Hello. I'd like to kindly request you for your two cents on my candidacy for INSEAD. I will be applying for 23J, so want to get a
profile review to get a head start on anything currently lacking within my profile.
Background:U.S. Citizen
Age: Currently 23. 25 when I apply and 26 when I Matriculate.
GMAT: Have not given - Aiming for 720-740 (Started my prep)
Education: Bachelors of Science in Finance from a Public University (Big School ~20k students, but not prestigious). GPA: 3.16.
Work Experience: Currently 3 year, 6 at Matriculation.
Job 1 - Operations in BB (Think GS/JPM/MS) for 1.5 years. 1 Promotion.
Lead an initiative within the team to automate the process from manual faxes to automated faxes. This saved around ~6 hours a day each for 2 individuals in the team and ~1 hour a day on Manual Fax review team. This was a big initiative due to the nature of the information being sent to the customer and custodial banks. Required approval from the MD and around ~100-150k of technological investment.
Lead Team trainings on all processes within the team. A new team was created in India to closely work with the Hong Kong office. I was selected along with my manager to travel to India to train the team there for 3 weeks.
Job 2 - Business Management Analyst in Aerospace & Defense industry (Think Lockheed/NG/Raytheon/GD). 2 years. 1 Promotion.
Usually a promotion takes around 3 years on average. I was recommended by the Director of U.S. Business Management operations to be promoted within 1 year. I have achieved top performer within the department both years.
I worked on ~120 proposals valued around $750M. Creating pricing models and working closely with the Program Managers to submit the models to the U.S. government agencies.
Chosen by senior management within the department to lead a competitive proposal submittal to the customer valued at around $1.2B. Recognized by multiple VPs and CFO of the firm on leading the proposal submittal effort and creating a pricing model as per customer requirements.
(Apologies for the vagueness as some information is classified).
Additionally - I have served 5.5 years (coming up on 6) in the U.S. Army National Guard (Part-Time) in the Infantry. (Not an Officer).
International Exposure -
3 weeks to India in Job 1
Germany, Albania, and Estonia for NATO training for the U.S. Army.
UAE, Qatar, Costa Rica, Germany, UK, India, Turkey for Leisure.
Extra curriculars - Mentor a student for a program. The program aims at students in a high school that have well below 50% graduating ration. We aim to mentor students by guiding them through high-school, college and career decisions. The program brings the graduating ration of the schools to over 70%.
Couple other small volunteer work - nothing special.
Post MBA Goal - I want to become a management consultant and move to the Middle East (Qatar/Kuwait/UAE/KSA) due to family. Pursuing MBA at INSEAD will enable me to meet peers from various different backgrounds as I am currently limited in my current role. In short: Change Industry, function, and location. I understand this is a common goal for MBA but as time goes on during my prep - I will be be more specific.
Notes - My GPA is on the lower end on and will definitely bring my profile down. I definitely will utilize the optional essay to let the adcoms know about why my GPA is low. In short - GF's health, Army, 2 Jobs to graduate debt free, and taking over more than needed school workload to graduate before the age of 21 (A bit immature).
I have not currently given the GMAT - but have started prepping and aim for 720-40.
What can I do to overcome my GPA? If given the GMAT I want to achieve and apply for the 23J (so I have 6 years exp) - how strong is my profile?
Aside from INSEAD - which other schools have a strong consultant placements in the Middle East (Only other one I saw is IESE)?