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RKBMaksim
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Profile Evaluation 11 Apr 2022, 04:59
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Dear consultants,
Please kindly review my profile at your convenience.
Demographic: Australian citizen (naturalised), Asian, 32
Education: one of the top 3 universities in Australia. Bachelor in Finance (over credit average (3.0 I reckon?)) and Master of Accounting (over distinction average (3.5 I guess?)).
Career:
1) Internship: 3 months at an international NGO in New York
2) Asia: less than a year at a blue-chip US technology company doing commission analysis for the Asia Pacific area (at a big Asian city)
3) Australia: nearly 5 years at a big 4 Australian bank as a personal banker serving retail and business customers
4) Australia: currently working at another big 4 Australian bank as a mortgage assessment analyst, for about a year.
Other credentials:
1) CFA level 2 passed; 2) RG146 compliance (Australian financial license for financial planning). 3) some courses on Coursera
Other activities:
I have my own investment fund though not big. I am an avid investor in the US stock market.

I am preparing for my GMAT now. Some of my university friends have got offers from Ivy MBAs or Oxbridge. They have better university scores than I do but if I work hard I believe I can achieve GMAT around 730-750. My target is an S16 school MBA. Thank you.
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MG4MBACrystalBall
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Profile Evaluation 11 Apr 2022, 05:08
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RKBMaksim, a few thoughts on your profile evaluation and plans:
  1. The academic pedigree sounds adequate given the precedence you've shared. That will be worth leveraging when the application time comes. The GPAs are likely to hurt your chances. A high score, together with CFA L2 should help a lot, together with a wisely articulated optional essay.
  2. The professional profile is interesting given the fairly diverse roles. While that'll help, it'll also be important to show the rationale behind the seemingly disconnected career choices, and how it feeds into your post-MBA plans.
  3. The investing bit rarely passes for ECs which MBA schools care for. Think of whether there is more there.
  4. For reasons mentioned here, we don't speculate on school selection or chances. That being said, one of the hurdles to be aware of could be the age/experience fit. This may also mean looking at some one year options as well.

Hope this helps some. Feel free to reach out directly for any further queries.
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desertEagle
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Profile Evaluation 11 Apr 2022, 08:28
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RKBMaksim
Dear consultants,
Please kindly review my profile at your convenience.
Demographic: Australian citizen (naturalised), Asian, 32
Education: one of the top 3 universities in Australia. Bachelor in Finance (over credit average (3.0 I reckon?)) and Master of Accounting (over distinction average (3.5 I guess?)).
Career:
1) Internship: 3 months at an international NGO in New York
2) Asia: less than a year at a blue-chip US technology company doing commission analysis for the Asia Pacific area (at a big Asian city)
3) Australia: nearly 5 years at a big 4 Australian bank as a personal banker serving retail and business customers
4) Australia: currently working at another big 4 Australian bank as a mortgage assessment analyst, for about a year.
Other credentials:
1) CFA level 2 passed; 2) RG146 compliance (Australian financial license for financial planning). 3) some courses on Coursera
Other activities:
I have my own investment fund though not big. I am an avid investor in the US stock market.

I am preparing for my GMAT now. Some of my university friends have got offers from Ivy MBAs or Oxbridge. They have better university scores than I do but if I work hard I believe I can achieve GMAT around 730-750. My target is an S16 school MBA. Thank you.
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good profile
if your target is 730+.. u can easily achieve S15.. infact with 750+ u can gget into top 5 colleges
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ExpertsGlobal
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Profile Evaluation 13 Apr 2022, 04:27
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RKBMaksim
Dear consultants,
Please kindly review my profile at your convenience.
Demographic: Australian citizen (naturalised), Asian, 32
Education: one of the top 3 universities in Australia. Bachelor in Finance (over credit average (3.0 I reckon?)) and Master of Accounting (over distinction average (3.5 I guess?)).
Career:
1) Internship: 3 months at an international NGO in New York
2) Asia: less than a year at a blue-chip US technology company doing commission analysis for the Asia Pacific area (at a big Asian city)
3) Australia: nearly 5 years at a big 4 Australian bank as a personal banker serving retail and business customers
4) Australia: currently working at another big 4 Australian bank as a mortgage assessment analyst, for about a year.
Other credentials:
1) CFA level 2 passed; 2) RG146 compliance (Australian financial license for financial planning). 3) some courses on Coursera
Other activities:
I have my own investment fund though not big. I am an avid investor in the US stock market.

I am preparing for my GMAT now. Some of my university friends have got offers from Ivy MBAs or Oxbridge. They have better university scores than I do but if I work hard I believe I can achieve GMAT around 730-750. My target is an S16 school MBA. Thank you.
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Hello RKBMaksim,

Thanks for writing in.

The target score looks good and will help you achieve the kind of admits you are looking at. Of course, putting forth essays that focus on your skills and achievements and tie your career goals up with your experience in a logical manner will be very crucial as well.

Good luck!
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MBAGuide
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Schools: Insead Sept'18 (A$$) ISB '19 (A)
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Profile Evaluation 13 Apr 2022, 06:42
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RKBMaksim
Dear consultants,
Please kindly review my profile at your convenience.
Demographic: Australian citizen (naturalised), Asian, 32
Education: one of the top 3 universities in Australia. Bachelor in Finance (over credit average (3.0 I reckon?)) and Master of Accounting (over distinction average (3.5 I guess?)).
Career:
1) Internship: 3 months at an international NGO in New York
2) Asia: less than a year at a blue-chip US technology company doing commission analysis for the Asia Pacific area (at a big Asian city)
3) Australia: nearly 5 years at a big 4 Australian bank as a personal banker serving retail and business customers
4) Australia: currently working at another big 4 Australian bank as a mortgage assessment analyst, for about a year.
Other credentials:
1) CFA level 2 passed; 2) RG146 compliance (Australian financial license for financial planning). 3) some courses on Coursera
Other activities:
I have my own investment fund though not big. I am an avid investor in the US stock market.

I am preparing for my GMAT now. Some of my university friends have got offers from Ivy MBAs or Oxbridge. They have better university scores than I do but if I work hard I believe I can achieve GMAT around 730-750. My target is an S16 school MBA. Thank you.
Show more

Hi RKBMaksim , hope you are well

You have a fairly long career in Finance behind you, and this could go in either direction if in your application you do not convincingly address key points such as:

1. Career Progression
The schools would be interested to see how you grew year on year in the last 7 years in terms of knowledge, professional opportunities, management skills and responsibilities. Make sure that someone glancing over your resume and reading your narrative clearly agrees with the upward trajectory of your accomplishments that is currently not coming through in the points you mentioned above.
Your career decisions should seem logical and align with what you are trying to achieve in the long term.

2. Extra Curriculars/ Outside work initiatives
For Finance professionals seeking MBA, showcasing a balanced right brain thinking and search for meaning beyond the numbers is also important. While you may not have been consistent in your outside work pursuits, I hope that this brief write up would help you massage your memory to recall instances where you subconsciously took initiatives that helped address some social concerns.

How to put together an impressive ECs essay when you don’t have many?

3. Motivation to study/work in another geography
It appears that you spent most of your professional life in Australia, where you would have invested time and effort into building your social capital. Therefore, a desire to change geography (or pursue an MBA abroad) at this stage in your career would be an important point to address convincingly. In addition to a plausible explanation for your plan, demonstrate active engagement with MBA school alumni network or/and potential recruiters to position your candidacy strategically during the admissions process.

4. GMAT
Needless to say that you must target upwards of 730 on GMAT to remain competitive.

Best wishes
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Profile Evaluation 14 Apr 2022, 00:29
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Hi, RKBMaksim,

Thank you for your post!

First of all, you have a good overall academic background, and clearing the CFA level two along with your RG146 compliance would definitely help you leverage them in your resume. Coming to your profile, target a score around 740+; it would definitely help you cement your spot in top MBA programs. Moreover, your professional profile is quite interesting, given the diverse roles you have played in different institutions. Now it may look disjointed; hence, what I would suggest you is to connect your experiences and use them as an example of developing new skill-sets, facing new challenges, and treating them as new learning opportunities that would help you achieve your post-MBA goals.

Also, I feel there is much work left for you on the ECA front - you need to include examples of leadership, the challenges faced, the impact created, and also need to work on improving and adding relevant accolades. Moreover, mention your post-MBA goals and work on connecting your experience with them, as you would require to convince the admission committee that your future goals are relevant and collinear with your past experience!

All in all, you do have a relevant profile; a lot depends on your GMAT Score; hence ensure that you give your all. Also, focus on boosting your ECAs, which would, in turn, help you bring diversity to your application. If you’d like, we are happy to get on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and further chances to the schools. So feel free to book a free session with us at your convenience.

Let's here strategies from Fuqua & Columbia admits to crack Early Action Rounds

Cheers!
Neha Hadke
Profile Analyst & Channel Manager, MBA and Beyond
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RKBMaksim
Dear consultants,
Please kindly review my profile at your convenience.
Demographic: Australian citizen (naturalised), Asian, 32
Education: one of the top 3 universities in Australia. Bachelor in Finance (over credit average (3.0 I reckon?)) and Master of Accounting (over distinction average (3.5 I guess?)).
Career:
1) Internship: 3 months at an international NGO in New York
2) Asia: less than a year at a blue-chip US technology company doing commission analysis for the Asia Pacific area (at a big Asian city)
3) Australia: nearly 5 years at a big 4 Australian bank as a personal banker serving retail and business customers
4) Australia: currently working at another big 4 Australian bank as a mortgage assessment analyst, for about a year.
Other credentials:
1) CFA level 2 passed; 2) RG146 compliance (Australian financial license for financial planning). 3) some courses on Coursera
Other activities:
I have my own investment fund though not big. I am an avid investor in the US stock market.

I am preparing for my GMAT now. Some of my university friends have got offers from Ivy MBAs or Oxbridge. They have better university scores than I do but if I work hard I believe I can achieve GMAT around 730-750. My target is an S16 school MBA. Thank you.
Show more