Hi,

Could you please evaluate my profile? Thanks in advance.


· Demographics: Brazilian, male, 31 Years

· Education: ESPM, Marketing & Advertising, 8.1/10 (ESPM is the top school of Advertising in Brazil)

· Other coursework or post-undergraduate education: Post-grad ESPM, Digital Marketing, 8.7/10

· GMAT: 720 (Q50/V38/IR6)

· Work experience:
8 years, passing through the 2 biggest beverage companies in the world: 1Y AB-Inbev (ambev Brazil) and 7Y Coca-Cola Femsa (bottler of Coca-Cola)
Career progression:
Have been accepted in Ambev talent programme (trainee) (1Y)
In Coca-Cola, passed through sales and marketing: 4 different areas, currently reporting to Marketing Channels Director, with a team of 3 coordinators and a trainee. (7Y)
Accomplishments:
- While in trade marketing, promoted a portfolio and strategy turnaround that led to 10 market share points gain in cash and carry channel.
- Led Coca-Cola to its record market share in the biggest retail chain in Brazil (2017/2018)
- In Execution and Incentive area conquered the title of best bottler of South America and 2nd in the world in an internal The Coca-Cola Company worldwide competition (2018)
- Got invited to be part of a select talent program that promotes talks with our CEO about digital transformation, cultural evolution and equity in the workplace (2019/2020)

· Extracurricular activities:
None in college. Currently doing volunteer work as a mentor for underprivileged young adults starting a career.

· Post-MBA goals: Shift into a Digital Health Career. Recently I have become passionate about how smarter life choices can benefit our physical and mental health. I aim to work with the healthcare revolution that is taking place with the evolution of technology and the support of wearables. My long-term goal is to assume a country/global position and to help disseminate the cultural shift of a more balanced lifestyle promoted by Digital Health.

· Target schools: HBS, Wharton, Kellogg, Sloan, Booth, Duke, Darden, Ross

· Other information relevant to your profile:

· Any specific questions you would like answered by our team:
If I may, I would like to get your point of view on an employment gap. In November 2013, Ab Inbev (Ambev) terminated my contract after I used the company's car off-clock on a working day. Since they have strict policies, they laid me off. It was a silly mistake, from which I have learned a lot.

I have always been transparent about this mistake. Honestly, I believe that being open-hearted about it is what made me soon relocate to Coca-Cola.

Regarding MBA applications and the small number of characters I have in "Reasons for Leaving this Job" to talk about it, do you believe it is preferable to explain that Ambev terminated my contract after 10 months of employment (and then I can eventually explore more of it on an interview if I am asked about) or is it better to be transparent and let them already know what happened?

All the best,
Thiago

Hi Thiago, what an interesting profile you have. Schools do like food/bev experience, and that, plus your Brazilian background will be points in your favor. You have a good GMAT too for someone in your category. That's a big quant score for someone with a marketing/advertising degree.

So it sounds like your question is: do I confess about this employment situation, and I would say yes - I'd use the optional essay/additional information section to explain beyond the very limited space in Reason for Leaving. I wouldn't wait for the interview for a host of reasons (you really kind of can't with the HBS/Wharton formats and also you don't want to spend precious interview time highlighting a negative).

Hope this helps!
Warmly,
Julie-Anne Heafey
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Hey Thiagofundao!

To commence your profile evaluation, I would say that your academic background is quite strong. Your post-grad GPA of 8.7 not only displays your academic prowess but also opens a lot of opportunities and doors to top business schools for you. The brand name of ESPM further aids in strengthening your profile as top schools tend to favor candidates from top schools of each country.

To complement this, your GMAT of 720 is pretty competitive and goes on to vouch for your academic prowess, thus allowing you to comfortably target top b-schools.

Moving on to your work experience, you have 8 years of extensive work experience with a plethora of achievements and high-stakes projects. The brand name of Ambev and Coca-cola embellishes your profile by adding its brand value and reputation to vouch for your skill sets and capabilities. Moreover, timely promotions and plenty of awards and recognitions at your role also establish you as a proactive and efficient employee. However, one thing you need to be aware of is that you’d be facing competition from candidates with similarly strong profiles, hence it is imperative that you set yourself apart from the competition by talking about the kind of projects you have undertaken, the impact you created and your career progression with major learning takeaways.

Further on the note of extracurriculars, you should be cognizant of the fact that schools tend to favor applicants with holistically developed and well-rounded profiles. Hence, accounting for the same, your experience as a volunteer mentor goes on to highlight your social engagements and community involvement, a trait well revered by the top B-schools. However, to further build up your profile in the same, I’d suggest you to take up some certifications to showcase your proactiveness to constantly learn and upskill yourself.

Coming on to your query, I would say that you should not display the gap in your profile as a consequence of a trivial mistake but rather present it in the fact that it was a deliberate move to shift to a bigger and better brand that allowed you to have more opportunities of growth. Doing the contrary might backfire on you and can be perceived as a drawback in your otherwise perfect profile.

Given your school choices, HBS, Sloan, and Wharton fall under the dream category, which means that they have an acceptance rate of 8-12% and hence you stand a 40-50% chance of getting into their program. The other schools under your radar can be clubbed under the competitive category and hence you stand 60-70% of making into their program.

All things considered, another aspect that you should be acquainted with while applying to B-schools is the importance of a strong application. Since you wish to apply to highly competitive schools in the US, you’d be facing competition from a highly saturated and holistically developed competitor pool. Hence, a strong application would not only allow you to highlight your strength but also distinguish you from other applicants.

Therefore, in lieu of that, I would recommend you to check out our flagship ALL-IN-ONE service, which has allowed us to help 3500+ applicants to get into their dream schools. As you are still in the early process of your application, it would provide you with end-to-end consulting and unlimited edits on your application documents. Not only that, you’d be connected with B-school alumni who’d be helping you directly with your application process.

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Hope this helped!
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