Berkeley / Haas - 11-29-2021 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

November 29, 2021 5:24am ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Columbia, INSEAD, London Business School, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth

Intake Year: 2022

Pre-MBA Career: Sales and Trading, Food Delivery Startup

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Technology Companies: Bain , Booz Allen Hamilton , BCG , McKinsey , Amazon , Facebook , Google

GMAT: 740

GPA: 3.5

Years of Work Experience: 4

Location: Hong Kong

Post MBA Location: US or Canada

Notes:

Grew up in Toronto, Canada, went to school in Top Canadian University with Computer Science and Finance Degree. Moved to Hong Kong shortly after graduation.
Started in Hong Kong / Toronto in DCM and Fixed Income Sales for top North American Investment Bank, awarded Top 18 in 2018 for efforts to create young professionals group in the office as well as performance at the sales desk.
Moved to food delivery, working at company with dominant market share. Started in Operations strategy, was promoted to commercial (sales) lead role managing a team of 6 - think City Manager role at UberEats. Was responsible for growth of restaurant portfolio that made up 50% of sales. Was promoted again to a Finance and Strategy associate role, helping with cross-functional consumer initiatives, full PnL financial forecasting and budgeting of the Hong Kong team liasing with members of the executive team both locally and with corporate HQ.

Like (1)

Show Comments (4) Last: December 6, 2021

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1151 Numbers are solid and will certainly keep you squarely in contention at the top programs on your list. I also like the fact that you are a 'global citizen' working in both Toronto and HK. Your career progress to date is impressive, especially the successful pivot into industry - and the fact that it happens to be an industry with which most of your admissions readers will be highly familiar (who hasn't order food online at this phase of the pandemic?!). With that said, I see two possible weaknesses and have one question. Weaknesses: 1. ECs. What do you do outside of work? How can you lend depth to your candidacy in this regard? 2. Career goals. I was hoping for some very cool career goals that combined your expertise in finance and the burgeoning food-delivery space - resulting in goal in that space with a big player (Amazon/WholeFoods, UberEats, etc.) or on the investment side of the industry (banking, VC). Instead, you've got what appear to be fairly standard plans in consulting and tech. Perhaps I am reading that wrong though, so feel free to shed light. Question: What is your gender and ethnic background? Are you a Canadian male? Chinese female? These elements will matter too. Best of luck and thanks for your post!
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anon86352 Likes Earned: 1 Hi Graham, thanks for the feedback! I am an Asian male so definitely in the over-represented group. I haven't really had a solid vision on career and still digging deeper. The "standard" plans are what I have in mind as I want some more exposure to the consumer space and want to dive deeper into consumer goods and go to market strategy - interested in companies like Amazon or HelloFresh for sure but consulting is also a good way to learn more and pivot into a senior management role at these companies later on. Also interested in tech PE but not sure how convincing that pivot is given I don't have IBD experience. As for ECs I haven't done much outside of work lately unfortunately outside my current role and but I have strong involvement in clubs and careers when I was in university, such as pro-bono consulting, as well as starting employee resource groups within my company, as mentioned above. I hope that would help convince adcoms I would be a valuable part of the community. (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1579 Lots to like, here. I’d stick with the consulting first, then leadership within tech pathway, post MBA. For ECs, heavy involvement at undergrad will help, too. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1579 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2021/12/episode-202-wire-taps/ (0)