AdmitMBA360 Blog formerly Journey to my MBA

Journey to my MBA

Friday, May 28, 2004

The Beginning of my Journey

I'm 35 yrs old and will be 36 in June 2004. I'm looking to get an MBA by the time I'm 40 and wanted to document my journey so that I can stay focused on my journey and to allow others to be encouraged as well.

So onto some background about myself.....

I've been married now for 3 years with no kids.
I don't have my degree yet. I'm actually two classes short. I just took one and am looking to take my second class here shortly. I actually did take all the classes, but due to financial hardship and irresponsibility, I didn't pay the tuition that quarter and now I'm having to back track to finish the graducation requirements. I should have graduated in 91'.

You may judge me irresponsible, but I really do have some other very personal reasons why I didn't get it done.

I've been in the Information Technology (IT) industry now for nearly 15 years. I'm an IT manager, project manager who is unemployed right now. I live in the heart of Silicon Valley in California and although the market has picked up, management positions are still hard to find. Mostly contract work. I'm waiting on one job application process now as a program manager for an email roll-out project.

I've been doing about 12 years of system administration for Microsoft based servers and networking. I've done it all. From help desk to desktop support.

I worked as a part time staff at my church for 8 years and helped build a college ministry from zero to 200. I trained numerous leaders and read and continue to read many leadership books out today. My favorite has been 1) Spritual Leadership by Sanders 2) 21 Irrefutable laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell and 3) Habits of highly effective leadership by Stephen Covey.

I want to get my MBA with an IT focus. Honestly, I see a lot of poor leaders in IT. Many come from the financial industry with little background in IT. Others come from having been great technical leaders, but not good people or business leaders. I know of probably 2 or 3 personally who are pretty good though.

I want an MBA in IT because Leadership and business are in my blood. I love seeing well run groups of people doing great work. It makes me giddy. When I read books from Jack Welch or Lou Gerstner.. I'm all excited about wanting to be part of that kind of leadership and synergistic growth and sometimes stay awake at night dreaming of leading and being in that kind of organization. Others who work or have worked with me over the last 5 years have honestly encouraged me to take a serious look at my leadership as something I should focus on. I still get calls from people who miss my leadership. I don't want to puff up my story... but I just wanted to be honest about my MBA choice and motivation.

Enough said about the why.....

So what have I been doing then all this time. We'll honestly, I was doing Church about 25 to 30 hours a week for 10 years. It's gone down to about 3-5 hours a week now for the last 2 years. I'm a bit of a workaholic. I tend to work 60-70 hours a week. So I really didn't have time to focus on career path. Just the work and church.

What have I done so far with my MBA prep?
1) Got some books from a friend who applied to his MBA earlier this year.
2) Studied the Princeton Review 2003 and 2004 books. I'm in the middle of going through a slow paced practice exam now in the 2003 book.
3) Taken one of 2 classes I need for my graduation requirements. I'm in conversation right now with the school to see if they'll accept the second class from a local extension school where I live as a the final class. By the way, my degree would be a B.S. in Biological Sciences. I know.. it's a big difference from IT, but I've always loved computers and what they can do for people and always wanted to be a Doctor. I applied twice. Took the MCAT twice. I did get in actually, but elected to not continue my medical direction and did what I enjoyed which was computers. The whole medical school experience turned my hair white. I literally saw 1/4 of my head turn white. Stress really does cause white hair.
4) Starting this weblog journal
5) Signed up to take my GMAT on July 17th, 2004.
6) Trying to figure out the application process right now and the deadlines for application to B-schools.
7) I have a close friend who graduated from wharton about 10 years ago and a cousin-in-law who just graduated from HBS last year. I'm looking to them for some good resources.

I'm interested in applying to Harvard, Kellogg, Wharton, Stanford, Chicago, USC (backup plan), UCLA (backup plan) and about 3 or 4 others. I'm narrowing down my choices now. I'm thinking 10 might be a good number. I'm honestly a bit worried about this graduation issue I'm in and my age. My resume, references and grades are pretty good.

On with the journey...

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