Asian Male
Age 30
Undergraduate: Computer Science and Engineering at UC Davis
GPA: overall 3.38, engineering weighted, ~3.6
GMAT: 750, q49, v44.
W.E.:
1 summer doing test automation for a search engine startup
1 year at a data networking startup doing QA.
7 years (and still) at another data networking company (rather large and well known silicon valley company) doing test automation

I am currently at the senior software engineer level. Although I have no direct reports, I was designated by my manager to be the technical lead for over half of the offshore component of our team and I lead this team in various software development tasks and have been doing so for about 3 years. This leadership position is not an official management position although the tasks are very management oriented.

I guess my biggest weakness would be that I have had only one official promotion (to the senior software engineer level) although I have had other performance related accolades like merit increases (of a size unprecedented for the team) and an official monetary award given by the company.

As for work achievements, I designed, lead, and helped develop the first company-wide web application for managing test automation. This application has now become a standard part of process at the company. Also a year ago, I came up with a new innovative tool to aid in the software development cycle. The tool's popularity was such that it soon became a requirement by the program manager for all engineers to use during that project. Since its creation, it has been a part of every major software release of my company -- I suppose this would be the innovation I can take credit for with the most impact on the company process.


Extracurriculars:
- I've been a natural bodybuilder and fitness enthusiast for over 15 years. I am planning my first competition to be in October, however, many of the schools I plan to apply to will have application deadlines prior to the competition.
- I am a member of toastmasters (less than a year)
- I was a member of Tau Beta Pi honor society when I was in college
- Although probably not relevant at this point, I was captain of the wrestling team in high school and I was a varsity letter in 3 sports.

Side business:
- I ran an ebay business while balancing a full-time job for 2 years. This business grossed around 20k a month, and although the margins were not great, I really had the best time of my life playing business man (or perhaps pretending). I ended the business because the margins became so slim and considering the amount of time I spent (building a website, packing/shipping everything myself, handling customer calls) I could not justify it anymore, but I suppose you can say it planted a seed in me because it created more questions about business process, etc. than I had before I started.

Recommendations:
For the part-time programs I plan to get my direct supervisor, and I suspect a decent to good letter of recommendation, though in terms of writing ability I don't think it will be stellar.
I have a choice between two for the second letter:
- A team supervisor, who, although is technically in my team, reports to our director (my manager's manager). I know schools persuade you to not have team members or co-workers, but he plays a supervisory role and technically he is at the same level as my manager.
- a previous manager at the same company. He was my direct supervisor the first 3.5 years I was at my current job.

as for schools, i don't have a final list yet, but I plan to create one with all the schools I have at least a 50% chance of getting into..

(1). haas part-time program is my ideal program
(2). ucla andersen part-time program
(3). Sloan full time
(4). columbia full time
(5). yale full time
(6). kellogg full time

any other schools you might think I have a good shot at I'd love to put there since I wnat to build a list with reasonable schools

Stacy,

thanks for the quick response. Do you mind elaborating on what "strong" is? To be perfectly honest, depending on how likely I am to be accepted on just a cursory overview of my profile will help me determine if I need to hire an admissions consultant.

As far as post-graduation goals, one possibility is becoming a manager either managing the group I'm in or managing another group of the same type. The other, which would be an exciting career change, is to go into project/program/product management

Frankly, my heart wants the career change to project management, but my mind thinks that the former possibility of group management would better maximize admission chances.


here i've listed non-work related stories that mean a lot to me and I feel differentiate me greatly, which one would adcom (or yourself) be most interested in reading?
- diagnosed with a serious, but non-life threatening disorder that threw me into depression for two years. after managing the illness and frankly having a second chance at life was when I made the biggest changes in my life/career
- i am naturally not a leader, so one night at a crowded store I surprised even myself when I saved a girl from falling off an escalator over 10ft in the air.
- story of starting and running my ebay business for a period of 2.5 years with all the ups/downs and drama of competing with other sellers.
- i don't want the adcoms thinking i'm someone who is a naturally good test taker to have scored a 750. i actually was a very poor test taker as evidenced by my SAT scores in HS. in fact, i was enrolled in probably 3 different prep courses for the SAT and still performed poorly. when i made the decision to attend b-school, I knew i had to tackle the GMAT and i did so on my own conquering a lot of my personal demons ... a bit cliche, but it couldn't be further from the truth.

thanks

I wanted to mention I had the 30 minute phone consultation with Sarah and it was very helpful. Thank you!