Updating My Resume

Today I'm taking a break from all math all the time to work on my resume a little bit.
A few months ago I had a free consultation with MBA mission. The consultant assigned to me coached me on my resume.

Just to give you a little background I have been working in television production since I moved out to Los Angeles in 2006. Now television is not like other industries where you get hired at a company and you work there for a few years and work your way up. It's a little different. Most of the jobs you get are freelance and last a certain amount of time. For example a few years ago I worked on an awards show. We started production in mid July and the awards show was scheduled to shoot in September. My position ended a week after the awards show. This job is now on my resume and my dates employed at this job are July 2007-September 2007. Now fill your resume with many jobs like this. To an employer looking at my resume that is not in the television business thinks I am a major job hopper! But in TV many people have similar resumes to me.

The MBA mission consultant was very familiar with the television world. She told me to use one set of dates: September 2006- present with the heading "Freelance Television Production" and put all of my other jobs under it (Yes, other jobs because surprise! television pay is low and I've worked 2 or more jobs at the same time to make ends meet).

Now I look less like a job hopper because I've never had a staff position in television and I demonstrate great time management because I've held other jobs at the same time.

I still have a lot more work on crafting my resume just right but I have a good working next draft started.

New Plan

The day before I was going t take the GMAT reality hit me and I went into a panic, "I CAN'T TAKE THE TEST AND MAYBE SCORE A 500 THAT LOOKS STUPID!!!!"

I rescheduled for October 29th.
But wait, if you reschedule less than 7 calendar days it costs another $250. Yes. I ate the $300 I already paid and shelled out another $250 to reschedule. I hate life and I hate how GMAT Prep just eats money, but at least I won;t have a 500 on my score report.

My GMAT Prep class starts next month. Instead of taking college algebra and retaking intermediate algebra online, I am just going to take elementary statistics.

I am going to put all my focus into an application to one school : UC Irvine The Paul Merage School of Business. I will apply round 1 for Fall 2011 and if I don't get in I can decide if I want to apply to Pepperdine University's Graziadio Graduate School of Business and Management since their deadline is usually in May. Or I can spend the year strengthening my application by retaking the GMAT and taking business calculus and accounting and applying to UCLA and USC.

The road to an MBA is epic, even before you get into a school!

My algebra class ends in a few weeks. I'm so excited! Working seven days a week and going to school four days a night is exhausting!

Getting there, but not quite

I took GMAT Prep 1 CAT:
Q29
V31
Total: 510

I mean its a big jump from 460 but the only tests I took before that were Manhattan GMAT CATs.
I'm reading all over the beat the GMAT forum that GMAT Prep is a good indicator on how you will do on the real thing. It's great that I squeaked into the 500s, but I don't have enough time before the actual test to bring it up much higher.

I've already taken the day off work to take the test and I've invested a lot of time and money into it, I may as well still go. It's possible that I can improve another 10-20 points as I learn more and more math concepts, but it it safe to say I should score in the low 500s.

My prep class starts in a month and lasts through the end of September. I should probably take the GMAT again in November and just plan on applying for Fall 2012. It's still a little too early to decide. I'll make that decision after I take the real test.

I try not to focus on the negatives. I work 7 days a week and that is what it is. I have to accept it will take me longer to get a good score because of my work schedule. I will do better!

POSITIVITY!!!!

A great place to start

This was the first website I read in my research about applying to business school:

MBA Applicant

It's really out of date. It was the GMAT was $84 two years ago, but the content is really good. It talks about preparing yourself for applying and what the admissions committee looks at.

.15x + .20(4) = .17(x+4)

I don't know if I just didn't pay attention enough in high school or these concepts were just never taught to me, but I am learning a lot. I CAN SET UP AND SOLVE A MIXTURE PROBLEM! Little victories like this keep me going.

I opened up my OG Quant book and I can now identify how to set up and solve many of the problem. Back in February or March when I first purchased this book I couldn't do ANY of the problems. I'm sure some people would argue that I could just buy a book and teach myself the basics but I know I learn better when shown a concept first in the classroom then I try on my own to do it multiple times. Plus while taking these math classes I can work my way up to business calculus so I won't be so lost when I get to b-school.

My money from my canceled UCLA Extension class was refunded so I put it toward the UCLA Extension GMAT Prep Class.
I will have the basic skill set to be able to understand what goes on in the prep class and not get lost so easily.
I'm excited!!!

Also I am planning on retaking intermediate algebra which I originally took at a community college in New York. they have the course available online and I can take the final exam when I go home for Christmas.

I plan on taking another practice test tomorrow after work. Since its a holiday I don't have school, which is a great break. Working and going to class four days a week, with three of those days opening the store at 4:30am is EXHAUSTING.
I really feel like things are falling into place. Wheeeeee!