Profile Review

[mdesiato]

Hello!

Here is a quick rundown of my profile

Age: 27
Miami, FL
Cuban American Background (Mother born in Havana)
Ugrad GPA: 3.58 Babson College BS in Business Administration
Grad GPA: 3.7 Florida International University MS in Management Information Systems
GMAT: 710 (48 Quant 40 Verbal)

Work Experience: 5 years
After graduating college I started my career in the Institutional Fixed Income desk at Bear Stearns in Boston where I held an analyst position. While I thought that my life would take the pure finance route, an incredible opportunity opened up in my hometown of Miami, FL for me to assist my family in a leveraged buy out of an insurance company and start an insurance premium finance company (financing insurance premiums for small businesses) as a complimentary service. I was basically given a copy of the Florida State Statutes and Regulations governing this type of business and a bank contact to secure a line of credit. Over the past 5 years, I have grown the premium finance business to roughly 600K in annual sales during some tough times for insurance in Florida (we finance property insurance vulnerable to hurricanes). The experience has exposed me to all aspects of starting and managing a business from the ground up: hiring/firing employees, seeking sources of finance to operate, setting performance goals, and creating daily operational procedures. Additionally, the heavily regulated nature of my business has required me to undergo Department of Insurance audits and submit tedious annual reports. Over the past two years, my role has widened to the holding company level where I developed and led a project that created an online policy quoting and information portal for our company's agents. I currently hold the position of operations manager for the holding company and president of the premium finance company. My Uncles and Mother who are majority stockholders in the company are looking to retire and sell the holding company, I feel that this is a perfect time to continue my education, improve my skills, and gain valuable contacts. I love entrepreneurship but would also truly enjoy a challenging general management position.

Sorry to be so long winded, but I believe that my background is a bit different from someone that has only worked for a large corporation and requires a bit more explaining.

Recommendations: Since my shareholders and supervisors are family members, I am getting recommendations from 2 different clients that have worked with me for over 4 years. I intend on submitting optional essays that discuss this choice.

Community Service/Involvement: Junior Achievement Miami Company Program: teaches high school students the ins and outs of starting a business (2+ years involvement)
Condo Association Board Member

I am applying to: HBS/TUCK/FUQUA/DARDEN

[MBAApply]

You do have an unique professional history.

You're a wild card here for the schools you mentioned. Being "unique" is a double-edged sword. It's good because you stand out, but it's not good because it's harder to benchmark you. That's why the "ideal" mavericks for b-school applications are those who have at least some pedigree in their background - i.e. if you went to Princeton undergrad with the exact same professional history, they'd be more comfortable. The fact that you worked at Bear Stearns for a short period may be enough pedigree for schools like Darden, Duke or Tuck to be comfortable with you, but maybe not for HBS (as HBS will simply get enough "unique" people like yourself, but with a little more pedigree that they end up being a less risky choice). In other words, you're an unknown quantity to an adcom there and the admissions decision will be even more subjective than it will be for other applicants - even if you've done your best on the application and interviews.

Practically speaking though, go for all the schools you mentioned. You have enough of a fighting chance that it's well worth it.

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com