Hello,
I am Marco! Would someone be kind enough to evaluate my profile?
BACKGROUND: Croatian male, 31 y old
COLLEGE SHORTLIST: Insead (Singapore -> CEIBS/Wharton)
CAREER GOALS: Operations and project management at an international setting. Consulting is also of interest.
EDUCATION AND EXTRA-CURRICULAR:
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BACHELOR'S – 2008 – 2013 (3 years long), Food Technology - Croatian 4/5, 80 %, Summa Cum Laude
o Some sites say 3.2 when converted to GPA, others like scholaro weighted calculator say US 3.35 – 3.56 GPA (Most common, ECTS)
o Positive trend. Started the year with 3.1/5, second year was 4.17/5, and third 4.58/5. Mathematics 1 & 2 and physics 1 during first year had a D grade.
o Family and financial related issues which pulled me away from college and resulted in a 2 year longer bachelor's. Worked 1 year on a farm to financially support college.
o 2010 – 2012 President of Faculty Student Council, member of Faculty Council, Editorial Board of Student Newspaper, Committee for Quality Monitoring and Assurance in Higher Education, and stand-in for University Student Council. Major achievement, significantly increased first pass percentage of Organic Chemistry course (THE course on first year) by modifying curriculum (was below 2 %, don't recall the improved %).
o Publication - Optimisation of supercritical CO2 extraction of grape seed oil using response surface methodology
o Croatia/Slovenia – International scientific-sports competition of students of technical-technological faculties (2nd out of 31 scientific presentations)
o 2011 participated in ˝The Science Festival˝ event that aims to bring science closer to the public
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MASTER'S – 2013 – 2015, Food Engineering (2 years long) - Croatian 4.75/5, 95.34 %, Summa Cum Laude (2nd best in class)
o US 3.86 – 3.87 GPA
o Won University's ERASMUS+ scholarship and was supposed to go Turkey for a 3 month exchange, however declined because I had a job offer that I accepted
o Applied mathematics C grade and mathematical modeling A grade
o 2014 – 2015 worked as a call center agent in a global company to support college
GMAT and TOEFL - Aiming >720 and >105
WORK EXPERIENCE AND LEADERSHIPSUMMARY66 months in 4 different countries – After Croatia I went abroad and did a rotational program in a multinational company that I still work for today. Germany, Switzerland and USA were all part of the rotation. Received two promotions in three years. Leadership – leading a team of 90 comprised of 4 direct report Supervisors, 6 Team Leaders and around 80 production employees. Interacted with wonderful people from different backgrounds and nationalities.
DETAILSProduction Manager – promotion, 17 months and counting
• Leading a team of 90 comprised of 4 direct report Supervisors, 6 Team Leaders and around 80 production employees
• Achieved 20 % higher volume throughput with an 8 % efficiency increase, all with half of qualified personnel because of the pandemic sheltering in place. It was truly a highlight of team's contribution and leadership
Production Supervisor – promotion from the International Graduate Program, USA, Bay Area, San Leandro, 15 months
• Led a team of 10 to 40, led various projects
• Won a company award in 2019 among 500+ employees – Annual employee award for employees who have demonstrated exceptional work in one of six categories (Passion award)
International Graduate Program – International Operations, 18 months, Food CPG, Global 1000
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USA, Bay Area, San Leandro, 6 monthso Led a team of 10 to 15, learned supervisor duties
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Switzerland, Zurich, 6 monthso 4 months as Research & Development Engineer. Led a project and defined staging time requirements for various ingredients to improve product quality
o 1 month as Quality Assurance Technician
o 3 weeks spent in Accounting gaining insight into BOMs, routings, COGS
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Germany, Aachen, 6 monthso Spent time on production floor learning general technology from A to Z, and interacting with operators. Gained insight in capacity planning, detail scheduling and packaging development process
Assistant Shift Production Manager – Croatia, 16 months
• Led a team of 15 and co-led the implementation of a batch activated carbon decolorization project that improved throughput by 2 %
LANGUAGES• Croatian – native
• English – currently C1
• German – B1, improved during my time in Germany and Switzerland
• Spanish – A2, have been learning since I came to the Bay Area
• Japanese – was close to JLPT N5, studied in 2016 before moving to Germany so I would need a major refresher if I want to present this. I have a penpal from Japan that I interacted with.
• Chinese – currently studying
OTHER• Traveling (15 countries, 3 continents), learning languages, playing guitar, reading books (quite a bookworm)
• Unfortunately no volunteering experience
I am going through college math edX courses to prove that I have quantitative skills because I don't think GMAT alone will justify lower math grades and bachelor's GPA. I am also thinking about Berkeley Extenstion program, namely calculus and math for management. My college is relatively unknown.
I appreciate the feedback!