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Since I was nineteen years old, I have been holding the vision of becoming a creative, innovative investor who has contrarian investment ideas and makes unconventional investments over the long-haul, while holding the belief that the most important quality of an investor is temperament, not intellect. Holding such a belief shall not indicate that I discard the fact that being an intellectually driven investor is as especially important as other qualities of patience and integrity that I believe an investor must hold. Being intellectually curious and with a great deal of inspiration gained from a considerable amount of reading on investing and financial markets since I was an undergraduate engineering student, I was fortunate to discover my passion for an investment management career. When an opportunity arose to shift gears from engineering toward the career of my dreams, I took advantage of what I believed would be a more logical path to move forward toward my long-term career prospects. Armed with networking efforts and the knowledge I gained from my extensive research and readings; I, fortunately, landed a job at an investment research house in Egypt in Mid-2017. The investment-related roles I have held for more than four years – upon matriculation – worked on deepening my knowledge of how practically financial markets work and inspired me to develop the basic analytical skills needed for a long-term potential outstanding performance within my profession.
Target School: Harvard
Considering: London Business School, Columbia, Wharton
See More Profiles For: Harvard
Application Status: Open
Undergrad School: Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University
Undergrad Major: Civil Engineering
GPA: 2.75
GMAT: 520
Age: 30, Ethnicity: Black or African American
Extracurriculars: Volunteer at the CFA Society Egypt as a member of the society’s branding team since Aug 2016, I was also responsible for mentoring a team of 5 students in their university's internal equity research competition (a team in 2019 and another one in 2020), At both Al Orman Association and Resala Charity Organization I help with the distribution of large sums of donations (clothes, books, blankets, and others) to people who live below the poverty line (>30% of Egypt's population).
Title: Senior Investment Analyst
Industry: Banking & Finance
Company: Top Firm
Length of Employment: 2 yrs, 4 mos
Title: Equity Research Analyst
Length of Employment: 1 yr
1) I was promoted to a senior investment analyst only after 10 months of joining the firm. 2) In August 2020, I joined the firm’s investment committee which sets the company’s investment strategy and supervises the asset allocation.
I plan to go back to the investment management profession upon completing my MBA program, with a strategic plan to start my own investment management firm within 3-5 years after completing the program.
Join in! Click here to assess the odds of Mr. Future Hedge Fund Manager
Mr. Future Hedge Fund Manager – Thanks for posting your profile. Susan Cera here from Stratus.
While I admire your vision, your stats are likely going to get you a fast pass to the ding pile at HBS. That said, is there something that was going on during your undergrad to result in such a lackluster GPA? You need to demonstrate that you have the ability to do the work in a top program. Typically you would offset a soft GPA with a strong GMAT or GRE but you aren’t there yet. Do you have a CFA charter? This might mitigate the weakness.
While engaging within your community is admirable, I would want to understand how the commitments you have made align with your passion and vision. …
While engaging within your community is admirable, I would want to understand how the commitments you have made align with your passion and vision. Right now it feels like you are kind of checking boxes to accumulate activities.
This year is shaping up to be one of the most competitive years yet in terms of MBA acceptances. Good luck.
To be honest, chances are extremely low for any M7 MBA program. I would actually say a 520 GMAT is a red flag for any mid-tier MBA program unless there are some really, really, really outstanding points on your resume to offset this (which in this case there aren‘t, unfortunately).
On the other hand, it looks like you really love your job and are passionate about it. If I were you, I would postpone the application for 1.5-2 years later and do as follows during that period (in exactly this order of priority):
– Set up a plan and work hard to get a 730+ GMAT. That will be absolutely critical, especially in your case. There are hundreds of prep courses and tons of prep material out there, I would even say that it is doable for everybody as long as he/she invests the required effort and time. – Continue the excellent performance at your company and get 1 more promotion (this would also help you to get great LOR). It is also key to demonstrate leadership (not only by the title of your position, but also by enabling teams to become better). – Start an organization by yourself and convince other people to join. It can be literally anything. I would say that being merely a volunteer somewhere does not really strengthen your application unless you‘ve been leading a group/team. This is why I suggest to go the above step.
I wish you all the best and I‘m sure you‘ll rock it if you put enough effort and dedication!
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