Harvard Business School - 03-15-2024

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March 15, 2024 8:47am ET

Applying: Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton

Intake Year: 2024

Pre-MBA Career: Analytics at a major Tech company

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Technology Companies: Bain , BCG , McKinsey , Apple , Facebook , Google , LinkedIn , Microsoft

GMAT: 730

GPA: 3.96

Years of Work Experience: 6

Location: US

Notes:

First job: Economic Consulting at a top Econ Consulting Firm
Second job: Product Analytics at an Insurance Tech Startup
Third/Current job: Analytics at a major Tech company
Extracurriculars include: Undergrad Alum Interviewer; Alumni Chapter Co-lead; Chair at a S16 MBA Partners Club

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Show Comments (7) Last: April 9, 2024

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1693 I assume you are applying next season?

Showing impact and growth at work will be important. Super GPA. Nice EC involvement. What are your hobbies/interests?

Be good to know a little more about your post MBA goals?

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grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1304 Your counting stats (730, 3.96, 6 yrs) look to be very solid for the schools on your target list. As Alex points out, it would be good to know a bit more about your future plans and how the MBA fits into them.

One possible concern will be the extent to which your work experience has offered the opportunity for leadership; it sounds like you've moved around a bit (3 jobs in 6 years), and that each post has been fairly analytics focused, so it would be helpful to better understand any milestones, client-facing/senior-management-facing roles, etc.

The fact that you have been involved in an MBA program via the Partners Club should give you a nice advantage when it comes to understanding the MBA experience.

Best of luck!
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j11-2 Likes Earned: 12 Thank you Alex and Grant! I've been a long-time podcast listener! Yes, I'll be applying in Fall 2024. Post-MBA, I would love to stay in tech-related fields, consulting on the West Coast or product management at tech companies. I hope to be still able to use my analytics skills but focus more on strategies. From your perspective, do my career goals make sense? Do they tie closely enough to my experience? In terms of hobbies, I like rock climbing, singing, knitting, and skiing. My choir was invited to perform in multiple countries, so I had unique opportunities to perform at cool places and meet people from different cultures. However, these experiences are from my childhood (many years ago), so would you recommend I mention them in the activities section or my essays? Besides these activities, I went to a women's college and have spent significant time volunteering at different non-profit organizations that focus on women helping women overcome difficulties or promoting education for women. I know many women are doing the same things, so I'm not sure if I should put much weight on my volunteering experience in my application. What would you suggest? Regarding milestones, I started to mentor junior analysts in my 2nd year in Econ Consulting. I reviewed work done by junior analysts and presented casework to team managers. After I switched from Econ Consulting to a tech Start-up, my work allowed me to work directly with the Head of Product and sometimes even the founders. Later on, I hoped to make a bigger impact, so I switched to a bigger tech firm and sometimes worked directly with the head of my function to develop reporting and growth strategies. I drove a few cross-functional initiatives and have been mentoring junior analysts, but I never officially managed anyone. Would this be a concern/weakness? (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1693 I would choose one or the other, as a short term goal. What type of role do you see for yourself in 10 years time? Lots to like here. Experience does sound strong. Stats are, of course, really good. I wouldn’t focus on any activities prior to college. But your volunteer work is decent, I wouldn’t dismiss it, anyway.

Great that you’ve been listening to the podcast, too!

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alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1693 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2024/03/mba-wire-taps-345/ (0)

j11-2 Likes Earned: 12 Thank you so much, Alex and Graham (no mistype this time), for the feature! This is very helpful! (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1693 You’re very welcome. Best of luck! (0)