Ask IndusMinds

Hi Priya,

I am a recent graduate from IT-BHU and will start working as an analyst in a business analytics firm. I am planning to apply at the top MBA programs for the matriculating class of 2015/16. Since I have enough time to build my profile so I would like to micro-analyse every aspect of it to increase my chances of getting into my dream schools.

The very first issue which I need to address is my undergrad GPA. I finally have 8/10 on absolute scale with overall rank second/third (final results awaited) but my math grades in freshman and sophomore years were a complete disaster (reason: few distractions and ECs). Although I did extremely well during the subsequent years to make it up but Adcom is certainly going to notice my poor performance in basic math courses. Do you think AdCom can be convinced that I can handle the academic rigour of the program, if I highlight following points in my application:

1. IIT-JEE qualified so capable of handling the quantitative rigour of the program.
2. high score in the quant section of GMAT (certainly not a problem)
3. masters project (dual degree) was based on stochastic and probabilistic modeling coupled with an international internship.
4. working in business analytics field which itself is a math intensive profile.

It would be great to have some additional pointers on this, like some additional courses if available in India, e.g. Business Mathematics, to cover it up. One more thing, when should I take GMAT, i.e. now or 2-3 years later?

Please excuse me for writing a long post for a relatively minuscule problem but I really want everything to be perfect when I send my applications (little irrational to say but still )


Thanks

Hi Marquis,
ITBHU is a great brand name which is recognized across the globe and 8/10 CGPA (assuming you are in top-3) in itself is a proof that you would do good in an MBA program (one of the founders of IndusMinds is a graduate from Meta 2002 class from ITBHU and he was at 8.2+). If your GMAT score is good then that should suffice. I would wait till you have your GMAT score and then you can decide if there is a need to handle this in an optional essay. At this point, I would not worry too much about your sophomore year performance.

GMAT score is valid for 5 years so you can appear for it whenever you feel is an opportune moment. If you really want to do an MBA then having a handy GMAT score always helps. GMAT is a test which has got not connection whatsoever with your corporate experience so you can appear for it even now.

You are starting relatively very early and you can focus on building your profile. I am curious what kind of co-curricular activities where you involved in during your undergraduate years? You can either continue in that direction during your corporate stint or invest your time in giving back to the society. One piece of advice though .... do it only if you enjoy it but not for building your profile for MBA.

Hope this helps and feel free to contact us if you have any other questions.
Regards,
Biplav

Hi Priya,

I m 29/M/Indian

GMAT 710

ICSE 87%
ISC 89%

B.Tech 73%
MSEE 3.4 GPA.

Work Ex
----------
2 yrs Indian IT Co.
Post MSEE currently working in a Technology company in the US.

Disadvantage
----------------
Since I had gone back to school I do not have the significant change in job title in both the industries.
Though I have remained a strong team contributor.

I am looking to switch to Entrepreneurship.
Do you think my shortlist of INSEAD, ISB,MIT, S, are stretch?

Thanking you in advance.

Sharat

Hi,

Following is my profile. Please suggest some good schools.

GMAT : 740 (50Q,39V,5.0AWA)
TOEFL : 114 (30R,29L,26S,29W)
Work Ex : Working at Yahoo since Jun 2008, selected through campus
UG : BTech from IT-BHU (Electrical Engg), 7.74/10
12th : CBSE, 74.8%
10th : CBSE, 86.4%
ExtraCurriculars : Not NIL but not extraordinary either, just volunteered in a couple of events during college and some in the company.

Hi Sharat,
Your GMAT score is decent. Ditto for your work experience. MSEE definitely helps since you have already gone through the US education system. You mentioned that you have been a strong team contributor. Can you elaborate? Can achievements of your team which are commendable? What role did you play? I am assuming that you have not only contributed as a team member but also provided direction to the group to achieve common goals.

What do you aim to gain from the MBA program which will help you in your entrepreneurship goals? You need to be clear that MBA is an integral part of your plan. Are you planning to start something in US or are you planning to head back to India? In both cases, your rationale for an international MBA should make sense.

Based on the limited information which I have, you will be competitive to stretch for programs which you have listed. You might want to add few more schools to your list. Schools on the west coast will be good bets for entrepreneurship.

Hope this helps.
Best,
Priya

Hi Abhishek,
Thanks for your question. You have good data points so that's not going to be an issue in all the schools where you are going to apply to. And of course ITBHU brand name helps. You have about three years of experience so this might be a good time to apply for business schools.

You haven't mentioned anything about your career plans. We can suggest some schools only if we know what are your career plans. What is it that you want to do in the short term and long term? Let us know so that we can help.
Best,
Priya

Round 1 vs Round 2
Still pondering about the never ending question? Should I apply in round one or should I wait till Round two?

The short answer is -Apply when you are ready! Here is the long version:

There is no reason whatsoever for submitting a mediocre application. If you have been fine tuning your application for some time now and you feel that sitting on the application is not going to improve the end result then go ahead and apply in the first round. Applying in the first round means, early decisions and you might save some time and money due to an early decision. Not to mention sleepless nights’ that you can avoid if you have early decisions. With an admit in hand, you can change your strategy and aim for your dream schools in later rounds.

You should also note that in general, applicants in the first round have a better-prepared application (being the lot which has been serious about MBA to get their application done in the first round) so it might be a bit more competitive lot. Similarly, the admission committee has the luxury of putting you on a wait-list and scouting for better profiles in the later round.... read full article

Over the past several years, we have come across dozens of candidates who did not fully understand 'What they wanted to do in their post-MBA avatar?' The following series is going to unravel the mysteries of the post-MBA career tracks. We start the series with Product Management which is one of the most sought after track for scores of students. Follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook to follow this thread.

Product Management is a core function of all organizations that make any kind of product.

A product could be anything tangible such as a car, magazine or jeans, or intangible such as software, a movie or a CDO. The purpose of creation of any product is for its consumption by a set of consumers and the role of Product Management is to focus on creation of new products that meet the consumption needs of its target consumers.

Product Management can be internal focused (product development aligned) or external focused (product marketing aligned). Different organizations leverage product managers from strategic to tactical activities but the end result is to create products that will drive sales, increase market share, reduce incremental costs and enhance the valuation of the organization. ... Read full article.

As promised, here is part two of Career Tracks: Business Development
Follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook to follow this thread.

Business Development function in any organization requires personnel to perform a mix of activities that ultimately result in a positive impact on the revenue of the organization.

Business Development personnel don’t have any typical day and their work can encompass anything from creating marketing / sales pitches, negotiating and reviewing legal contracts, developing and executing a business plan / strategy, financial modeling, and business forecasting.

Business Development personnel are also responsible for managing relationships with existing customers, developing strategic partnerships / alliances with other companies, and gathering intelligence on the competitors. Most business development managers are either in customer facing roles or in roles that support other sales personnel in promoting the company’s products / services .... Read full article.[/quote]

Moving on with one of the most sought after career tracks: Finance. This is a multi-part series since it is impossible to cover Finance in one post.
Follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook to follow this thread.

Finance is one of the most sought after post-MBA careers. Finance, in itself, is a pretty large subject encompassing a variety of specializations

To tell someone that you want to do an MBA in Finance will probably only portray that you have an analytical mind and are great with numbers (and, of course, you are looking to earn big money when you graduate). Well this impression that you give to others might be right or it might be wrong.

To talk intelligently about your Career Path, you should know enough about the different aspects of Finance and also know the kind of function your abilities and aspirations match well with.
The following few posts will describe what each of the functions is about. A quick read through them might help you gain a good basic understanding about the different finance functions and types of job opportunities in these functions. It might help you focus your essays on a specific topic and will definitely make a good impression on people who you talk to regarding your career path post-MBA. .... Read full article.

Hi

Thanks a lot for all the work you are doing here.

It would be great if you can evaluate my profile:

Indian, Male Age-27

GMAT
710 (49 QA, 35 VA) AWA 5.0

Academics
B. Tech, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (6.93/10) – 2003 -2007
CFA Level 3 Candidate
Technical certifications from IBM & Sun Microsystems

Professional Experience
Full Time from July, 2007. Will be around 5 years in August 2012.
December 2008 – Present – Business Analyst
December 2008 – July 2007 Software Engineer

Business Analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland (December 2008 – Present)
Functional Areas – Corporate Markets

Highlights
• Managed business software requirements for 3 projects, totaling to £ 25 million.
• One of the youngest B.A at RBS. Skip level promotion from Software Associate to BA.
• Assessed & Reformed organizational processes through a Work-Out initiative, leading to savings of £ 200,000.
• Estimated & formulated business cases for various corporate transformation programmes. These transformation programmes were introduced as an aftermath of global financial crisis in 2008.
• Led a team of software developers to deliver a critical solution for automation of account opening process targeted at Business & Commercial customers.
• Established and fostered relationships with various business and technology stakeholders. First to be selected out of my team in India to work on-site with business stakeholders in London & Wimbledon.
• Imparted domain based trainings to software developers and project managers.

Software developer at Sapient Corporation (July 2007 – December 2008)
Functional Areas – Retail Banking & Telecom Billing

Highlights
• Led a work stream during the training project.
• Designed and developed software components for an online broadband provisioning system for a large telecom client.
• Raised Rs. 200,000 for young students as part of charity drive at Sapient Corp.

Personal Life
Born and brought up in a small town, not a lot was expected of me. I come from a traditional family with business background where the usual expectation is to enter the family business. By breaking the mould, I have set an example for children of my family to follow their instincts and interests.

Short-term & Long-term Goals

Short-term
Want to move to the front office (customer facing) job in portfolio management. Having done my share of software coding and business requirement analysis, I feel a front office or customer facing job will provide me the needed knowledge required to produce new software for the portfolio management domain.

Long-term
I want to set-up my own company which will focus on development of new and innovative software’s for portfolio management. I want to start with products targeted at corporate customers and then extend these to retail customers. I wish to provide low-cost portfolio management services to mass consumers for e.g. the growing middle-class in India.

Target Schools
R1 - Booth , Columbia , Duke, Darden & Kenan Flager
R2 - Wharton , Kellogg ,Ross , NYU Stern & McCombs
R3 - None

I havent decided on the non-US schools but I am primarily considering ISB , NUS and INSEAD.

Will be very beneficial if you can respond to my following queries:

1. How do you evaluate my profile? ( My goal is to get in any of the top 15 colleges. Primary focus is on school which is good in finance)

2. My GPA is pretty low ( 6.93/10). How is this compared to applicants from a similar background. Is my GPA insufficient or a negative point?

3. Is my GMAT score weak? How much is the benefit of retaking the GMAT given that I may increase my score from 20-30 points only.

4. Is my selection of schools too ambitious? Which schools would you suggest as the top priority?

5. What areas should I concentrate in my profile to make it strong? What are the corresponding weaknesses that you see in my profile?

Thanks a lot for your time and help.

Regards
Sameer

Sameer,
Thanks for reaching out to us. Here is a quick summary of your profile:
GMAT score: It's good enough and your efforts will be more useful in crafting a stellar application.
GPA: It's a concern. Is there a story to tell? What was the reason for below average performance? Any other activities where you excelled during this time?
CFA: Excellent. It shows that you know what you want in life. Make sure that your post MBA career goals tie in perfectly. Besides CFA books, do you have any portfolio management experience?
Work experience: Good.

School choice: Duke, Darden, UNC, McCombs are reachable. Stern too. Others might be stretch but I would definitely pick atleast two for a shot. Add UCLA to the mix.

Every individual is unique but candidates fail to bring it forth in their applications. Focus on what made you go the CFA path and how that ties to your career goals. Also highlight other activities besides work which differentiates you from run of the mill profile.

Hope this helps and feel free to contact us for free initial consultation.
Best,
Priya

Part 1 of Finance as a career track: Investment Banking. Follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook to follow this thread.

Investment Banks serve two major constituencies: organizations that need capital in order to operate and institutional investors that have capital to invest.

When people refer to investment banking they are typically referring to either the Corporate Finance group or the Mergers & Acquisition group within an investment bank.

The Corporate Finance group helps companies raise capital through debt and equity. Companies usually raise money by either borrowing from banks, institutional investors, private investors or Venture Capital / Private Equity firms. Companies can offer equity through Initial Public Offerings or Secondary Offerings and can offer debt on a variety of assets such as Property, Plant, Equipment or Inventory. .... Read full article.

Innovation need not be something really complicated!

I came across several prospective MBA students struggling with Wharton innovation essay. Watch this video. Innovative yet simple. You need not be a scientist to innovate. Just think about a situation where you devised a solution which was not traditional and removed a pain-point from the society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOl4vwhw ... re=youtube

Hi Priya,

I've graduated with an MBA (Marketing) from India in 2007 from ICFAI Business School Hyderabad.

My predicament arises from the fact that my B school doesn't belong to the Indian Ivy league though (IIMs, MDIs et. al)

I aspire to work for Tier 1 management consulting firms. And the only way of realizing this is to have an international MBA. I am planning to give the GMAT in March,2012.

What I am not sure of is that how the B-schools treat an applicant who already has an MBA..

Below is my Brief Profile..
MBA - 8/10
BE - 70%
12th - 70%
10th - 80%

WE - 2.5 yrs core Consulting experience post MBA.

An accelerated performer with outstanding ratings from clients and delivery managers.

My area of expertise is operations improvement/ Business transformation.
Certified Six Sigma Black belt, a Lean Practitioner, and been trained on the concepts of 'theory of Constraints' ..all higly rated in the operations/SCM circles...

International Publications/ Thought Leadership - 5

Event Management - 2 (Budget 50+ Lakhs INR each) for clients

Foreign Languages - French (Basic)

EC - Member of an Indian NGO for the poor children.

Target School - INSEAD, LBS, Wharton, Kellogs and Tuck

By virtue of your experience could you pls let me know if this is too tricky a situation to be in ..??

Regards,
Krish..

Krish,
I am not sure if I really comprehend the question. There are two parts to your question:
1. Should you do an MBA from a top business school given the fact that you have an MBA and are doing good in your corporate life. I am just drawing inference from your post about good ratings from your employer and clients.
2. How do you convince the adcom?

As far as the basic question about going for a double MBA is concerned, you have to convince yourself that it makes absolute sense and then convince the adcom. What is it that you aim to gain from a second MBA? MBA degree is generally useful for the first post-MBA job and then it's all based on your performance (read resume). If you are doing good in the corporate world then can you trying interviewing for top management consulting companies?

There are some really good MBA programs in India as well such as ISB, IIMs (PGPX and Fellow Programme). I am not discouraging you from pursuing international MBA but it's a big investment so until and unless you know why you want a double MBA ... play safe!

There are few schools which do entertain applications from candidates who have an MBA degree. Convincing the adcom would be a challenge where you need to be very articulate in terms of justifying the need for the second MBA. In short you have to tell the adcom what your long term career goals are and how the second MBA is the only viable route to it.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further questions.

All,
Round 2 is around the corner and you might be struggling to maintain a fine balance between enjoying the holiday season and cranking your applications. If you need one last sanity check before you hit the submit button .... contact us soon. Do you have few questions about the MBA process still bothering you? Make use of the free one-hour consultation offered by IndusMinds.

Good luck with the applications .... its easy to lose focus but consistency pays off.

Congrats Abhishek!!

From the FB page:
Thank you guys for all the help during this nerve-breaking process!

Darden was a distant dream, but because of all your inputs, made it a reality. A lot in the 'selection' process in uncertain and out of our control, but you have certainly pushed me to my limits, which brought out the best in me and my stories. Some of the datapoints that you brought out and the way you shaped them in the final stories was truly amazing.

Your team truly \m/

IndusMinds' team would in Mumbai during March end. It's your chance to meet the team in person and ask those questions which you have been holding back for months.

Stay tuned for more details. Feel free to contact us at contactus@indusminds.com if you have 'specific' topics which you would like us to tackle.

Get ready Mumbai ....your MBA dream is about to be rewritten by the experts!

IndusMinds has been helping aspiring MBA candidates navigate through the process with flying colors. Our team of graduates from Harvard, UCLA, Stanford, Chicago and other top schools have helped dozens of candidates and mentored them through the nerve-wrecking process of applications. IndusMinds has been featured on BusinessWeekand enjoys an envious standing in the market.

Meet our team and successful candidates in this first conference ever held in India over a piping cup of coffee. The details of the conference are as follows:
Date: March 25th, 2012
Venue: Hotel Sun City Residency, 16th Road, MIDC, Marol, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400093

More information can be found on: http://indusminds.com/biz/mumbai-conference-2012.html

Seats are limited so sign up early. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.