Zingaro wrote:
Hi, I hope you can take some time to read through my profile. My main concerns are my age (32 at the time of semester start) and that I already make 100k+ and hence A) the added value of a post-MBA salary would not be so huge and B) missed income factor has a big impact (I tend to have 2.5-3k left every month after all expenses). On the other hand I am not satisfied with my career at all, and I want to move into more relevant positions (e.g. strategy), ideally by staying in a BB bank.
Background
Work experience: bit short of six years at time of class start:
[*]Home country (Europe): 3 months internship + 1 year full time in consulting (think Accenture) doing PMO on post-acquisition IT infrastructure integration and some IT strategy during the last 3 months.
[*]Foreign country #1 (Europe): 3 years for a BB bank in secondary location (not my home country), working under a Divisional COO. Did lots of cost control, forecasts, cost modelling etc, was promoted after 2 years, and de-facto became #2 of the team (in charge for interns, juniors, etc).
[*]Foreign country #2 (Europe): 1 year and counting for another BB bank in its primary location (not home country nor country of my prev job) , working close to the Group COO, steering bank-wide change projects. Starting this job I came in one rank up than what I was before. I am an Associate.
Pro: Both my last 2 jobs had me work in very multicultural teams and to deal with offices all over the world on a daily basis.
Con: All the front office / client exposure came with my first job, last 4 years (where I grew the most obv) I've had a lot of very senior mgt exposure but all internal.
Extra curriculars
[*] Basically nothing relevant. In my old job I lead regular training session and I participated an invitation only talent program (5% employees invited). This year I collaborated with a no-profit (as part of a program promoted by my bank) to help with fundraising. Used to be a toastmaster speaker.
Undergrad school/major
[*]Bachelor in Statistics from an average public university, CGPA would be 80% (which is considered very bad in my country)
[*]Masters degree in Finance from the same university, CGPA 91% (which is about average)
[*]One year abroad during my Masters (Erasmus)
Race/nationality: white / EU citizen / 31yo (32 at semester start)
Stats
GMAT: 730 (Q48 V42 IR8 AWA5)
TOEFL: 108
MBA Info
Goal of MBA: How to put this. I've always done back office work, and for as much as you can be good at it it's still second-class. I want to matter. I want make an impact on the company. I would prefer to stay in banking and in-house rather than consulting, but I would take the chance if given, and definitely I would apply to consulting firms. I would like to work in Asia, as in Singapore, HK, or China. (ofc I would not phrase the whole thing like this to the admission committee but I'm confident on this - I can sell myself pretty good).
Target schools: INSEAD, LBS. Secondary but probably would not take: IE, IESE, SDA Bocconi
School wise the only one I would be really sure I want is INSEAD. I know it's consulting oriented but it's the only 10 months program with a really good name, also since I would like to transition to Asia the Singapore campus would be a good place to start.
Dilemma
As stated at the beginning: I will turn 32 in less than half year. I make good money and already am an associate at a BB bank. I could hardly justify the ~130k I would need for tuition and living, plus the in missed earnings. Maybe a better use of my time would be to perform the best possible in my current position (which I don't particularly like), push to be promoted VP at the end of 2021. Not going for the MBA I would probably get myself a CFA starting 2020, which at best would get me the charter in 2022 at 34 years old - also pretty late for a complete career change.
Other downside is that I likely do not qualify for any scolarship, and funding the full price out of my pocket would cost me everything I have (if not more).
I'm also kinda worried about the rec letters - I can get two Executive Directors from my old bank to do it (plus others if needed but probably no MDs), but I would rather not tell anybody at my current job (also I don't think they hold me in such high consideration as in my old one) - there is no winning in letting them know I plan on leaving in summer (especially right before bonus season), and that if I don't it means I was rejected and staying in my position is anyway a secondary choice.
This is a comprehensive profile for eval purposes -- thank you for the detail! Although you are on the older side for most schools (even European programs, whose students tend to be older on average than U.S. schools), I think an MBA could make sense for you professionally, intellectually and from a networking perspective. It will be hard to for you to move to the "front office" from where you are without a top tier MBA or a CFA. The increase in earnings from such a career switch would probably help cash-flow your student loan payments. As you probably already know, the schools you identified have a lower price-tag than similarly-ranked American programs.
Your lower GPA won't hurt you as much as it possibly could since you have a higher-than-average GMAT score for European scores of 730. Passing even one round of CFA will also help demonstrate that you can handle academically demanding coursework if you'd like to try to attempt that in June before applying (which many not be possible - I'm not sure which deadline you are targeting).
If you are applying to INSEAD and you are especially interested in maximizing your chances (vs. say, having a longer/more fun experience or making sure to have a summer internship), I do suggest you apply to the September start if you are trying to maximize your chances as the acceptance rate is higher:
https://www.mbadataguru.com/blog/insead/ ... ance-rate/. It's important that you emphasize your global lens and any international experience that you have in your application as INSEAD is considered to be THE global business school and with a campus in Singapore it is probably well suited for your desire to work in Singapore, HK or China.
Strategic positioning will be very important to your candidacy (e.g., how your extracurricular will inform your student involvement at school, your near term and long term career plans and how the MBA + your prior professional success uniquely qualify you to achieve your dreams, etc.). If strategic positioning is something you might benefit from talking to an MBA admissions consultant about, feel free to sign up for a free consultation here:
https://admissionado.com/free-consultat ... sultation/