Candidate:

Mr. Self-Taught Big Tech/HF SWE

About Me:

I was admitted to a T10 USNews undergrad (and can prove it). My parents refused to sign my student loan for it and I was 17, so I went to a mediocre liberal arts college on an academic scholarship. I was a shortsightedly unmotivated student there. Stumbling upon my love of programming and teaching myself software engineering turned my life around.

Schools:

Target School: Harvard

Considering: Stanford GSB

See More Profiles For: Harvard

Application Status: Open

Details:

Undergrad School: Mediocre Private Liberal Arts

Undergrad Major: Mathematics - Economics

GPA: 3.33

GRE: 336 V+Q 5.0 AW

Age: 33, Ethnicity: White

Other Degree/Certification: M.Eng. in Computer Science

School Name: Cornell University

Extracurriculars: I played the saxophone and was an avid rock climber in college. But I'm a bonafide workaholic and didn't 7x my income as a self-taught software engineer by doing many extracurriculars after college. That said, I'm a fitness addict and am trilingual, with halfhearted attempts to also learn Spanish and Portuguese.

Work History:

Title: Lead Software Engineer at Public Tech Company

Industry: Technology

Company: Top Firm

Length of Employment: 1 yr, 11 mos

Title: Senior Software Engineer at Hedge Fund

Industry: Banking & Finance

Company: Top Firm

Length of Employment: 1 yr, 2 mos

Big Life Wins:

A few years after sending 461 applications to get my first job as a self-taught SWE, I joined a major hedge fund in NYC and later lateraled to a lead software engineer position at a public tech company. There, I led 5 (later 15) engineers and found ways to 15x our work stream’s profitability, delivering over $30M in new annual profit for the firm.

Post MBA Goal:

After 8 years of working as a self-taught SWE, I am now completing a 1-year master’s degree in CS. Ideally, I’d like to work in venture capital or a hedge fund finance role, although I’m certainly also open to product management. I’m seeking an MBA to transition into one of those roles and raise the statistical upper bound of my career trajectory.