Georgetown / McDonough - 12-29-2019 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

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December 28, 2019 2:28pm ET

Applying: Georgetown / McDonough, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, U. Washington / Foster, UCLA Anderson, USC / Marshall, UT Austin / McCombs

Intake Year: 2020

Pre-MBA Career: Finance/Accounting

Post-MBA Target Industry: Technology Companies: Amazon , Google , Microsoft

GMAT: 710

GPA: 3.11

Years of Work Experience: 6

Location: USA

Notes:

WOULD LOVE A PODCAST FEATURE! Canadian currently living in the Bay area. Experience so far is in tech, few years at deloitte and a couple of years at a major tech company. Short term goal is to pivot functions into marketing. Long term goal is to be a c suite exec for a high growth tech company focused on Healthcare or education (think headspace, khan academy). 3 questions :
1) do I need to cast a wider net with my school selection? or retake gmat?
2) How do I go about being convincing that marketing is what I want to do if I don't have any experience so far? My story currently is that accounting doesn't directly add value to the end product or consumer, and that's what I am trying to go towards, a function that adds tangible value.
Thanks!!

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Show Comments (7) Last: January 6, 2020

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 You have a decent spread of target programs listed, your numbers probably place you towards the lower end of the spread. Others schools to consider include Kelley, Kenyan Flagler. Are you applying in Round 2 for this season? If that's the case, any GMAT retake would occur after the deadlines. Not ideal, but reporting an increased score, after a deadline, can help. Do you think that with additional prep, you can increase your score? Because your GPA is also lower than average, a stronger GMAT can help. Have you had any exposure to marketing? That would help, but your story sounds plausible. (1)

anon22548 Likes Earned: 19 Hi Alex - OP here. Thanks for the response and I should also say thanks for your work on the podcast, it provides great insight to a lot of MBA candidates like myself. I am applying for Round 2 this season and might retake the GMAT one more time to try and get a higher score. I was averaging 730+ in the practice tests. I have had some exposure to marketing which I will talk about in my essay, but my concern with all goals essays is how to find the balance between being direct with your goals versus adding a personal aspect to grab the adcoms attention? (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Don't overly worry about grabbing attention. Your goals should make sense to you, first and foremost. Then you can articulate them to adcom. They want to know that you've thought them through. That they are realistic and make sense. Long term goal can also include an element of ambition, too. (0)

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1245 Thanks for your note - and for the kind words about the podcast! I agree that securing an above-average GMAT result would help to counter your below-average GPA at the top schools on your list. Also, when you explain your plans to pivot from finance to marketing, be careful not to 'throw anyone under the bus' as they say. I suspect you might find a cost-accountant or two, who argue that they add value to the end consumer in some intangible ways... Plus, most marketing coursework these days ends up being fairly quantitative...so perhaps your facility with numbers might make you a great marketer... Best of luck!
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anon22548 Likes Earned: 19 Thanks Alex and Graham. One other question for you guys - in terms of LT goal, I understand there needs to be an element of ambition, so is saying that you want to be a CMO of a high growth tech company too generic? Ideally, i want to start off as a product marketing manager at a big tech company, get the core mktg experience and transition into healthcare-tech or ed-tech, which is my industry of choice long term. How ambitious is that to put in an application versus just saying CMO of a high growth tech company? (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 I don't think that's too generic, at all. It's in line with others' long term goals for top programs. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps https://www.clearadmit.com/2020/01/episode-74-wire-taps-making-a-career-change-choosing-a-business-school-while-on-the-waitlist-and-more/ (0)