Undecided - 01-19-2020 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

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January 19, 2020 8:23am ET

Applying: Undecided

Intake Year: 2021

Pre-MBA Career: Look at additional notes.

Post-MBA Target Industry: Technology, Investment Banking, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, Undecided Companies: Other

GPA: 86%

Years of Work Experience: 4.5

Location: Budapest

Post MBA Location: USA / UK

Notes:

Hello! guys, so I'm a Hispanic Electrical engineer from D.R., I grew up in Mexico. my GPA at college was 86% I was top 5 of my class. (the highest GPA of my class was 92%).
I'm in the process to study for either GRE/GMAT.
thinking to apply to 2020 1st round.

My professional experience is as follow:
+ Engineer consultant in a Mexican small company
+ Engineer intern at a non-profit in upstate New York.
+Renewable energy consultant in a Chinese corporation (I relocated there and lived in China for a year)
+Power Distribution engineer lead at a Forbes 500(MBA feeder corporation) energy company in Europe (I relocated to Europe for 2 years)
+ I'm currently the co-founder of a Hungarian start-up software company, I'm the CTO (the gig is pretty small, it's a 7 people start-up and we all work remotely and meet up every month) we recently got fund from investors.
+About to relocate to Hong Kong, where I'm going to work as the head of the R&D department of an electrical engineering hong kongnese company.

My extracurriculars were:
Vicepresident of a leadership development program chapter in my city.
Research summer at University Wisconsin Madison.
Photography

Prizes:
I was awarded youth innovator prize 2018 from a Czech think tank.

-that's about 4.5 years. I'm 27, going to be 28 in October this year.

My post-MBA goals are: use the MBA platform to transition from a heavily manufacturing-energy professional background to a business-oriented one, also to use the MBA ecosystem to create greater impact (VC, Incubator) entreprenurial-wise, cause I want to focus more in developing my entrepreneurial side (as seen above).

So that's my resume, in a nutshell, I honestly don't know where to apply, since I don't come from a top institution I feel like the top 10 MBA programs in the US might be out of reach? (I'm also international... so yeah)

Hence why I'm writing here, your take will be greatly appreciated

Like (0)

Show Comments (10) Last: January 27, 2020

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1149 Thanks for your post. Since you have shared quite a bit, let's try and break it down into simple chunks. First, assuming you can land a solid GMAT/GRE score, I feel like your academics should be sound (top 5 in class, tough major, etc.). Second, your personal background (living/studying/working in D.R., Mexico, China, Europe, Hong Kong) is truly impressive - a global citizen indeed! Things get a bit more muddled when one tries to weave all of this together in a fairly tight (4.5 year) time frame and with respect to your career plans. For the former, there is a risk that you end up sounding like a 'job hopper', where it's hard to show impact when you don't stay long enough with any single employer. For the latter, you need to try and find a greater focus for your goals; in essence try to think of the role/function and industry that might be best suited, then name three firms in that sector who could potentially hire you post-MBA. ECs seem promising. As to target schools, I would think that if you secure a solid GMAT/GRE, you should be looking at global top-20 schools...but I wouldn't make any recommendations without knowing your specific goals. Given the geos you are targeting, schools in the US and UK would be an obvious place to start. Best of luck to you!
(1)

anon39658 Likes Earned: 2 Hello GRichmond, thanks for the insight! About the last piece, I think I wasn't very clear with the job timeframe, to be honest, is quite hard given the comment format. I have 4 years job experience post-college that includes: 2 years in China and 2 years in Europe (Hungary), the reason it's just 2 years it's because the working visa requirements, working visa in both regions are up to 2 years and didn't want to do a working visa process all over again rather Job hopper I'd call my self a 'Corporate gypsy' the Upstate NY internship was pretty short and I did in my senior year of college. On my test, so I recently did a GRE practice test without studying at all and score 300, my target score is 325. so it seems reachable as I got a very good foundation to begin with. many thanks again!!! (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1576 Ok, experience sounds interesting. Especially going to China, then Hungary. It will be important that you can show impact, at work. Was a little confused re you current relocation to HK. Are you leaving the startup in Hungary? I'd think a good test score, 325+, 720+, should give you some good options, re M7 to top 16 in the US. Make sure you take the time, and really prepare well for your test. That's one aspect of your profile you still control. (1)

anon39658 Likes Earned: 2 Many thanks, Alex, I'm not leaving the start-up, we work remotely anyways, I've been traveling back in forth to Hungary when is needed, that's the cool aspect of technology our offices are everywhere; also one of the good things about this job in HK is that it offers me the flexibility, it also helps that the Cantonese company European HQ are in Paris so I'd have to travel there very often and Paris is like an hour or so away from Budapest by plane. Def GRE/GMAT is my priority right now, that's the main reason I haven't put so much thought on the schools I want to apply. I designed my study plan of 300 hours from January til Late April/May, and will take both tests in mid-may and will re-take them in June if it's needed. I think 300 on the GRE isn't as tragic as I thought, given that the many concepts I saw in the test were taught back when I was in middle school, like 10 years ago, so I need to pick up those concepts again, let see what happens!!! many thanks!! I appreciate your take (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1576 Is it usual to prep for and take both tests? I would have thought it made more sense to focus on one, over the other? Yes, remote working is great! Your challenge will be to weave everything you're doing into a cogent narrative that shows impact and growth. (1)

anon39658 Likes Earned: 2 Hello Alex! So, I've been conflicted over this, but given where I'm at right now and the resources I've found I'm heading towards sticking with the GRE, since it's a more 'general' test there is more in-hand material here, for obvious reasons (it's targeted to a broader audience) (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1576 GRE is becoming more accepted in MBA admissions, so I'd stick with that one, if it's your preference. If asked by bschools why you chose the GRE (you won't get asked, but just in case...) do not mention it's to keep your options open. (1)

anon39658 Likes Earned: 2 Thanks!!! can you guys use my profile for your podcast? there are plenty of internationals out there that would be interested in hear your perspective!!! (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1576 Will do! (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1576 Here it is: https://www.clearadmit.com/2020/01/episode-77-wire-taps-mba-profiles-with-680-gmat-3-65-gpa-no-gmat-gre-yet-and-choosing-a-business-school-on-decisionwire/ (0)