yepp wrote:
Hi,
Thanks in advance for your time!
Background and nationality: Asian, male, 33 y/o, Indonesian (but US resident)
Undergrad Information: public university in Texas with 3.7 GPA (magna cum laude), double majoring in finance and accounting
Executive Assessment: 161 (IR 18, VR 11, QR 12)
Professional certification: Certified Public Accountant
Professional experience:
All US based:
+ 2 years in local CPA firm as an auditor servicing public companies clients based in energy sector.
+ 3 years as supervising senior auditor with big 4 accounting firms (one of EY, KPMG, PwC, Deloitte) servicing fortune 500 clients, primarily in energy and software sectors. Accolades include ovation award (top performance award), accounting system champion for southwest area, trainer / teacher for staff and experienced hire auditors' classes
+ 3 years as audit experienced manager with one of national firms (one of GT, BDO, etc)
+ 2 years as executive in oil & gas exploration production company (promoted multiple times from controller to current CFO position) with approx. $50MM annual revenues, growing through M&A
Business experience / side gig:
+ chairman and co-founder design and build construction company in indonesia with a friend (US licensed and educated engineer) in 2018. our clients are primarily commercial or luxury homes. 4 full time office employees. 20 field workers. Employing virtual reality technique in design. i handle the financial aspect of the company and assist the ceo with sales and marketing (including creating website etc). my sales efforts generated approx. 60% of company's revenues.
Community and others
+ 7 years as community leader at church
+ 2 years volunteering as mentor for prospective graduates through an Indonesian mentoring program at a Texas university.
+ volunteered for an acquaintance provincial legislative election (currently a senator in Jakarta)
Post MBA goals
+ work at a major company as an executive
+ apply what I learn at Columbia for my construction company
+ create charity that allows people to invest in local industries in Indonesia
Most of the candidate assessments here are for full-time programs but I’m not sure given your profile if you are interested in Full-time or EMBA. You are in luck as Columbia is one of the few full-time MBA programs that accepts the executive assessment. However, given the amount of work experience you have and your age (33) you may be more interested in the Executive MBA. Which one are you considering at the moment? For your reference, here are a list of schools that accept the executive assessment:
https://www.gmac.com/executive-assessme ... ng-schoolsIf you are applying to full-time MBA (vs Executive MBA), you'll be one of the most tenured and accomplished members of your class. Relatedly, you'll also be one of the oldest -- likely 2 standard deviations above the mean. These odds aren't great, but with the right strategic positioning (e.g., “Why MBA,” “Why now,” “What do you want to do post-MBA that you can’t do without it, etc.”, I think it may be possible.
You have an impressive and varied list of professional experience, from marquis corporate names with good pedigree to more entrepreneurial interests with your big 4 accounting experience and founding an Indonesian construction company. It's rare to see a client with a justifiable need to have a 2 page resume for a full-time MBA program (they are more common for EMBA), but given your tenure and the variability of your work experience, I think you may be an exception to the 1 page resume rule.
It would be a smart idea to really emphasize your international experience - very few applicants will have professional experience in South East Asia but this is a major growth market and a place where CBS wants its alums to be. Be sure to mention it in your essays if you have had cross-cultural experiences while leading a construction company across geographies (successful businesses in Indonesia navigate diverse cultural influences from Chinese to Indonesian and Christian to Muslim). Since CBS is a melting pot that prides itself on tolerance, diversity and a global lens, the AdCom will like hearing about you leading across diverse teams and geography. They'll also like hearing about vision that you have for continued career ambitions in this geographic area given your experience there.
The only red flag I see is your stated ambition to start a charity that allows people to "invest in local industries in Indonesia." Private placements for investors abroad, even if they are double or triple bottom line ("profits, people, planet") impact investing, shouldn't be positioned as a charity. Charities are generally not-for-profit investment vehicles. Just be careful that you don't brand something as a charity that's really more of an impact investment vehicle.
If talking about school selection and strategic positioning with an admissions consultant may be helpful to you, feel free to sign up for a free consultation here:
https://admissionado.com/free-consultat ... sultation/