Profile eval'n please - finance/ media gal
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09 Nov 2011, 12:13
GMAT: 710 (Q47, V41, AWA6)
GPA: 3.4 (McGill, finance major, did 4-year program in 3 years, started with 3.8, but had a horrendous 2.7 semester)
Full CFA (first-time pass of L1 and L2, had to redo L3)
WE1: Analyst at hedge fund (Toronto; left after 8 months due to lack of transparency & feedback, low employee morale, moved to UK)
WE2: Analyst/ associate in corp. finance, largely TMT (UK; Icelandic bank that went bust about 18 months after I joined – was great experience though!)
WE3: Senior analyst/ associate in (tiny) specialist media finance advisory firm (UK; 2 years, I’m effectively 2nd in command to the founder)
Extra-curriculars:
Post- college:
- leadership role in national arts education organization (seasonal full-time commitment, 120h per week for about 3 weeks/ year, marginal time commitment for rest of year; I used my holiday to do it for past 8 years)
- started little digital film production company on the side (first project in production soon, but no complete feature to show for it yet)
- independent consulting to digital media start-ups
College:
- lots of student theatre and broadcasting (20-40 hours per week); leadership roles
- not much summer work as was doing 120% course load and summer courses, also lots of volunteer work at various arts festivals during summers
- 4-month internship (20hr/ week) and 18 months part-time work (12hr/ week) both in publishing
Pre-college:
- Gap year between high-school and uni (deferred admission & scholarships) to pursue full-time internships (relevant to my current work and post-MBA goals), volunteer (Canada, France), work, travel; as a result started uni at 20 (am now 29)
Goals: Media finance & strategy: corporate development/ strategic planning/ internal M&A at media corporate; Long-term: own media finance advisory shop; looking for exposure to new media/ tech/ entrepreneurship while at MBA
Target schools: UCLA, NYU, USC, Haas (top choice, but unlikely?)
Personal/ Other: Immigrant to Canada from Eastern Europe, living in UK for past 4 years; Royal Conservatory of Music piano teacher, professional visual artist (sold and exhibited work)
Worry: employment gaps – my main concern is that I was not really ready to graduate when I did and didn’t hit the ground running career-wise. It took me a year of random contracts, freelance and part-time work before I got my “proper” progressive, hedge fund job (WE1)
Many thanks in advance!
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