Harvard Business School - 08-19-2019

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August 19, 2019 4:57pm ET

Applying: Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Stanford GSB, UPenn / Wharton

Intake Year: 2020

Pre-MBA Career: Strategic Finance at Amazon (manager)

Post-MBA Target Industry: Technology Companies: Amazon , Apple , Google , Uber

GMAT: 730

GPA: 3.9

Years of Work Experience: 5

Post MBA Location: Bay Area

Notes:

Finance Manager at Amazon overseeing $300m entrepreneurial effort. At prior company (in hotels) was promoted 4 Times and led teams of 7+. Graduated with a 3.9 and top 5% of class from a Lower Ivy. Plan to return in tech as a prod manager. Waitlisted at HBS last year.

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Show Comments (16) Last: December 11, 2019

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1577 Tough, being waitlisted at HBS. Did you get offers elsewhere? Have you been able to further your career development, since the HBS waitlist? Are you a reapplicant at the other schools you're listing? Make sure to reapply in Round 1, unless there's a legitimate reason to wait. Overall, your profile does look strong. What is your long term goal, to lead a tech company? Do you have interests outside of work? (0)

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1150 Sorry to hear you didn't make the cut at HBS. Clearly you're close - as they don't waitlist a ton of canddiates. At the same time, their decision on your candidacy may be instructive; any idea what was missing when you read your file? GPA is stellar, ugrad of high caliber...GMAT is solid (though not astronomical), workX seems very promising...so I am wondering if perhaps your non-work leadership and diversity of interests perhaps didn't tic a box? Would love to know more (as well as the answers to Alex's questions).
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anon92906 Likes Earned: 5 So HBS told me in the feedback session, I was rejected because my communication was not concise in the interview. I am a reapplication at other schools since I completely bombed the applications last year. Definitely bad on execution. This year I have hired a consultant and applying the learnings from last year. My long term gol is to be a Vp of product at a tech company so enhancement from my current role of head of finance for a tech division at amazon. Prior work experience includes director and chief of staff level role at f500 company. Extracurricular involves board of director (joined in May 2019) at an ESL learning. Been a school interview volunteer for 4 years and have also been lead volunteer in prior work affiliated organization. In addition, served as a career mentor. In college was fraternity president, lead teaching assistant and in other 2 clubs as an officer. GPA is actually 4.01 given 4.3 is available at the school. (0)

anon92906 Likes Earned: 5 Would love to be featured on wire tap (0)

anon92906 Likes Earned: 5 Rated top 1% of all Director staff at prior role in F500 at age 26 (0)

anon92906 Likes Earned: 5 Also 4.5 years in hotels and joined amazon in May 2019 (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1577 Well it does look like you have all the ingredients for a strong profile, so it does seem to boil down to execution. It will help your cause if you can point to additional growth, since your previous applications. Will feature on Wire Taps. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1577 More details on this entry in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2019/09/episode-50-wire-taps-hbs-waitlist-re-applicant-engineering-background-unclear-goals-and-more/ (0)

anon92906 Likes Earned: 5 Status update: received interview invite. Time to buckle down. Any recommendations? Thanks again for the feature on the podcast! (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1577 Great stuff!! Here's a link to our interview archive for HBS interview reports: https://www.clearadmit.com/category/interview-reports/school/harvard/ Best of luck and enjoy the experience! Hopefully you can find someone to practice with a little. Because it's a non-blind interview, anything conveyed in your application materials is fair game. Go back and re-read it all, etc (0)

anon92906 Likes Earned: 5 Thanks Alex. Have been preparing intensely for HBS. Wharton came in too, so will be focusing on that piece as well. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1577 Great news! Check a few of our recent posts on this site re the Wharton TBD. The interview archive has a ton of advice too. Best of luck! When is your HBS interview? (0)

anon92906 Likes Earned: 5 Thanks. Will check them out. HBS is on 11/7 and Wharton on 11/13. Will post an interview report after those are completed. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1577 Great, and thanks for posting in interview reports. The interviews are quite different, but getting the interviews shows that both schools like your candidacy. Just need to reaffirm that now! (0)

anon92906 Likes Earned: 5 Got into HBS! Thanks for the advice. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1577 Very well done, indeed!! (0)