Profile Evaluation - Financial analyst tech sector 710

Question

Hi,

I am a French Canadian business graduate (28 years old) looking for admission in a Top10 US university. It would really be appreciated if you could review my profile and make suggest my strengths and weaknesses as well as my chances to achieve my goal. I could give the GMAT another shot if it will make or break me...

Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated on where I can improve and where I am strong enough to apply as it is very expensive and time consuming to prepare these applications!!!

1) work experience.

Senior Accountant at KPMG (out of college)
3 years at KPMG where I was double promoted and become a senior accountant very quickly and was able to lead large projects with teams of 5 accountants
1 in 5 Canadians selected for Fast Forward leadership program in Hollywood

Financial Analyst in a High tech post startup company (following KPMG)
Top 3 fastest growing company in North America, fast paced and very entrepreneurial environment
In charge of international operations where I worked on the acquisition (due diligence, valuation and integrating activities) of a company in Sweden
Setup a company in Ireland to support European sales and setup infrastructure in several European countries as well as Asia
Coordinating and coaching staff in several countries as well as working closely with lawyers, consultants,..
The finance department doubled in size while I was there so I trained a lot of different people

2)GMAT: 710

3) College info:

Bachelor in business administration at HEC Montreal (French school) with 3.7 GPA/4.0; started with a very low GPA (3.3 after 1/3 of degree) but managed to progressively increase my grades while working part time
Graduate degree in accounting at HEC Montreal (French school): 3.83/4.0

4) Significant college and post-college extra-curricular activities

- More recently involved as an advisor in a Foundation that helps young entrepreneurs grow their business and provides some financing for interesting projects

- Volunteer coordinator for a tax clinic producing tax returns for free for low-income individuals

- Worked part time correcting business cases and coaching students at my university while working full time

- During my college degree, I did a semester in Austria, worked in China for several months after finding employment by myself.

- Other international relevant experience: I had the opportunity to do business trips for some projects in Sweden, USA, throughout Canada, Ireland, Netherlands and China

5) Important certifications:
CA

6) Target programs.
Columbia, MIT, NYU, Yale, Booth (in order of preference)

7) Post-MBA goal
Go into investment banking as an associate most likely in New-York, I did some research but don’t all the top schools in my reach to get into IB 
After that would want to become VP finance in a tech company or PE as everyone else in IB...

Youngjames · Answer

IMO, you've got all the right ingredients to be successful at a top 10 school. there are pieces where I don't have a good perspective, such as the level of competition of your undergrad, but at a surface level view, your credentials don't look like there are obvious weaknesses. your biggest challenge is to describe, justify, and reflect on your career goals. it's clear that you've got the right skills to go into IB, but you want to distinguish WHY you want this (most adcoms bias toward thinking you just want to make $$), and show how it's credible. even your long-term goal (as stated) is not specific or meaningful enough, so you'll need to get a lot tighter here as well.

and my final point is that even within the top 10, there's a great deal of spread in level of difficulty. school 1 is 10X harder than school 10, as an example.

hope that's helpful,
-james

and my final point is that even within the top 10, there's a great deal of spread in level of difficulty. school 1 is 10X harder than school 10, as an example.

hope that's helpful,
-james

gmatmaster1985 · Answer

You are right I could elaborate on my career goals:

Short term: become an IB associate specialized in the high tech industry (telecoms or software more specifically) because I want to build on the experience I have so far. I want to work on non-traditional financing solutions for companies with highly intangible value. I can go on on how it is important to develop and promote these solutions which are the lifeblood of innovation which is the future of America.

Long term: With the combination of my CPA experience and IB, I want to become a CFO in a promising startup and turn it into a global organisation

Unfortunately I did not attend one of the top 10 schools but it is a very diverse school where the teaching is in French and English and 40% of the students are international. I did get to participate in some activities in Europe and Asia during my bachelor. I did turn down the best school in Canada to go there but I can't change the past...

I really appreciate it your constructive feedback!!! Sometimes it is very tough out there and it is hard to see where you stand...

hypermeganet · Answer

A few points:

Becoming a senior in 3 years at the Big 4 isn't really an accomplishment, is it? Doesn't it normally go Audit 2, Audit 1, Senior in the first 3 years (unless you're terrible)? I mean, assuming you're a CA/CPA, it's still good - but it's not going to set you apart from the throngs of other Big 4 audit people looking for an MBA. Your work at the startup seems pretty HR/training/operations oriented. The financial modeling/valuation (depending on how you define valuation) could be a leg up though.

Your biggest hurdle will be going into IBD. Your background in accounting could help but I know lots of people with similar profiles that wanted IBD or Equity Research and ended up in a mid-30/40s ranked school doing corporate finance.

gmatmaster1985 · Answer

Your right becoming a senior after 3 years is not a big accomplishment but I became senior after 1 year because I received two promotions in the same year. My role at the start-up was to develop the international financial operations. I worked on an acquisition we made in Sweden which involved valuation (discounted cash flow method over 10 years which was complex given most of the value was in the IP), I developed the transfer pricing policy strategy which will save millions over the next 3 years, manage the reporting for several entities, currently preparing the company for IPO on Nasdaq (within 36 months) etc. I also had the opportunity to travel in a couple European countries to setup entities and infrastructure for the company. Managing, directing and training people is part of any leadership position so I don't know where your comment is coming from to say my role is mainly HR. 
I know people with CFAs and CPAs that ended up in mid 30s school and top 10 as well so I don't understand that comment suggesting I will end up in top 30-40s schools.

Profile Evaluation - Financial analyst tech sector 710

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