Profile Eval EWMBA- Male/Indian/32/GMAT 660/GPA 3.8/Exp 7yrs

[saintforlife]

Dear experts:

I am looking to apply to the part-time MBA program at Haas and was wondering if you could provide some feedback on my profile.

Target Programs:
I current work in the Bay Area and the only program that I am applying to is the part-time MBA program at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Demographics:
Male 32 year old Indian male
GMAT: 660 Q47 V35; IR 4; AWA - 5.0 (Best of 3 attempts)

Education:
Bachelors in Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) from India - 73% aggregate (First Class with Disctinction - coverts to anywhere from 3.8-4.0 US GPA depending on what website you read)
Master of Science (Mechanical Engineering) LSU, Baton Rouge, LA - 3.33 GPA

Work Experience:

Product Engineer @ Leading semiconductor firm in California (Jan 2011 to Present)
Product engineer supporting XXX's highly advanced Silicon Wafer Inspection tools used by world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers. Product line had 5 tool models generating revenues of over $30M per year.
- Served as the central technical resource interfacing with a cross-functional team that included design engineering, manufacturing, marketing, finance, technical support, and field service as products moved through the Product Life Cycle.
- Managed cost reduction and product service revenue enhancement programs for the Global Support Services team.
- Prepared cost models (bottom-up and top-down) during initial concept phase. Worked with Services Marketing to define service offerings, including analyzing market needs, forecasting Cost-of-Service and developing sales support materials.
- Helped grow service revenue of XXX’s Macro Wafer Inspection product line from $650K in 2011 to $2.8M in 2013.

Mechanical Engineer @ Leading oil field services company in Texas (Feb 2007 to Jan 2011)
Design and sustaining engineer in XXX’s Down-hole Robotics Tractor group. Product line had annual revenue of over $3M.
- Responsible for mechanical design of XXX’s tractor tools, supervision of design improvements, New Product Development (NPD), New Product Integration (NPI) into manufacturing, product qualification, and customer acceptance tests.
- Managed two high profile 'Rapid Response' projects from start to finish. Managed all aspects of bringing the new products to market. Field tested prototype tools at well-sites in Mexico, Texas and North Dakota. Projected revenue: >$1M over two years.

Extracurricular activities/Additional Information:
- Founder and Owner - Cricket-Reference.com (2012-Present): Website dedicated to the pioneering development of sabermetric-style cricket statistical analysis; Cricket Reference is the intersection of sports analytics, statistics and finance.
- VP Technology, VP Membership, Secretary, and Treasurer - XXX Toastmasters Club (2011-Present): Held various officer roles at club - managed club funds, maintained website, helped double club membership and achieve "˜distinguished club’ status.
- Tutor - Stepping Up to Algebra (SUTA) (2012-Present): SUTA is Silicon Valley Education Foundation’s out-of-class support program designed to help students successfully complete 8th grade Algebra, as well as to increase their aspirations to go to college.
- Guest Editor - AdvicesMedia.com & sister sites (2012-Present): Part-time tech blogger on one of India’s top technology websites.
- Significant international travel experience and exposure to different cultures in Asia, South East Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Post MBA Goals:
I want to make a career switch from Engineering to Finance. In the near-term I want to switch roles and work at my company's corporate finance group and understand the principles of corporate finance, and become familiar with GAAP principles, dividend policy, capital allocation structure etc. In the short-term 3-5 years from now, I would like to work in a boutique investment bank in the SF Bay area doing valuation, M&A and/or Equity Research focusing on high-tech companies and start-ups. My ultimate goal, 10-15 years from now is to put myself in the position to become the CFO of a technology start-up or company.

tl; dr / cliffs version:
- Male/Indian/32/GMAT 660/UG GPA 3.8/Grad school GPA 3.33
- Tons of extra curriculars
- Worked as mechanical engineer in oil industry for 4 years after grad school. After 4 years wanted a change of industries and found a job in a high-tech semiconductor company in CA and moved west. (Already had a background in semiconductor manufacturing from grad school)
- Current role has lots of exposure to finance related work. Enjoy finance side of things the most at work.
- Want to switch careers from engineering to Finance in the long term, by working in corporate finance division at current company (learn ops finance, P&L, GAAP principles) --> then after MBA work in a boutique investment bank or VC firm focusing on high-tech start-ups/companies (work on M&A, valuations, operations) --> eventually put myself in a position to become CFO of a tech startup in the Bay Area.


Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi there-- just responded on Beat the GMAT, re-pasting here:

Hi,

Thanks for your post, and by the way really nice job organizing your post, and summarizing at the end... the skills of organizing how you present yourself will serve you well on your application (and in the business world too of course).

The strengths you've got going for you include:

-international experience (i.e. from India to the US)
-great project management and analytical skills evidenced
-finance & quant exposure and skills
-concrete results and accomplishments you can cite
-the website/start-up you describe is very interesting and could help differentiate you if described well
-as you said, good extracurricular involvement
-blogging experience can be a plus in terms of demonstrating communication skills, very important for engineers
-good start to explaining your past, and how it brought you to this point, and why you want the MBA/what you plan to do it (all of this is very important on the applications)

Potential weaknesses include:

-your GMAT, with the average at Haas part-time being 700
-just the fact that Indian engineers are often large applicant groups, so there's always the challenge of continuing to differentiate from that applicant group
-could evidence more leadership and more people management skills or experiences if possible

Unknowns:
-essays, letters of rec and interview of course

Overall I would say it will still be a challenge at Haas, but if you do a really great job presenting yourself (in the essays!!) you could have a shot. A stronger GMAT would also greatly strengthen your profile here as that is one of your lower points. Good luck on everything, let us know if you have additional questions, and if you'd like to speak in more depth with a consultant at any point, you can do so with our free 30 min consult at http://www.mbamission.com/consult.php.