Pro Eval: Asian Entrepreneur - 1st Gen - 740 GMAT

Question

Hi,

I would like an evaluation of my profile, specifically my chances at my choice schools, and possible consideration of other schools. I'm looking to get into asset management or possibly strategy consulting

Age: 27 at Matriculation, 1st Gen Asian American
GMAT: 740(Q49 V41) 3rd Attempt
Education: 3.26 GPA with B.S. Finance & Accounting top 10 school in BW

Extracurricular
*Played football and rugby in college
*Co-founder/treasurer of networking club
*Club rep for diversity club
*Campus ministry assistant - manage and organize volunteer events for school
*Habitat for Humanity
*Basketball coach for under-privileged youth
*Church youth leader

Work Experience: 
*1 year at Citigroup in middle office working with hedge fund clients and doing account reconciliation
----2 month gap here where I got the offer at the trading firm and quit Citi early to backpack through Asia
*2 year as a trader/analyst at trading firm. Trainee for 6 months, and promoted to trader. Mentored 3 first year trainees, one of which took rookie of the year award. Left this job as I want to pursue grad school, but more so because my real estate business was falling apart with my dad's health failing and I want to go back and consolidate/re-organize everything.
*self-employed for the past year engaging in real-estate ventures. Small business that started in 2008 with 10k in savings and loans and built it up to now having 100k in revenue and total investment value estimated at around 500k. I invest in real estate properties where I would rent them out and also fix & flip. Not sure how this will be seen by adcom

Applying all 1st round:
1st Tier - Booth, Kellogg
2nd Tier - Fuqua, Ross

Thanks for reading. The city of Chicago is where I want to be. I will be a reapplicant at Kellogg and Fuqua. 4 is enough, right guys?

bryantmichaels · Answer

Hard to say if four is enough without a full review of past applications. Schools generally favor reapplicants, but you will need to focus on what you have done since last applying that offers significant improvement to your profile. You seem very engaged and involved, so i ma not sure why the rejections came, but perhaps it was the spotty work experience. You will need to make a clear connection between what you have done and what you plan to do, so make sure you speak to the impact you had in the banking/finance industry and how you can leverage that experience as an asset manager. The real estate investment shows some entrepreneurial instincts, but it's not a very complicated business to flip houses and doesn't really connect with your chosen career path, so you many not want to emphasize it other than to show you have a real business interest outside of your day job. At the end of the day, you need to tell them why you like finance and why you think you will be good at it going forward either as an asset manager or a consultant. Let us know if we can help.

gnova01 · Answer

Hey Bryant, thanks for the reply.

The entrepreneurial experience is a way for me to fill in my employment gap. I left the trading job in 2013, so adcom would be wondering what I would be doing this whole time. It doesn't necessarily fit in with my goal to get into asset management. Would I be able to spin it that the entrepreneurial experience piqued my interest in real estate and that I'd like to enter into equity research with a focus on the RE sector?

In terms of professional growth, I've build up a lot of relationship with small investors through the renovation business, people who have been able to introduce us to other investors. I've managed to grow the business through relationship development and just doing good quality business. Would this be a legitimate professional growth that will help in my apps?

As a re-applicant, what can I do to show growth? I started doing more volunteering during my free time at church, I raised my GMAT from 680 to 740, and I've managed to turn around my real estate business (it was losing cash flow). Another thing is that in my previous application, I made no mention of my entrepreneurial experience in my resume, so the resume showed I was unemployed from Apr 2013 to present. But now, I will be putting that on my resume to show that I wasn't just sitting around the past year and half.

Thanks for your help.

bryantmichaels · Answer

The risk comes in the adcom perceiving that your business is just a "hobby" or cottage business. Lots of people do what you do in Real Estate on the side or as a hobby so it's not going to impress them especially with such a low revenue model. As you point out, it's not really in line with your post MBA goal, so there's also the risk that you don't seem ambitious enough. My advice would be to get a consultant to help you build out your story in a way that makes the past year seem more intentional. You have a great profile improvement characteristic with the GMAT score, so you need now to come up with a defining moment over the past year or something that's really going to show them you have more to offer this year. What you have been learning and doing in real estate will likely be perceived as fairly useless in the MBA classroom to some extent since again, it's a low barrier to entry kind of business (I am not disparaging it--it's actually my background as well). You will need to weave a story which incorporates what you have done in a more sophisticated way into your post MBA vision, or else get out there and get a job that's more closely aligned to your career track.

Pro Eval: Asian Entrepreneur - 1st Gen - 740 GMAT

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