Dkhapllicator
Hi, as the heading says:
I am thinking about applying for R2 at HWS+Sloan. Wanted to know my chances:
Personal: Male, 28Years, European born but ethnicity is South East Asian (Pakistan) - so minority in country, Married with 1 kid.
Education: Undergrad- BSc. Mechanical Engineering with GPA: 3.74/4.00 (original is 4.67/5.00). Post-grad - MSc. in Engineering Project Management with GPA 3.35/4.00 (3.97/5.00 original - and program was international). Bachelors from top 5 local school, and MSc. from Top 1 local school. And completed MSc. with 22.5 extra ECTS in addition to the requirements for diploma.
WE: TOTAL 3.5 years at application deadline.
internship for major, top 3, US bank (london + local branch office) in corporate/investment banking. Worked at a telecom start-up for 8-10 months where I solved bottleneck and deminished need for outsourcing for project completions processes. Then shift in industry and currently working in a major Energy client company on a rotational Graduate program (most soughtafter program locally for engineers and also high demand internationally - 12k applicants and 100 accepted); 1st rotation (1 year) - O&G operations + implementation of major digital tool for a department of 2000+ people. 2nd rotation (6 months) - project engineer for one of worlds largest offshore wind farms (contract management tasks, planning, resource management..). 3rd and final rotation (6 months - ongoing) - corporate innovation and venture capital.
EC: many hobbies but since I grew up with a low income background I had to work a lot part time during studies and all. But taking on some now related to supporting local children from similar background as me and also supporting an organization with write up and correspondence of formal letters for gathering government support for human rights issues (just started this).
Post-MBA: want to pivot from technical Management to IB and then eventually move towards PE, unless I am able to network my way directly to PE during MBA.
What do you think of my chances of getting into HWS+Sloan? GMAT I will start prepping soon and from what I have seen I am confiden I can score in the range of 730-780. So take that GMAT as an assumption when assessing. Thanks!
Posted from my mobile device
Hi,
I quite like your profile. There is a story about overcoming adversities to rise above them in life and also giving back to the society to help others in similar situations. That suggests personality characteristics that b-school admissions officers appreciate in candidates. Added to this is an international exposure, which is always desirable.
I am also impressed with your work experience at the energy company. Rotational programs usually attract the high potential employees, so they would give you many opportunities to rise and shine. That said, I am not so sure about how investment banking as a career goal fits into the scheme of things. Although you are pretty young career wise so you would be more malleable in terms of employability, however, I would love to understand the reasons behind your goals. PE is ofcourse, difficult to get into post MBA, so i would not even suggest you mention it as a goal in your essays.
Regarding your overall work experience- I am just wondering if you have included your internship in the 3.5 years work exp. Note that b-schools only consider full time paid jobs as work experience.
The ECAs look decent but not heavy. Continue the recent volunteering work you have taken up so that you can build on it.
Would be happy to connect over phone for further profile discussion. We have an office in the UK, if that helps.
Thank you for the feedback.
I) in terms of work experience, the 3.5 years is what I will have at application deadline for R2 and the internship is not included.
II) For the ‘ rationale’ behind goals: for the longest time I have been interested in the banking/finance sector. The breadth of my experience is something I have acquired to exactly understand how a major energy company operates, and at what scale. What are easy value add processes and what is a total waste of resources. Internally at my role I have sold it as a way of better understanding the intersections of these core areas (operations, project development and RnD). But my long term goal or ambition was always to utilize this broad subject matter understanding in combo with upskilling financial analysis/modelling skills (+networking) through an MBA to go for PE. I understand that I need to do IB to get experience before I might be able to move towards PE, but my opinion is that an MBA in combo with my broad understanding of how an energy company operates is well in line with a PE role focused on energy sector or an IB career in the same industry. To the admission teams (if i ever get to interviews) I might go for the same explanation but more towards IB only, as you suggested.