Profile evaluation: 760 GMAT + crap GPA

Hi all,

Here's my profile for your consideration:

PERSONAL
Male, 30 years, Australian of East Asian descent

GMAT
760 (Q50 V44)
1 attempt only

UNDERGRAD
2003, Bachelor of Computer Science from a local university (ranked in the 200s by Topuniversities Dot Com)
Terrible GPA - not sure how it converts to the US system, but, expressed as a percentage, around 65%

WORK HISTORY
Total 6-7 years in government, specialising in web and online service delivery, with consistent promotions, culminating in appointments as the Principal Information Strategist for one government agency, and then as the Development Manager for Whole-of-Government e-commerce solutions. Government career has had two interruptions, listed below:
- 1 year as the owner/manager of a retail chain (4 locations) of which I had previously been a silent partner
- 1 year as an army officer in a HQ role

EXTRACURRICULAR
- 6 years active in a major political party, including campaign work, volunteer staff work for a senator and various appointments including chairman of my local branch
- 6 years as an army reserve officer, including graduation from Royal Military College, various Troop Commander appointments, guest instructor at foreign academy and a year with the regular army (see work history)
- Property investment enthusiast, reached 7 figure net worth in 2008, and branched out into ownership of small businesses (including one that I managed for a year - see work history)
- Rock climber, scuba diver etc.

LONG TERM GOAL
Grand innovation in the delivery of public services (from both government and non-government providers). May be achieved as a senior member of a consultancy, public corporation, think tank or civil service. Ideally, I'd like to devise and implement the sort of innovations that are then emulated in neighbouring jurisdictions.

SHORT TERM GOAL
Undertake MBA and convert career to management consulting, to accelerate exposure and experience, and broaden context of career to include businesses and governments worldwide.

So the questions are: What tier of school would I be eligible for? I aspire to top schools like London Business School, INSEAD, Harvard etc. My interest is more in Europe/Asia than USA, but I'd gladly study in USA if it was the right school. Also, does my short term goal logically support my long term goal? Are both adequately supported by my experience to date?

Cheers,
CC

 

So you reached a 7 figure at 26 working in a government job? That's pretty nice :). My knowledge in terms of MBA admissions is rather limited, but I think the only thing that could you back for US MBA admissions is age. I think it's mentioned frequently here that for the top MBAs they except incoming students to be 27-28; INSEAD on the other hand as an average age of 30 if I remember correctly (which makes sense since we tend to start working later in europe) so you might have a better shot there. I think IMD is also on the older side of things and I know some people in government functions that studied there so might be a good fit. Anyways your profile looks far more interesting/out of the norm to me than someone who worked in a standard corporate role for x years so I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

Thanks, f4tality. I made a fairly standard government salary, but saved and invested aggressively. It helped that there was a massive property boom and expansion of credit in the early 2000s.

Do you think my short and long term goals flow logically from my experience to date? And does one flow logically from the other?

 

I wouldn't worry too much about age - and it actually helps you a little bit with your GPA. They will consider your GMAT more heavily since it is a much more recent data point. Remember, many of these programs have an average age between 26 and 29 because this group comprises the majority of the applicants. I have never seen admissions rates for older applicants - and I would bet they wouldn't be all that different from the rest of the applicant pool.

The other aspects of your career are good and I would bet you have a good shot at top 10 programs if you can put together a good app.

 
Best Response

STIBOR:

The answer is in borrowing money and leveraging.

Let's say you had $30k saved up by the time you graduated from university, because you worked full-time during most of it (which is why your GPA sucks).

Let's say that there was a crazy half decade where property was increasing at 15% per year, and banks would lend you money as long as you put up a 10% deposit and would sign an affidavit declaring that you had the income to make the interest payments. This is how pre-GFC Australia was.

Year 1: You use $30k as a deposit to buy $300k worth of property. PORTFOLIO: $300k DEBT: $270k NET WORTH: $300k - $270k = $30k

Year 2: Your $300k portfolio grew to $345k. You use the extra $45k equity to borrow and invest an extra $405k. PORTFOLIO: $345k + $405k = $750k DEBT: $270k + $405k = $675k NET WORTH: $750k - $675k = $75k

Year 3: Your $750k portfolio grew to $863k. You use that extra $113k equity to borrow and invest an extra $1.017m. PORTFOLIO: $863k + $1.017m = $1.88m DEBT: $675k + $1.017m = $1.692m NET WORTH: $1.88m - $1.692m = $188k

Year 4: Your $1.88m portfolio grew to $2.162m. You use that extra $282k equity to borrow and invest an extra $2.538m. PORTFOLIO: $2.162m + $2.538m = $4.7m DEBT: $1.692m + $2.538m = $4.23m NET WORTH: $4.7m = 4.23m = $470k

Year 5: Your $4.7m portfolio grew to $5.405m. You use that extra $705k equity to borrow and invest an extra $6.345m. PORTFOLIO: $5.405m + $6.345m = $11.75m DEBT: $4.23m + $6.345m = $10.575m NET WORTH: $11.75m - $10.575m = $1.175m

That's how it's done in five years. Yes, prices were rising that quickly and banks were that willing to lend back then. The main challenge was finding properties with rents high enough to offset the interest payments on these massive loans. That took some creativity, along with sinking a whole wad of my salary in to make up the shortfall.

And, of course, we now live in a different world, so you couldn't repeat this exercise today.

MFFL:
CaptainCrunch:

.Also, does my short term goal logically support my long term goal? Are both adequately supported by my experience to date?

SB'ed for asking this question

Ok I'm a noob. What's SB'd mean?

 

I think you've got a good shot. I just went through the process, so I think I should know.

By the way, how could you get the 7 figures again? I believe you - I just don't get it. Let's say you are the creme de la creme of government employees and are making $100,000 a year. Even though I think that's a super aggressive assumption, let's go with it. You pay $30,000 per year to the tax man, so you've got $70,000 left over each year. You worked for 5 years after college, so even if you saved 100% of all of your money ($0 spending) you would need a 55% annual return to get to $1 million by 26. I don't get how that's possible in this environment.

More likely you made $50,000 per year, had some spending, and could only save like $20,000 absolute max from your government job, meaning you'd need to get a 200% return each year. I just don't get it.

 

OBZ,

I went with the Manhattan GMAT prep for quant and didn't do any verbal prep. I had a total of 6 weeks semi-intensive prep, after work and on weekends.

When it came to the actual test, I found that the quant questions were much easier than the ones I had been practising with from the Manhattan books, so I almost over-prepared.

My advice would be to sit the GMAT after a couple of months, because a year of GMAT study is a time investment. If you're not happy with your score, you'll have plenty of time to re-sit.

 
CaptainCrunch:

OBZ,

I went with the Manhattan GMAT prep for quant and didn't do any verbal prep. I had a total of 6 weeks semi-intensive prep, after work and on weekends.

When it came to the actual test, I found that the quant questions were much easier than the ones I had been practising with from the Manhattan books, so I almost over-prepared.

My advice would be to sit the GMAT after a couple of months, because a year of GMAT study is a time investment. If you're not happy with your score, you'll have plenty of time to re-sit.

I'm working on the MGMAT guides at the moment. Did you sign up for the classroom prep or just buy the books? Congrats on the INSEAD admission, have fun brah.

 
alman:

Hey mate, congrats on the admit.

Just curious...how did you "explain" - if at all - your grades. I mean, GMAT score and extra curriculars helped I'd imagine.

I explained that I was working full time while I studied full time, and felt that performing in my job was more important than grades since (1) it was a foothold into my career of choice and (2) it paid very well. And yes, whilst a nice GMAT score won't give most people an advantage over a decent GMAT score, I suspect that it helped in my case.

 

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