Undergraduate /
"Showing Leadership Capabilities" Essay for Transfer App [7]
Awesome thanks. If possible can you take a look at this one as well:
During the summer after my first undergraduate year, I was hired on as a Private Equity Summer Analyst at XXX Firm, a rapidly growing investment firm in CITY. By matching my current skills with the firm's needs, I was able to seamlessly integrate into their team. I tackled a long-term project to devise a solution that would help the 50 representatives across Canada streamline a process to increase their sales. Many criteria had to be fulfilled for this project, but I was free to figure out how to meet them in any way I wished.
From June to August, I devoted most of my time to this project. The initial stage involved using my current skills, the knowledge I had gained from school, and my outside experience to build a framework. Since I have an engineering background, my analytical and problem-solving skills played a key role in helping me learn what I needed to execute my ideas. Through daily meetings with the Chief Operating Officer, I was exposed to the many facets of the business world. These meetings brought new light to my project. After many revisions, I ended up developing a system with over 800 lines using VBA in Microsoft Excel. The system helped automate the Know Your Client (KYC) forms for the firm's key reps. Ultimately, the system saved time, prevented mistakes and enhanced the firm's professional appearance.
As project leader, I assisted with creating detail specifications, setting timelines for each stage and developing a roll-out strategy to end-users. But part of having great ideas involves convincing others to think in the same way as you do. I developed a presentation to persuade staff that my system was a viable solution. Since most of the reps were senior people who tended to have traditional approaches to technology, I also developed a user-friendly educational program to assist those reps who had little to no background in working with computers. During the beta-testing phase, I coached several reps and to familiarize them with the system. I received great reviews from the group. Before returning to school, I trained the compliance team so they could continue pushing the project forward for release. I'm happy to say that the system is now in place and the reps can fully concentrate on their client without worrying about the paperwork.
Part of working at the firm involved educating myself about the private-equity space to understand the role it plays in the market. To do that, I enrolled in and completed (in my spare time) the Exempt Market Product Course to build a working knowledge of this business. This enabled me to participate in conducting due diligence for private companies and sit in on presentations with companies. There was one firm ลน- XXX - that I was particularly interested in, because it was developing an electrical technology to help reduce electrical energy consumption. With my electrical engineering background and the analytical techniques I learned at the firm, I was able to compile a due-diligence and analysis report that provided the team with an additional perspective to consider regarding this investment opportunity.
Based on my performance and initiative, I received a bonus and an invitation to return to the firm this summer.
And this too, sorry they are due tonight so I really need to move fast. Thanks again
The international student body of XXX University was what attracted me to attend it coming from CITY. Back in grade 11, I participated on a French Immersion summer program, J'Explore, and realized I thrive in environment outside my comfort zone. I made a lot of long lasting friendship with people from all of Canada as well as Mexico and realized I could do the same at XXX School, except on an even greater scale. Getting involved with the engineering council, the COUNCIL really helped set the framework of the peers I will meet. COUNCIL operated with over 20 first year student representatives and 7 executives, 2 of which are the presidents (upper year). I held one of the executive positions as the Vice President of Finance. The objective of the council was to help first years engineering student transition into XXX by throwing many events catered to them. As the VP Finance, I had the opportunity to personally work with all 20 first year representatives since all the events required financing and the projection of the budget. To sustain the delivery of events, I also managed the fundraising team to ensure that there was a constant stream of income. However, majority of our funding actually came from when I represented JC at the annual engineering undergraduate society meeting where they fulfilled my request to receive additional support. Each events presented different variables and constants and required different approaches to accurately analyze. Over 14 events during the year, we reported a surplus of over $1300 for the upcoming year.
One of the major events that COUNCIL had for that year was an academic conference where I and another executive of the council had taken the initiative to bring onto the campus. We felt that there was a lack of direction in terms of career options after graduating from XXX School because it is a very research-intensive school and many students were not familiar with the industries that they can work for. Over 3 careful months of planning before execution, we were able to establish a partnership with a local residence company, FIRM, where it became the venue for the conference and also to future COUNCIL events. I was able to reach out to some of my existing connection as well as other professionals from CITY2 who was invited as speakers. They all came from untraditionally engineering fields such as management consulting and finance (and buy side), working at FIRM1, FIRM2, and FIRM3. With no events launched similar to this one in the past, we had a great turnout rate with over 50 students ranging from undergrads to even PhDs at our event. One favorable outcome was that the because the students were introduced to this residence company during our event, some decided to lease with them in their upcoming year which resulted in a win-win-win situation for all 3 parties.