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06 Jun 2012, 13:28
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Please evaluate my profile. I will be grateful.
I am a 29 year old MBA prospective student from Pakistan.
GPA/Percentage: I have done my bachelors in Computer Sciences from NED, a local University that is among the top 3 Engineering universities in my country. My
final accumulative percentage was 83%. When I will apply for transcripts, the percentage will be converted into equivalent GPA. I, however, cannot tell you
the equivalent GPA right now. I was among the top 15 in my class.
Career : I have been working with Standard Chartered, which is a British bank, for more than 6 1/2 years. Standard Chartered has a decent network of more
than 140 branches in Pakistan. I started my career as a sales executive in branch banking in February 2005. I have steadily progressed and was promoted four times during these 6 1/2 years. From 2008 to 2010, I was the floor manager for one of our flagship branches in Pakistan. I managed a sales/service team of more than 12 people and a portfolio of more than 100 million dollars. My branch was the best branch pan Pakistan for two years while I was the floor manager there. Few individuals in my team won best relationship manager awards during those two years.At the start of 2011, I was promoted as a branch manager. Later in June, I was hand picked for a sales transformation project. The scope of the project is to standardise the way sales is done in consumer banking. In my current role as a coach, I am responsible for implementing the new sales model, bringing about a behavioural and cultural change in the whole of consumer banking. I am part of team of 7 people. This project has given me the opportunity to work with different people at all levels of branch banking. I will be able to get good/stellar recommendations.
Personal life: My father was in army and we moved a lot till I was 18. I have lived in all four provinces of Pakistan and speak atleast 2 provincial languages besides the national language.
Volunteer experience: I am actively involved with TCF, a leading NGO for education in Pakistan, and Garage School, a local school in my city for the under privileged children, as a mentor and program co-ordinator, teacher and admin support respectively for the last 3 years .
Post MBA: I want to work in investment banking after MBA. For few years, I want to work in the US market to gain experience. In the long term, I want to return to middle east with an eye on developing an expertise in the middle east market.
GMAT : I have taken the GMAT test 5 times. Break-up of score is given below
GMAT 1
March 2010 : 650 (Q 43, V 37)
I was blown away by the difficulty of the Quantitative section. The testing laminated sheet also put me off. In short, I was not prepared.
GMAT 2
Dec 2010: 600 (Q 47, V 27)
This time I was more prepared. However during the verbal section of the test, I had a migraine attack. I just randomly selected most of the verbal answers and my score dropped as a result.
GMAT 3
Feb 2011: 640 (Q 42, V 37)
I couldn't keep up with the timing in the quantitative section and ended up missing 2 questions.
GMAT 4
Jan 2012: 680 (Q 44, V 40)
I messed up with my Quantitative section timing again.
GMAT 5
Mar 2012: 720 (Q 49, V40)
My questions from the experts
Please evaluate my profile on my current scores. Please advise me on whether
1) Would my applicant age of 30 this August/September be a turn-off for US MBA schools?
2) What are my chances with respect to the following tier of schools?
I am considering the following schools
Second tier US Schools
1) Duke
2) Yale
3) Cornell
4) Virginia Darden
first tier US schools
5) Chicago
6) Wharton
7) Kellogg
8)Tuck
9) Stern
NON-US schools
10) Rotman (Canada)
11) Australian school of business (Australia)
Rotman and ASB , although good schools in their own sense, would be my back up.
Please let me know If I am missing any information in my profile.
Thank you for reading my long post.
I am a 29 year old MBA prospective student from Pakistan.
GPA/Percentage: I have done my bachelors in Computer Sciences from NED, a local University that is among the top 3 Engineering universities in my country. My
final accumulative percentage was 83%. When I will apply for transcripts, the percentage will be converted into equivalent GPA. I, however, cannot tell you
the equivalent GPA right now. I was among the top 15 in my class.
Career : I have been working with Standard Chartered, which is a British bank, for more than 6 1/2 years. Standard Chartered has a decent network of more
than 140 branches in Pakistan. I started my career as a sales executive in branch banking in February 2005. I have steadily progressed and was promoted four times during these 6 1/2 years. From 2008 to 2010, I was the floor manager for one of our flagship branches in Pakistan. I managed a sales/service team of more than 12 people and a portfolio of more than 100 million dollars. My branch was the best branch pan Pakistan for two years while I was the floor manager there. Few individuals in my team won best relationship manager awards during those two years.At the start of 2011, I was promoted as a branch manager. Later in June, I was hand picked for a sales transformation project. The scope of the project is to standardise the way sales is done in consumer banking. In my current role as a coach, I am responsible for implementing the new sales model, bringing about a behavioural and cultural change in the whole of consumer banking. I am part of team of 7 people. This project has given me the opportunity to work with different people at all levels of branch banking. I will be able to get good/stellar recommendations.
Personal life: My father was in army and we moved a lot till I was 18. I have lived in all four provinces of Pakistan and speak atleast 2 provincial languages besides the national language.
Volunteer experience: I am actively involved with TCF, a leading NGO for education in Pakistan, and Garage School, a local school in my city for the under privileged children, as a mentor and program co-ordinator, teacher and admin support respectively for the last 3 years .
Post MBA: I want to work in investment banking after MBA. For few years, I want to work in the US market to gain experience. In the long term, I want to return to middle east with an eye on developing an expertise in the middle east market.
GMAT : I have taken the GMAT test 5 times. Break-up of score is given below
GMAT 1
March 2010 : 650 (Q 43, V 37)
I was blown away by the difficulty of the Quantitative section. The testing laminated sheet also put me off. In short, I was not prepared.
GMAT 2
Dec 2010: 600 (Q 47, V 27)
This time I was more prepared. However during the verbal section of the test, I had a migraine attack. I just randomly selected most of the verbal answers and my score dropped as a result.
GMAT 3
Feb 2011: 640 (Q 42, V 37)
I couldn't keep up with the timing in the quantitative section and ended up missing 2 questions.
GMAT 4
Jan 2012: 680 (Q 44, V 40)
I messed up with my Quantitative section timing again.
GMAT 5
Mar 2012: 720 (Q 49, V40)
My questions from the experts
Please evaluate my profile on my current scores. Please advise me on whether
1) Would my applicant age of 30 this August/September be a turn-off for US MBA schools?
2) What are my chances with respect to the following tier of schools?
I am considering the following schools
Second tier US Schools
1) Duke
2) Yale
3) Cornell
4) Virginia Darden
first tier US schools
5) Chicago
6) Wharton
7) Kellogg
8)Tuck
9) Stern
NON-US schools
10) Rotman (Canada)
11) Australian school of business (Australia)
Rotman and ASB , although good schools in their own sense, would be my back up.
Please let me know If I am missing any information in my profile.
Thank you for reading my long post.
07 Jun 2012, 20:49
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hey icecube6000:
I like your username. It evokes the possibility of Ice Cube crossbreeding with Andre 3000, thus creating "icecube6000" – the next evolution of hard-core gangsta rapper and MC. As an aside, I really hope it helps bring together East and West Coast hip-hop artists. I for one would like to see Biggie and Tupac's murders solved ASAP.
But I digress.
To be honest, I do not know a lot about Rotman or schools in Australia. So I will leave that to another expert.
The biggest challenge you face is convincing an admissions committee that your goals – investment banking – are valid. From what I can tell and based on your description, you are basically a branch manager for a commercial bank. This is a far cry from a pre-MBA role within an investment bank. You speak about managing a large portfolio. I am unclear as to what that means. At the branch level, you basically would be managing consumer deposits. That means ensuring they are accurately accounted for, while resolving corporate and client issues surrounding these funds. The way you alluded to these funds was as a "portfolio." In the investment banking world, that would signify you have investment management experience. To be very specific, this would be the experience that a portfolio manager would have. I know that the British investment world may be a different animal than Wall Street but I think we need to separate apples and oranges here. Why? Because if you mix and match terms on your application,it is going to confuse and turn off the admissions committee.
This is not to say that your work experience is not valid. It is valid. It is very valid. In fact a lot of your personal background, as well as professional, tells me that you would be a good candidate for a top 10 or 15 business school program in the United States. However, you need to come up with new goals. Really, your expertise is not within finance or financial management. From what I can tell, your expertise is mainly within operations and client facing management. If you gave me only 10 seconds to determine your goals, I would say that you need to look more towards it consulting firm with international operations in a significant number of clients within financial services.
Once you dialing your goals, then you can take a closer look at what schools will actually support these goals. Hint – referenced their Career Center reports.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
I like your username. It evokes the possibility of Ice Cube crossbreeding with Andre 3000, thus creating "icecube6000" – the next evolution of hard-core gangsta rapper and MC. As an aside, I really hope it helps bring together East and West Coast hip-hop artists. I for one would like to see Biggie and Tupac's murders solved ASAP.
But I digress.
To be honest, I do not know a lot about Rotman or schools in Australia. So I will leave that to another expert.
The biggest challenge you face is convincing an admissions committee that your goals – investment banking – are valid. From what I can tell and based on your description, you are basically a branch manager for a commercial bank. This is a far cry from a pre-MBA role within an investment bank. You speak about managing a large portfolio. I am unclear as to what that means. At the branch level, you basically would be managing consumer deposits. That means ensuring they are accurately accounted for, while resolving corporate and client issues surrounding these funds. The way you alluded to these funds was as a "portfolio." In the investment banking world, that would signify you have investment management experience. To be very specific, this would be the experience that a portfolio manager would have. I know that the British investment world may be a different animal than Wall Street but I think we need to separate apples and oranges here. Why? Because if you mix and match terms on your application,it is going to confuse and turn off the admissions committee.
This is not to say that your work experience is not valid. It is valid. It is very valid. In fact a lot of your personal background, as well as professional, tells me that you would be a good candidate for a top 10 or 15 business school program in the United States. However, you need to come up with new goals. Really, your expertise is not within finance or financial management. From what I can tell, your expertise is mainly within operations and client facing management. If you gave me only 10 seconds to determine your goals, I would say that you need to look more towards it consulting firm with international operations in a significant number of clients within financial services.
Once you dialing your goals, then you can take a closer look at what schools will actually support these goals. Hint – referenced their Career Center reports.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
icecube6000
08 Jun 2012, 02:01
Kudos
Bookmarks
Thank you Paul for the reply.
With regards to my career in commercial banking, when I use the word portfolio, I mean deposits, Investment portfolio (mutual funds) and Insurance portfolio. In Standard Chartered bank, we provide solutions that cater to all the financial needs of a customer. Hence, you have variety of investment solutions such as mutual funds, TFCs, corporate bonds etc. and insurance solutions such as life insurance, education and investment related plans etc. Although I do understand that it may still be a lot different from investment banking.
The reason why I want to pursue a two year MBA is because of the depth of the program and the networking opportunities it provides. I want to switch my career my commercial banking to investment banking. For this I need tools in terms of finance courses, practical experience in terms of summer internship and the other necessary knowledge that I can only get from pursuing a two year MBA in finance. Furthermore, there a lot of investment banking opportunities in the middle east and Pakistan. However, I need to have the necessary tools to gain access to the investment banking world. The MBA will provide me exactly that.
Do you still think that I need to change my post MBA goals to management consulting?
Many thanks.
With regards to my career in commercial banking, when I use the word portfolio, I mean deposits, Investment portfolio (mutual funds) and Insurance portfolio. In Standard Chartered bank, we provide solutions that cater to all the financial needs of a customer. Hence, you have variety of investment solutions such as mutual funds, TFCs, corporate bonds etc. and insurance solutions such as life insurance, education and investment related plans etc. Although I do understand that it may still be a lot different from investment banking.
The reason why I want to pursue a two year MBA is because of the depth of the program and the networking opportunities it provides. I want to switch my career my commercial banking to investment banking. For this I need tools in terms of finance courses, practical experience in terms of summer internship and the other necessary knowledge that I can only get from pursuing a two year MBA in finance. Furthermore, there a lot of investment banking opportunities in the middle east and Pakistan. However, I need to have the necessary tools to gain access to the investment banking world. The MBA will provide me exactly that.
Do you still think that I need to change my post MBA goals to management consulting?
Many thanks.
