Talino wrote:
Hi Jennifer,
I'll be turning 29 the October of my first year in business school. Although I've had several projects that have required me to lead engineering contractors, I have not gotten officially promoted and have not been in charge of anyone on my team.
I have delegated work plenty of times and have managed projects both within and without my company, but I am not sure if this counts as "leadership experience" because that can be so subjective.
Personal:
Asian/Pacific Islander
Male, 28 years old at matriculation
GMAT: 730
Education:
BS Computer Engineering GPA: 3.4 at a regionally ranked school
Experience:
4.5 Years, Energy/Green Engineering for a Fortune 100 energy company
Extracurricular:
Over 130 Hours per year of church leadership. Mentor and teacher of over 25 inner city teens from different backgrounds. I had a missions trip overseas, but it only lasted one week.
I was president of a professional society during college with over 250+ members and I made a significant impact on the school's engineering program and student's careers opportunities.
Target schools: Booth, Yale, UT Austin, Columbia, and H/S/W
Target Post-MBA: Energy/Consulting
Defining leadership is difficult but I'll try to explain what you need to identify in your background and discuss in your applications. These top schools are seeking examples of you motivating people who do not need to listen to. They love examples of you taking initiative to shape the organization. And they are wowed by situations in which you pushed upper management in a new direction that they resisted. Ideally, you'll be able to point to quantifiable impacts like increases in revenue and market share to prove that your leadership bore fruit. If you have these types of experiences under your belt and discuss them in your applications, then your chances of acceptance are good since your age, GMAT, and GPA are all right on target.