MarquisParker.com // Business Strategist, Admissions Coach, and Career Advisor

By way of introduction, here is a little background about myself:

• Alumnus of Princeton University; (undergrad degree in Computer Science), Stanford University (M.B.A.; and M.A. in Education), and the University of Virginia (M.S. in Management of IT)
• Former Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company and Accenture
• Former Java Software Engineer
• Long-time mentor, coach, and adviser to professionals and students
• All-around nice guy (at least, based on what people tell me )

In the list above, most people would look at the first two bullets and pat me on the back for those accomplishments, but I wouldn’t say that those are the most important things about me. Instead, I’d point to the last three items on the list because those are the aspects of my personality that I’m probably best known for. I hope that those traits shine through in my blog writings because I’d much rather be noticed for who I am as a person than for my academic and professional accomplishments.

A major component of this site is a weblog that has had several lives, from its start as a featured MBA applicant/student blog on a separate site to its own presence on the Blogger system and now to its own domain as my personal website.

As you read through the entries, you’ll see me go through three distinct phases in my life:

• Pre-MBA experience: Experiences that one typically goes through before matriculating at business school
• Life as an MBA student: Highs and lows of my time as a student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in much more detail than most would expect to see
• Post-MBA life…and serving as a career/education/life coach to the masses: Responses to questions emailed to me by readers, where I use what I have learned through my own missteps and experiences to help others achieve their goals and avoid making the same missteps