Columbia - 07-08-2020 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

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July 8, 2020 6:16am ET

Applying: Columbia, Dartmouth / Tuck, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton

Intake Year: 2021

Pre-MBA Career: Biotech R&D

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Pharmaceutical, Other Companies: Bain , BCG , McKinsey , Amgen , Merck , Novartis

GMAT: 740

GPA: 3.36

Years of Work Experience: 5

Post MBA Location: East Coast

Notes:

First time caller, long time listener! Would LOVE to be featured on your podcast!!!

• Why I want an MBA: want to transition from R&D into a business function
• Short-term goal: business development at biotech startups (Not sure if this is “ambitious” enough for my school choices. Is it safer going with consulting instead?)
• Long-term goal: C-suite in biotech
• Why I want one now: getting older, very slow career progression at this stage without getting a PhD
• Top choice is the HBS MBA-MS in Biotech Dual Degree program, which I think is perfect for my background. Also considering Wharton-Lauder, depending on how my oral exam goes, and Booth joint degree in IR or CS
• R1 - HBS, GSB, Wharton, Booth, Sloan; R2 - CBS, Tuck, Kellogg
• Shooting for the stars here. My pay is already good, so I’m only wiling to shell out if it’s for a top program
• Long-shot goal is also breaking into VC (not gonna mention in applications), given my startup experience and connections. Top school credentials will definitely help me here.

Background
• Work experience: 5 years, 6 at matriculation
• 1 year on a Fulbright research scholarship
• 4+ years in biotech (Series A, late stage, small cap)
• Was actually laid off during COVID, so fresh into a new gig that I actually really like right now
• 2.5 promotions with significant pay bump each time
• 2 promotions if counting just industry; the 0.5 is from the Fulbright, which I considered a “promotion” from my industry position
• Significant responsibilities starting with my first role, with direct involvement in company platform development
• Extra curriculars and other experience:
• College: Baseball club, Greek life (executive officer of house), President of volunteer club, pianist for local chapel
• Post-College: Co-captain of company softball team, Board Officer of Fulbright Chapter, various volunteering activities (teaching English, tutoring), company diversity & inclusion committee member
• Undergrad school/major: Non-HYP Ivy; Bioengineering
• Race/nationality: Asian-American
• Sex: Male

I apologize in advance for any formatting issues. Again, I'd really love to hear your thoughts on Wire Taps, thanks!!

Like (1)

Show Comments (9) Last: July 20, 2020

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Interesting profile, will feature on Wire Taps. Interesting that you were able to get a new position during Covid 19. I’d assume that would be very challenging? Looks like you can show impact at work, and outside of work. Because your work appears to be in research, good to be able to show teamwork/leadership/impact where you can. Numbers are decent for top programs. (1)

anon65597 Likes Earned: 3 Hi Alex, thanks a bunch, I look forward to it! And yes, getting laid off right as everything was shutting down was daunting, but I actually started dropping my resume the day I got my notice, and got multiple offers and landed a role at a great startup within 5 weeks. Silver lining: huge pay bump and the chance to work at an up and coming biotech startup, lots of time to study GMAT full time, and very generous severance package (+ unemployment). It worked out well for me. To add more color in terms of teamwork/leadership/impact: I attended a couple of international conferences to present my work at poster sessions (was invited to and declined one oral presentation), have a 2nd author publication, and also co-authored a couple of company SOPs. As I also briefly mentioned, I directly contributed to company technology platform building that was included in pitch decks and ultimately led to several lucrative business collaborations for one of my former companies. I work in a matrix environment, so teamwork is pretty much a necessity. One area I can see myself lacking in is that I don't have direct reports, although I have trained new hires and a summer intern in the past. I've also been involved in the interviewing/hiring process over the years. I'm also gonna elaborate on some of the dual degree programs (besides the HBS biotech program, which i think is self-explanatory), and why I'm interested (I'm just entertaining these thoughts, so not 100% set yet) Wharton-Lauder/Booth-International Relations - my Fulbright experience abroad and working with foreign partners at work sparked my interest and i think it'll be a great way to supplement the MBA curriculum with a significant global studies component. I think it'll also be a great continuation of my Fulbright experience and also aligns nicely with my goals of running an international company further down the line. Booth-CS - more out of my curiosity/nerdiness to get more technical training on data analytics and bioinformatics, which are both extremely useful in biotech. Sorry for the wall of text! (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Great! Not forgetting, you can likely take “nerdy” classes as part of the elective offering at several top programs. One big question, why leave your new company now, as you’ve only recently started there? (1)

anon65597 Likes Earned: 3 Yup, that's a great point, and I'll weigh out the pros and cons of the joint degree programs over the next couple weeks and finalize my decision. And that's a great question that I've been trying to figure out how to answer as well (and also where I was hoping maybe you and Graham could chime in on the strength of my "rebuttal"). So my goal was always to apply for Fall 2021 intake, but obviously getting laid off threw a wrench into my plans. I'm sticking with my original plan because 1. I'm not getting any younger 2. The company I joined is young enough that I can make significant contributions within a short time frame (an opportunity I was seeking during my job hunt), which will be a little over a year by the time I leave for bschool 3. This is more of an emotionally-charged answer, but having been laid off after putting in extra work, working weekends, etc. , I strongly believe that it's better to stick with my vision and set out on my path to my short/long term career goals ASAP rather than to wait another year to apply and potentially end up in a similar spot, if that makes sense. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Did your new employer know you planned to go to b school within the year? If they did, that makes your explanation more viable. It does help if you can show impact, early in your tenure at your new company, too. (1)

anon65597 Likes Earned: 3 They asked what my future career plans were and whether I wanted to go to graduate school, and I responded by saying that I hoped to go to business school within the next couple of years, since the GMAT was still up in the air and I wasn't sure how big of an impact I could make earlier on. I think I've already made great strides in developing a part of the company platform from the ground up and am confident that I'll have accomplished a lot by the time I leave for bschool, or else I would feel a bit more uneasy about applying this coming cycle. The company is continuing to grow so that if I'm able to pivot within the same company post-mba, I'd be all for that as well. (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Great. Be ready for that conversation. (1)

anon65597 Likes Earned: 3 Definitely. Thanks a ton for the advice!! (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2020/07/episode-112-wire-taps/ (0)