pbodine wrote:
linjunkai wrote:
Dear Paul:
This is linjunkai, the Round 2 Taiwan applicant for HBS, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, Columbia, Chicago, and Tuck this year. The result is as follows:
HBS- dinged without interview
Stanford- no interivew invite
Wharton- dinged after interview
Kellogg- initial waiver ; Dinged with no callback
Columbia- Dinged without interview
Chicago- Dinged after interview
Tuck- Dinged
I knew that it is extremely more competitive this year than last year,
however, I didn't expected that I got all dinged from the schools I applied
for. Please be as picky as possible to comment on my statistics and the
chance for repplication of all schools I mentioned above.
My statistic:
27 male / BBA in international trade( not Top Univeristy in Taiwan) / GPA
3.7 / GMAT 730 AWA 5.0 / TOEFL 267, TWE 6.0 / 2 yrs as an division leader in Coast Guard Administration( madatory service) + 1.5 yrs as a special assistant to president in a small corporation that engages import and export business of healthcare products + 1.8 yrs( till now) as a senior financial advicer in Big brand insurance group( Manulife Financial )/ a lot of extras, such as founder of a NPO, VP of Rotaract Club......etc.
Short term goal: back to insurance industry and lead the team to focus on the pension market in Taiwan and assist Taiwan people to make wise
decisions about their own insurance and investment.
Long term goal: lead my company in penetrating the insurance market in
Mainland China and provide insurance consulting and assist Mainland people to make wise decisions about their own insurance and investment.
In sum, I really need your spot assessment since I would like to reapply
this year for most of top 10. Your picky comments are highly appreciated.
Morevoer, at this special moment, a president of a small insurance
brokerage company here offers me a "branch manager" or "Senior Development manager" position to help his company about training new agents, organizing the company, recruiting....etc. I am still considering whether to jump from my current position senior financial planner to branch manager position in that company. I am willing to take it since I definitely will have far more experience in management. However, I have only one concern here: this insurance brokerage company is not a big brand insurance corps compared with Manulife Financial group. I don't know how brand name influences my case.
Furthermore, one small asset management consultant LTD. also contacts me to see whether I am willing to join their team. I will be offered
"Independent Financial Advicer" or "director"(haven't decided yet since I
haven't decided to jumpt to her corps). In this corp, I knew that I also
will gain a bit more experience in corporate management and can assess to more financial products to provide clients with more comprehensive
financial service. However, the concern is the same: 1. brand name 2.
Right time to jump?
It is a delimma to stay put or jump to higher postion but no brand name. I hope you could shed more light on this and see whether which choice would sharpen my reapplication. Many Top tier admits highly recommend me to ask for your admission consulting and I am really considering it. I hope that through the professional analysis of you I can clearly see "Why Choose You" rather than reapply by myself. Your sharp comments are highly appreciated.
Passion for H/S/W,
linjunkai
Linjunkai,
Frankly, based on what you told me, I'm also a little surprised that you didn't have better luck. You have good numbers, some distinctive aspects to your profile, a distinctive/logical post-MBA goal. I don't see significant red flags, unless it's that the work you've done for the past 1.8 years does not involve leading people. I therefore suspect that the reason for your dings was your execution--primarily essays but perhaps also interview and reco letters. I would need to see your application (that is, work with you on a consultant/client basis) to comment usefully on those parts of your application.
As for switching jobs, I think you overemphasize the importance of brand in the adcoms' eyes. They are much more impressed by leadership responsibility. So I would recommend choosing the path that gives you the most team-leadership opportunities and that is clearly a step up vis-a-vis the usual metrics (title, salary, typical industry career track, etc.).
Good luck,
Hi Paul:
Thanks for prompt reply. Actually, I am also SURPRISED and DISSAPOINTED about my applications last year. As for what you said concerning my 1.8 yrs at Manulife, I served as a DIRECTOR for the our finance team(around 8-10 people in this group). However, I am not their SUPERVISOR but a only a director that was elected by the team members to help run for the finance team.
In addition, I basically think that I did a "above average" job for my interviews( the senior admission officer of Wharton even directly told me in the end of the interview that she will wrote me a GOOD report).
Moreover, as for my Recommendation letters, I think I use them in a right way. I used my branch manger(supervisor) at Manulife as the first Rec and my COMMANDER at Coast Guard as the second one. For some schools that required THREE, I used my client in Manulife as the third one. In your professionaly perspective, any problems?
Because of the job switch to mitigate the weakness that adcom mentioned in my feedback session that they would like to see more about my JOB RESPONSIBILITY and LEADERSHIP and MANAGEMENT experience at the beginning of August, I had better to apply for Round 2 and have more stories in my new work place to convince the adcom about my weakness? or I should shoot for first round? Some of friends of mine in Wharton and Columbia suggest me that I should shoot for Round 1 and others suggest me to apply for Round 2 in my case. To be honest, I would beg for your PROFESSIONAL advice on application round. Your early reply would be highly appreciated.
Passion for H/S/W,
linjunkai
close
23 Aug 2006, 10:50
