Profile evaluation request
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27 Sep 2015, 12:42
As most other people in this section, I am wondering what my chances are to get into my target schools. However, I live in the UK and so am looking at both US and non-US schools. If your answer is related mainly to US schools because that's what you focus on the vast majority of the time, please indicate so.
Nationality: Czech Republic
Age: 26
Undergraduate: First Class in Computer Science, University of Cambridge (note that in the UK university system, First Class is the highest ranking one can obtain, equivalent to 4.0+ of US GPA)
Work experience: 2 years trading interest rate derivatives at 2 bulge bracket investment banks and after that 1.5 years as a software engineer for Amazon in the UK (going to be 2 to 2.5 at the time of application), working on programmatic advertising, where I have delivered several concrete measurable results (most significant was an experimental advertising program I led whose successor is now running permanently with several million dollars in funding a month)
GMAT: not yet completed, I will not apply with anything less than 750, so assume 750
Extra-curricular activities (a bit weak):
1) At at 15-19 I participated in many olympiads in mathematics, physics and computer science, and advanced several times to the Czech national round in these and once to the Central European round - is this of any use?
2) For 3 years I have been supervising students at Cambridge in several Computer Science subjects part-time (the subjects are Probability and Computation Theory)
What I'd like to do post-MBA: Ideal scenario is setting up a new business together with people from the network I develop while at the business school - does the post-MBA target make any difference?
Target schools: The very top - I don't want to pay the large amount of money for anything less than the best schools
So: HBS, LBS (London Business School), INSEAD, Stanford GSB, Wharton
I am guessing my work experience is very unusual. I started off trading at investment banks because at the time I was really enthusiastic about the markets, but it turned out to be very monotone and not developing any generally re-usable skills outside the very narrow area of over-the-counter sell-side derivatives trading (in fact after 2 years your employability is limited only to the particular derivative you are trading). So I wanted a change and chose to work as a software engineer for Amazon because I wanted to try something more technology-focused, but at the same time Amazon is a company where engineers are required to solve business problems as well as technical problems. Not sure if that's of any help though.
Thanks