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May 2110:00 AM EDT
-10:30 AM EDT
Most candidates submit a resume built for a recruiter. Admissions committees are reading for something else entirely. This session covers what adcoms actually evaluate, where strong candidates lose ground before a single essay is written, and why...
May 2208:30 AM PDT
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May 2203:00 PM EDT
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May 2308:00 PM PDT
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May 2910:00 AM PDT
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Download the MBA Launchpad App, for FREE access to the largest MBA database - Data backed read on your profile - Identify gaps before you apply - Build a balanced school list - Track your deadlines - Mock interviews - Extensive content library
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bunjamin
Joined: 01 Apr 2016
Last visit: 29 Nov 2016
Posts: 3
Own Kudos:
Concentration: Finance
Schools: McDonough Evening"20 (S)
GMAT 1: 750 Q50 V41
GPA: 3.5
07 May 2016, 14:45
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Paul -
I think my profile is well-rounded yet may lack the depth of community leadership that would differentiate me from my well-represented demographic. Would appreciate any thoughts/feedback!
- Work experience: I have worked in a few different groups within a mid-size Consumer / Commercial FI (US Bank, Capital One, PNC). My experience includes 2.5 years in Credit, 1 year in Treasury and 1 year in Accounting. I am in a leadership role within my team and oversee 1 direct report and the work of 3 indirect reports. Consistent 4 & 5 performance ratings.
- Community service: I tutor an at-risk youth at a charter school. I have also led a team conducting financial literacy training at a homeless shelter.
- Hobbies: I am an actively performing guitarist/singer in a band and as a solo act.
- Other: CFA charterholder
- Undergrad: Georgia Tech, Management, 3.5, graduated in 2011
- Demo: White, Male
- GMAT: 750, Q50, V41, IR8
- Goal: pivot into investment banking in either a structured finance or financial institutions group
- Targets: Wharton, Tuck, and Cornell (Park Fellowship)
I think my profile is well-rounded yet may lack the depth of community leadership that would differentiate me from my well-represented demographic. Would appreciate any thoughts/feedback!
- Work experience: I have worked in a few different groups within a mid-size Consumer / Commercial FI (US Bank, Capital One, PNC). My experience includes 2.5 years in Credit, 1 year in Treasury and 1 year in Accounting. I am in a leadership role within my team and oversee 1 direct report and the work of 3 indirect reports. Consistent 4 & 5 performance ratings.
- Community service: I tutor an at-risk youth at a charter school. I have also led a team conducting financial literacy training at a homeless shelter.
- Hobbies: I am an actively performing guitarist/singer in a band and as a solo act.
- Other: CFA charterholder
- Undergrad: Georgia Tech, Management, 3.5, graduated in 2011
- Demo: White, Male
- GMAT: 750, Q50, V41, IR8
- Goal: pivot into investment banking in either a structured finance or financial institutions group
- Targets: Wharton, Tuck, and Cornell (Park Fellowship)
12 May 2016, 13:14
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hey bunjamin:
Thanks for reaching out to me. Here are my thoughts.
Whatever investment banking role that you plan to pursue, it has to build directly upon your to-date experiences within the different groups at Your financial institution. Do not make it hard for any recruiter that may take an interest in your profile. By that I mean, do not make it hard for the admissions committee to swallow what goals you put on the table. The admissions committee thinks very much like a professional recruiter when it comes to the acceptability of your goals.
So think about this – Who has left your group or rotation program and gone on to business school? Did any of them eventually make it into investment banking? More appropriately, do you know what goals they stated? Were any of these goals related to investment banking at all? More specifically, what group within the investment bank did they specifically reference in their goals?
I am willing to bet that anyone who was in the group and went on to a top business school State goals that relied heavily upon their current experience. Now, this does not necessarily mean that they stated goals that were related to investment banking. There is often a difference between what someone will status or goals, and ultimately what they hope to do. Now I am not here to assess the morality or ethics of doing such a thing in this post. But I can tell you that it happens. And it happens for this reason – an applicant simply wants to get into the school, and then (more or less) figure out what they want to do within financial services after getting into a targeted program. Now this targeted program has to be one which has a strength and financial services. There is no sense in going to Indiana University's MBA program if you want to get a job on Wall Street, for example. So if you cannot find anybody from your group that is ever gone on to invest in banking, you may want to think about switching your goals and making them more conservative (i.e., in line with what recruiter would take interest in about you.)
By the way, some schools – like MIT Sloan – have actually stopped asking applicants for their goals because they know there is a heavy bullshit factor in a lot of what applicant is stating. They would rather not deal with it. The Admissions committee figures that if you have made good decisions in the past, as reflected by your resume and essays, then that judgment will allow you to make good decisions going forward – like when it comes to your career goals.
I mention this in another post that I answered today – but you really need to take a look at the career center reports from each school that you are interested in. Here is a link to them - https://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/blog/ ... yment-data. That is really the starting point for assessing whether or not your career pivot is advisable for any specific program. Get on LinkedIn, and search for alumni from a target school. Have any of them made a similar pivot? Or some other advice – the best five or 10 minute conversation you can have with anybody at a business school is with the career center director (or any career center representative for that matter). Yes, call them up! Talk to them about the resources they offer, and work in your career pivot (into the conversation). See if they think that it is realistic. They should be pretty frank with you, And it might cause you to redefine your goals, making a more conservative and palatable to the admissions committee. That will prevent a lot of pain in the future. I think it is silly when people get rejected because of their goals. It is an aspect of anyone's candidacy that does not need to be a problem. Do not be in a situation where they love your background in profile, but they simply have to deny or wait list you because you have bat **** crazy goals.
I see that in your original post to me, you talked about your lack of community leadership. Here is the thing about leadership – you either get it at work, or you get it in the community. The admissions committee just needs to see some depth of leadership responsibility. So if you are NOT getting at work – formally or informally – because of the nature of your role, then you have to find it somewhere else. That is why community involvement and volunteer experience can be critically important to your profile. Sure it demonstrates "passion", but that is not Nearly as relevant to an admissions committee as true management and leadership experience in or out of the office. Do not get me wrong, it is preferable to have it in the office. But out of the office leadership experience, is completely acceptable because it is better than you not bring anything to the table in this respect.
So what about the "passion" that it demonstrates? That is all fine and good, but it does not really move the needle and most schools. This is because most schools do not really require you to have a lot of passion. Why is this? Because they are not asking you to "change the world". To be clear, what I am talking about is that most schools do not care if your long-term goals are aspirational or not. A few schools do – HBS, Stanford GSB, NYU Stern. But the vast majority really do not need you to state that you are going to do something that completely changes in industry or the world. Therefore, you do not need to demonstrate a complete adherence to a cause – thus demonstrating your true passion. Put another way, schools like HBS and Stanford may know that you have the work ethic and intellectual horsepower to achieve goals that change the world. But they need to see that you have the demonstrated passion – that you are a true believer – in using whatever it is you plan to use (in your career) to change the world going forward. Make sense?
As long as you get your goals right, I do not see a problem with you getting into Cornell at all. Of course Tuck and Wharton Are much harder to get into, But you should stand a fairly good chance that Wharton with the right goals, And the right essays of course. Let us not understate the role of proper communication here. Tuck is a bit of a different animal, and I would strongly encourage you to visit that school. They have to know you can live in the woods for two years. I am serious about this too. They often ask in the interview if you have lived in a rural environment before. Do not be caught off guard by how much you have to demonstrate to the school beforehand that you are the right type of personality.
If you would like to speak to me about your candidacy, please email me at [email protected]. Please ask to speak directly to me, and reference this conversation in your email.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
Thanks for reaching out to me. Here are my thoughts.
Whatever investment banking role that you plan to pursue, it has to build directly upon your to-date experiences within the different groups at Your financial institution. Do not make it hard for any recruiter that may take an interest in your profile. By that I mean, do not make it hard for the admissions committee to swallow what goals you put on the table. The admissions committee thinks very much like a professional recruiter when it comes to the acceptability of your goals.
So think about this – Who has left your group or rotation program and gone on to business school? Did any of them eventually make it into investment banking? More appropriately, do you know what goals they stated? Were any of these goals related to investment banking at all? More specifically, what group within the investment bank did they specifically reference in their goals?
I am willing to bet that anyone who was in the group and went on to a top business school State goals that relied heavily upon their current experience. Now, this does not necessarily mean that they stated goals that were related to investment banking. There is often a difference between what someone will status or goals, and ultimately what they hope to do. Now I am not here to assess the morality or ethics of doing such a thing in this post. But I can tell you that it happens. And it happens for this reason – an applicant simply wants to get into the school, and then (more or less) figure out what they want to do within financial services after getting into a targeted program. Now this targeted program has to be one which has a strength and financial services. There is no sense in going to Indiana University's MBA program if you want to get a job on Wall Street, for example. So if you cannot find anybody from your group that is ever gone on to invest in banking, you may want to think about switching your goals and making them more conservative (i.e., in line with what recruiter would take interest in about you.)
By the way, some schools – like MIT Sloan – have actually stopped asking applicants for their goals because they know there is a heavy bullshit factor in a lot of what applicant is stating. They would rather not deal with it. The Admissions committee figures that if you have made good decisions in the past, as reflected by your resume and essays, then that judgment will allow you to make good decisions going forward – like when it comes to your career goals.
I mention this in another post that I answered today – but you really need to take a look at the career center reports from each school that you are interested in. Here is a link to them - https://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/blog/ ... yment-data. That is really the starting point for assessing whether or not your career pivot is advisable for any specific program. Get on LinkedIn, and search for alumni from a target school. Have any of them made a similar pivot? Or some other advice – the best five or 10 minute conversation you can have with anybody at a business school is with the career center director (or any career center representative for that matter). Yes, call them up! Talk to them about the resources they offer, and work in your career pivot (into the conversation). See if they think that it is realistic. They should be pretty frank with you, And it might cause you to redefine your goals, making a more conservative and palatable to the admissions committee. That will prevent a lot of pain in the future. I think it is silly when people get rejected because of their goals. It is an aspect of anyone's candidacy that does not need to be a problem. Do not be in a situation where they love your background in profile, but they simply have to deny or wait list you because you have bat **** crazy goals.
I see that in your original post to me, you talked about your lack of community leadership. Here is the thing about leadership – you either get it at work, or you get it in the community. The admissions committee just needs to see some depth of leadership responsibility. So if you are NOT getting at work – formally or informally – because of the nature of your role, then you have to find it somewhere else. That is why community involvement and volunteer experience can be critically important to your profile. Sure it demonstrates "passion", but that is not Nearly as relevant to an admissions committee as true management and leadership experience in or out of the office. Do not get me wrong, it is preferable to have it in the office. But out of the office leadership experience, is completely acceptable because it is better than you not bring anything to the table in this respect.
So what about the "passion" that it demonstrates? That is all fine and good, but it does not really move the needle and most schools. This is because most schools do not really require you to have a lot of passion. Why is this? Because they are not asking you to "change the world". To be clear, what I am talking about is that most schools do not care if your long-term goals are aspirational or not. A few schools do – HBS, Stanford GSB, NYU Stern. But the vast majority really do not need you to state that you are going to do something that completely changes in industry or the world. Therefore, you do not need to demonstrate a complete adherence to a cause – thus demonstrating your true passion. Put another way, schools like HBS and Stanford may know that you have the work ethic and intellectual horsepower to achieve goals that change the world. But they need to see that you have the demonstrated passion – that you are a true believer – in using whatever it is you plan to use (in your career) to change the world going forward. Make sense?
As long as you get your goals right, I do not see a problem with you getting into Cornell at all. Of course Tuck and Wharton Are much harder to get into, But you should stand a fairly good chance that Wharton with the right goals, And the right essays of course. Let us not understate the role of proper communication here. Tuck is a bit of a different animal, and I would strongly encourage you to visit that school. They have to know you can live in the woods for two years. I am serious about this too. They often ask in the interview if you have lived in a rural environment before. Do not be caught off guard by how much you have to demonstrate to the school beforehand that you are the right type of personality.
If you would like to speak to me about your candidacy, please email me at [email protected]. Please ask to speak directly to me, and reference this conversation in your email.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
bunjamin
