Hey Oswaldo,
Thanks for reaching out to me. I apologize for the delay in getting back to you.
The first thing I would
not do is to quit your job, and move into entrepreneurship. He this is because the admissions committees are somewhat leery of entrepreneurs – especially ones that are barely established. The other thing you have to realize is that you will be compared to other entrepreneurial types. The ones worthy of HBS, and other top schools will have a long and successful history of building and growing a business or multiple businesses. You are not going to have that. In fact, you might not even be able to show that you are cash flow positive, or that it is working out, in addition to not showing any employees (and this leadership.) Yet another issue is this – why would you leave a growing business, and take two years off to gain skills that you do not even know you need to grow your business. Now, if you had been working in this business for a few years, and it had grown rapidly, and now you are at a point where you needed the skills to take it to the next level – then you would have a good story. But none of this is so. It is going to look like you are looking for a life raft, or an escape hatch. Neither of which are good in the eyes of the admissions committee.
No matter what you may read, or hear from members of the admissions committee – the number one thing they like besides a high GMAT score, is stability and certainty
especially when it comes to goals. The goals essay has no place to differentiate yourself, because it is an unnecessary risk application. Differentiating yourself by your goals, means defining a job opportunity or career path that Robert Frost would describe as "the path less traveled." In other words, if no other applicant has defined your career path – within reason – that means it does not really exist in any substantial quantity or probability. That is a huge problem because admissions committees like certainty, and they want to know that 99% of the graduates are employed within three months of graduation.
One last thing to consider – you are going to be "throwing away" a lot of your engineering and petroleum industry experience. Do not do that. Everything you do and plan to do needs to represent a linear path, a high trajectory, and build upon your prior experiences. Else, the admissions committee has nothing to assess the need to compare you to other applicants - in your case other petroleum engineers. If you make them compare you to other entrepreneurs, you really do not stand a chance.
TLDR: do not quit your job, do not become an entrepreneur, and considering retaking the GMAT to score higher on the verbal section (I hope your TOEFL is in good order.)
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
oswaldogarcia wrote:
Dear Paul,
would you please evaluate my profile and share your thoughts?
I am 28, brazilian. My Bachelor degree is in Mechanical Engineering and I am specialist in Petroleum Engineering. I´ve been working for Petrobras since september/2008. In may/2009 I started working on offshore drilling operations (drilling supervisor / superintendent), managing teams of up to 40 engineers on oil rigs. Prior to Petrobras, I was intern at AmBev (AB-InBev) and participated in a Work and Travel program during college vacation (cottage contruction in Knosville, TN from december 2006 until february 2007)
My school of choice is HBS, followed by MIT and Stanford. To make the story short, I want to make a career shift. I will apply in 2013 first round (admission August 2014 - first GMAT attempt: 700 Q47 / V39 Nov/2012).
I have two issues so far:
1) I know I need to improve my English a little and I believe I this will lift my GMAT score. Should I take a second test (my actual score is a little below the median)?.
2) I have the opportunity to open a small business (media on paper bags, no employees in first 6 motnhs) and I see it as an exciting challenge. This will certainly contribute to broad the experience I will share during the MBA. Since I will have to quit my job to do so (taking this risk is not a problem for me), I am quite concern over how this enterpreunership will impact my "history". Will B-Schools agree with my shot or will they think that I am lost in my track (quiting a job, opening a business and applying for and MBA at the same year)?
Thank you for your attention.
Regards,
Oswaldo Garcia