Meet The Berkeley Haas MBA Class of 2018

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Tareq Abdallat

Haas School of Business, University of California-Berkeley

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Enthusiastic rock climber, determined to bring the change to the venture capital world.

Hometown: Amman, Jordan

Fun Fact About Yourself: I did water rafting twice before learning how to swim.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Jordan, Electrical Engineering

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

Optimization and Design Engineer – Motorola

Market Lead – Ericsson

Market Manager – Alcatel Lucent

Describe the biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I improved our client’s network performance and customer satisfaction, and completed different projects with the same client under budget and ahead of schedule.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? Take your time to prepare for the GMAT, and plan strategically by focusing on your strengths before your weaknesses since the GMAT is an adaptive exam.

GMAT coaching courses are helpful in teaching you how to optimize your time effectively and to guide you on some of the GMAT’s unique question types, such as data sufficiency questions.

Target a few MBA programs that are a good fit for both your specific career objectives and your values and don’t just follow the rankings.

Think about and discuss your story and the specific essay questions, write down headlines and share with family and friends, who might surprise you with their feedback. You may learn new things about yourself. Plan carefully in choosing your recommendations and reach out to these people to discuss your accomplishments a few months before the application deadline.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? Berkeley Haas has a reputation of attracting driven individuals who want to disrupt and influence. Also, its Bay Area location is very close to the Silicon Valley. Berkeley Haas has a strong entrepreneurial focus, is internationally recognized and has established instructors, with a strong career management center that is a great bridge to all the technology companies in the Bay Area and beyond.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life. Working for a private equity firm specialized in early stage multimedia startups will be a great way to utilize my experience in technology and to shape that experience with new skills. This will give me the opportunity to meet and work with motivated and interesting entrepreneurs who have the drive and the desire to make the change in this industry.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program? To say that I changed their perspective on life no matter how small that change was.

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