Profile Evaluation

Question

I would greatly appreciate an evaluation of my profile for Kellog, Haas, Duke, Darden, Stern, UCLA.
1. Male, Vietnamese, 28 years old, Pharmacist.
2. Academic:
+ Hanoi Univeristy of Pharmacy: GPA = 7.21 (top 20%)
+ GMAT: First attempt (2016): 500 (Q47, V19), AWA-3, IR-3. Third Attempt (2018): 700 (Q49,V35), AWA-4, IR-3.
+ French: DELF B2 (total score: 68/100)
3. Working experience
3.1 Medical Representative at Merck (Fortune 100) – 2,5 years
+ Achievements: 
- Achieved at least 100% of each quarter’s sales target during working history, especially achieved 112 % of the year 2014’s total sales target.
- ‘Wining Spirit’ in 2014, a recognition for the incredibly deep focus at work and the persistence in pursuing goals.
- ‘ Cycle Best Medical Representative’, and ‘Year Best Medical Representative’ in 2014.
- ‘Best Presenter’ in 2015.
+ Led multi-projects:
- Led a 12-medical-representatives team to run the campaign, including 4 symposia, of lauching the IMPROVE-IT trial in Hanoi in 2015.
- Led a 3-medical-representatives team to run the project, including 2 workshops, of increasing Hanoi sales force’s awareness of pharmaceutical regulations in 2016. 
- Supervised two medical representative trainees during 4 months in 2016, both becoming medical representatives after this trainee period.
+ Trainee in the ‘Build Future Leader’ program in 2016 
3.2 1,5-years break in working history because of a traffic accident. 
3.3 Product Specialist at Hoffmann-La Roche (Fortune 100) – 6 months
+ Achievements: Achieved more than 110% s each quater’s sales target.
+ Led multi-projects:
- Lead ‘Roche English Club’ consisting of nine product specialists and two district managers. 
- Led the project ‘Time To Show Presentation Skills’, with 2 stages: training and contest, to improve medical representatives’ presentation skills.
4. Others
+ Leading a 2,5- years scientific research in pharmacognosy, which is fully funded, when I was at university. 
+ Sport: Diving (PADI Dive Certification)
5. Post-MBA goals
+ Longterm: to make difference for patients over the world by making strategic decisions in research and development of healthcare innovations and in marketing these innovations.
+ Short-term: to become a pharmaceutical product manager at a pharmaceutical company that invests especially heavily in research and development.

mbaMissionMichael · Answer

Hi,
Thank you for your post. You have a great profile and I would be happy to evaluate. Admissions committees will look at your profile holistically, analyzing your stats, work experience, and extracurriculars.

First of all, regarding your stats, congrats on achieving such an improvement in your GMAT score! Improving from a 500 to a 700 is impressive. Your IR of 3 is a little low so that may be worth addressing, but your GMAT quant and verbal scores and your GPA will enable you to be competitive with other applicants.
I like your work experience because it shows significant leadership. You have led projects and multi-person teams, as well as supervised trainees. These are experiences that you should definitely showcase in your application, and hopefully use to provide compelling anecdotes and stories.
As for extracurriculars, it is important to show that that you have taken initiative and made a difference in certain activities. Perhaps your role in leading research in pharmacognosy is one example. It may also be a good idea to take on a leadership role outside of the medical field. 
You have a great profile, but keep in mind how competitive the programs you listed are; they often turn away exceptional candidates because there may not be room in the program. In your application, make sure to discuss why a specific school is right for you. I like that you have clear goals, so do your homework to make sure that each school can help you achieve them. It will be important to do research on the types of opportunities in pharma that each school offers.

I would be happy to discuss in much greater detail if you would like to sign up for a free 30 minute consultation on our mbaMission website.
Thanks and good luck to you.

nguyenhungmanh · Answer

Thank you so much for your evaluation of my profile, which helps me sure about my strength, weakness, and even what i need to do in my application. Thank you so much again !!!

mbaMissionMichael · Answer

I am happy to hear you found my evaluation helpful. Please let me know if you have any other questions!

p27051 · Answer

Hi,

Would like you to suggest good schools that would suit my profile.

Nationality:
Indian

Educational Background:
Studied in one of the Top School in Asia for Rural Management (A Course pioneered specifically to meet the development needs of Rural India) – Was in the top 10% of my class

GMAT: 
720 (Q50 V36) considering a retake

Work experience and leadership:
10 years of experience this May. 3 Years in Not for Profit Sector. Last 7 Years in 3 Start-up’s, two of which were co-founded by me.
Started my career as Program Manager in an NGO working in tribal parts of India. Later was given an opportunity to work with State Government and World Bank to shape the Education Initiatives impacting Tribal Population of Andhra Pradesh State in India. Launched couple of breakthrough initiatives which were recognised by World Bank and included in the Best Practices to be showcased to governments across the world. 
After the stint with the Government, launched an educational consulting firm that counselled students in Rural and Tribal areas on various career avenues that would help them improve their communities. I was responsible to handle 12-member team that conducted workshops in over 200 schools impacting 10000+ students and partnered with the local government to guide underprivileged children. Could not monetize the venture sufficiently and had to shut it down. 
I co-founded a food-tech start-up in 2012 that connected restaurants with their customers by bringing in orders online and providing last mile delivery. We built the company from the ground to successfully deliver over 400 orders a day and a GMV crossing $600,000. After bootstrapping the business for two years, sold the company to the India-based technology vendor of Seamless.

I have been working for the past two years on a Sports-Tech venture that connects the various stakeholders such as Players, Academies, Coaches, Parents etc…

Community and others:
In 2006, started a Night School in the village where I had gone for a fieldwork as part of my rural management course. School continues till date
In 2008, took up the role of Alumni Representative of my college batch. Unanimously re-elected 4 times in a row. 
Designed the curriculum to train Women members of Self Help Groups in villages of Andhra Pradesh to become business oriented – includes the concepts on Understanding Market, Marketing and Finance. This curriculum has been used to train over 100,000 women over a period of 4 years.
Designed and implemented the world’s largest Social Security initiative which impacts 12 Million poor women.

Post MBA: 
I plan to transition to the Consulting sector and use my diverse entrepreneurial experience to work across business verticals.

mbaMissionMichael · Answer

Hi, thank you for your post.
You have a strong and interesting profile. MBA programs will look at your application holistically, analyzing your stats (GMAT/GPA), work experience, and extracurriculars. 
I am impressed with your work experience, and this is one area where it sounds like you could really separate yourself as you have really demonstrated leadership experience – founding start-ups and launching initiatives which have made a real impact. These type of stories will be compelling to admissions. Your community involvement, which is also an important part of your application, sounds fantastic. You have done some impressive activities including implementing the world’s largest Social Security initiative – wow!
Your GMAT is good but I agree that it may be worth a retake, as it is lower than that of the average applicant of your demographic.

Top MBA programs are so competitive that I would recommend applying to reach schools, target schools, and safer schools. Without knowing you better, I hesitate to name a specific one, but most of the top 25 schools have strong consulting programs, as consulting opportunities tend to be the most popular field to enter post-MBA. 
If you would like to chat further and go over your background in greater detail, as well as discuss certain schools, feel free to sign up for a free 30 minute consultation on our mbaMission website.

p27051 · Answer

Thank You Michael. I have signed up on your website for the free consultation. Look forward to taking this forward.

Profile Evaluation

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards