MBA Profile Review: Aspiring MBB Consultant
Please critique and assess my profile. Any input is welcomed.
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Sexual Orientation: Gay
Age: 27
Undergrad: UC Berkeley
UG GPA: 3.82
Major: Political Science (although I took a few Haas UG classes like micro and macro econ, corporate finance, personal finance, and stats and got mostly As)
gmat score: 750 (q48/v45)
Work Experience: 5 years total in B2B high-tech enterprise software sales at Oracle Corporation out of the SF Bay Area. Had two promotions: started as a "Business Development Consultant" right out of college, then promoted to an "Applications Sales Representative," (ASR), and last year to a "Sales Consultant" (aka "Solutions Architect"). I've always exceeded my sales quota every quarter (putting me in the top 20% of sales reps here), and currently manage a team.
Extracurricular: Volunteered at the SF LGBT Community Center 2 hours/week for 4 years. Pro bono SAT tutoring to inner city kids in Oakland the past 1.5 years.
MBA Goals: Pursue MBB Consulting, but if that doesn't happen, would be OK at a top tier 2 or boutique firm. After doing consulting for several years, I might want to move to industry in a corpstrat role.
I'm aiming to get into the best school I can, although I'm applying to the top 16 USNEWS-ranked schools. Obviously M7 is preferred, and my "targets" are Chicago Booth and Northwestern Kellogg. The worst schools I'd be "ok" with going to are UCLA and Cornell. I'd be perfectly happy with Tuck, Haas, and Yale too. I understand Harvard and Stanford are absolute crapshoots, and Wharton is probably a low possibility.
Thanks!!
Edit: Also "not sure" whether to put it this my MBA app given its potentially "controversial/polarizing nature," but I've been pretty involved in politics in my spare time, such as LGBT issues advocacy and campaigning for local gov and statewide elections. I was a "district manager" for State Sen. Wiener successful 2016 campaign in SF where I oversaw high school and college volunteers over the weekends in the summer, and volunteered heavily for CA Sen. Kamala Harris' successful 2016 campaign (Both are Democrats). I'll leave it out of it'd hurt my app more than it'd help. Also phone banked for Hillary Clinton but she lost lol. What do you think?
Seems very possible for all of the above. The odds are somewhat tough for MBB / consulting regardless of school, but I think you'll have a good shot at getting into an M7 and getting MBB interviews. Obviously there's a lot unknown such as how personable you are, how well you interview, how good you'll be at cases, etc. but your profile is at a level where you'll be in play. I went to Booth and went the consulting route as well.
For more info on consulting recruiting, check out this post http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/ne-m7-to-mbb-what-i-wish-i-knew-o….
Thanks for taking the time to respond to this! And completely agreed, it's good to aim high but also be realistic. Really appreciate your perspective as a Booth grad and consulting, hopefully I'll follow in your footsteps!
Also, my apologizes for not including this originally, but I edited my original post at the bottom to include one of my ECs. Do you think political extracurricular activities would be too controversial to post on an MBA app? I'd love your perspective.
Have a great day!
I think it's fine / good to include (for reference, I fit in the middle of the political spectrum), and there are lots of folks around who've volunteered or actually been employed by individuals from both parties and it's generally impressive. I think on average, it'll help more than it hurts. You can use it to show EC involvement, leadership, and passion for something besides $$, the trick is just to make sure to come off as professional and still somewhat balanced in your view.
Said another way, an adcom (or current student) will only want to keep you out if you seem unreasonably aggressive or otherwise unprofessional about respecting viewpoints that differ from your own. Plus, business school students, faculty, admissions, etc. lean left on average anyway. Plus, campaigning for LGBT rights is really not that "controversial"anymore as it's generally viewed as a positive, at least IMHO.
Just $.02 - good luck!
Odds for M7 seems pretty good. Getting into MBB from M7 is a completely separate step, and one you can worry about after getting into a program you like. Attending one M7 over the other shouldn't affect your chances of getting to MBB, although if you have a very strong preference for post-MBA location you might want to consider that in choosing which program to attend.
I don't see how the ECs would hurt--if anything, they show you're passionate about something (since there's a common theme among them). It'd be even better if they (or some of them) tie into your overall career story, but you should be fine even if they don't.
As another LGBT applicant who recently went through the process, I'd also try to leverage each school's LGBT group/resources. Some schools (eg, Kellogg, Wharton) pay more attention to them than others, but in general they're incredibly helpful and very open to helping you out. Feel free to PM if you want to chat more about this.
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