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Forté MBALaunch Helped Maria Paula Osorio Marin Tap Into Her Unique Strengths

Maria was already touring MBA schools when she discovered Forté. While on vacation in New York, she attended a college fair in Times Square. That’s where she spotted the Forté’s MBALaunch program, which pairs women seeking an MBA with a support network and structured roadmap for applying to business school.

“I was extremely happy to see MBALaunch helping people all over the world,” Maria said. “This program is the final push to deploy yourself and shoot for the stars.”

Building her best application with MBALaunch

Originally from Bogota, Colombia, Maria began her career as an analyst for J.P. Morgan after graduating with undergraduate degrees in engineering and business administration. Then she joined Frontera Energy as a hedging coordinator in Colombia just before the multinational petroleum company entered one of its most volatile periods.

“Oil prices started to collapse at a quick rate, and the company went through a massive restructuring process,” Maria said. “I got a lot of opportunities to take on many responsibilities besides hedging, working with treasury, with consultants who were overlooking the restructuring process and on projects with senior management.”

When it came time to craft her MBA applications, Maria’s MBALaunch mentor pushed her to tap into the unique strengths she built from that experience.

Own what you bring to the table. That’s who you are in real life.

“My mentor encouraged me to be myself throughout the process,” Maria said. “I was obsessed with looking at profiles of people at Harvard Business School, googling what is the right recipe to get in. Then I realized they’re looking for authentic people, and I needed to own my experiences and what I brought to the table. She brainstormed with me about those important aspects of my life.”

She didn’t need convincing that an MBA would accelerate her career. But she relied on MBALaunch to put her best foot forward because she was applying to the top MBA schools.

“MBALaunch was my next step to do the best application possible,” Maria said. “The resources were great — discount codes for GMAT prep materials, coaches, meetings with admissions officers from different schools who helped me grasp what to expect in their individual application process.”

Forté connects women with similar aspirations and dreams. It bridges the gap of women looking for important roles and companies looking for top talent.

 

The Forté connection

Now an MBA candidate, Maria is building important relationships that open doors for her career. At Forté’s MBA Financial Services FAST Track Conference, she met the managing director of PIMCO’s New York office just before starting an account manager internship at the investment management firm.

“After speaking with her at the conference, I reconnected with her in New York during my internship and built up that connection,” Maria said.

After graduation, she’ll start a full-time account manager role with PIMCO, where she’ll be strengthening the client relationships she built in Latin America during her internship.

“Forté connects women with similar aspirations and dreams,” Maria said. “It bridges that gap of women looking for important roles and companies looking for top talent.”

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