An Evaluation Request from an Oddball

Question

Alex, I have a lot of respect for your insights and candor, and I would be very grateful for whatever time you could spend giving my profile a once-over.

The highlights reel:

1440 on the SAT in 2000. Hungover. 
  Enrolled at UMD in CS in 2002. Hated first semester and dropped out. 
  Played and recorded in rock bands. 
  Founded a successful Open Source Software project, with international users and collaborators. 
  Decided that starving for your art is overrated. Enrolled at UMBC in CS in 2004. 
  Worked in a startup video game company which flamed out. 
  Worked as a bouncer in Annapolis. 
  Joined a startup IT consulting firm. Made 30 bucks an hour. 
  Graduated from UMBC with a 3.2 in 2007. 
  Built the software engineering department at the consulting firm. 
  Got bored. Taught myself Spanish. Spent 3 weeks in Buenos Aires. Loved it. 
  Still bored. Spent another 2 weeks in San Carlos de Bariloche. Loved it. 
  Still bored. Went to Israel for a couple weeks. Loved it. 
  Still bored. Left management position for a pure engineering position on a cool sounding project. 
  Absolutely hated new job. Realized that I wanted to make business decisions, not technical ones. 
  Won a local programming competition. 
  Went back to old company as a senior consultant. Make 60 bucks an hour now. 
  Got a 770 on a practice CAT. Want to do management consulting after b-school, preferably international. Would love to work on a variety problems, for a variety of businesses, in a variety of locations. I'm thinking Kellogg, Wharton, or Booth, followed by McKinsey, Bain, or BCG. 
  Post-consulting, I want to start my own business, built around fulfilling a need identified during my time consulting. 
  Miss being a bouncer. Got into MMA. Gonna do an amateur fight in 6 months.

Full speed ahead, or do I need a reality check?

AlexMBAApply · Answer

To be honest, I think you may need to look at schools outside the top 16 (but that won't get you the consulting job), or at least stay in one place and ground yourself. In short, your resume probably needs to be stronger if you want a shot at a top 16 -- it's not really enough just to be "different" because there's enough other folks who may not be the cookie cutter banker/consultant/engineer, but who still has rock solid work experience.

It sounds like you've floated a bit, still trying to figure out who you are, what you enjoy, blah blah blah. And that you're struggling with that more than most people. And that's perfectly okay, as this whole career/life thing isn't supposed to be some linear race. However, just know that with your trajectory so far, finding a way to have a successful career may mean not getting an MBA at all - that's what you'll need to be prepared for more than other folks with more traditional resumes.

Practically speaking, if you're itching to apply, go for it, but just be prepared that you may have to go on without an MBA.

plb13 · Answer

Thanks Alex, I appreciate that.

An Evaluation Request from an Oddball

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