3.6 gpa non eng ibanking at bulge bracket (tech m&a) founded a startup joined robotics startup (led ops) joined doordash moving to bizOps/strategy at blockchain startup total yrs of exp: 4 considering prepping for gmat and applying to top 10 schools would appreciate any feedback / tips. goal is to formalize career track and go into consulting
You have already done most of the stuff that MBA grads aspire to do. Why go to business school?
Thank you, I appreciate that. It’s been an amazing ride. I suppose looking back, it seems like my resume is a bit choppy. Though I’ve had the opportunity to gain exposure to m&a, starting a company, running operations, doing biz dev and now moving into strategy, I want to formalize a career track that is poised for running a p&l, and perhaps one day, a shot at the c-suite to help manage a company. This is a 20+ year timeline in my mind.
You hop around too much. You should be in jobs where you get mentored. An mba won’t save you. Quit looking for a short path to a hard outcome.
Take it from someone who applied and got rejected from all the b schools - your experience is not impressive and your GPA is a non starter. You will never got into the top two programs or the top 5 - which are the only ones that matter and will give you a positive ROI.
Some tough love here, but also truth.
I think the ROI is still positive in the top 10 or 12 programs although that's dependent on how much you're making now and how much you'll make as a career switcher after the program. There's nothing magical about the top 5 although the top 3 generally are seen as NPV positive decisions even coming from lucrative careers which makes the decision process a bit easier.
Your experience, 3.6 GPA and assume you have 750 GMAT... guarantee you at least 80% chance of getting into top 10ish school as long as your essay and interview are good. H/S/W may be reach, Booth/Kellogg/Haas/CBS are target, Ross/Fuqua/SOM should be fallback..... with that said though, if you’re in BizOps already, should be easy to transition to consulting without the MBA... may not be M/B/B, but should be able to get into a tier 2 with some networking
You jump too much. While you may think you had a ton of amazing impact to other people it looks like you weren’t a great performer that always left. You have 4 years of experience (I’m assuming it’s closer to 3.5 since most Banks start in August and it’s only March.) Unless you have demonstrable proof you were awesome (ex. promotions, public recommendations on your LI from ex managers), most people’s assumption is that you weren’t great. Also what have you been doing outside of work? That part matters a ton too
I think you’re missing some key pieces of information that are needed to assess your profile: gender, race and extra currics. For example if you were a black woman with that background you’d get into Harvard Stanford easy. Asian male? Probably not even top 5
Just to add, most if not all my classmates did some sort of overseas work/volunteering Source : did my mba at top 3
I think you have a fair chance at the top 10. You need 700+ in GMAT. You need to build a story around your experiences and how a MBA is going to help you. You need to market yourself. How did you contribute in each of those roles? What challenges you faced and how you overcame them. Before you get there, you need to be clear why you want a MBA. It is a reasonably expensive investment.
How much leading could you have done when you are moving every 6 months? To me this reads like you are running and falling upwards
2024 Presidential Election
Yesterday
2657
Biden ruined America and tech! Tax plans are insane
Software Engineering Career
Yesterday
926
Did the googlers deserve to get FIRED?
India
Yesterday
1720
Please vote sensibly 🙏
Tech Industry
2d
54795
Goog Employees Arrested
2024 Tax
Yesterday
4072
Biden’s new tax proposal is wild
That's a lot of hopping around for 4 years. Difficult to track impact and development with such short cycles. GPA is a little low but you might be okay if you went to a tough undergrad or if GMAT is outstanding. My read is that you have a low to medium chance to crack top 10 (assuming 700+ gmat) but unlikely to make it for top 5.
Thank you. Berkeley undergrad, is that considered tough?
It's a good school but the admissions folks will know if it's a grade inflated program or not.