I am not one to be negative, so I will be as positive as I can. When I refer to going or applying to business school, that is an assumption I have made that you intend to apply to business schools, but I acknowledge, this may not be a proper assumption.
1) It appears that you need direction in your life and structure. You say you "got bored" so you went and finished your GED. I do not have any stats, but I would be surprised to find many people in business school with a GED. The 2.5 GPA may really hurt you. It's not so much that people will question your intellect, but if you show a very high GMAT score, and no work experience, lack of going to high school, etc. The admissions committees (if you do plan on applying to business school) may question your work ethic. You admit that you do not do well in areas that you are not interested in. This would be a major hurdle to admissions committees and future employers. In work, we are all called to do numerous things that we do not want to do. We have a choice in whether we do them or not. If we say "No, I will not do that." or if we perform very poorly, it will likely result in us seeking other employment, voluntarily or otherwise. Employers and business schools want people that are well rounded in many different areas.
2) You admit that your weakenesses are math and reading skills. This in itself is enough for me to say that the GMAT is not likely a good choice, or graduate school in general.
3) Decide what you want to be when you grow up and then go do it. You obviously have the capacity to do great things. It is natural for people to dislike certain areas, and especially in formal education. This is the "game" that we play. How often do you hear of someone that has a college degree, but their job has nothign to do with that college degree? A Theater Major as an insurance salesman? The point is that the person HAS a degree. It's validation that the person will play the game, get the degree, and be a normal individual. The world does not treat people nicely that do their own thing, march to their own tune, and then when they get a feeling that they need something more, they go accomplish it and expect the world to simply let them in the club. As you move up in levels of education and work experience, this becomes an ever-increasingly difficult shell to crack. Many of these circles, if they get a feel that you do not play the game strictly by the rules (i.e., get the degree, put in the time, kiss a little ass) you will not get the chance to show them your ability, because it won't matter to them. As an employer, I would not want to hire someone that "one day decided to do ______". It would make me wonder, "How long will they work for me before they get an idea to go do something else?"
You may have dozens of areas that really interest you and you can be good at every single one of them. Unfortunately, the world is not interested in "good" at a bunch of things. The world would rather have an expert at a single thing, than what many would call a Renaissance Man. If you realize this, or have already been treated badly because of this, don't resent people for it. It's just the way it is. There is no better way to explain it. So, my advice to you is
1) Figure out what 1 single thing you want to do and commit to doing it better than 99% of the rest of the people that have choosen it as their profession too.
2) Determine what steps you have to do in order to get there.
3) Identify the parts of it that you're going to hate. Get some of those out of the way early while you're still excited about your choice.
4) Accept the fact that you enjoy doing ____________, but that's not your identity. If you've chosen to be a rocket scientist, tell people "Yeah, I really enjoy finance, and I casually read as much as I can to learn more about investing, but I could build you a rocket to get you to the moon. I'm a rocket scientist. That's what I do and I'm the best you'll ever meet that does it." That sticks in people's minds. Saying "I can do finance, marketing, goephysics, legal analysis, public speaking, etc, etc, etc." doesn't resonate with anyone. They just thinkg "He doesn't have a clue what he is."
It appears as though you are still young and have many, many opportunities ahead of you. I hope Ive offered you some advice you can use.
entice wrote:
I just recently graduated from college and am considering taking the GMAT. I got a 2.5 GPA from my undergraduate career (lets not get into how I got a 2.5 GPA) which I don't think reflect my abilities and potential at all. I have a extremely good memory in things I am interested it in and the times when I get perfect scores in exams is usually the times I devoted the least amount of time. Classes I did great in were the ones I was interested it in, it is very hard for me to study for something I am not interested it in. I am usually the first to finish an exam because I either know the answers in exams or I don't.
I am at a point in life where I feel like I need to be motivated and challenged by something and the GMAT seems to be the answer. I experienced this type of feeling before in the past when I was a high school drop out (NEVER attended/passed one single course in high school). The first 3 years I was suppose to be in high school I was out playing everyday until one day I felt bored and decided I wanted to go to college, so I went to the nearest barnes and noble to grab the first GED review book I found. I read through it in less than one month and went to take the GED exam, scored in the higher range. Then I found out I needed SAT scores so I went to take that without any type of studying/high school education and I think I got a 1100 out of 1600 (the older scoring system). I got into a state university with my GED and SAT scores 1 year earlier than my friends that went to HS the same year as me, and most of those who did graduate from HS couldn't even get into my state university.
I would say my weakness is math and reading skills (the lack of HS education made it very hard to catch up on math and reading in college). My strengths would be critical thinking, fast reaction, fast thinker, problem solver, very logical, street-smart type of person. So my question is, what type of exam is the GMAT? (does it require tremendous memory, math skills, reading skills, etc.) Is the GMAT for me based on my personality, strengths, and weakness?
close
15 Dec 2008, 10:21
