Profile Evaluation

[timfh]

G'day,

I recently knocked over the GMAT with a 710 (Q50, V37). Seemed about right, I would have liked to do a bit better with the verbal but was getting hungry by the end and loosing focus... still content with the score.

Ultimately I am looking at Sloan and Columbia as my first preferences, HBS would be great but I just don't think I have the goods. McCombs is my backup, they seem to have a great energy program and Austin is awesome!

I am Australian but have spent most of my life overseas. I completed a double degree at the University of Melbourne in Engineering(Chemical) and Commerce(Finance). My weighted average isn't great but ended up about 76%, scraping in for second class honours. My concern is that UniMelb uses a weighted average that means that some of my poor performances, especially in my second year (of five), do not have that much weight. My arithmetic average would be closer to 70%. I am hoping that good results during the end of my degree will be viewed positively. I did undertake a six month exchange at the University of Texas in Austin where I studied both Engineering and Business - for the five classes I did there my GPA was 3.65. I certainly found the assessments a bit easier than those back in Australia where getting over 80% is generally considered and excellent score.

I am currently working as a field engineer in Oman with Schlumberger, a large European oil & gas services company. By the time I start an MBA in the middle of next year I will have been working for right on three years. Essentially I spend a lot of time in the middle of the desert in high stress situations where time is of the essence. Though technically I am usually responsible for a team of three people not a great deal of management is required given they are reasonably autonomous and often highly experienced. Recently I have been looking after training of new recruits and that is something that I enjoy and would like to focus on given the change in corporate culture we are attempting to instil currently. I am also attempting to get more involved in client interactions in town though given I am usually required to be out on the rigs it is proving tough to get the experience.

My major concern is about community service. While admit I have never been that proactive I have been reasonably involved in the engineering department at University. I worked as the industry liaison while I was there trying to get more alternative employers for engineers (i.e. banks and insurance companies) to attend our events. Since I left I participated in a mentoring program that connected current students with those working in their field of interest. This was great but not very functional given that I am often tough to reach (being in the middle of the desert). Other than that I am pretty devoid of examples and don't see myself being in a position to improve matters.

I feel that my greatest strength is going to be my global perspective. At this point I have lived in ten countries in five continents. Though I do find it hard to put into words as being aware of a range of different cultures and having a smattering in a number of languages (though proficient in only English) is a soft skill that I find hard to describe on paper - though extremely useful in the diverse environment that I work in.

My reason for doing a MBA is to make a transition from a technical engineering role to a more business minded role in either consulting or business development within the energy industry. I still want to maintain my international focus so the global perspective of the school I attend it important. I also expect to go on exchange during my time, probably to South America as that is the only continent that I haven't visited so far.

Anyway, if you have made it this far thanks for reading my profile and I look forward to any input you can provide. I would welcome any suggestions especially in the community involvement deficiencies and what I perceive to be a weak undergrad average.

Sincerely,

Tim

[mbamission]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for writing in. Your background sounds incredibly interesting and I think schools will definitely be interested in learning more about you. Australians who live in Oman are certainly a unique cohort!

If you feel that your academic record is not truly indicative of your coursework, then you may want to use the optional essay to address this in a few sentences. You can explain the weighted average system, the Australian grading curve, and point to your success in the UT exchange program.

I agree your global perspective is your largest selling point and you'll want to play that up as much as possible. While it may be hard to put some of these experiences into words, your challenge will be to do exactly that, because it is a huge point of differentiation.

In regards to your extracurriculars, you want to focus on activity post-college when possible. Your work bringing new recruiters to campus sounds interesting but put it in perspective to what other people may bring as their extracurricular activities. The mentoring program is a legitimate example of post-college volunteering, even if your unique situation makes it hard to be very active.

Overall, very few candidates excel across all the different categories, so you want to play to your strength, which is your global perspective. List your extracurriculars but don't over-focus on them, at the expense of your main strength.

Hope this is helpful -- if you're interested in discussing more you can sign up for a free 30-minute consultation with me or another consultant at http://mbamission.com/consult.php.

Best of luck!
Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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