA, and I am writing my essays with the emphasis on team leading/development story.

[PrepMBA.AlexLeventhal]

UCLA is solid. There is nothing wrong with taking a strong shot, and you can always re apply in two years.

By the way, there is certainly a noticeable uptick in applications from native Chinese candidates recently and I have seen this same trend in my admissions consulting business. Not sure when you came to the US, but this trend is significant and has made competition steeper.

Alex

[xxpatzz]

UCLA is solid. There is nothing wrong with taking a strong shot, and you can always re apply in two years.

By the way, there is certainly a noticeable uptick in applications from native Chinese candidates recently and I have seen this same trend in my admissions consulting business. Not sure when you came to the US, but this trend is significant and has made competition steeper.

Alex

Yes Alex, you are correct, there is a noticeable trend of Chinese candidates applying to US business school now days and I know it's useless for me to worry about the competition with my own countryman. However, the admission officer who I talked to confirmed that permanent resident does not count as international applicant, I don't know whether this information should release my stress somewhat.

I came to US when I was 15, finished high school and college here but I always wanted to go back to start my own company in renewable energy. I have emphasized this goal throughout of all my essays.

Lastly, thank your very much for the comments.

[Jon@Admissionado]

I want to just add one more comment to Alex' excellent advice already. If you lack work experience, you can look in other place in your profile to fill in the gaps with great stories. For example, I've had clients with very little work experience, but who in College already had founded a small NGO or an entrepreneurial enterprise. And those stories helped them a lot. So if you can;t go deep, go wide.

Best of luck to you.

[MBAPrepAdvantage]

To answer your question align your background with your future goals. Empahsize managerial and leadership experience (even in an indirect capacity usually associated with project management) along with your understanding of the industry.

Also, yes as a U.S. Permanent Resident you are grouped with domestic applicants and do not need to worry about the competitiveness of the Chines applicant group.

Finally, yes you are competitive for all schools but do consider adding Haas because of its strong ties to China and Energy (https://mba.berkeley.edu/academics/energy.html).

Best of luck,

[xxpatzz]

To answer your question align your background with your future goals. Empahsize managerial and leadership experience (even in an indirect capacity usually associated with project management) along with your understanding of the industry.

Also, yes as a U.S. Permanent Resident you are grouped with domestic applicants and do not need to worry about the competitiveness of the Chines applicant group.

Finally, yes you are competitive for all schools but do consider adding Haas because of its strong ties to China and Energy (https://mba.berkeley.edu/academics/energy.html).

Best of luck,

Thank you very much for your comment, I do plan to apply to Haas and write my essays emphasize on leadership and managerial experiences through managing several aspects of a large scale utility project.

[MBAPrepAdvantage]

Excellent. Keep us informed as to your progress and results.

Good luck,