Hi Alex,
Great to have you on board here at GMATClub. I've been following your site for a while now, as well as your contributions on other boards. Thanks on behalf of everyone here who you've helped and will help. Im planning on applying to two schools (at least) in R1 of next year, for fall 2010 entry:
- LBS
- Kellogg
Age, gender, ethnicity: almost 27 (t-1 month), male, Canadian citizen of Indian descent, immigrated to Canada in 1993 from the Middle East.
Education: Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from a top Canadian university (hint: Alex, its your alma mater too
. We dont use the GPA system, but I finished with an overall average of 75%.
GMAT: 680
Work Experience:
- 13 months as a Business Analyst (BA) at a top Canadian bank in the Technology Solutions group. Contributed to many major projects, but ultimately left because the position was no longer challenging, and the long term prospects looked dim.
-Accepted a contract position at a top Canadian wireless company as a BA. Oversaw implementation, testing and rollout of brand new project management software. During this time, I got a lot of exposure through ossmossis into the very cool technology that was being worked on in my department by the core engineering teams. Once my project was nearing completion (6 months), I expressed an interested in moving into a full time technical role at the company. This was motivated by the fact that it didnt look my contract was going to get renewed, and that the vendor we were working with was having financial difficulties.
-Accepted a full time role as an engineer, and have been in this role since March 2006. The role is approximately 75% technical and 25% business. Have moved up the ranks in terms of complexity of projects handed to me. Have worked extensively with our American vendors, as well as dealing with Belgian engineers on one project and Estonian software developers on another project. Recently I have been tasked with leading some members of the team through an extremely high visibility project that will change the face of the company altogether. On top of management, I'm still expected to deliver on my personal piece of the project.
Extracurriculars:
- active volunteer for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada
- president of the local alumni branch for my alma mater. I only recently accepted this position; the immediate goal will be to revive interest in the branch through social events such as mixers, pub crawls, etc. There is no committee as such, so I will be heading the effort myself, at least initially.
-volunteered in University to be a representative for the Engineering department; discussed Engineering with high school students visiting the school over March break. Have continued to volunteer to represent the alma mater as an Engineer alum at university fairs.
- hobbies: sports, photography, worldwide exploration, World War 2, causes and consequences of international and regional conflicts
Career Goals:
- Short term (immediately post-MBA) : live and work in Europe for a top consulting firm such as McK or BCG, in an Associate role as part of the Tech or Telecom practice.
- Medium-term (up to 5 years post-MBA): Continue to leverage my strength in tech and telecom at the consulting firm, but moving up the ladder as much as possible
-Long-term: set up my own business or take part in financing tech/telecom focused businesses that operate in less developed countries. Giving back to my home country of India in this capacity would be a dream.
Weaknesses:
- undergrad GPA: my first year was crap. It did go up in my second year but not as much as I had wanted. This is also when I had learned about my mother's illness. However, my third and fourth years kicked a$$. 4th year was capped off with me leading my fourth year project team to a successful implementation of the university's first student accesible WiFi network in the university centre.
- GMAT (?). Got a 680, but my quant score wasnt great at all, especially for an engineer. Im not planning on explaining this, rather, I think Im going to get my recommenders to focus on my quant skills displayed at work. I will also point to my quant courses taken as an undergrad, as well as the financial accounting course I will be taking next semester at a local university.
- extracurriculars ...
That's about it. If you have any questions, please let me know, I'll be happy to clarify. I'm also interested in what other schools I should target, so if you have any recommendations, lay 'em on me.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to provide comments !