Current Student
Joined: 11 Dec 2011
Posts: 45
Location: Malaysia
Concentration: Nonprofit, Sustainability
GPA: 3.16
WE:Consulting (Computer Software)
South East Asian Chinese Male Profile Evaluation
[#permalink]
17 Jun 2012, 02:27
Hei everybody,
I hope to get some honest (as in really critical) opinions on my profile and some answers to my questions
Anyway here goes
1) Background
Chinese Male. 28 y/o. Malaysia
2) Education
Undergrad: Bachelor in Information Technology, CGPA 3.16. Local private university
Postgrad: Masters in Computer Science, CGPA 3.61. Same local private university
Other education: Awarded an EWKLP scholarship by Fujitsu to study management in Hawaii for 3 months. I'm still currently in Hawaii now.
3) GMAT: 730 Q49, V40
4) Work experience
My accumulated work experience is about 5 years now
First Job (6 months):
I worked as a software engineer in a small Australian company. After the 6 months probation, I was let go. Yes you heard it right, I was let go. It was definitely my fault. I'm the kind of person who is able to finish his task very quickly. Very often my focus would wander off and I would go around viewing youtube videos and what not after I've finished what I needed to do. I have no excuse for this, I was naive and stupid. My sacking had a huge impact on me for I was taught a lesson on taking things for granted a little too far.
Second Job (3 months):
Nothing much to say about this job. I left as soon as I started as I was poached by a well known Japanese company.
Third Job (2 years 2 months):
My third job was in Panasonic's research and development centre. I was tasked with development of mobile software applications, back when iPhone and Android wasn't out yet. The main players were Blackberry, Nokia and Windows Mobile. I was a basic software engineer for 6 months until my manager decided that I should lead the team (being opinionated and working late hours paid off I guess). I was mentored by my manager to be a leader, all while designing project implementations and leading 2-3 teams at once. As the mobile software industry was relatively new, I also led a lot of prototyping projects in order to provide analysis for feasibility studies and presentations on quantifiable results to our Japanese higher management.
Fourth and current job (2 years and on going):
I left my previous company and started all over again from the bottom, this time as a software consultant. I didn't mind the fact that I had to start over as I was confident enough I could climb back up as easily. The company is a Dutch company that deals with an Advanced Planning Solution for its clients. In layman terms, they provide a software solution to help estimate a company's operations KPI and attempt to provide an optimized solution.
My task as a software consultant was to communicate with clients, understand their business operations and requirements and provide a customized solution that represents the model of their operations. 8 months into the job, I was given a promotional option, to manage projects or to handle complex mathematical algorithms for client implementations. I took the latter.
My new role as an algorithm consultant, is to understand the operations on a much more detail level in order to be able to quantify the statistics of its operations, identify known variables, and then create multiple mathematical equations in order to automate their planning optimization. Needless to say, this requires a lot of back and forth between the clients and I, with them explaining things work and I proposing some solution and new perspective on how to look at their operations. I loved what I was doing, it was new and challenging. Furthermore, I was handling a new type of planning model, which I then wrote explanations to be archived for future use in the company.
5) Extra-curricular
Here's my biggest problem. I hardly have the time to participate in EC during my undergraduate days. My parents were divorced and financial problems were a main concern in the family. I worked my way through college, paying for certain expenses and being very frugal on the partial loan that the government has provided for me (I did fairly well in high school to obtain the loan). These work were mostly free lance jobs that includes programming, website building, and database implementations.
Other than that I'm a very active participant especially when it comes to underprivileged homes. Before college I was a director and president of a local community club. After college, I organized clothes donation drive amongst friends to send them to orphanages at least once a year for the festive season.
I do lots of sports including badminton, basketball, running and going to the gym.
6) Short long & term goals
My short term goal prior to completing an MBA is to get into management consulting. Working in my current job has got me really interested in operations management and analysis. Furthermore I believe that all the skills I can gain from MC will be essential for my long term goal. My aim is to leave the MC industry after 3 years.
My long term goal is to join an NGO to handle development for under privileged countries such as Cambodia as well as countries in Africa. I've always have a dream to help this countries achieve a sustainable development, and with that I'm going to need every single skill I can get from general management. There are various ways I've thought on how to achieve this, but I'll not get into the details here.
7) Other information
I broke my hand when I was 14 and boy was it ugly. The back of my palm was touching my elbow. At that time, I was practicing hard to represent the state in squash competitions. Needless to say it all went down the drain. That experience however taught me a whole lot of lesson, and one of them was to find an alternative in life. As I cannot actively participate in sports, I went on to pick up maths which in turn led me on to this path. Right now as sadistic as it may sound, I'm glad I broke my hand as I have a story to tell in some of the application essays.
8) Schools
1) Harvard <--- I know this a stretch, but with only 2 essays I still want to try.
2) Tuck <--- My dream and main target
3) Chicago Booth
4) Duke <--- Safety
Questions
1) Am I looking too highly on my school selection? Please don't sugar coat it for me, give me really critical opinions so that I can reflect upon them.
2) Am I considered under represented or over represented?
3) Should I be concerned about my EC? Even for voluntary community stuff, I'm no longer participating in any known organizations. I mostly gather up some friends who feels like doing it, collect some clothes and monetary donations and just visit a few homes of our choice.
4) Is my 3.16 undergrad CPGA considered low? Should I write the essay if they provide an option to explain it?
5) The scholarship I was awarded is a short 3 month course that is graded on GPA standards. Should I include it in the resume? Or should I just give it a short mention?
6) Any other schools to recommend? I would a school with a tight community and has a strong standing in consulting and CSR studies.
That's all for now I guess. I would like to first say thanks to anyone who is able to take their time off to give me some input.