Hi,
First post
I'd appreciate a profile evaluation along with any suggestions.
Demographic: I'm a 29-year old male Iranian-Canadian living in Toronto.
Educational Background: my background is in economics and political science (undergraduate studies) from the University of Toronto, from which I graduated in 2004. My GPA at graduation was 2.94, but if you don't count the first year then I think my GPA would be around 3.2 or 3.3. Last winter I took two courses at U of T again and brought my GPA up to 2.98 and scored a promise of a good recommendation letter.
I scored 700 on my GMAT (scaled score / percentile): Quant 44/63rd, Verbal 41/93rd, Total 700/90th, AWA 6.0/90th, IR 4/38th.
I speak fluent English and Farsi and beginner French (currently taking classes and expect to be at a decent level by Sept. 2013).
Work: I have 4-5 years experience as an entrepreneur in the online world. I've been the director of a small online company that develops platforms for local data as well as the vice president of another related company that is the supplier of local data but also the owner of some unrelated but impressive websites. No promotions or anything as I've worked for myself.
Extracurriculars: None, unless you go back to more than 10 years ago
Short/Long-term goals: this is my biggest problem here. I'm doing this to switch carriers and get out of this entrepreneurial bubble by gaining some experience working for big companies, but I don't know in what industry or which country or where. This may sound ridiculous, but I'm doing my MBA because I don't know what I want to do in life, and I'm hoping that 2 years in an MBA school along with some internship will help me make up my mind. Is it stupid to dish out all this time and money and effort in a venture that "might" help me make up my undecided mind? Maybe. But I believe I can figure it out.
Anyways, I obviously can't say any of this on my applications, and have to figure out which industry I want to work for, what's my short-term goal, long-term goal, etc. This is the part I'm finding most difficult to deal with. Figuring it out (and writing it in a form of personal statement) is also a condition for getting my academic reference letter. The only thing I know with some level of certainty at the moment is that I don't want to move out of Canada. London, UK is where I have my eyes on, along with Germany (even though I don't speak German
).
Schools: London Business School, HEC, CASS, Schulich, Rotman, maybe Anderson and Georgetown (McDonough), IE Business School.
Anything else you need to know?